Gnarls Barkley Wants You
My raging, hyberbolic hyperactive throbbingness has since calmed, and I'm STILL convinced that Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere is holding strong as album of the year.
Gnarls -- aka mad scientist Danger Mouse and crooning rapper Cee-Lo --is slowly getting bigger and buzzier, with first single Crazy lodging in people's brains like that evil cockroach from The Wrath of Khan.
Gnarls indulges in sonic swatches of rock, rap, soul, pop, blues, techno and gospel, all of which float around in wild swirls of found sounds, symphonic silliness and Saturday morning boinks! and bloops! The album's running theme is insanity, madness, the pleasures and pains of losing your marbles, the loose hinge connecting the real and the surreal.
For all of Cee-Lo's manic charms, however, there's no mistaking St. Elsewhere's true stud. Danger Mouse, aka music prodigy Brian Burton, is the most inventive newcomer in pop music. He first made a name for himself by blending the Beatles' White Album and rapper Jay-Z's Black Album. The result? The Grey Album, a head-spinning genre smoosh that kick-started the "mash-up" craze.
Besides Crazy, do yourself a favor and sample these Gnarly goodies on iTunes: (1) Go-Go Gadget Gospel is a showoff spectacular, built on three different rhythm sections, including a cheesy horn line that sounds borrowed from bad-TV classic Battle of the Network Stars; the song is punctuated by Cee-Lo's triumphant chorus of "I'm free!" (free from the asylum, presumably).
(2) Danger Mouse's New Wave roots show on a swinging cover of the Violent Femmes' Gone Daddy Gone.
(3) And as a perfect example of the album's puckishly menacing vibe, the bittersweet spiritual Smiley Faces sounds like Stevie Wonder as a robotic reverend fighting the blues.
Check it out, kids...
Sean Daly is the pop music critic for the St. Petersburg Times. His CD collection -- from Journey to Dylan, Prince to U2, Public Enemy to Stan Getz -- is much bigger and better than yours.
Not to be a total lifer, but I think it was a worm in Khan...
Posted by: Anonymous | May 31, 2006 at 04:32 PM
Normally I frown upon people using the "Anonymous" tag. But in your case "lifer," that was probably for the best.I should have known better than to reference Star Trek.
Posted by: Sean Daly | May 31, 2006 at 05:05 PM
This album is tooo good. I think this and Dixie Chicks album are the best so far this year.
Posted by: Not Anonymous | June 02, 2006 at 02:46 AM
I just read that Gnarls Barkley have offically retired "Crazy" so it doesn't get overplayed. Smart move. Once the morons at Clear Channel get ahold of it it'll be played every hour until no one ever wants to hear it again. I'm glad I got it on my iPod a couple weeks ago!
Posted by: erin | June 02, 2006 at 09:20 AM