This is a record I listened to a lot for years. The record, as a whole, is a beautiful work of art. It's as powerful and colorful and full of emotion from start to finish. In my opinion, it's genera breaking, but if it has to be labeled, it's alternative. Alt Rock/Hip-Hop if it must be more specific. Gnarls Barkley is a combination of vocal power house Cee-Lo Green and godlike producer Danger Mouse. Both have been in countless projects over the years, but Gnarls Barkley is my favorite from either of them, hands down. St. Elsewhere is their 2006 debut album, it dropped at #1 on the UK charts and peaked at #4 in the states. Sadly, the mainstream as well as most of the underground scene seems to have forgotten about this killer of an album. The reason as far as I can tell is a self inflicted wound called
Crazy. Crazy is the second track on the album and was so absurdly popular that the group ended up being labeled a one hit wonder by many. It's a great song, but GB offers so much more than that single song. You've heard it, we all have. But for the purposes of this review, I'm going to be spending as little time as possible talking about Crazy, mostly because I'm so sick of it.
The chemistry between Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse is great. The instrumentation and Cee-Lo's vocals are indescribably heavenly on this record and their follow up (which I'll get to talking about some other time). Danger always has this cool, lo-fi, dirty, 60's rock and roll/Motown feel to all his music, and Cee-Lo's voice also has that classic, retro twang to it everything just feels so right. This record is a bit more hip-hip than their follow up (an album I happen to like just a tad bit more), something that some people might have an issue with, but I suppose it all comes down to personal preference. I love all of it. Almost every track on this album is a masterpiece, and as a whole, this album is flooring.
I guess I'll do some track analysis or something now
The record opens with
Go-Go Gadget Gospel, an energetic ballad about the freedom of self expression and being able to let go. Musically, this song is great. Cee-Lo's vocals are so great here, bellowing out of his diaphragm like a freight train. And the instrumentals, as always, are so unique and beautiful. Great song
Crazy is next. It's good, everyone thinks so. Moving on
St. Elsewhere. I love this song so much. It's haunting and melodic and so powerful. A lot of this record is about Cee-Lo's battles with depression, and this song is one of those. St. Elsewhere is his happy place. At the start of the song, he's secluded himself off into it. It's a wild animal, in that when it's good, it's great. He gets the sunshine all to himself, but he gets all the rain as well. He;s still there when you need him, but until he's called on, he'll be on his island. By the end of the song he's ready to make a change and try and find a "new frontier", but none of his friends are willing to put themselves out of their comfort zone to help. Love it. 10/10
Gone Daddy Gone is a Violent Femmes cover. This is a super rad cover, and if you haven't heard the original, go listen to that. Not much else to say
Smiley Faces is just grand. This has such an old school vibe to it. Bit... clean, maybe? But I think it's great anyway.
Boogie Monster is part mostly comedic partly about someone trying to confront his biggest fear. There's a twist at the end, I won't spoil it.
Feng Shui is alright. I never really understood it, but it's ok. I certainly don't hate it. It's not the strongest song on the album, but it's only like two verses either way.
Just a Thought. Oh man, here's another one of those really heavy ones about depression. This one's straight up about how he can't find peace and nothing at all works. No matter how badly he wants things to be right and to just be happy, he just can't get there. Not a happy one. Great song, but not one you wanna play at a party to lighten the mood.
Transformer. This one is super hip-hoppy and I love it. Just give it a listen
Who Cares is more or less about someone trying to stop them selves from going crazy. Having all these things they want to say, while being aware of how pretentious it sounds and how no one cares. All backed by the persistent thump organ and a gospel choir.
Online is a weird song I would gloss over a lot, but it's actually pretty great. It's really short, but it's got enough funk packed into it to make your clothes change hues.
Necromancer. Ok, so this one's a bit weird. The entire song is about necrophilia and murdering a woman. I never understood what the metaphor was, and I still don't. I did some research on the lyrics and most of the internet seems to take it literal, and I can assure that is not the intention. I don't know what the intention is, but it's not literally about necrophilia. It would be way too out of place on the album for that to actually be the case. The instrumentals are pretty good, but it's totally fine to just skip over this one. It doesn't add much to the record as a whole, in my opinion.
Storm Coming incorporates a lot of different musical ques and changes a lot in it's run length. It's energetic and powerful. Honestly, it feels like a storm in a song. Lyrically and muscially, it's one of the stronger songs (not that there are many weak ones) and I do quite enjoy it.
The Last Time feels like a call back to a time when it was acceptable to boogie on down in public. This song is so happening, it's great. The 70's guitar twanging, the chorus of back-up vocals, and the whole composition of this track feel like they're all reaching into the past. It's great, and I love it. A terrific track to close on.
And, yeah. That's it. I'm gonna toss some promo photos of the band down here, just because they're so great. Hope this wasn't total rubbish and I hope you give the album a go!
