Articles
Just Listen?
By Deekah Wyatt
St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley
Downtown Recordings
Produced by Danger Mouse
www.gnarlsbarkley.com
Every now and then an album comes along that makes you remember what it feels like to be a kid again. The excitement of taking the plastic off. The mounting suspense before the first song starts. Do you listen to the tracks you know? Or do you let it play through? If it’s Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere, let it play through and be prepared to press repeat.
Gnarls Barkley takes you on an musical adventure most artists only dream of aspiring to. Songs like “The Last Time” remind your hips what it feels like to sway to groove of real instruments. While “The Boogie Monster” keeps us checking under our beds and singing along all at the same time. Between Cee Lo’s old school croon and Danger Mouse’s brilliant display of what production should be, this album deserved all five of the Grammy nominations it received.
All the hype and obsessed fan ranting aside, this is a great album. If you don’t like the way funk, rock, soul, house, jazz, industrial, blues, and classical sound mixed together; I’m sorry, this album isn’t for you. But if you wouldn’t mind hearing something people will be listening to long after we’re gone...PICK IT UP!