The Odd Couple is the Grammy-nominated second studio album by Gnarls Barkley, released digitally on March 18 and in stores March 25, 2008. Due to an early leak of the album over the internet in early March 2008, the duo decided to push up the release from April 8. The album was released to the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3 on March 18.

Pre-release

In late January, an assumed leaked track appeared on several music blogs. "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)", the previously unknown song, was given positive reviews from most music outlets. "Run" was released as the album's first single as a digital download in the U.S. on February 5, 2008.

Despite "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" being the lead single at the time, "Going On" was the highest charting album track on iTunes having made it as high as #23 on the Top 100 chart as of March 25, subsequently debuting at #88 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was then released as the second single from the album, and the song's video premiered on March 20, 2008.

In March 2008, the album's third single, "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" was premiered by hip hop band The Roots' drummer Questlove through a video uploaded to YouTube.

An early leak of the album over the Internet in early March, 2008, prompted the duo to push the release of the album from April 8. Digital versions of the sophomore effort were released to the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3 on March 18.Entertainment Weekly, "Life After Crazy" http Physical copies of the album were slated for March 25, however some copies hit independent record stores on March 18.

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An instrumental reverse edition of the album, retitled elpuoc ddo eht, was released on April 17, 2008. The entire album is fused into one 38 minute, 44 second track played completely in reverse, starting with the album's last song and ending with the album's first. This unorthodox edition was released officially by Danger Mouse and is legally available as a second disc on the vinyl edition or for download free of charge at fronttobackbacktofront.com (now expired).

Samples

* "Going On" samples "Folder Man" written by Peter Dunton and performed by Please

* "Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)" samples "Junior Jet Set" by Keith Mansfield

* "Would Be Killer" samples "Fluid" by Twink

* "Open Book" incorporates sampled elements from "Träume" by Françoise Hardy

* "Whatever" samples "The Hair On My Chinny Chin Chin" by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs

* "Surprise" contains elements of "Building With A Steeple" written by Ron Dante, Gene Allen and Bobby Feldman and performed by The Eighth Day

* "She Knows" samples "Gentle Flute" performed by Cy Payne

* "A Little Better" incorporates elements of "Trying To Be Free" written by Nacabal and Yvon-Goudy and performed by T.N.T.H.

References

Artist/Band Information

Gnarls Barkley is an American musical group collaboration between multi-instrumentalist and producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) from New York, and rapper/vocalist Cee-Lo Green (Thomas Callaway), from Atlanta. Their first album, St. Elsewhere, was released in 2006; along with its first single, "Crazy", it was a major commercial success, and both album and single have been noted for their large sales by download. The duo released their second album, The Odd Couple, in March 2008.

History

Background

Cee-Lo first entered the scene as part of the Atlanta hip hop group Goodie Mob which had a large hand in the Dirty South movement of the 1990s. Cee-Lo left the group after their third album in 1999 and started his solo career. That year he sang on "Do You Like the Way" along with Lauryn Hill on Santana's multi-platinum Supernatural album. Cee-Lo released two solo albums, one in 2002, and one in 2004.

Danger Mouse has produced for a number of hip hop artists, and he produced Gorillaz' album Demon Days. He received national attention for his mash-up Grey Album, which blended the acapella edition of Jay-Z's The Black Album with samples from The Beatles' White Album.

The two men first met in 2003 when Cee-Lo was on a tour for which Danger Mouse happened to be the DJ. They began working together on the songs that would become the St. Elsewhere album; prior to the release of that album they collaborated on the songs "What You Sittin' On?" for Lex Records in 2004, and "Benzie Box" from the Danger Doom album The Mouse and the Mask in 2005.

Band name

Burton explains that the name Gnarls Barkley came from "fictional celebrity names like Prince Gnarls and Bob Gnarley" (parodies of Prince Charles and Bob Marley, respectively) made up by their friends. When Heavens band member Josiah Steinbrick came up with "Gnarls Barkley", a parody of basketball star Charles Barkley's name, Burton wrote it down.

According to a Billboard article: "Burton and Cee-Lo have been cagey about what the name of the act means, and each live performance is an opportunity to play dress-up as tennis players, astronauts and chefs, among many other get-ups. The costuming extends to photo shoots, as Burton and Cee-Lo would rather impersonate characters from such films as Back to the Future or Wayne's World. Cee-Lo even appeared at the MTV Movie Awards in a full Darth Vader outfit, while Danger Mouse appeared as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the rest of the backing band and singers also wore Star Wars costumes.http

About Gnarls Barkley, Cee-Lo said in an interview: "That is that electric industrial Euro soul, that's what I call it... if I can call it anything. It truly is shapeless and formless. My style and my approach is still water, and it runs so deep. So, with that project I got a chance to be a lil' zany, of course a continuation of eccentricity, abstract and vague, and all of those wonderful things that make art exactly what it is. And that's subject to interpretation. As far as the artiste himself, it does cater to and extend the legacy of Cee-Lo Green, and showcase the diversity and range and intention of Cee-Lo Green. It is a great project that I'm very, very proud of".http

St. Elsewhere (2006–2007)

Downtown/Atlantic in the U.S. and Warners Bros. Records in the UK signed the band after several songs including "Crazy" were played for them by Danger Mouse's management company Waxploitation. "Crazy" was released as their first single on April 3, 2006, preceded by its release as digital download and 12" vinyl record single in March 2006. It gained some of its popularity due to its use on primetime BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's television advert, and it was also made Record of the Week by Ken Bruce of BBC Radio 2, Scott Mills and Jo Whiley of BBC Radio 1 as well as being made 'Weekend Anthem' by DJ Spoony and Sara Cox (also of Radio 1).

"Crazy" is the first ever single to top the UK singles chart purely on download sales as it was released online a week before it was released as a CD single (although Rage Against the Machine was the first ever Christmas number one entirely from downloads). It is also the first single to top the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks consecutively since 1994 when Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around" was number one for 15 weeks (the last song to spend exactly nine weeks on top was "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1984). It has also equaled the Queen 1975 classic "Bohemian Rhapsody", which also topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks. Gnarls Barkley announced that as the record had spent its ninth week at number one, it was to be deleted as a vinyl/CD listing from May 28, 2006 so people will "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it".

"Crazy" is also the longest number-one on the UK Official Download Chart with its stay lasting eleven consecutive weeks. In late 2009 the song was voted as the best song of the decade by Rolling Stone magazine.

The group released their debut album, St. Elsewhere, on April 24, 2006 in the UK and on May 9, 2006 in the U.S. For their American television debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, May 24, 2006, the band performed "Crazy".

The band performed along with Christina Aguilera, AFI, and Wolfmother at the MTV Movie Awards 2006 on June 8, 2006. They were dressed as characters from the film series Star Wars: Rebel Alliance pilots, Imperial officers, Stormtroopers, Chewbacca, Jango Fett, Obi-Wan, with Cee-Lo singing as an unmasked Darth Vader.

In October 2006, Gnarls Barkley recorded a live session for Live from Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios.

St. Elsewhere has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for selling over 1,000,000 albums in the U.S. A limited edition deluxe package of St. Elsewhere was released on November 7, 2006. The CD+DVD package includes a 92-page booklet, four music videos and bonus songs from live performances.

From January until March 2007, they toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers through the U.S.http

They did a collaborative short film in both the Spring of 2006 and 2007 with the international TV series Kung Faux which airs heavily on Channel V around the world, and they also toured Australia in March and April 2007 as part of the Channel V Festival.

The song "Go-Go Gadget Gospel" appears in the show The Boondocks. It was sung by Rev. Rollo Goodlove, who was voiced by Cee-Lo.

The Odd Couple (2008–present)

In early March, 2008, Gnarls's much anticipated sophomore release, The Odd Couple, was leaked over the internet prompting the duo to push the release date up from April 8. On March 18, 2008, the album became available via download on the iTunes Music Store and Amazon MP3. Hard copies of the album were released on March 25.

They appeared as the musical guest on the April 12, 2008 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live. They were supposed to be in a Digital Short parodying amateur music videos according to the scrolled text but only appeared in the singing performances of the live broadcast.

On November 11, 2008, they released an EP, Who's Gonna Save My Soul, featuring four versions of the song which originally appeared on The Odd Couple, along with a live version of "Neighbors" and a previously unreleased song, "Mystery Man". A music video for "Mystery Man" was directed by Walter Robot and premiered on Yahoo! Music.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Awards

*2006 MTV European Music Awards, Best Song ("Crazy") and the Future Sounds Award

*2007 Grammy Award, Best Urban/Alternative Performance ("Crazy") and Best Alternative Music Album (St. Elsewhere)

*2007 BET Award for Best Group

*2008 MTV Video Music Awards, Best Art direction and best choreography for the video 'Run'

*100 Best Songs of the Decade (Rolling Stone Magazine) - #1 Crazy

See also

*Broken Bells

*Gnarls Biggie

References