Gnarls Barkley: “St. Elsewhere”

Filed under: Gay, Music Reviews   

Cautious consumers shouldn’t expect Dungeon Family-era Cee-Lo here (as if that ship hadn’t sailed a while ago), or any largely comparable effort for that matter; this team-up with Brian Burton’s Danger Mouse character may indeed not be liked at all by even the lowliest mall-gangsta who typically finds hirself hypnotized by loosely related product like Gorillaz. And so on, but forget that.

The new jack Motown compiled by the pair is sure to be tagged as an overstimulated revision of Marvin Gaye, but what’s most obvious is how Black Eyed Peas the tuneage is (see the remake of Violent Femmes’ “Gone Daddy Gone”) and how much time it spends lifting its ear up for a scratch from indie snobs (”The Boogie Monster), neither of which is a capital offense, but only a major label would scribble “ALT” on its forehead in such a garish font.

Among other oddities you’ll encounter a Nintendo-meets-Fat-Albert novelty item (”Transformer”) and an Urge Overkill spasm interrupted with random occurrences of scorched-earth breakbeat (”Just a Taught”). Unerringly cool despite Paris Hilton sticking her stupid fat nose into it and threatening to do a cover of “Crazy.”

Posted on April 5th, 2007.

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