![]() ![]() It echoes all kinds of apparently contradictory music - the exquisite misery of a southern soul ballad, the tempo and spacey euphoria of an old vocal house anthem, the clanking, unfunky bassline of a 1980s indie band - but the cumulative effect sounds like nothing else. ![]() Crazy simply wouldn't have sold in the quantities it has were it not an extraordinary, boundary-defying song, capable of both momentarily deposing Pete Doherty from the front page of the NME and attaining single of the week status on DJ Spoony's garage show on Radio 1. Quite what this is meant to tell us is a mystery, unless it's that Green - who could stand to lose a few pounds - looks a bit upsetting when dressed in a blond bob wig, eye make-up and a big nappy.Īnother thing has been missed in the rush to report the manner of Crazy's ascent: the quality of the music. ![]() They sport the bowler hats, eye make-up and glasses of milk familiar from Malcolm McDowell's portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange, further accessorised with blond bob wigs and what look like enormous nappies. The people responsible for all this are rapper and vocalist Cee-Lo Green and hip-hop producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, who do their best to keep their identities hidden in Gnarls Barkley's promotional photographs. He is also, apparently, the lover of Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, Kraftwerk's English teacher and the broker of a meeting between the Wu-Tang Clan and Britain's Turner prize-baiting Stuckist art movement. That story has overshadowed his heroically outlandish biography, which claims that Barkley is the penpal not merely of Lester Bangs, the long-deceased rock critic responsible for appropriating the phrase punk rock, but also soul man Isaac Hayes and Gordon Gano, vocalist with ramshackle acoustic trio the Violent Femmes. He is responsible for Crazy, the first single ever to make it to number one in Britain on the strength of download sales alone. Ace.For someone who doesn't actually exist, Gnarls Barkley has been remarkably omnipresent in the British media over the past few weeks. Any album with a track called ‘Go Go Gadget Gospel’ has to be amazing, and with a whole summer to get under the skin, it really is. Elsewhere’ isn’t perfect, but as things go it’s as close as we’re likely to get. ‘Just A Thought’ touches on suicidal tendencies, ‘Necromancing’ tries to get jiggy with corpses (yes, you did read that right) and the Gorillaz-esque ‘Boogie Monster’ mentions monsters in closets. Elsewhere goes schizo things get a little bit scary. There’s dark forces in this here record, and as St. With angular so-hot-right-now beats, it’s indie-dance-tastic.īut beware! Not all is happy in the house of Barkley. Top that with a cover of Violent Femmes (which is always a good thing in our book - Ed), and we’re onto a winner. Tinges of Motown and a refeshingly catchy edge, it’s all good fun, but worthwhile at the same time. ‘Smiley Faces’ has all the hallmarks of that super hit. Thankfully for Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, they’ve got a great big stick to hit it with. Like every band with a Bloody Good Debut, there’s now a one hit wonder tag to beat off. Jerking beats and vocals packed to the brim with soul, it’s about as exciting as daytime radio will ever get. ![]() ‘Crazy’, though already being bloody massive before this album even hits the ground, is bloody massive even without the sales figures attached. Not just a very silly name, but a true ‘internet phenomenon’, they went to Number One on the strength of downloads alone, without even having a single record on the shelf. ![]()
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