Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

After being leaked on the Internet, the release date for the second album from Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple, was pushed up from April 8 to March 18. That, in and of itself, proves the power of this truly odd couple. Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo are back, and this time they are even better. 2006’s St. Elsewhere was certified platinum and made it to number four on the Billboard charts, and The Odd Couple has already reached number twelve and is still rising.

This is a duo that has equaled the immortal band Queen as the only artists to have a song atop the UK pop charts for nine consecutive weeks (Queen did it in 1975 with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Gnarls did it in 2006 with the best song of the year “Crazy.”) Danger Mouse is the multi-instrumental behind the scenes member of the group, and Cee-Lo is the hip hop and gospel-trained specialist that provides vocals and a face for Gnarls.

The new disc is littered with potential hits, including an already charted song, Going On, that hasn’t even been confirmed as a single yet. Who’s Gonna Save My Soul is a crazy, funky, soulful, hip hop and R&B mix song that blows your mind. It’s one of the most unique songs that I’ve heard in awhile, and it just shows how eclectic and electric this group is and can be. Would Be Killer is an interesting jam, and the abrupt ending leaves the listener to wonder what happens next. It’s like a great movie. If there is a song as catchy as “Crazy” on here then it’s the opening track, Charity Case, in which Cee-Lo filters his voice to create a funky, soulful sound. Chances are that it won’t be as big of a hit, but like I said, this CD is littered with all kinds of great music from one of the most unique duos to ever produce music together. Let’s just hope that they keep doing it for a long, long time.

People say that “Crazy” began to grow on you as a creepy song the more that you heard it, and this entire disc has that feel, even with some not-so-great dull songs finding their way onto the final copy (Blind Mary, Open Book). They do some funky stuff on different tracks that makes their songs sound like anything from suped-up gospel to Nineties “trip hop” to Sixties L.A. pop. Overall this disc is not as catchy as its predecessor, but it’s downtrodden, good, old-fashioned new-fangled music (re-read that a few times fast!).