Chris DeLine

The same lopsided disparity between St. Elsewhere’s “Necromancer” and “Smiley Faces” is paralleled throughout Gnarls Barkley’s second album, The Odd Couple. Its unique balance between the obscure and digestible suggests an attempt at parity, but to hear Cee-Lo growl “Say fuck me, well fuck you too” prior to a surfsteady homage tends to imply otherwise. Eventually it is within the honesty of the final track’s lyrics, all draped across its mellow beat where The Odd Couple finally delivers what it may have been aiming towards all along – balance. “A Little Better” is a plea, the type of poem that one writes just to get words on a page with the hope that they escape one’s thoughts if only for a single second. However inviting it may be to emotionally subtract oneself from a moment, sometimes it’s healing to embrace life’s confusion and grasp at extremes.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]