That Cee-Lo Green has a feeling for harmonious melodies and infectious choruses has already been heard on St. Elsewhere (2006), Gnarls Barkley's first project. But more than ten years before this successful merger with the progressive producer Danger Mouse, he was still part of the hip-hop group Goodie Mob, which he left after the CD World Party (1999). He had already met Danger Mouse at a concert
… by Goodie Mob. This was followed by a number of collaborations of the two, including a small contribution by Cee-Lo to the album The Mouse And The Mask by Danger Doom. They liked it so much that they started working together as Gnarls Barkley. A modest two years after Grammy-awarded St. Elsewhere, eccentrics Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo return for more Gnarls Barkley madness. On the new CD The Odd Couple, the combination of vocals and production sounds like a perfect relationship, whereas on St. Elsewhere it still sounded like an early courtship. The listener is not left alone at any time and is surprised time and again by Cee-Lo Green, who is completely in his element amid the musical daredevil of Danger Mouse. (GL)more
