Blogarhythms

Last week Cee-Lo Green and Danger Mouse released their sophomore LP as Gnarls Barkley to digital-retailers a full three weeks before it’s scheduled due-date of April 8th. This bit of leak-induced gun-jumping caught me by surprise so I wasn’t able to throw props their way last week. But I didn’t want to let a new record by one of my favorite Pop acts go by un-touted, so I’m making up for that now.

It feels weird calling a group made up of two artists rooted in Hip-Hop a Pop act, but to my ears, and probably those of the millions who made their 2006 single “Crazy” so successful, that’s what they are. Sure, I file their records under “Hip-Hop” in my collection, but their succinct and catchy compositions often feel equally suited for the dusty boxes of old 7” discs that make up my 45 collection. Somehow Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse have developed a magic formula for distilling the melancholy, hard-luck-son-of-a-gun Soul of guys like Sam Cooke, Otis Redding & Bobby Womack, and the paranoid, psychedelic Pop-Rock of folks such as the Moody Blues, The Doors & Tommy James down to three-and-a-half minute (at most) shots of Pop perfection for the Hip-Hop generation. And though nothing on The Odd Couple jumps out as an obvious successor to the instant-classic “Crazy,” the album as a whole more than stacks up against it’s predecessor.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the first single “Run” (or seen it’s supposedly seizure-causing video) and the ?uestlove-debuted second single “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” so I’m not gonna post audio. Besides, if you want to hear more just go grab a digital copy, or hit up a real-world retailer for a physical copy when it arrives in stores everywhere tomorrow.

If you haven’t already heard of Welsh singer Duffy by now you probably should have. Lately it seems whenever I open my e-mail in-box or mailbox there’s a message about or new single from this girl sitting there. My over-saturation on the lass has me believing everybody’s gotten a taste of her hype. But if that’s not the case, now’s your chance. The songs on her solo English-language debut (she previously released a Welsh EP and recorded with Mancunian duo Mint Royale) Rockferry (co-written and recorded with ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler) fall into a similar vein of jukebox-ready soulful Pop as Gnarls Barkley, but smack of a more obvious desire to imitate the much-copied sounds of classic Soul and soulful girl-group Pop. This throwback sound has drawn comparisons to Amy Winehouse on the contemporary end of the spectrum and Dusty Springfield on the classic end. But my favorite cut from the album, “Stepping Stone,” lays on the Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick influences pretty thick.

Duffy “Stepping Stone”

I have a few Duffy tracks on the 7” vinyl format her music seems it would be most at home on. But I’m not so lucky when it comes to Gnarls Barkley. And while Duffy makes every effort to sound like the 40-year-old 45-RPM singles gracing oldies radio today, I maintain it’s Gnarls Barkley we’re more likely to hear on those same stations 40 years on.

- El Keter