Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple

This is the kind of album critics hate to review. Not that they hate it, they just hate to review it.

Gnarls Barkley's first album was a glorious mess; it was an accumulation of crazy ideas that most musicians would never try. It was wildly inconsistent; for every track that the album could have done without, there was an absolutely brilliant, memorable track that I'm still humming two years later. "Crazy" became a huge hit, the title track is still one of my favorite soul tracks in decades, and "Just A Thought" remains as powerful and unpredictable as it ever was.

So after hearing the first album, I though what probably everybody else thought: this band needs restraint and focus to do a great album. Now they have that, and their second album does not have a bad song on it, but there aren't any stunning, exceptional tracks like "Just A Though" or "St. Elsewhere" either.

Song for song, the Odd Couple is a better album start to finish; but in a few years, St. Elsewhere will still sound fresh. So which one will everybody be happier with? Good question. Both are worth buying to find out for one reason: nobody else is making music like this right now.

Best tracks: "Who's Going To Save My Soul", "Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)", "Blind Mary"