Unexpectedly, Gnarls Barkley released its new album last week through iTunes.
Now “The Odd Couple” is expected in stores by Tuesday — at least two weeks ahead of schedule — along with albums by the B-52s, Counting Crows and Panic at the Disco. Here’s a look at each.
Gnarls Barkley, “The Odd Couple” (Atlantic Records)
It’s hard to figure out how troubled Cee-Lo Green actually is.
During the song “A Little Better,” he sings that “it’s probably plain to see that I got a whole lot of pain in me.” Seems obvious enough, right?
But earlier, on “Whatever,” he makes a joke of angst, singing in a satirical teenage whine, “Shut up, Mom, it is not OK I’m alone almost every day.”
His partner, the uber-producer Danger Mouse, manages some split personalities of his own, with tastes for styles as varied as rock and indie hip-hop. All find display on the pair’s latest album.
The duo hasn’t changed course from the 2006 breakthrough, “St. Elsewhere.” Green still sings with the clear intensity of a Southern Baptist choir member, and Danger Mouse still backs the often-cathartic lines with feverish dance beats, dreamy psychedelics and simple pop.
As most songs zip by, it’s hard to think of the pair as just a couple of odd guys. No, they sound more like a group of at least a dozen men, each bursting with ideas.
The B-52s, “Funplex” (Astralwerks)
It’s been 16 years since the B-52s put out an album of new songs, so it was anyone’s guess what kind of material the famed New Wave group might release.
Ends up, the quartet’s pretty damn randy for a bunch of 50-year-olds. Like the group’s 1989 smash, “Love Shack,” its latest is oversexed, infectious and profanely silly.
Singing lines with cornball over-enunciation, Fred Schneider describes a future inhabited by robots, bootybots and erotobots, a time when people will make “space love in zero gravity.”
The group’s female vocalists, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, also are ready to go, urging listeners to “shake that jelly, rattle them bones” and look out for “the freak zone.”
With its cheeky eroticism, surf guitars and electronica influences, “Funplex” could have flopped. Instead, the kitschy group delivers an unusual amount of pleasure.
Counting Crows, “Saturday Nights &Sunday Mornings” (Geffen)
On “Saturday Nights &Sunday Mornings,” Counting Crows seems eager to prove it’s got life beyond its recent bread-and-butter: A Joni Mitchell cover and a song for the “Shrek 2” soundtrack.
For the album, lead singer Adam Duritz built songs around the idea of sins and regrets, called it “Saturday Nights &Sunday Mornings,” and tapped a different producer for each day.
The first half — the sinful “Saturday Nights,” produced by Gil Norton — is the more gratifying of the two. Opening with aggressive guitars on “1492,” the group recaptures much of the hard shine from its 1996 album, “Recovering the Satellites.”
The second half, built mainly around acoustic guitar and produced by Brian Deck, never takes off. “Sunday Mornings” is made up of songs such as “Le Ballet d’Or” and “On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago.” The songs meander, living up to their pretentious and dull titles.
Still, the group closes with some well-crafted pop, as Norton steps back behind the boards for the final track, “Come Around.”
“I hear you say we’re gone,” Duritz sings.
Clearly, that’s not the case — at least not yet.
Panic at the Disco, “Pretty. Odd.” (Fueled by Ramen)
Panic at the Disco said it was influenced by classic rock when writing “Pretty. Odd.” Hearing the sucker, you’d never guess it.
Sure, briefly, the emo-tastic quartet apes midperiod Beatles, lacing songs with string sections, bursts of horn and tolling bells. The album’s sunny single, “Nine in the Afternoon,” sounds a bit like “Sgt. Peppers”-era Paul McCartney — never a bad thing.
The album keeps heaping it on, though: a harmonica, a fiddle and backup harmonies galore. All the while, Brendon Urie belts out the group’s overly aware lyrics. It’s neither pretty nor odd. It’s a generic, overreaching mess.
While thankfully most of the songs steer away from the broken-hearted sentiments of the group’s first album, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” a few overdramatic moments still snake their way in.
During “Do You Know What I’m Seeing?” Urie sings, “I know it’s mad, but if I go to hell, will you come with me or just leave?”
I’d recommend leaving.
Columnist Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or arathbun@heraldnet.com.
Listen up
To hear tracks from this week’s releases, go to www.heraldnet.com/popsecrets today.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
