St. Elsewhere View large Image Artist Gnarls Barkley Format Audio CD Average Rating Our Price £4.00

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Customer Reviews

Reviewer
Blackmale
Did they record it while in Hospital? In a mental institution? Meandering collection of very good ideas, but ultimately - singles apart - left underdeveloped. Yess I get where you are going guys, and we get the whole tour, ward by ward - soul, hip-hop, funk, urban, homages to Living Colour, before full on Brit-pop and even dirtbag. But therein lies the problem, mixing styles does not offend, (Prince made a career out of it,) failing to do justice, just might and on St. Elswhere there are some fullsome examples. I'll cite the obvious CRAZY and SMILY FACES (more clues) as the high points. Contrast with BOOGIE MONSTER which is late night reheated pizza. There could be a quality album here, but the whole affair is badly rushed, with some nasty drum machines and cheapo synths fleshing out pieces more deserving strummed strings and a well struck hide. Gnarls miss the retro target and strike the "tacky" one instead. There are some latter pieces that truly excite, but remain spoiled by the aftertaste left by some of the earlier less palatable moments. Ultimately I think they missed a trick, this would have had genuine mass appeal, not by appealing to the masses in general, but through the thorough execution of some clever and interesting ideas in the way that REM, Run DMC and Terrence Trent D'Arby had achieved previously. In the final analyisis...It falls desperately short and is left as a pastiche. Spent too much on that fantastic video and left nothing to finish the album!
C. A. Mccarthy
For the first time in ages I have been assualted and challenged by an album....Gnarls Berkley manages to pull in the past, twist it, reinvent it, and come up with a new mix, a new challenge to our ears. This is a real achievement in the age of crank-the-handle-spit-it-out-for-the-proles age. We are at a time when everything seems to have been done, dusted, and T-shirted. Gnarls makes a wonderfully brave attempt to re-mix and re-discover it all. Some of the songs are instant masterpieces, others are an adventure, some an experiment. Finally, real artists having a go.... We can only stand aside and applaud, every song is engaging and, a new thing for these days, both entertaning and challenging. I think this is a wonderful laboratory, and can't wait for the next three albums...it can only get better....something new for once! P.S. great musicianship, lead singer excellent, backing superlative, and if nothing else, it is ALIVE!!!! Buy, feel, discover what energy is again, listen to the lyrics and agree.....gagging for more! (4 stars as I know more is to come......)
I-ONLY-WANT-VINYL!
There are quite a few lovely great funkin' (I said funkin'..) tracks on here. 'Crazy' etc, but there are some tracks which are maybe not quite so easy to listen to for some people....certainly at first listening. the more you listen the better it gets but it takes time. Dont buy this expecting it to all immediately sound like the lovely smooth funky tracks that have brought them to fame, it doesnt. When they hit it right they sound great but...there are a couple of odd bits. Vinyl wise...its an OK album cover, (Sgt Pepper styleee) the inner is totally black both sides and you get a sleeve note with lyrics too small to read..blank on the back...what a waste of an opportunity... I give 3/10 to Mr Record Company Sleeve Designer..! So sleeve wise its nothing special. My advice is to make sure you REALLY like it all before you buy it on vinyl, or buy the CD. You have been warned.... P.S anyone remember the 80's band The Christians? If you like Gnarls you should definitely check them out....very similar vocally but much more easy to listen to immediately out of the box...one the wife will approve of!
Demob Happy
Much of the reviews for St Elsewhere evaulate all the tracks in relation to its mindblowing single 'Crazy'. While it is probably pertinent to mention that there are no other tracks that reach the sublime level of that song, it may also pertinent to say that Crazy is one of the best songs of the last five years and would dwarf most tracks on most albums by most artists. Putting Crazy aside, there is much to enjoy here, from Dangermouse's dynamic, shapeshifting - but not fussy - production, to Cee-Lo's powerful singing, nursery-rhyme raps, clever word-play and general explosive charisma. Fans of Gorillaz should love this for its humour, its sonic invention and its unique hybridity (soul, gospel, hip hop and electronica - amongst other things). There are some throwaway moments - mostly cartoonish sketches expanded out unsuccessfully to song length, but I will set those aside to focus on the highlights... The title track brilliantly marries suurealist hip hop in the mold of CLOUDDEAD with bursts of Curtis Mayfield soul to devestating effect. Like Quannum stalwart Lyrics Born, Cee-lo cqn shift vocal ranges dramatically at the drop of a hat, constantly stimulating and surprising. Smiley Faces is the closest the album has to repeating Crazy's winning pop formula, all surf-guitar and gospel and great hooks. 'Just A Thought' continues Crazy's theme of mental illness to a darker, more uncomprimising extreme over thunderous, DJ Shadow-patented beats: "When I was lost I even found myself looking in the gun's direction / Well i've tried, everything but suicide / But yes it's crossed my mind". Necromancer is creepy but cartoonish hip hop about defiling dead bodies, while Storm Coming apes Latyrx's similar Storm Warning but they will be forgiven because it is so good. Finally The Last Time throws a little sex into the equation with Cee-Lo crooning over production that reminds me of Tricky's masterpiece Maxinquaye. Overall, it holds together nicely, and I hope that - like Gorillaz - this is not a one off gimmick and that they can surpass this with a sophmore effort.
Benny Blanco from Bromley
From reading some of the other reviews I have a feeling I'm one of many people who heard "Crazy" on it's heavy rotation on every station in the world and bought it on the strength of that track and a good review. Boy, were we suckered. It's not a bad album, indeed, there are even some other good tracks on it. That said, it's really not the best album it could have been, given the talent involved. Most of the tracks sound like stuff that got cut from Outkast's Stankonia album so they could put more interlude tracks on it, but with Cee-Lo's Dirty South credentials that's not wholly surprising.