Gnarls Barkley Album: “St. Elsewhere (Deluxe Edition)”

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Gnarls Barkley: Danger Mouse, Cee-Lo. <p>Recording information: 2006. <p>Gnarls Barkley--a collaboration between hip-hop/soul crooner and Goodie Mob founder Cee-Lo and DJ/mash-up kingpin Danger Mouse--sounds like it came from another planet, or what inhabitants of another planet might make of the elemental sounds of 21st-century pop music. Classically soulful R&B vocals, smart hip-hop/electronica beats and samples, and infectious hit-making melodies all serve to make the basic musical template familiar enough, but even a passing listen to the first single, "Crazy" (an Al Green-meets-Outkast groover that was a pre-release smash in the U.K. via downloads alone), illustrates that these fellas are definitely traveling some alternate spaceways. <p>But if the warped summer jam "Who Cares" or the unsettling big-beat-cum-folkly suicide dirge "Just A Thought" isn't proof enough of the duo's extraterrestrial originality, then check out the frenetic, almost sleazy, bubblegum-electro take on the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone." (Um...say what?) Like the entire album itself, it's a bizarre, unexpectedly brilliant reconfiguration of what was once simply called pop music. Who knows what to call it now?

It is so annoying when record companies re-release cds with bonus material and/or dvd. It is just a sneaky way to get more money. I already own the cd and the Vinyl LP record edition of this album (That was a gift). I shouldn't have to buy the same album twice. Now, If I didn't already own this album, then this version would be worth the purchase. The music alone deserves a 5 star rating. What the record companies need to do with this bonus material is release it with the first release, save it for the next album, or release it by itself at a lower cost.