Gnarls Barkley: \u201cSt. Elsewhere\u201d (Downtown Recordings)<\/p>\n
review by Jason Isbell<\/p>\n
This album didn\u2019t stand a chance. There were just too many obstacles for it to overcome. Rarely does anything of substance with the promise of longevity come from the stagnant putrid pool of mainstream music. I\u2019m certainly not what one would call a die hard fan of R and B, with a few archaic exceptions, and though the adjective \u201cexperimental\u201d piques my interest every time, I find few who use it able to deliver. But I\u2019ve never been so content with being so wrong. Right out of the gates, in \u201cGo Go Gadget Gospel,\u201d singer Cee-Lo and producer Danger Mouse attack the boundaries of genres with an ethnic polka overlaid with soulful gospel vocals. The radio single, \u201cCrazy,\u201d is catchy without being irritating, and is laced with substantial yet approachable lyrics. The title track, \u201cSt. Elsewhere,\u201d is a song made poignant by Cee-Lo\u2019s haunting androgynous voice and cryptic words. Gnarls Barkley flirts with hip-hop on a couple tracks, and manages to execute it successfully without any references to Escalades, being shot, or smacking bitches. I found nearly every track on this album rewarding in some way, and I was happy the whole time to have my nose rubbed in my own pompous pre-judgment.
\n(http:\/\/www.gnarlsbarkley.com or http:\/\/www.downtownrecordings.com) GC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gnarls Barkley: \u201cSt. Elsewhere\u201d (Downtown Recordings) review by Jason Isbell This album didn\u2019t stand a chance. There were just too many obstacles for it to overcome. Rarely does anything of substance with the promise of longevity come from the stagnant putrid pool of mainstream music. I\u2019m certainly not what one would call a die hard fan of R and B, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-gnarls-barkley-st-elsewhere-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20553,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2025\/09\/20\/shareable-assets-from-my-substack-pdx-stripclub-review-post\/","url_meta":{"origin":85,"position":0},"title":"Shareable assets from my Substack: PDX stripclub review post","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"September 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"[Nightlife] Casa Diablo strip club review Portland [I like my Substack for a few reasons but one of the big ones is it creates these images that are \"shareable assets\" for each post. They even make clips from videos that highlight with Ai key points of the video, and they'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"pdx stripclub review shareable asset on substack","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/substack-asset-stripclub-review.jpg?fit=675%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/substack-asset-stripclub-review.jpg?fit=675%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/substack-asset-stripclub-review.jpg?fit=675%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/02\/24\/van-morrison-at-the-movies-show-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":85,"position":1},"title":"Van Morrison at the Movies show review","author":"admin","date":"February 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Van Morrison, Gibson Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, 21st-Feb-2007 7:30 pm review and photos by Jim Steinfeldt Van Morrison was unusually playful with the audience. While singing one of his own songs he broke into a Louis Armstong impression. Morrison sang his hits \"Brown Eyed Girl,\" \"Domino,\" \"Moondance,\" \"Gloria\" and \"Wild Night\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image hosted at PICTUB.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pictub.com\/users\/2006\/03\/26\/reviewer\/albums\/rvur_34\/photos\/2\/van-no-cameras.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":242,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/02\/18\/the-fall-reformation-post-tlcm-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":85,"position":2},"title":"The Fall Reformation! Post-TLCM review","author":"admin","date":"February 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Fall Reformation! Post-TLCM review by Jennifer Tittle The Fall\u2019s new nearly-annual studio album Reformation! Post-TLC (according to Mark E. Smith, the album title is a response to Manchester groups reforming out of financial destitution ) incorporates Smith\u2019s drawling, caustic vocals and innate syllabic sensibility with intense bass (this line-up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12467,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2015\/10\/13\/new-venue-bay-city-brewery\/","url_meta":{"origin":85,"position":3},"title":"new venue: Bay City Brewery","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"October 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"[Time open: about a month] \"Sour Brown\"Bay City Brewing Company 3760 Hancock St Ste A (right on the street) San Diego, CA 92110 between Kurtz St & Channel Way Phone number (619) 727-4926 review and amazing signage photo by Reviewer Rob I stopped in to this new brewery in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "beer zine"","block_context":{"text":"beer zine","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/beer-zine\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bay City Brewery, near the old SD Sports Arena.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/bay-city-brewery.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/bay-city-brewery.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/bay-city-brewery.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17725,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2020\/07\/08\/sunset-garage-a-google-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":85,"position":4},"title":"Sunset Garage, a review","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"July 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"[Car Culture] The Value of Honest Service SUNSET GARAGE 1946 BACON ST. OCEAN BEACH, SAN DIEGO, CA 92107 Review by Rob Johnny recently bought Sunset Garage on Bacon Street in O.B. from Woody who had been my mechanic for a long time (10 years) and I'm very glad he did.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2008\/01\/17\/smashed-squashed-splattered-chewed-chunked-and-spewed-book-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":85,"position":5},"title":"Smashed Squashed Splattered Chewed Chunked and Spewed book review","author":"admin","date":"January 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[book review]Smashed Squashed Splattered Chewed Chunked and Speweda new novel by Lance Carbuncle (VBW Publishing, 267 pgs.) Review by Celeste Hollenbeck This lengthily-titled book, being self-published (with a bold admittance to it as the first task in its Foreword), has surprisingly fewer blatant grammatical errors than one would expect from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}