Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere

I fucking knew it. Whenever a “reasonably priced” copy of a long time out of print vinyl comes up, and it’s from a reputable seller, not one of the ones that recently set up an account or hacked into a dormant one, it’s a canary in the coal mine that there’s going to be a repress. And I love seeing all the sellers hitherto selling their copies for absurd amounts dropping their prices, it’s like watching rats scurry off a sinking ship.

This pressing seems to suffer from some sibilance across the entire disc and also inner groove distortion. Having said that, it is quite warm and the mastering is good. Side B sounds a lot better than A for me. Holding out hope for a 2LP repress

This is a great pressing of a fantastic album, the production is top-notch, there's an analogue feeling to the sound emanating from the speakers, in my case, it just needed a thorough cleaning, and then bingo!!!

I have a US version that does not mention Atlantic. It's not the unofficial release, as it has a mould SID code which the unofficial release lacks. Is this version not on the database?

Matrix: Z52038 3 ATT2 70003-2 TEXT 01 M1S2 (no number after 2)
Mould SID: IFPI 2U7J
Mastering SID: ifpi L909

Got a brand new copy off of Amazon - skips and repeats. Exchanged it for another copy - same issues. No obvious visual damage to either record.

I agree with those saying this album is great because it's so eclectic. I wish I could say the same for the vinyl, itself - I bought a sealed copy, and when I opened it, it already had several fingerprint smudges and a thumbprint-shaped depression in both sides of the record. Neither seem to affect sound quality, but I was kind of shocked to see fingerprints (like 5 distinct prints) on a sealed album. I doubt it was resealed, it's not like it's a super valuable record, it just seems like the quality control was lacking.

Indeed a very eclectic album, maybe a bit too much.
Anyway I just listened to it again and I can't say it really stands the test of time, but that's very personal though.
One song that I still really like is Just A Thought, dark triphop!

I argue, in direct contradiction to 'ibbjamin', that this album is well-worth the purchase. While is only short (less than 40 mins?), it has such a huge, eclectic collection of songs that you won't even notice (i only noticed because someone else mentioned it, it had never even occured to me prior to that).

There's the dangerously catchy, and love-at-listen-loveable 'Crazy' (you've probably heard it somewhere), the WEIRD 'Necromancing', the brilliant and slighly laid-back, but oh-so-beautiful 'Who Cares?' and one of my favourites, the simple, progressing and bouncing, "Gone Daddy Gone"

This is a seriously hard album to classify; the mix of genres is incredible. Crazy is kind of Nu-Soul
Necromancing is verging upon Abstract Hip Hop (or 'Trip Hop')
Gone Daddy Gone is verging upon Big Beat (as in modern, Palookaville*-esque Big Beat)

Give this album a go, odds are you'll find something to your liking.

*Palookaville is Fatboy Slim's latest album, with a much warmer and more relaxed Big Beat sound (on the whole) than some of his other works, or others of the genre.

How the hell do you classify this CD? One review has said "psychedelic soul" or something that Marvin Gaye would record if he were still alive in 2006. For now, I'll go with that. The Cee-Lo/Danger Mouse pairing may be a bit weird for some; and this CD confirms it. 14 tracks clocking in at less than 38 minutes - but, man, is there a lot crammed into that short a timespan. Both members take their own unique styles (the cartoonish, dark, deftly-layered textures of Mr. Barton; the at-times-frenetic, jovial, beautiful tenor of Mr. Calloway) and create something even more individualistic. Hard to classify; even harder to ignore once tracks like "Transformer", "Just A Thought", and, of course, the history-making "Crazy" (BTW, have you SEEN the video?), are imbedded in your brain. A critics' top 10 pick for 2006 for many, and deservedly so. Now, about those "Clockwork Orange" photo shoots.....