The production is progressive, but the reason is retro...

I just bought the new Gnarls Barkley cd, and I must say it is fabulous. I definitely give it two thumbs up. This collaboration between noted DJ Danger Mouse (responsible for giving us the Grey Album) and neo-soul singer Cee Lo is quite the little record. There are 14 songs on this disc and I would say 8 are good, and the rest are above average. Considering that most albums these days have two, maybe three songs tops, that are good this is out of this world. Prepare your self for the song Boogie Monster. It will be HUGE come Halloween. It is one of those songs that will be added to the seasonal/holiday song Pantheon. It is funny, groovy, and has a halloweenish theme so the DJs will kill around Halloween. It will join the likes of Purple People Eater, and Monster Mash.

Try to think of Gnarls Barkley as similar to The Roots collaboration with techno DJ BT The Tao of the Machine for the Blade Two soundtrack, or Richie Havens collaboration with Groove Armada Hands of Time, for the Collateral soundtrack only one hundred times better. Hands of Time was the song playing when Jamie Foxx meets Jada Pinkett Smith in the cab for the first time, and Tao of the Machine is the song playing when Blade and the Blood Pack enter the disco/vampire haven to look for Nomac. Speaking of Jada Pinkett Smith: Collateral was the first movie in a long time that she has been good in. I would say going back at least to Menace II Society. It is sad to see a talented woman like her relegated to "spouse level celebrity" because of her marriage to Will Smith.

Any whoo back to G.B. Mouse arranges the techno laced beats with Cee Lo laying down the neo-soul flavored lyrics. It is fabulous. I am sure everyone has heard Crazy, but the rest of the album is very good. In fact Crazy is probably the third or fourth best song on the album after Go Go Gadget Gospel, Boogie Monster, and Gone Daddy Gone, and the eerie as fuck, but very catchy Necromancing.

The aforementioned Necromancing is where the title of this post comes from. The song is about casual necrophilia (if there is such a thing). Actually, many websites insist that song is about having sex with someone who is overdosing, but I think they are just trying to sugar coat the song. I mean Cee Lo says once, "With this ring I thee wed. / Her body in my bed, / she was cool when I met her, / but I think I like her better dead."

YEAH.

Pretty freaking creepy, but it is a groovy song. Let's just hope that the Age of Permission we live does not see this as a door to bringing necrophilia to the fore front. I am a pretty open minded guy, but if we have reached a level of spiritual acedia that necrophilia is opening permitted....well let's just say I start seeing "Necrophila Magazine" or specials that try to explain or draw sympathy for this as a "fetish" or "alternate lifestyle" then I firmly believe the apocalypse is around the corner. I would be happy at that point to say, "BRING ON THE FUCKING NUCLEAR WAR." Man, I don't want to be vaporized. Where is this irrational phobia of nuclear weapons coming from?