GNARLS BARKLEY
St. Elsewhere
Producer: Danger Mouse
Downtown/Atlantic
Release Date: May 9

When Goodie Mob rapper Cee-Lo Green and workaholic über-producer Danger Mouse get together, it's safe to assume they won't be turning out an album of the great American songbook. Instead, "St. Elsewhere" is filled with the bizarro, hip-hop psychedelia expected from such an oddball union. Though tracks like the near-perfect smash "Crazy" and a frothy, reverent retelling of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" find them operating at top speed, some of the record gets bogged down in its own deliberate weirdness (the anxious "Transformer" and the disturbing "Necromancing"). But the weirdest thing? They've apparently been digging the sounds of the early '60s, accidentally turning "You Can't Hurry Love" into the jaunty "Smiley Faces" and "Monster Mash" into grubby "The Boogie Monster." Maybe they're closer to the great American songbook than they think. -- Jeff Vrabel