The Cool Odd Couple

So...you know that feeling the first day you buy an album? You pop in a CD and you're kind of confused because it's not what you expected, but the feeling that overwhelms you is not disappointment but curiosity. Remember when Andre 3000's masterpiece The Love Below dropped in 2003? When I first bought the album I sat in my dorm room during the first listen and remember thinking to myself....WTF is this? However, a day later I found myself addicted to the first couple of notes on "She Lives In My Lap". I found myself randomly humming, "Prototype" and "Pink and Blue" without even realizing that I learned the melodies or drum patterns. In my opinion, this is exactly what happens when you first listen to a great album. Don't get me wrong, beats and hooks are important, but hot beats and hooks go stale.

I won't spoil the experience of Lupe Fiasco's The Cool and The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley for you, but I encourage you to play the albums, be confused, be curious and see what happens.