
Atlanta duo Gnarls Barkley return after an 18-year silence with a third and final record that carries the peculiar elasticity that first defined the pairing of Danger Mouse and CeeLo Green, now threaded with a sense of reckoning. The music moves in quick, disorienting turns, soul refracted through brittle electronics and warped pop structures. 'Pictures' holds the centre, its looping hook tethered to a drifting arrangement that seems to slide in and out of focus. Elsewhere, songs pivot sharply, ideas surfacing, twisting, then dissolving, leaving the album with a restless, unsettled pulse, as if it is searching its own past while moving forward.