Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere is the sound of two restless talents colliding, with CeeLo Green's gospel-sized voice riding Danger Mouse's off-kilter, psychedelic soul.

When the duo's debut arrived in 2006, its lead single had already rewritten the rules. "Crazy" became the first song to top the UK chart on downloads alone, and its eerie, spaghetti western sway made it inescapable on both sides of the Atlantic. The album went on to win the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, proof that the rest of the record was every bit as inventive.

Danger Mouse produced the whole thing, stitching together vintage samples, crunchy drums and cinematic strings, while CeeLo plays the lovable eccentric, joking one minute and confessional the next. "Smiley Faces" is a Motown-flavoured sugar rush, the cover of Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" turns a cult favourite into a jittery strut, and "Just a Thought" reveals the darker, more vulnerable heart beneath all the costumes and mythology.

The album moves quickly, never settling into one genre for long, and that restlessness is exactly its charm. Fourteen songs, not one of them predictable.

Two decades later, St. Elsewhere still sounds like nothing else in either artist's catalogue, a cult classic that also happened to be a blockbuster.