The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #254

#254: "The Boogie Monster" (2006) - Gnarls Barkley

Today marks the end of Halloween Week on the charts (and the end of theme weeks themselves for, oh, at least a month), and the culminating song is the most blatantly spooky-sounding song on my charts. It's adorned with all the trappings of the stereotypical spook-house song (the evil laugh, the creature-name dropping, the whispering, the creaking sound effects, etc...), but those elements--while definately part of the appeal and lure of the song) are just masks used to disguise the real horror: the self.

"The Boogie Monster" works well on two levels. First, it's a fun little ditty that works well with kids in the backseat who don't play close attention to the lyrics--or, if they do, then the complexity will wash right over them (well, it does with my children, at least): the chorus is catchy, Danger Mouse adds the obligatory bells and whistles, and the structure is simple. It's a great, Halloween, trick-or-treat, "Monster Mash" type of song, and Cee-Lo keeps with the spirit of the season by singing in his deep lower register during the chorus and stage whispering during the verses. It's an easy song to like.

Cee-Lo adds a deeper verbal level, though, and it's this secondary meaning that places the song a notch (or two) above traditional spooky fare. "The monster is me," Cee-Lo sings, his voice quivering, as he stares into the mirror. "It waits till the midnight hour to come/To torture me for the wrong I've done." We are the abyss--is there more frightening a concept? Self-actualization as punishment--to know thyself is to know Hell. We are the enemy. Literally. We are the living dead. We are zombie. We create our own hell, and we face it every night. Cher once noted that we all sleep alone, and she's right, but what happens when we can't sleep? Brrr.

Of course, there's the matter of the dirty little couplet at the song's fade, but after the realization of the song's horrific scenario, then we all need a little levity, a little, uh, treat...to follow the trick (or vice versa).

Happy Halloween, kiddies!