Michael Borshuk

"Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley (2006)

Funky and philosophical, this song works in two directions: as a mere party jam, an invocation to shake your thang on the dance floor (cf. Prince, "Let's Go Crazy"); or more gravely, as a heart-poundingly exact recreation of the disorienting feel of navigating the wide open spaces of a mind gone array, a place where even your emotions have an echo. In both interpretations, it is effective and brilliant, and worthy of a place in a sub-pantheon: great songs about feeling emotionally out of step--next to, say, Annie Ross's "Twisted" and Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression."