Gnarls Barkley Album on iTunes Now, in Stores this Week

Though it was originally due on April 8, Gnarls Barkley's upcoming album The Odd Couple is now on sale on the iTunes Music Store, and will be in stores later this week.

According to Billboard, stores are being encouraged to sell the CD as soon as their shipments arrive, which may be as soon as today (March 19). The album has already leaked online, though that has not been listed as an official reason for it being pushed up.

"They felt the timing was right to just go for it," said the group's website. "With the shifting seasons, furtive romantic entanglements and fierce college basketball rivalries, the latter half of March can be confusing. People need to be soothed and inspired now."

A promotional campaign for The Odd Couple will include a strong presence on iTunes, an April 12 appearance on "Saturday Night Live," and "something globally with MySpace that has never been done before," according to Downton Records head of marketing and sales Michael Pontecorvo.

The group will play shows for the album, but Cee-Lo Green, one half of Gnarls Barkley, says that he is not ready to commit to a full tour. "Believe it or not, I still can't afford to take my entire family on the road with me," he explained. "[But] it's an entirely different thing to walk out onstage to the love and embrace of a crowd that's singing along with something you could have very possibly been alone in. And it's about that too. It makes me able to complain a whole lot less."