The release of double album Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below in 2003 turned American hip hop duo Outkast (Andre “Andre 3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton) into international superstars, spawning the smash hits ‘Hey Ya’ and ‘The Way You Move’.
It also highlighted the competitive rivalry between the two with both discs essentially being solo records, one by each member, under the Outkast brand name.
This “friendly” competition continues with Idlewild, the soundtrack to their forthcoming film musical which is set in the Prohibition Era and sees them playing musicians alongside Terrence Howard, Macy Gray and badass Ving Rhames.
And with Andre 3000 fancying himself as something of a movie thesp, having already appeared in such comedies as the Mark Wahlberg vehicle Four Brothers and Guy Ritchie’s Revolver (they were comedies, right?), it may be their last music project together for quite some time.
They say:
Village Voice: “I’ve listened to it once, and I don’t intend to put myself through that ever again.”
XXL: “Intermittently brilliant and spotty, and signalling the beginning of the end.”
We say:
Let’s not beat around the bush here: Idlewild is an absolute shambles. Andre 3000 and Big Boi are so musically disconnected from one another that cohesiveness has been replaced by confusion.
True, all of the material encompasses elements of hip hop, jazz, blues, soul and big band swing, but the feeling, the vibe, couldn’t be further apart.
Andre 3000 sounds preoccupied, dreams of movie sets seeping into his brain as he takes lazy, clichéd stabs at acoustic blues (‘Idlewild Blue’), vague Prince adulation (‘Chronomentrophobia’) and chipmunk jazz (‘Makes No Sense At All’).
Big Boi, meanwhile, is entirely out of his depth, not exactly sure where his place is in this misguided roots exploration and longing for the crisp, joyous R&B he has made his own.
There’s genuinely nothing here that jumps out and grabs you like the melodic hooks of ‘Hey Ya’ and ‘Ms. Jackson’. Only ‘Hollywood Divorce’ (one of four tracks actually credited to Outkast) hints at their greatness.
Idlewild? It should have been called just plain Bone Idle.
Like this? Try these:
Prince – Purple Rain
Kanye West – Late Registration
Christina Aguilera – Back to Basics
RELEASED
21st Aug '06
LABEL
RCA
POSTED...
Fri 18 Aug 2006 at 1:07pm
