Disc 296 is...Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
And cover #2 is:
Artist: OutkastYear of Release: 2003
What’s Up With The Cover?: As this is actually two albums in one, the CD booklet is reversable so you can choose either cover. I've included both, in my order of preference.
First, is "The Love Below" cover, featuring Andre 3000 (or Andre Benjamin in the world of the surnamed). Andre looks stylish in two thirds of a red plaid three-piece suit. This cover exudes class and competence - but don't be fooled - it is mostly the car.
Second is the "Speakerboxxx" cover, featuring Big Boi (sic) dressed in his pimp-daddy clothes, which includes a gratuitous fur jacket, and those tan shoes that hip hoppers continue to think are cool to this day. Note that Andre's wicker throne is adorned with peacock feathers. Could this be a sign of bad luck? Most assuredly.
How I Came To Know It: To my shame, I bought it back in 2003.
How It Stacks Up: Although Outkast has six studio albums, I only have the one, and this is not likely to change. Of the one I have, I rank this one last.
Rating: 1 star
Long-time readers of this blog will know of my longstanding war against artists that insist on putting too many tracks on their album, and even worse - artists that turn one album of strong content into double album sets of mediocrity.
Say what you will about Outkast, but they don't believe in half measures. With this record, they've managed to break both rules. There are 39 songs on these two albums, at least 3/4 of which should never have left the studio.
The first album, "The Love Below," is a swirl of ambition including pop sensibilities, jazz, and the lighter side of hip hop. I will readily admit that I hadn't lived until I had heard a jazz fusion version of the Sound of Music ditty "My Favourite Things". However, it isn't like you think. The reason I now feel like I haven't lived, is because having been freed from hearing this monstrosity, I count each day as precious. In short - I survived.
Other gems are the spoken word opus, "Where Are My Panties" which recounts the inner thoughts of two exceedingly dumb people waking up together after a one night stand. The plot is complicated, but let me sum up: She would like him to touch her booty. He would like to touch her booty. Neither of them knows where her underpants are. The End.
The second album, "Speakerboxxx," is a more straightforward hip hop record, and by virtue of trying to do less, comes out the better record. Despite some unfortunate rhymes like "nasty hoes/eatin' pistachios", there are some good raps on this side of the record, at least when Big Boi doesn't try any topics too complicated.
However, any momentum from these songs is quelled by ridiculous and self-indulgent tracks that should have been left on the studio's cutting room floor, like "Bamboo" which sounds like Big Boi exhorting a two year old to deliver what said two year old interprets to be rapping (note to Outkast: a child's babbling is not rap, even when there's a funky backbeat). At least I think the song is "Bamboo"; Outkast does not deign to provide a song listing on the back, so you're never sure where you are on the record, even when you're following along.
The production on both records is excellent, and really works hard to polish up this disparate pile of turds, but only so much can be done in production.
According to the painfully sycophantic wiki entries I read, these records represent solo projects of the two artists (Andre Benjamin and Big Boi), packaged together, and it is true that they each sound awful in very distinct ways.
However, if you are a successful hip hop act (and Outkast had four records under their belt when they released this) why not just release your solo albums individually? KISS did it - in fact they did four of them. Some of these are bad, and you could argue the only one definitively worth having is Ace Frehley's, but you can't deny KISS had the guts to just do it. The way Outkast has gone about it just seems overblown, and the resulting music confirms it.
That said, there are good raps on this album, and the song "Roses" is a nasty little character assassination of some woman named Caroline, that would be worthy to nail to a coffee house door three centuries ago. It is a classic hip hop song, that eight years later has aged well, despite extreme overplay on its release.
This album was huge in 2003, receiving many musical accolades from critics, and selling in huge volume. Even I was swept up in the hysteria, buying it not just for "Roses" but also because of all the fawning reviews it was receiving. Maybe that is why I feel so jilted that it comes off as such an uneven mish-mash.
If I were being fair this record has enough quality content to get two stars. But was it fair to have me sit through 39 songs, when only nine or ten were any good? Was it fair to make me listen to a toddler rap? Was it fair to rhyme "backwards" with Bratwurst"? (As Big Boi shamelessly does in "Knowing").
No - it wasn't fair, and there is a price to be paid for such hubris. One star is me being generous.
Best tracks: From The Love Below, "Roses" and from Speakerboxxx "Last Call", which I like and it is easy to identify, since it's the second to last song. There are likely a couple others but because of the CD layout, I have no idea what they are.
1 comment:
Totally agree, but Outkast's third album, Aquemini, will change your mind about them. Seriously.
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