Outkast - Idlewild
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Free Music Notes for Idlewild
Free Music Review: Different but to a true Dungeon Family fan Jammin!!!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Different but if you are a outkast fan then you should be use to that by now. Great highway music.Free Music Review: Outkast
Hit: 5 Stars
I love Outkast, especially Andre 3000. This CD was just as great as the others.Free Music Review: "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" rolled up into one CD soundtrack
Hit: 4 Stars
I can honestly say that I had never heard of Outkast until I heard the track "Player's Ball" in 1993. The sound was definitely something fresh and new and after I heard the title track of "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik", I knew that I would pick this CD up on its release date. After playing the CD numerous times my favorite tracks ended up being "Ain't No Thang", "Git Up, Git Out" w/Goodie Mob, "Crumblin' Erb", "Claimin' True" and "Funky Ride". Then to make things even better, Outkast released "Benz Or Beamer" on the "New Jersey Drive" soundtrack and there was a video for the track and everything. So after hearing Outkast's 1st CD and "Benz Or Beamer", I knew that I would be an Outkast fan for life. Their next CD, "ATLiens" was nice as well with the 1st single, "Elevators (Me And You)", "Wheelz Of Steel" the remix to "Jazzy Belle" w/Babyface and one of my personal Outkast favorites of all time, "13th Floor (Growing Old)". Since "ATLiens" dropped in 1996, Outkast's has other releases as well such as:
"Aquemini" (1998)
"Stankonia" (2000)
"Big Boi & Dre Presents Outkast" (2001)
"Speakerboxx/The Love Below" (2 CD) (2003)
Out of these next 4 releases, I definitely enjoyed "Aquemini" the best because that was Outkast basically making a true hip hop CD just like they did with their debut. My favorite tracks were "Return Of The "G", "Skew It On The Bar-B" w/Raekwon, the title track and "SpottieOttieDopalicious". "Stankonia" was tight as well but you got your first true sign that Andre 3000 was branching off into other things. However, this still didn't stop them from droppin' the classic "Ms. Jackson" and "So Fresh And So Clean" w/Sleepy Brown. "Big Boi and Andre Presents..Outkast" was basically a greatest hits CD for late Outkast fans who thought "Stankonia" was their 1st CD. The CD also included 3 new tracks, the best of them being "Funkin' Around" and the single, "The Whole World" w/Killer Mike.
"Speakerboxx/Love Below" definitely caught me off guard. I had to listen to each CD numerous times before they started to grow on me. Eventhough, I loved "The Way You Move", I couldn't stand "Hey Ya", and I still don't 'til this day. However, being an artist is all about artistic freedom. If Andre 3000 wanted to branch off and do something different from hip hop, you still have to respect the brother. My favorite tracks from "The Love Below" ended up being "Prototype", "Spread", "Roses" w/Big Boi and "A Day In The Life of Benjamin Andre". My favorite tracks from "Speakerboxx" ended up being "Ghetto Musick", "The Way You Move", "Tomb Of The Boom" w/Ludacris,Konkrete and Big Gipp, and "Flip Flop Rock" w/Jay-Z and Killer Mike.
One reason why I probably didn't enjoy "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" as much as some other people did is because I am a huge fan of Outkast's debut CD and "Aquemini". On these 2 CDs, Outkast weren't worried about a thing but nice rhymes, an Organized Noize track or a track that they produced for themselves. Although, they were from Atlanta they created a new form of hip hop for people that just wanted something different from East and West Coast rap or something different from my man Scarface and The Geto Boys.
One thing that I do appreciate about "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" is that I was better prepared for "Idlewild". Yes "Idlewild" is a soundtrack to a movie, but you hear alot of "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" in "Idlewild", with the exception of the songs that you can tell were strictly made for the movie. For example take "Morris Brown". "Morris Brown" was a track that Andre 3000 had made the beat for while they were recording songs for "Stankonia". The song wasn't used for that CD and Big Boi told Scar what are you going to do with it and the rest is history. If I had never heard "Speakerboxx" I know that I would have never liked "Morris Brown" and now I can honestly say that, in my opinion, this is the best track on the CD. When you hear "Morris Brown", you will definitely think you are in college at your school's football game at halftime. The band is entertaining you and you're trying to find the nearest concession stand. Scar impresses me with his vocals and D A Double D Y Fat Sacs takes care of the rest. Not to be outdone Andre 3000 hits us off something lovely with the "Idlewild Blues". I admit that I had to hear this track a couple of times before it grew on me but had I never heard "The Love Below" I would have hated this track, just like I did "Hey Ya". Andre makes a song that everyone can relate to. However, you can't help but think that Andre is falling out of love with hip hop and rap in general. Signs are being pointed out to me and remember that this is my opinion, that Andre won't be in hip hop too much longer. "The Mighty "O" has Outkast reaffirming any non believers that they can still get down on the mic together when they need to and it's nice that Organized Noize are on the boards once again. "Peaches" features Big Boi, Sleepy Brown and Scar and it sounds as if it was taken straight from "Speakerboxx". Big Boi drops some knowledge about the ups and downs of life in trying to start a family and remaining married. Big Boi talks about the woman knowing the kind of man that he was, so she should have known better than to think that he would just settle down with her. Organized Noize produces "Peaches" and another one of my favorites "N2U" which features Big Boi and Khujo Goodie". On "N2U", Big Boi just wants the woman being spoke about to be down with him without any type of serious commitment being attached to the two of them. "Friends with Benefits", would be the topic that Big Boi is speaking about and Khujo Goodie is there to lend an assist as well. Andre 3000 dips back into "The Love Below" on "Chronomentrophia". However, he does deliver some quality messages while he is rapping and he also gives more clues that the end may be coming to his hip hop career or his career with music period. He also brings up Revelations which also means he could be speaking about the world coming to an end as well. "The Train" wins with me because of Big Boi's lyrics as well as how the vocalists all blend well together on the song. The vocalists include Sleepy Brown and Scar once again, but this time around Joi Gilliam and Debra Killings join the party as well. Debra Killings did alot of background vocals on TLC CDs as well as vocals on "13th Floor/Growing Old". "Hollywood Divorce" has Outkast paired up with Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg. While the combination does seem odd, everything ends up working out with a nice Andre 3000 track and hook and nice lyrics coming from all 4 rappers. "Call The Law" was a bit too much for me but I can understand that this track is suited best for the soundtrack of the movie. Janelle Monae delivers nice vocals but there seems to be too much going on in this song at one time, in my opinion. "In Your Dreams" puts Big Boi, Killer Mike and Janelle Monae together with noticeable vocals from Sleepy Brown as well. Organized Noize puts together another nice track and everyone makes things work as this track could have easily been another song that was featured on the Purple Ribbon All Stars CD. "PJ & Rooster" was a track that was made strictly for the movie soundtrack as well. You can tolerate the track because of the movie, but if this track was on a regular Outkast CD you may have been left shaking your head. "Mutron Angel" starts off a little crazy but once you hear the vocals coming from Myrna Brown and Whild Peach then the track becomes alot easier to listen to. There's nothing better than a r&b track with an actual message behind it. (For example, Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On) "When I Look In Your Eyes" is strictly a song for the movie soundtrack and "Dyin' To Live" sounds as if it was left off of "The Love Below" and with good reason.
Overall, there are only 2 songs that I will never listen to again on this soundtrack 1) Makes No Sense At All and 2) the dreadful, "Greatest Show On Earth" w/Macy Gray. Why these songs made it to the final cut of the soundtrack songs, I'll never have the slightest idea.
Since Outkast released "Speakerboxx/The Love Below" before they released the "Idlewild" soundtrack, I was better prepared to hear Outkast do this kind of music which is very different from their debut CD and "Aquemini". If you are a diehard Outkast fan like I am you're going to like the majority of their work no matter what. It seems as if Big Boi and Andre are doing something different or going in a different direction and I'm going to roll with the brothers no matter what. However, I am still left to wonder what an actual hip hop CD would sound like from Outkast in the year 2006. Hopefully, that is what their next release will sound like.
James' Top 6
1) Morris Brown- Big Boi, Sleepy Brown and Scar
2) The Mighty "O"- Outkast
3) Idlewild Blues- Andre 3000
4) Hollywood Divorce- Outkast w/Snoop Dogg & Lil Wayne
5) The Train- Big Boi, Sleepy Brown, Scar, Joi & Debra Killings
6) N2U- Big Boi & Khujo Goodie
Ranking Outkast's Discography:
1) Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
2) Aquemini
3) ATLiens
4) Stankonia
5) Speakerboxx/The Love Below
6) Idlewild "Soundtrack"
Free Music Review: An enjoyable soundtrack: take it for what it is
Hit: 4 Stars
For me, "Idlewild" is the most anticipated music album, probably since "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below". Being a career-long OutKast fan, I enjoyed their previous album but like many other longtime fans felt slightly alienated by crossover attempts. By now though, I have accepted that my favorite group will never again produce "ATLiens" or "Aquemini" type of music. I have also learned to only expect the unexpected from an OutKast album. "Idlewild" is really not the logical next step following their breakthrough double album. It is simply the soundtrack to their movie of the same name. I have not yet seen the movie, so I'm sure the album will be much more enjoyable once I have seen it. The movie takes place in the depression era, so the "Idlewild" soundtrack contains music influenced by ragtime, blues, and big band styles. Lyrically, it's closer to "The Love Below" than anything else, a lot of random and headscratching verses, so some longtime fans will be disappointed. However, a lot of it narrates the movie. From this soundtrack I take away that the movie contains a high profile divorce, a contemplative period, and characters named Percival and Rooster. The only beef with it I really have is that Dre and Big Boi only appear together on three tracks. Dre still is trying to do his singing thing, and Big Boi instead brings in his Purple Ribbon All Stars to fill the guest spots. At times it seems like "Idlewild" picks up right where "The Love Below" left off, but make no mistake. "Idlewild" is not "Stankonia", it is not "The Love Below", and it is certainly not "ATLiens" or "Aquemini". "Idlewild" is a soundtrack that supplements the movie, not an album supplemented by a movie.
Following the intro, the soundtrack begins with the single "Mighty O". This track is a very strong song, it would not have sounded out of place on "Stankonia". In between Dre's inescapable choruses and an excellent backing, Dre and Big Boi drop excellent verses, representing their duo and all they have been through, it's a definite highlight. Big Boi's talented singing protégés Scar and Sleepy Brown appear on "Peaches", a song about a decaying relationship and baggage along with it. It's got a smooth guitar backing and a good chorus. Andre sings "Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry `Bout Me)", a genuine sounding blues track. It has a blues guitar and wailing harmonica, and he sings simple and happy lyrics. It's catchy. I was happy to see Khujo Goodie in a guest spot on "N2U"; he and Big Boi make a pimp anthem, I like it. "Morris Brown" is an obvious single, beginning with a marching band cadence and continuing with strong horns throughout the song. Sleepy Brown sings a nice chorus, but Scar is the real star on this song, singing a memorable verse multiple times through about music. Andre sings a plain weird song on "Chronomentrophobia". I wasn't loving it but if you really loved "The Love Below" chances are you would like this a lot too. I thought it was just okay, his rap verse is actually quite good. "The Train" is the next big highlight for me. The opening reminded me of "Humble Mumble" from the "Stankonia" album, with the train theme. Big Boi chronicles his life, Scar and Sleepy deliver nice vocals and the horns and bass make a nice instrumental. It's a great song, encouraging and enjoyable. I also really liked "Life is Like a Musical". Andre sings to a partner, telling him "Don't let `em change us!" This theme carries over to the next song, "Hollywood Divorce". The song is about a high profile relationship gone sour, it has familiar seeming production, but Dre sings very well and both Dre and Antwan have great verses, along with surprisingly good guest spots by Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg. Purple Ribbon All Star Janelle Monae sings well on "Call the Law", but she basically anchors the whole song. She's a great singer but I guess I'd rather hear Dre or Big Boi on an OutKast album. Big Boi makes a nice solo cut out of "Buggface", it kind of reminds me of "The Rooster" from his previous album. I found "Makes No Sense At All" unnecessary, but maybe it makes sense in the context of the movie. The Purple Ribbon cut "In Your Dreams" is nice, I have always enjoyed Killer Mike's guest appearances and Sleepy and Janelle sing well, it's more of the ragtime influenced stuff. "PJ & Rooster" is a well produced, upbeat swing song. "Mutron Angel" feels kind of sluggish, and "The Greatest Show on Earth" is strange unlike anything they've done before. Macy Gray sings about leaving to join the circus. "When I Look In Your Eyes" executes the ragtime vibe better than any other song on the disc, very well done. "Dyin' to Live" is a very heartfelt song, it makes me want to see the movie on its own. The album ends with "A Bad Note", a lethargic 9 minute outro that's not worth listening to more than once.
Similar to "The Love Below", "Idlewild" contains original, mainstream-friendly quirky music devoid of a definable genre. There are not really any jaw dropping, relevant and conscious rap verses here, but there is catchy music, great production, and simply some good songs. Like any other longtime fan, I pine for the days of their first four albums, but I see that the duo is on to different styles and I guess I have to respect that. "Idlewild" is certainly an enjoyable soundtrack. The ragtime theme is very original and executed well, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. Once again, Big Boi and Andre seem more like a syndicate than a duo, making albums together without necessarily making music together. Once again though, the focus seems to be movie first, album second as far as I can see. I recommend it to OutKast fans, because part of what we have always loved about OutKast is their blazing creativity, and fans that jumped aboard the bandwagon in 2003 will certainly like this too. I just hope that before bashing it or saying it's bad, people accept and enjoy "Idlewild" for what it is: a good soundtrack to a movie, not an album with a movie.
Free Music Review: "Category? Ain't Got None, You Know I'm Right"-Yet Another Strong Release from the Dungeon Family's Finest!
Hit: 4 Stars
Being a longtime fan who first fell in love with Outkast when I saw the video for "Player's Ball" back in late 1993, I've always supported them because they've never compromised their artistic integrity, or ascribed to the formula of the day to expand their appeal. Instead, they've set the trend and let the people warm up to them. That's a rare feat in the music industry and that's why I don't buy all this "real Outkast fan vs. new Outkast fan" stuff. I have all of their albums (along with numerous non-album cuts that they've done) and as far as I'm concerned, all of their albums are exceptional. If you listen to music expecting some strict adherence to type or image, you end up listening to a lot of mediocre music that fits the mold, and missing out on a lot of great music that doesn't. It doesn't require any thought or ingenuity to go into a studio and copy a formula, jump on a bandwagon, or follow some popular trend. That's why hip-hop was so great between '87 and '94 for example, there was no formula for selling records so everybody was trying whatever they felt inspired to do. There were no "Super Producers", just groups of people in studios and basements all over the country with heads full of ideas. That's what produces great music, not following some strict adherence to type or image. Like most good albums that I've heard (especially those bursting at the seams with creativity the way that the average Outkast album is), "Idlewild" took a couple of listens to sink in. The music here is quite diverse (everything from psychedelic funk/rock to big band jazz, to a brassy college marching band number) and most of it works really well. To be completely fair, the album could have stood to be trimmed just a little. Everything from "Zora" to "Makes No Sense At All" really could have been left off (except maybe "Call the Law"). That's the only part of the album that sags. The aptly titled "Makes no Sense at all" seems to either directly be about a specific scene in the movie or the current state of music. After some careful listening I'm inclined to go with the former. Also, "When I look in Your Eyes", while competent, pretty much just sounds like bad parody and should have been kept aside to be used in the movie instead of being placed on this album ("Call the Law" while obviously also a period piece, does actually rise above parody but still appears to be strongly tied to the narrative of the movie). And I guess that the Funkadelic inspired "Chronomentrophobia" starts off a little rough but it manages to fully recover before the song ends. So there are actually a few missteps here, but hey, I'll take inspired missteps over a thoughtless formula any day. The highlights though on this album are abundant so I'll just note a few instead of listing every one. First of all, "Mighty O" is straight fire. The track is by "Organized Noise", both of their verses are outstanding, and it's great to hear Dre spitting verses like:
"My relative in jail huh, stay engaged,
To whatever make money now he married to that cage,
Divorce is not an option and prenuptial is void,
Eat up whatever rapper but I'm tangled in my chord uh
Bored, kind of like a knight with a sword,
Without dragon to battle so I'm running from a shadow
An impossible feat and I repeat, an impossible feat and I repeat".
I didn't quote the whole thing but in that one verse he basically explains everything about why he is where he is creatively. The single "Morris Brown" with its college marching band is seriously infectious and "Life is Like a Musical" is just too, too cool :-). "Hollywood Divorce" appears to be about this uncomfortable "relationship" between artistic innovators of color and corporate mainstream interests, where the mainstream exploits their innovations, and the innovators get money and fame in return, but at the expense of their art and their culture. This track is outstanding in every way, although I have to challenge Lil' Wayne's contention that he created the term "bling bling". I first heard the phrase on 2pac's "Friends" which had to be recorded sometime in '96 after Pac signed to The "Row". Lil Wayne popularized the term for sure, but he didn't originate it (not that it's something to be particularly proud of either way :-). On "A Bad Note", either the instruments are intentionally out of tune, he's using minor keys that are almost never used in popular music, and/or the keys on the rhythm (piano) and lead (electric guitar) instruments are purposely incongruous...but somehow it works brilliantly! His Funkadelic influence really shows here (as a huge fan of the group myself, I can seriously relate). This song basically sounds like Dre's take on "Maggot Brain" with a huge helping of atonal avant-rock a la "Sonic Youth". He even samples that rapid fire percussion at the beginning of "Maggot Brain" during the song (for a really mind-blowing experience, you should try listening to both the original, and the live version of Maggot Brain as soon as your done listening to "A Bad Note"). It seems that whether or not you think that this album is solid or really uneven comes down to what you think of 4 out of the last 5 songs ("When I Look in Your Eyes" not included) which are all more psychedelic soul than anything else. I can understand how "Mutron Angel", "Greatest Show on Earth", "Dyin' to Live" and "A Bad Note" may not be everybody's cup of tea, but if you can get into these songs, then this album's ending will likely win you over. "Mutron Angel" and especially the deeply moving "Dyin' to Live" really won me over. This is yet another album worth picking up from the mighty Dungeon Family's finest!