Outkast album, the ultimate?

I just wanted to get that off my chest.

Stankonia: "a step back as far as production is concerned"??????? Even "Gasoline Dreams"???

That's a compliment in my book.

ATLiens is my vote overall, best balance of lyrical ability and solid beats. Also, I find it the only Outkast album that kept a singular tone. It's just way more focused than anything else they ever made.

Stankonia bordered on clubby at times, which I didn't like. But I do enjoy the album nonetheless.

eclecticism - c/d s/d

I do think Outkast are a good example of how eclecticism can succeed and how it can fail: as long as Big Boi was on hand I don't think there was much of a danger of Andre going "too far", for the very reason that Big Boi always feels much more grounded: "The Way You Move" abounds in melted butter soul signifiers but is obviously *not* melted butter soul. Andre on his own can't ground himself.

For me, Aquemini is just the most consistent and interesting. It was drawing on more influences than ATLiens or Southernplaya, but it felt a lot more solid than Stankonia. That said, BOB is prolly their best single... it was like drumnbasshousegospelrawkhop or some shit.
Obv. Speakerboxx > Love Below as well.

The problem with the Love Below is that while Andre has the ability to play many instruments and come up with some decent ideas, he doesn't always have the means to pull them off. Like if you're going to write a crooner type R&B song, you need to be able to sing.

And then some of the songs just seem half-developed as if they were recorded studio jams or something. "Hey Ya" is a good song because it just works, it fires on all cylinders, but some of the other crap on there just sucks.

Speakerboxx, though, is a letdown for Big Boi. Some incredible tracks on there, yes, but a lot of it loses steam.

It doesn't matter on songs like "Hey Ya", which are just fun anthems that don't require great singing, but that Earth Wind and Fire-ish song he did was just a complete joke because his voice fell short. And the sad thing is, I think it would have been a good song if he could have sung it.

Now, I will admit most of the material, as you said, falls flat because he couldn't write much in the way of good music.

I'll admit I was disappointed as well to see him completely ditch rap on his album, especially since he provides such a nice counterpoint to Big Boi...but I would have forgiven it had he written a decent album.

The rest is just so DULL.

I kinda like the idea of the off-setting, uncomfortable ending of "A Day in the Life..." although I don't enjoy listening to it.

Nix "Roses" from the list of songs I enjoy. It kinda sucks.

Valentines Day is almost good.....the beat is kind of neat, but what he does over it isn't.

It seems more like a pastiche of ideas (the album, that is) than anything that was fully developed to me. I'm wondering if he rushed it out.

On "Hey Ya", I do still enjoy that one.

It's obvious he has some degree of musical talent but he didn't seem to have the ability to harness it at all. One can "experiment" and still give it a direction, a purpose. King Crimson were the kings of noodling in the 70s but generally kept their music coherent, and even they fell victim to some big flops in the process. (but LIZARD RULES, YOU NERDS!)

Both albums are too long. Each has a great album in there. But great otherwise. That's it.

-- Matos W.K."

I think it's that CD albums are so LONG that eclecticism can get tiring -- unless it's serving some higher concept like 69 Love Songs.

i think the first album is the best, lyrically. its also their hardest sounding, and both sound equal to the other as rappers.