Wholly Schmidt!

The new Outkast CD, “Idlewild” is boring, and that’s about the worst thing I can imagine saying about an Outkast CD.

When Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out, I remember that amidst the praise, there was concern about Andre and Big Boi’s collaboration, or lack of. The more popular subject was about the future of the group, would they stay together at all? That was even addressed in some of their songs (Summary: “No, we’re not splitting, stop obsessing about us”), but critically you could point to the fact that their music was obviously still going in different directions, and by splitting things more directly, they both came off weaker for it. When contrasted from verse to verse, it enriched, when split across two CDs, it hurt.

I was worried that after Idlewild, going back and listening to SB/TLB would only highlight evidence that they’d already peaked, but I was pleasantly surprised. Andre’s half still has me reaching for the next-track button a little more often than I’d like, but Speakerboxxx is still fantastic from start to finish, and when Andre’s on, he’s still great. For a double CD to have that much great material is fantastic, and it absolutely holds up for me.

So that’s the good news, the bad news is that going back to Idlewild for a few more runs through just isn’t helping. There are about four good songs, the third of which, “Call the Law,” barely even features either member. I hope the movie angle of this whole production is what diluted things, but I hope it didn’t hurt them so much that they don’t bounce back. I’d hate to see them go (either through an actual split or a more embarassing fade to irrelevance), but in a post-Gnarls Barkley (or reallly DangerDoom) world, I’ll still have my fix of funky/hip-hop/rap/whatever.