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| From | "Michael Bennett" <mrhonorama@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Outkast (was Re: David Ponak 2003 Top Ten) |
| Date | Thu, 11 Dec 2003 13:55:16 -0600 |
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>From: Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com>
>Yes, in the sense that Prince was a pop artist during the DIRTY
>MIND-through-LOVESEXY run. THE LOVE BELOW (Andre Benjamin's disc) sounds
>like a classic Prince album, except it's even more stylistically varied: in
>the first five songs alone, it swings from an orchestral opening with
>crooner vocals into a psychedelic guitar freakout into mutated bebop into a
>solo acoustic guitar instrumental with spoken accompaniment into
>Prince-style minimal funk into something that sounds like mid-'70s Marvin
>Gaye collaborating with Basement Jaxx. Plus "Hey Ya" is without a doubt
>the finest pure pop single released in 2003, a boon to anyone who's been
>saying that they long to hear bouncy acoustic guitars and harmonies at the
>top of the Billboard chart. SPEAKERBOXXX (Antwon Patton's disc) is a more
>traditional hip-hop album of the type that horrifies and disgusts a fairly
>large subset of Auditeers: less thuggish than the gangstas, less flat-out
>weird than Missy Elliott, with a very strong '70s funk influence more of
>the Earth Wind and Fire/early Commodores variety (the hit single "The Way
>You Move" has a chorus that sounds like something Philip Bailey would have
>sung) than the heavy Parliament/Funkdadelic vibe of OutKast's earlier
>albums.
>
>It may well freak some out, but I predict that SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW
>is going to place very high on the Audities poll this year. Only album I
>can think of that I've played more this year is Sparks' LIL BEETHOVEN.
>
>S
Well, the Sparks and Outkast records are pretty interchangable...(insert
sarcastic icon here).
That is an excellent encapsulation of what the two discs are about -- it is
notable that even as Stewart tried to summarize the sound, you just can't
nail it down with a few comparisons, though every one he made is well taken.
I would agree that this isn't as strongly P. Funk-y as earlier Outkast,
yet George Clinton's influence on Outkast is pervasive -- while Clinton
never waxed a pop tune like "Hey Ya!", his solo work during the '80s had
some nifty pop/new wave permutations.
One thing that comes up constantly about this disc is the old saw "Good
double album that would have made a great single album." This is only
somewhat true. In reality, due to the length of both CDs, this is the
equivalent of 3 vinyl albums worth of material -- so it's a very good triple
LP that would make a mega killer double LP. I still intend during the
holidays to cut a single disc with the highlights of both. Andre's disc is
audacious and entertaining, but replacing some cuts that don't fully work
with the best of Big Boi's disc would yield a work better than STANKONIA.
As it is, it maybe just a notch below.
It is encouraging to see Outkast take over the charts ("Hey Ya!" is # 1 this
week; "The Way You Move" is # 3) -- just like seeing "Stacey's Mom" get all
the way up to #21, which, for a rock track these days, if amazing. I don't
know if I'm as optimistic as Stewart about how the Outkast record will fare
in the top 20 poll (polls open on 12/16), but it would be a kick if it made
the Audities top 20.
Mike Bennett
NP: The sprightly sounds of The New Normal
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