...in my humble opinion. C'mon? "Behold a Lady"? "Spread"? "Happy Valentine's Day"? "Roses"?! "Dracula's Wedding"?!!

Even if I heard "Hey Ya" 5 times a day for the rest of my life (Like we were all doing when it broke; shit was everywhere), I'd still get shivers from the breakdown every time I heard it.

Sure the weird skits aren't funny in a ha-ha way but in a "O.K., what-the-fuck ever.." Andre 3000 way (what's with every recent hip-hop album's need to prove their comedic chops with an average of 4 "skits" per album? Note to Eminem: You are not a stand-up comic!). I mean, post-one-night-stand inner monologues? Yea, we know, its tough to find love when you're a huge hip-hop celebrity... but I digress. Most of The Love Below was above-average or excellent. Only about 3 tracks too long...

Speakerboxx, on the other hand, lost me completely half way into it. Now, after "The Rooster" I just skip ahead to "Last Call". What's with "announcing" the title of the album over and other again like a breakfast cereal jingle? Speakerboxx! Yea, thanks for the reminder, I almost forgot... And the skits weren't as good...

This is the first Outkast album, in fourteen years (wow), that didn't extract an - "Oh, *shiiit*!" from me the first time I heard it. But all good (well, in this case - amazing, sublime, and genre-changing) things must one day end, I suppose. The Outkast fan in me wants to see them give it one more effort, but they've put out a lifetime's worth of accomplishments, if they decide to put it down.

Idlewild might be the least exciting album in the Outkast catalog, but they are still incalcuably ahead of the majority of hip hop acts. Judging this in comparison with other hip hop albums of recent note (with the major exception being Gnarls Barkley's joint this spring) shows how far Andre and Big have come over the years. The disc only seems to come up short if judged against their past work. There's no need for the tone of mourning in your review that spends more time recapping the duo's previous efforts than tackling the content of Idlewild. Sure it's a bit of a disappointment with its lack of consistent focus and hit or miss qualities, but most great funk is a bit too loose in the booty and ragged around the edges. Idlewild deserves a few extra listens because there's plenty of value in there. The fastest runners in the world don't break their own records each and every time they step on the track, and the same is true for Outkast. I'll take the status quo from them any day over the mediocre output from most of their contemporaries.

John Lennon ably encapsulated the music press' flip-outs from hero worship to hatefulness with "God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he's no longer God." Marchese's sad, sad hatchet job on OutKast's brilliant, sprawling Idlewild is just the latest exampe of what John was decrying. Good on Stephanie Zacharek for not hopping on the hate bandwagon.

Some writers can't wait to declare an artist over or past his/her prime. There's a palpable delight to the sport, even with unconvincing "I don't wanna write this" disclaimers that are as unconvincing as a lust-crazed fundamentalist saying "I don't want to talk about this filth."

In the August 8 2006 edition of the German magazine "Woman",

the album Idlewild is reviwed. Alongside the review is a mini-interview with André Benjamin and Antwan Patton in which they state that this is not their last album and that " Wir haben nie gesagt, dass wir uns trennen" which translates to "We've never said that we wanted to split up".

Also, I would say that the Salon article here is incredibly subjective. I listen to the soundtrack yesterday and was thrilled.

Idlewild is a soundtrack for a period film. Did the reveiwer forget that? For what it is, i think it's great. It sets the tone and vibe for the movie. I like that they mixed contemporary hip hop with sounds from the Prohibition-era black American scene.

I like the vocals and the simple rhythms that make me remember the kind of music my grandparents like.

It feels good. The album is softer or warmer than some of their others. It's remembering a time when black people, men in particular didn't have to yell and rage to get their point across in a song. Rap and hip hop has a habit of doing that. Outcast has always been better than that, and I see they still are.