Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in Bloomington, MN

To call
OutKast
's follow-up to their 2000 masterpiece
Stankonia
the most eagerly awaited
hip-hop
album of the new millennium may be hyperbole, but not by much. In its kaleidoscopic, deep-fried amalgam of
Dirty South
, dirty
funk
,
techno
, and
psychedelia
was fearlessly exploratory and giddy with possibilities. It was hard to imagine where the duo was going to go next, but one possibility that few entertained was that
Big Boi
and
Andre 3000
would split apart, each recording an album on his own and then releasing the pair as the fifth
album,
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
, in the fall of 2003. Although both albums have their own distinct character, the effect is kind of like if
the Beatles
issued
The White Album
as one LP of
Lennon
tunes, the other of
McCartney
songs -- the individual records may be more coherent, but the illusion that the group can do anything is tarnished. By isolating themselves from each other,
diminish the idea of
slightly, since the focus is on the individuals, not the group. Which, of course, is part of the point of releasing solo albums under the group name -- it's to prove that the two can exist under the umbrella of the
aesthetic while standing as individuals. Thing is, while it would have been a wild, bracing listen to hear these 39 songs mixed up, alternating between
Boi
Dre
cuts, the two albums do prove that the music can be solo in execution but remain
records through and through. Both records are visionary, imaginative listens, providing some of the best music of 2003, regardless of genre. If conventional wisdom, based on their public personas and previous music, held that
's record,
Speakerboxxx
, would be the more conventional of the two and
's
The Love Below
the more experimental, that doesn't turn out to be quite true. From the moment
kicks into gear with
"GhettoMusick"
and its relentless blend of old-school 808s and breakneck breakbeats, it's clear that
is ignoring boundaries, and the rest of his album follows suit. It's grounded firmly within
, but the beats bend against the grain and the arrangements are overflowing with ideas and thrilling, unpredictable juxtapositions, such as how
"Bowtie"
swings like
big-band
jazz
filtered through
George Clinton
, how
"The Way You Move"
offsets its hard-driving verses with seductive choruses, or how
"The Rooster"
cheerfully rides a threatening minor-key
mariachi
groove, salted by slippery horns and loose-limbed wah-wah guitars. It's a hell of a ride, reclaiming the adventurous spirit of the golden age and pushing it into a new era.
By contrast,
isn't so much visionary as it is unapologetically eccentric. And as the
cocktail jazz
pianos that sparkle through the first few songs indicate, it's not much of a
album. Instead,
has created the great lost
Prince
album -- the platter that the Purple One recorded somewhere between
Around the World in a Day
Sign 'o' the Times
. It's not just that the music and song titles cheekily recall
--
"She Lives in My Lap"
is a close relation of the B-side
"She's Always in My Hair"
-- it's that
disregards any rules on a quest to create his own interior world, right down to a dialogue with God. The difference between
is in that dialogue, too:
was tortured;
Andre
is trying to get laid. That cheerfully randy spirit surges through
, even on the spooky-serious closer,
"A Life in the Day of Benjamin Andre,"
and it gives
the freedom to try a little of everything, from mock crooning on
"Love Haters"
to a breakbeat
interpretation of
"My Favorite Things"
to the strange one-man
of
"Roses"
and the incandescent
"Hey Ya!,"
where classic
soul
electro
-
coexist happily. So, both records are very different, but the remarkable thing is, they both feel thoroughly like
music.
took off in different directions from the same starting point, yet they wind up sounding unified because they share the same freewheeling aesthetic, where everything is alive and everything is possible within their music. That spirit fuels not just the best
, but the best
pop
music, and both
are among the best
and best
music released this decade. Each is a knockout individually, and paired together, their force is undeniable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine