Day 0946 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Outkast “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” (2003) – got it

This is a lot!   

• Two discs
• Over two hours of music 
• Multiple guest collaborators 
• Covering a range of styles and genres.

Following the success of “Stankonia” (see day 921) and a follow-up single “The Whole World” to help promote their greatest hits collection, the duo started working on new music.   Initially they worked separately with plans towards maybe doing a solo album each, but then they came together in the studio and further developed the album as a split/double Outkast album.   Though the two releases largely each the work of an individual member, 3000 and Big Boi still contributed to and influenced each other’s music.

It would be easy enough to just write off this album (and maybe the group as a whole) as “Andre 3000 is the quirky flamboyant one and Big Boi is the straight-up hip hop guy” but that’s not really being fair to either of them.

True, Big Boi’s “Speakerboxxx” is more centred on hip-hop but there is still a range of styles packed in there.   The first track proper “Ghetto Musick” explodes with a heart-pumping, almost techno beat, wild synth sounds and speedy raps.  Breaks for soulful gospel vocals and organ keep you guessing.   “Bowtie” has a horn backed swagger.

There’s a strong P-Funk vibe to proceedings, both with the music, vocal harmonies and even via the high-pitch pitch-shifted vocal that pops up across several tracks.

The Love Below has more of a pop and psychedelic vibe (some comparisons to made with Prince).  There's the innocent alien pop of "Protoype" the jazz-meets-dance interpretation of "My Favourite Things" and of course the propulsive funky pop of singles "Roses" and "Hey Ya".

It's hard to know what to make of this all in all.  It could just have easily been two solo albums instead of an Outkast album.   Taking it as one thing, it is cumbersome.  But, unlike a lot of double albums, this one doesn't feel like it could easily be trimmed down to a single cohesive album, it's not laden with filler.   

 

I used to prefer the Love Below for its melody and musical diversity but I've since come to appreciate Speakerboxxx for its conciseness, and that it manages to exhibit great diversity with a little more internal cohesion.