Outkast poll #6: The Love Below

"Hey Ya" now and forever, especially now that I never hear it on the radio. "Spread" and "Dracula's Wedding" are second and third.

"Prototype" because I'm still burned out on "Hey Ya." Really disliked this album at the time, but I haven't revisited it in a long time to see if my opinion has changed.

In addition to Hey Ya, I'll stick up for Valentine's Day, Spread, Prototype, Love in War and A Life in the Day.

No interest in relistening to this, btw.

She Lives In My Lap (Rosario Dawson plz marry me) >>> Hey Ya >> Spread >>> A couple other joints >>> The really shitty experiments.

I've spread the 6 or songs I like between Speakerboxx and made a seperate album for 'Andre experiments I may one day want to listen to again for some reason' incl. half of Idlewild on me itunes.

She Lives in My Lap is overrated and derivative but still the best thing on this mess

heya

I still really, really like this entire album, messy joins and all.

would have voted "Where Are My Panties?"

Have a weird weakness for 'Roses'

"Hey Ya" now and forever, especially now that I never hear it on the radio. "Spread" and "Dracula's Wedding" are second and third.

― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, July 9, 2010 5:48 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

plus roses, she lives in my lap, prototype, happy valentine's day, pink & blue, take off your cool - like this record, even the filler & skits

Tbh i always liked this more than the Big Boi side even tho lots of this are cheesy and silly and just plain don't work, at least there are some bizarre experiments! After "Hey Ya" and "Roses" I really was into "Dracula's Wedding" and "Vibrate" is pretty badass.

"Roses" is mystifying because it's on a very thin line between what comprises a pop song and what is a silly and grotesque 12-year-old's playground rhyme. A GOLDEN CALCULATOR???

And don't forget the bit where she crashes into a ditch.

it's on a very thin line between what comprises a pop song and what is a silly and grotesque 12-year-old's playground rhyme

TBH though, quite a lot of good pop is like this.

She Lives In My Lap (Rosario Dawson plz marry me) >>> Hey Ya >> Spread >>> A couple other joints >>> The really shitty experiments.

actually, looking back, I will stick up for this much:

The Love Below
Spread
Prototype
She Lives in My Lap
Hey Ya!
Roses
Behold a Lady
Pink & Blue
Dracula's Wedding
A Life in the Day of Benhamin Andre (Incomplete)

I liked "Happy Valentine's Day" a lot at the time, but last time I pulled this out it became really unbearable, probably for good reason.

"Prototype" because I'm still burned out on "Hey Ya!"

almost all of these songs wear out their welcome at around the 2 or 3 minute mark. Vibrate is fucking 6 and a half minutes long, for example, and contains little more than 2 riffs repeated ad nauseam. The whole thing just begs for more critical editing. Hey Ya obviously the best on here by a pretty wide margin, but a handful of other tracks (all already cited) are enjoyable enough.

Roses is 6 FUCKING MINUTES long. why?

A Life in the Day of Benhamin Andre (Incomplete)

this is really a secret jam IMO

yeah, album version of "Roses" goes on way too long. single version is the right length.

Yeah "Life in the Day" is a great track and would've been my choice maybe if it wasn't perfect "Prototype" weather for the last month.

Prototype - I'm a sucker for that hypnotic slo-motion groove. Especially that snapshot auto-wah "wack wack wack" guitar chord that punctuates it.

^ good summary, though the only thing wrong w happy valentine's is that it drags on too long. and i like the last three songs on the album as a set. they're separated from what came before by "my favorite things", a palate-cleansing curveball, and they change the tone considerably. up to this point, TLB has been arch, even zany, consisting mostly of variations on andre's highly stylized artist/player persona. that approach works well on its own, but it also provides interesting contrast to the plainspoken sincerity of the final stretch. "take off your cool" might have been cloying otherwise, but it works here, dropping the album's mask so that andre can speak with more emotional directness. that idea in place, "vibrate" and "a day in the life of..." carry the theme forward. nice way to wrap things up and bring us back to earth.

the "good summary" being rev's.

and i have no problem with the lengths of most of the songs. it's kind of a stoner record, and the room given to "roses" and "vibrate" make them much more weed-friendly, hypnotic.

"Vibrate" is totally hypnotic, I agree.

"Roses" is... not.

roses isn't until it's coda, with all the bitch talk, then hell yes

A Life in the Day of Benhamin Andre (Incomplete)
A Life in the Day of Benhamin Andre (Incomplete)
A Life in the Day of Benhamin Andre (Incomplete)

fucking it'ses

its not on TLB but that track he did with joi on the greatest hits album was pretty great

and yeah. i tend to forget about "a day in the life of...", probably cuz it's not so immediate, but it's fucking brilliant

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

up next: the essential Idlewild poll?

Voting for "Love Hater" because nobody else will, but the "bitch/ditch" couplet in "Roses" is easily my favorite OutKast moment of all time. These songs are all amazing. WHY does everybody hate this album??????

but the "bitch/ditch" couplet in "Roses" is easily my favorite OutKast moment of all time.

So you only own Andre's SB/TLB disc????

like wtf i can't even understand how anyone could think that would even make a top 100 outkast moments list, and i like it!

really.

tomorrow i'm gonna start a top 100 outkast moments thread and prove it

that will be grand. will contribute.

so will... oh, wait.

up next: the essential Idlewild poll?

Yes. Personally I think it's quite good, I'll find out soon if anyone agrees.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Take Off Your Cool 0
My Favorite Things 0
She's Alive 0
Love in War 0
Pink & Blue 0
Behold a Lady 0
The Love Below 0

Ha, take these off the record and its actually p jamming?

ugh the idea that you'd have to remove 7 songs and all the skits off HALF of a double album just to make it decent

ugh that someone would say it, or ugh that it's otm?

the 2nd, it's pretty much true, just sad that that can be said of an album that sold that many copies

on the bright side, Speakerboxxx sold that many copies!

the 10 tracks that got votes would make a pretty dope record.

She's Alive is great

God come in God

new kendrick announcement has me thinking back to the last "big event" calibre album that i had similar anticipation for.

as disappointed as i was at the time, the double album (as i kind of expected going in) still had the contents of a single classic. seems stupid to try and slim it down to one disc, but maybe that's the same problem they ran into as well. i've grown to love a lot more of the material on speakerboxxx than i used to, whereas i've grown old on my love below favorites. still don't know what to make of some of it. things i can say for sure: i know which songs i would cut from each disc, it's a lot better than stankonia, and this is the highlight of the whole thing. on my shortlist of alltimers. immensely important part of my life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXxJAQpjTGY

"she lives in my lap" (2002)

off to grove in my hoopty.

oh yeah: "hey ya" is fine. now and then. i was more for them becoming bigger than i could've ever hoped for on the back of a generation-defining single. the song itself is catchy and fine. i really don't need to ever hear it again.

Funnily enough, I heard "The Way You Move" way more than "Hey Ya!" by a factor of ten, so I never burned out on the latter.

ahh, i like that one! but agree that both are overplayed.

xpost to controversial opinions?

"pink + blue" is not a song i would cut. if you ignore the lyrics, it's gorgeous. the best kind of fake prince i could ever hope for. and if there's such a thing as good fake bowie, he pulled off good fake prince better than anyone else i've heard. if you pay attention to the lyrics, it's like, well even if he's just joking, he owns it and i totally believe the in-character joke. very much toeing the line between "does he mean it or doesn't he?"

of course it doesn't matter. the best kind of cheese. and i like it. a lot. happily sing along. inappropriate as hell without anything even remotely approaching conventional profanity. outstanding.