Idlewild wild enough to make up for the idle

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The wildly successful experimental hip hop duo Outkast has managed to do several things that most hip hop acts find impossible: achieve mainstream success despite being majorly experimental (and sometimes, downright weird); and more notably, they have found a way to get better with every album.
Some people respect Aquemeni and Stankonia just a step under the Bible, but you have to realize, Dre and Big have grown incredibly since then as emcees and as artists in general. We saw this on the incredible double-disc, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, on which Big Boi proved that he could hold his own without his partner; and on which Andre proved he didn't have to rap to make a good album.
In many ways the companion album and namesake to the film, Idlewild, is better than its predecessor. It's Big Boi at his best by far, and it fixed the only problem early albums like Stankonia had: being creative and experimental but not bizarre. Unfortunately, Idlewild is missing a few things, most notably Andre 3000's knife sharp lyricism. In other ways, Idlewild is very similar to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Sorry, Outkast fans, but there are very few tracks with both Dre and Big on them. Oh, and Andre 3000 decided not to rap again.
Well, I'm being misleading, Andre raps a little bit. In fact, Outkast plays a little trick on us. After a useless intro that you'll probably only listen to once, we get "Mighty O", which is an all-out, old-school, lyrical Outkast reunion; a hard beat, a sing-a-long chorus borrowed from Cab Calloway, and 32 lines a piece from Andre and Big Boi. This is both emcees at their best, more notably Big Boi, who's suffered from "notasgoodasAndre-itis" for most of his career, yet almost matches Dre line for line on this track. Almost. Andre's writing prowess by now is probably automatic. "Eat up whatever rapper, but I'm tangled in my cord/bored, kind of like a knight with a sword, without dragon to battle" How funny that he can rap excellently about not wanting to rap. I'm sure Outkast enthusiasts were thinking "Outkast is back!" when they first popped in Idlewild and heard "Mighty O". This sentiment is interrupted on the next track, "Peaches," which is a particularly bland "baby-mama" song--sans Andre. The next song is Andre's sung "Idlewild Blues". It's not a bad song by any means. The blues-inspired guitar riff is definetely enchanting, and Andre's wordless chrous is extremely catchy. It seals the deal though, this is not an Outkast album. This is an Andre3000 and Big Boi album.
But that doesn't mean it can't be good. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below showed us that. Big does his part, starting with the first official single, "Morris Brown" which features the marching band from the Atlanta college of the same name. The track is partially an ode to music, and partially an ode to Outkast. The sound created by the marching band arrangment is so full it feels like it's coming from every direction and seeping throught your pores. Scar's choruses are nothing short of spectacular.
Dre's awkward song "Chronomentrophobia" follows. It's a very simple production that ends before we can get anything out of it. It's about two minutes long, and has a pretty ambitious title considering the fairly standard subject matter: getting the most out of life. It also ambiguously refers to Andre's own life and career, and how he believes "it's beginnin' to look a lot like the endin'". This is also one of the very few tracks that includes a rap verse from Andre, and wouldn't you know it, it's not up to par. It contains the same wit and subtle wordplay that he's known for, but the flow seems rushed, and at parts plain elementary.
"Hollywood Divorce" and "Call the Law" are fantastic. The former features Lil' Wayne and Snoop Dogg, and fans of conscious rap music may shudder at that line up, but I assure you, the result is great. Lil' Wayne absolutely brings it on this track, far outshining everyone else. Andre and Big come par, and Snoop Dogg actually doesn't suck too! Andre croons a fitting chorus to a track that personifies Hollywood as an abusive spouse. The film-specific "Call the Law" may be the best song on the album. Big Boi's short verses are cool, but the true star of the track is the guest, Janelle Monáe, whose exceptional vocals are just right for the half-upset, half-insane female protagonist of the song.
On The Love Below, the novelty of Andre 3000's untrained falsetto and incredible production made up for his unsually average lyrics. However that novelty has worn off and Big Boi is left the daunting task of carrying the album on his shoulders while Andre dicks around in the background. And quite surprisingly, Big Boi succeds. Andre shows up to help on a few tracks, "Idlewild Blues" and "Life is Like a Musical" are great and not out of place like "Makes No Sense at All" and "When I Look in Your Eyes". Every track with both members of the duo on it is excellent, which is exemplary of the problem with this album. If you're going to give us a Big and Dre album instead of an OutKast album, that's fine, but the entire flow of the album is jagged and unnatural due to the forced separation of two entities contributing to the same end. On the prior double disc, there were two discs, two albums, two separate ideas. On Idlewild, you have one idea, but two artists who want to achieve it in two completely different ways, which causes dissaray.
All this aside, however, Idlewild remains easily the most creative mainstream album of 2006 hands down. It's up and down with tracks ranging from dissapointing to amazing, but you won't have to use the skip button on your cd player that many times at all. The only real criticism of the album is that it isn't up to par for OutKast. But par for OutKast is entirely out of reach for many hip hop acts in general. The talent is still there, and probably will always be.

The Report Card
Production: B
The beats are range from great to fantastic all the way through, the only problem is that Big Boi and Andre rarely seem to be on the same page, which makes for a somewhat discordant album.

Flow/Lyrics: B
Big Boi gives his all throughout, and Andre half-asses, but even half-assed he's still impressive.

Originality: A
It's Outkast!

Overall: B
The the asynergy of the tracks is distracting to the delivery of the whole album, but the excellence of most of the individual tracks make this one of the better albums of 2006.