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Idlewild is a more down-tempo affair than its genre-splitting predecessor, but it wins points with stone-cold psychedelic soul classics such as "Mighty O," "Peaches" and "Hollywood Divorce."
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With Idlewild you get a sumptuous surface that constantly excites, but reveals its secret charms with repeated listenings.
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A joyous mishmash.
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MojoEvery time you think you've got Idlewild figured out, it zips off in a totally unexpected new direction. [Oct 2006, p.97]
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Q MagazineIdlewild is a dazzling album. [Oct 2006, p.124]
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Rolling StoneTheir weirdest music yet. [24 Aug 2006, p.89]
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Ambitious but flawed, at turns stunning, maddening and confusing, Idlewild is a curate's egg - but the good parts are implausibly delicious.
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In any other hands this would have been a total disaster, but yes, things are never quite that simple with these two.
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UncutStylish and substantial, it's a deft masterpastiche that dissolves history for its own entertainment. [Oct 2006, p.114]
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"Idlewild" seems to prove they're two seperate artists even more than the last double album did.
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It'd be easier to overlook the bum tracks if Idlewild boasted a knockout single like "Hey Ya!" or felt more cohesive, but the disc's shifts from upbeat pop to moody blues to noodly experimentation are downright whiplash-inducing.
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The two halves of OutKast seem less collaborative than ever.
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Imperfect and absurdly oversized it may be, but only OutKast could have pulled off a crazy creative coup like "Idlewild".
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Entertaining and surprisingly consistent.
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Under The RadarThere are still enough surprises... that make even this comparatively subpar OutKast album a reason to celebrate. [#15]
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Deft, flawed, entertaining, thrilling, and disappointing, often at the same time.
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Initially, it’s thrilling in the way that any spectacle is. You admire the creative largesse, and there’s no doubt a strong 12-song album here. But at 79 minutes, exhaustion sets in by the midway mark, and the whole of the album takes on the feeling of someone trying to cap a broken water main.
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OutKast’s brains and playfulness sparkle throughout "Idlewild."... But despite the new, jazzy trappings "Idlewild" is more superficial than OutKast’s older albums.
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UrbThis duo can only be measured against themselves and for the first time, it don't measure up. [Sep 2006, p.139]
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SpinIdlewild grasps for a distinctive sound, departing almost entirely from rap per se. [Sep 2006, p.99]
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OutKast have stretched rap's boundaries to the breaking point before, but this time their experiments come across as gimmicky or strained.
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The most frustrating aspect of Idlewild is its lack of energy.
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Idlewild is certainly a spectacle, and an occasionally entertaining and enlightening one at that, but it translates into an elaborate diversion when compared to what this duo has done in the past.
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Film-specific songs like "Make No Sense at All" and "Call the Law" fall flat out of context.
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"Idlewild" leaves the ears longing for something. Coherence, basically. There's no sustaining mood, no clear message, only Benjamin and Patton's efforts to outdo whatever they came up with last.
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Idlewild fails in the same places as Speakerboxxx/The Love Below: both feature some stunningly flat crooning and poor pop revisions straight from the mind, body, and soul of Andre Benjamin.
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The 'Idlewild' experience is mostly regrettable and one that will leave you feeling cheated.
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It's an interesting failure, as OutKast are probably incapable of making boring music, but a failure nonetheless.
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An awkward, uneven record that comes over like something they made in a week instead of something that was continually pushed back for more than a year.
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Their well-honed flamboyance has finally given way to full-blown pretension, the lyrics that used to be an afterthought hidden behind a painfully contrived yet musically unimpressive ragtimey veneer of muted trumpets, shoo-bop, shoo-wahs and happily jingling vaudeville pianas.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 74 out of 94
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Mixed: 15 out of 94
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Negative: 5 out of 94
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May 8, 2016
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May 2, 20157/10 .................................................................................................................................................
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Jan 1, 2012