Salon: “Ever since OutKast came out of Atlanta 12 years ago, hip-hop’s beloved duo has been riding one long wave of critical adulation and popular acclaim, each album outselling the last, each album taking a legitimate artistic step forward, and each album confounding expectations. But now, with the tepid and unadventurous ‘Idlewild,’ Antwan ‘Big Boi’ Patton and Andre 3000 (né Benjamin) have done the last thing anyone expected: delivered their first dud.”
Say it ain’t so!
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
Had to happen at some point. Only a mediocre artist is always at their best.
Well I thought it wasn’t as adventerous as Speakerboxx/The Love Below and Stankonia because it didn’t have as much youthful energy. With Stankonia they were really trying to conquer the world, and they pretty much succeeded. Andre has kind of retired from his past up and coming creativeness and playa attitude, for example on the new single “International Players Anthem” he raps about marriage and his space ship is ready to dip and land. Idlewild I thought was still a good album to relax and listen to, but give them credit. They made the album while they shot the movie. Shooting in the morning and producing in the afternoons. Unfortunately, the funky idea of Outkast and Cab Calloway just didn’t come off with the public the way Hey Ya did. Big Boi will come out with an album late summer, and I bet it’ll be great. He is very consistent, and I hope on my whole musical being that he convinces Andre to jump back on the train. They are still pretty young! Do it!