Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (studio album)
by OutKast

Album of the year at the 2004 Grammys

The album is a fusion of socially conscious rapping, Parliement-style production, and Prince-like songs. It is also an album that is way too long.

Still, there's a reason it sold millions. Hits like tracks 5, 28, and 29 pushed this album to the forefront when it was released. "Hey Ya" stands as a classic in the genre.

Speakerboxxx is much stronger on the first half than the second half, while The Love Below is more consistent overall, but really is only great for tracks 28 and 29.

The production, the singing, rapping, and musical ideas are all-around excellent. Consider this "The White Album" for Outkast. Trimmed down it would be a classic, but being so overlong and perhaps too many interludes makes it a merely very good record, worth perhaps 2 listens straight through. The strongest tracks, especially the hits stand the test of time and cement Outkast's legacy as a truly great duo! 9/10!

From ExTeaSea 03/09/2022 02:44

Absolutely love The Love Below, it's otherworldly. Funky, spacey, beautiful heaven. Speakerboxxx is really good but not as good as their earlier work. So it's hard rating the whole album but I rate it highly because of The Love Below.

From planetneutral 12/28/2020 14:12

I was surprised to discover that Speakerboxxx was, to me, the more appealing and successful half of this double album.

From teague 06/16/2020 20:53

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is quite a large album. Each disc is a de facto solo album by each member. Speakerboxxx being written and performed by Big Boi and The Love Below being written and performed by André 3000, with each making occasional appearances on the others disc. As this is the case, I don't really consider this a real OutKast album. Speakerboxxx is pretty consistent, but with a large majority of the songs not being quite interesting. The Love Below has the exact opposite problem, it has no idea what it wants to be, jumping from genre to genre, but the songwriting is fun. Overall, the double album is quite bloated and contains a large amount of filler. There are highlights on each respective disc, of course, with GhettoMusick, Unhappy, and Reset being the best on Speakerboxxx, and Hey Ya!, Behold a Lady, and Roses (despite the pretty much nonsensical lyrics) being the highlights on The Love Below. Another note on The Love Below, André 3000 seems to have taken a step or two back lyrically on the majority of the tracks. The whole thing has an obsession with sex. It comes off very juvenile, and André 3000's previous lyrical content was anything but after their debut. Just thought it was strange.

A masterpiece.

From joannajewsom 03/25/2018 23:40

The Love Below would be in a top 50 albums all time for me if released on its own.

From Sandrof1969 02/21/2018 21:32

Già dalla copertina si capisce che questo, più che un doppio CD, sono due lavori separati; in effetti ognuno dei due Outkast si occupa del proprio disco, partecipando a quello dell'altro ( in un'altra epoca ed in un altro mondo, più o meno quanto fecero i NEU! In "Neu! 75" ). "Speakerboxxx" è rap che, per quanto variegato e dinamico, mi piace fino ad un certo punto; a piacermi decisamente di più è il più eclettico "The love below", dove vengono centrifugati hip hop, funky, soul, rock e chissà quant'altro in un'atmosfera da festa che viene voglia di tuffarcisi dentro.

From babyBlueSedan 10/19/2017 02:12

If this was just Speakerboxxx I would have given it at least a 75. There are some bangers there and some great guest appearances. Big Boi proves himself to be just as capable on the mic as Andre. The second half makes the album too long and isn't nearly as groundbreaking as I've heard it made out to be. Hey Ya is great but other than that it's just some fairly standard R&B with above average beats. And the skits range from cringe-worthy to extremely expendable.

From dmercado 04/23/2017 00:31

I really wish we could rate these two halves separately because the two are completely different