ATLiens

OutKast Shallow Dive #2- “ATLiens”

This is a vast improvement on all fronts from their debut, “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik”. This album sounds fantastic, the production on this thing is next level, especially compared to their debut which didn’t really have any standout tracks production wise. While this album has multiple gems in this category, “ATLiens”, “Elevators (Me & You), and “13th Floor / Growing Old” are probably my favorite examples of this album’s production. It sounds out of this world, very space-y, very alien, hence the title. Checking back in on both members of the duo, Big Boi has improved in every way, his lyrics and flow here are so much better than on their debut, he sounds great here and has multiple phenomenal verse on this album. André 3000 has also improved on all fronts, similar to Big Boi, and I think this is the album where he starts to show why he’s often considered one of the greatest to ever do it. He is beyond incredible on this album, multiple verses here are just so good, for instance his last verse on “Elevators (Me & You)” might be my favorite OutKast verse at the moment, his verse, and Big Boi’s, on “ATLiens” is also great, which is why that’s probably my favorite OutKast song at the moment. The title track really exemplifies everything great about this album, the space-y production, the great flows and lyrics from both members, the incredible catchy and infectious hooks, it really is the perfect example of what an “ATLiens” song sounds like, which makes sense it is the title track after all. And as I mentioned the hooks on this album are so catchy, so many of them got stuck in my head, “ATLiens”, “Elevators (Me & You) and the really funny “Millennium”. The features here are really nothing to write home about, they’re pretty good but never outshine either of the main two on a track in my opinion. A couple other notes about this album; there are pretty much no skits or interludes on this album, minus the intro track, their debut had so many, for a stretch it was every other song being a skit or an interlude, so to see them practically vanish is interesting, though I would say it was for the best. I find the production on “E.T. (Extraterrestrial)” to be really distinct from the rest of the album, as it’s drumless, at least to my understanding, I wouldn’t say I prefer this to the rest of the album, I think the best sounds worse than probably every other beat on the album but it’s a nice change of pace, and also shows just how good Big Boi and André 3000 have gotten. The album ends kind of weird as well, “13th Floor / Growing Old” is a spectacular finale to end the album on, it’s the album’s longest song, it’s really good lyrically, the production is distinct yet still very “ATLiens”-y, really great track. But then a different version of “Elevators (Me & You)” plays and maybe it had just been a while since I heard the original, about 30-40 minutes, but it sounded the exact same to me so I don’t really know why it’s here, on the base version of this album and not some kind of special variant or something. It certainly doesn’t harm the album in any way as this version is just as good as the original one I just find it a little odd. One last note about the album, I really love the album cover, it’s overly ridiculous and very much a product of its time but compared to kind of lackluster at best cover for their debut this one is really good. “ATLiens” is a massive step up in quality for OutKast compared to their debut, everything from their lyrics, to their flows, to the production, to the tracklist and even to their chemistry as a duo is significantly better and I hope this trend upwards continues into their following albums.