Backstage Pass

“Mighty ‘O’” fills a tall order, working as a current hip-hop single, while tieing the sound to Cab Calloway. It also throws in political comment (“I’ll hurt you like the president’s approval rating”) and mixes it with movie plot lines.

“Idlewild Blue” is another mix of old and new, an acoustic blues number that sounds like it was crossed with Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.”

And “The Train” shows OutKast can still build a hip-hop soul epic, with rapid-fire flow from Andre 3000 about his life, cooing backup singers and Latin-sounding horns that float in and out of the song.

“Idlewild” has loads of nice moments – the unexpected bounce of “Chronomentrophobia” (a fear of clocks, if you were wondering), the icy electronics warmed by rhymes on “Hollywood Divorce,” and the playful Big Boi groove of “Buggface.” And even the songs that advance a storyline or show off some link between hip-hop and the ‘30s, like the jazzy experiment “Makes No Sense At All” or “PJ & Rooster,” is pleasant enough.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough moments of knock-you-over greatness – no “Ms. Jackson” or “The Way You Move” breakouts, and certainly no “Hey Ya” surprise to freak out over.

OutKast has shown plenty of greatness over its past three albums, standing out as one of the past decade’s finest new artists. Though “Idlewild” still shows plenty of the same ambition that led them to rewrite all of hip-hop’s rules, the songs simply don’t meet their previously ultra-high standards.

“Idlewild” may be a grand leap forward in terms of realizing their other artistic ambitions, but it’s a short step back in their development as musicians. Of course, since they started out so far ahead, OutKast still maintains quite a lead over the rest of the hip-hop pack. (“Idlewild”; Grade: B+)

Watch "Idlewild Blue" here.