Esquire used to have this feature, called, I think, the “Indefensible Position.” Like one guy wrote 250 words about why it’s good to drink and drive. That’s not exactly what this is about. Here I just make short, declarative points, and maybe flesh them out a bit, but not much, mostly since I’m lazy. This intro is already longer than the position paper. So step one, which dawned on me when iTunes decided to randomly land on “Spread”:
RESOLVED: Not only is Speakerboxxx better than The Love Below, but the latter is so bad that it almost takes Speakerboxxx down with it, since you gotta figure what the hell is wrong with Big Boi that he’s still hanging out with a clown like Andre 3000. And, yes, I know I’m saying this after dying over “Hey Ya!” two years ago. That’s probably the only good song on that whole album. And ain’t no song going to salvage an entire album.
June 27th, 2005 at 21:04
I’m saying though. This has been my position all along. I have referred to myself, I believe, as a “Big Boi partisan” in the past. I mean, people are sleeping on “The Rooster” and “Unhappy” and “Tomb of the Boom” and the song where his kid swears…
June 27th, 2005 at 23:21
Yeah, I meant to include the fact that you were right all along somewhere in there. The main reason this position is different is that it’s not just, “Big Boi made a really good album.” It’s more “The Love Below really sucks, despite the fact that it got all the love back when they were released.”
I think all the love came from people freaking out on the idea of Andre 3000′s listening to Squarepusher for three months straight or whatever he said. If that yields “My Favorite Things,” though, then his time could have been better spent.
That, I believe, is my new contribution to this field of inquiry.
June 27th, 2005 at 23:22
Finally, the first time I heard “The Rooster,” I deemed it the best song on both albums. I think Sam Hunt can corroborate this, as it was his opinion at the time, too.
June 28th, 2005 at 8:15
You are just realizing this? You fuckers in academia truly are hipsters no matter how much you try and hate on it/them.
As I mentioned to BJ when the album first came out “people will realize at a much later date that bigboi’s side is better, but they won’t because too many will buy into the whole Andre 3000 hipster asthete”, and naturally, those who buy into the asthete will themselves be hipsters. Nevertheless, acceptance is the first stage of recovery, so listen to speakerboxxx. Appreciate the knowledge BigBoi drops like a Goron Hammer. When you do come back to Love Below, you’ll find it to be a decent listen to also, just nowhere near as good, unlike what the above haters are saying as it being an album that “really sucks.”
Get with it. Seriously. I’m disappointed. Next thing I know, I’ll be reading your posts, as well as these comments, and see that you’ve never really had the argument over whether or not Stankonia is a better album than Aquemini…
June 28th, 2005 at 10:32
What are you on about? I explained clearly in the post and in the first comment. I only “just” realised this since I haven’t given The Love Below a single thought in over a year. And that’s the point here. I noticed right away (as did Sam, etc.) that the Big Boi side is better. My point here, and now, is that iTunes’s random stumbling on “Spread” made me realise what I write at the top. “Not only…” starts the part about Speakerboxxx, since it’s already taken as a given!
The point here is that TLB is so bad that it warrants mentioning. And that it warrants sadness, and anger, and suffering. And now it’s hard to listen to Speakerboxxx without remembering its silent pair. It’s like trying to forget how astonishingly misogynist the Red Hot Chili Peppers can be when listening to one of their less- or not-at-all-misogynist songs.
June 30th, 2005 at 16:10
My favorite “Indefensible Position” was the one about how actors who play retarded characters shouldn’t get Oscars. I laughed for days.