On the brighter side, though, the tracks that are actual songs feature some great stuff. "Hey Ya" is still catchy, and "Roses" is a great tune (people named "Caroline" just can't really catch a musical break, though, can they?). "Happy Valentine's Day" and "Behold a Lady" are strange, but play the same basic role as the "God Is Love" and "Save the Children" tracks off What's Going On-- out of context, they'd be impossibly dorky, but taking the album as a whole, they're weirdly brilliant. "Spread" is a great song for those who think Prince is a bit too subtle when it comes to sexual innuendo, and there's a long run of short songs near the end that are all pretty good.

I could do without "She Lives in My Lap" and "Vibrate," but pretty much everything that isn't a bizarre interlude is actually a good song. But what a weird collection of stuff those interludes are. Listening to these discs, it's a little hard to see how these two guys even find stuff to talk about, let alone manage to record albums together.

Anyway, the two discs together turned out to be about what I expected. I expected to hate more of the Speakerboxxx songs and like more of the tracks on The Love Below, but on the whole, it's pretty good. This isn't going to get me to run right out and build up a huge rap collection, but there's some good stuff here. I wish I knew what was up with the bizarre interludes, though.

(Originally posted to Uncertain Principles.)