I'll admit -- when I heard Outkast was making a movie and recording a soundtrack to coincide with its release, I was excited. I grew more excited when I found out bad ass zombie killer Ving Rhames was signed on for the film. Color me disappointed when I discovered he wouldn't be featured on any tracks. If there's one thing a jazzy hip-hop album can use, it's Ving Rhames.

While Idlewild (the soundtrack) is crippled by a lack of Rhames getting medieval, Andre 3000 and Big Boi manage not to embarrass themselves in their attempt to marry 1930s jazz and blues to their psychedelic hip-hop. The duo generally sticks to making a good period piece without relying too heavily on the "retro" aesthetic that's always been so trendy. It's only when the two rappers stray into the dated-sounding production that they have their missteps.

That's not to say Idlewild is a dated-sounding album on the whole, however. The film is based in the Prohibition-era south. The soundtrack serves as the bridge between the film's vintage feel and Outkast's modern alternative hip-hop. It does a good job of paying tribute to vintage music styles without being dated.

In the midst of break-up rumors, Idlewild makes the duo's future look hazy. The film features few scenes with both Andre 3000 and Big Boi on screen, and the album seems an extension of this trend. While Outkast often shares time in songs as they did regularly before Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the verses sound like they were just cut-and-pasted together. Chemistry has long been one of the most outstanding qualities of Outkast, and Idlewild lacks much of it.

If the segments sound cut-and-pasted, the track order might be even worse. The prime example is a switch from Big Boi's smooth jam "Morris Brown" into "Chronomentrophobia," one of Dre's trademark sex-fiend romps before going back to another slower-paced Big Boi number. Track order isn't always important to an album, but Outkast has always had a heightened energy to its music. The slow jams on Idlewild are more like the candy cigarette to the musical crack of older material like "Miss Jackson."

The slow pace does well, however, when Snoop Dogg and Lil' Wayne collaborate on "Hollywood Divorce." Snoop-a-loop hasn't put out many songs worth hearing in this decade, but his smooth flow is still unparalleled. His style is a great foil for Big Boi's frantic style of rapping.

Idlewild isn't an improvement over the Grammy-winning Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, but one step forward it does make is extending Sleepy Brown's collaborations with the duo.

Brown first showed up on Big Boi's smash hit "The Way You Move," and on Idlewild he's featured on two of the album's highlights, "Morris Brown" and "In Your Dreams."

The album features a handfull of solid tracks, but it suffers from the lack of a standout.

Outkast has some genre-defining singles to its name, but Idlewild won't be contributing to that list.

The lead single "Mighty O" relies on style and not enough on substance. Other solid songs lack the energy and chemistry Outkast fans are accustomed to.

Idlewild is something of an achievement because of Outkast's ability to pull off a big band hip-hop album. It doesn't come near rivaling the duo's best work, but the ATLiens are now six albums strong and still without a bad one.

Grade: B-