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Many of the guest appearances on Big Boi's second solo album -- his third if you count Speakerboxxx -- were not expected. Most of them qualify as inharmonious experiments. A chance encounter with Phantogram, facilitated by a music identification application, led to three of these songs. On 'CPU,' the most awkward one of the bunch, Phantogram fashion their hazy dream pop into low-wattage EDM, their feathery chorus disconnected from Big Boi's verses. The MC likewise sounds more like the guest on the loopy Wavves collaboration 'Shoes for Running'; it's more of a mismatch than his spot on Carlos Santana's 'My Man.' Consecutive tracks with Little Dragon fare somewhat better. The creeping 'Thom Pettie,' in which Big Boi is the dominant voice, is a highlight, while 'Mama Told Me,' co-written by the beloved Swedish hybrid group, is pleasant enough but more of a light robo-funk platform for lead singer Kelly Rowland. Big Boi adapts to the unfamiliar surroundings with little effort and often sounds comfortable, but the fusions are short on power. Despite not featuring a known indie act, 'Apple of My Eye,' involving a co-producer and singer named Jake Troth, incorporates a tepid bopping sound. Bravest of all is 'Tremendous Damage,' a plaintive ballad in which Big Boi sings with deep sincerity, but one can almost hear a switch flip toward the end of the first verse, when he shifts from crooning into one of his familiar methods of delivery. The more potent tracks include the blaring/booming 'In the A,' featuring Big Boi and T.I. in rapid-fire mode (and Ludacris in beat-over-check-cashing mode), the offhandedly boastful and Sleepy Brown-enhanced 'The Thickets,' and the stirring ATL-meets-Minneapolis folk-funk closer, 'Descending,' yet another Little Dragon hook-up.

About “Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors” “Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors” Q&A. Album Credits. Management Marcus T. A&R Sha Money XL. Label Def Jam Recordings. As introductions go, the opening to Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors is needlessly explanatory. Big Boi, quite literally, spells out his name before reminding you of his little-known earlier work as 'one half of the minor OutKast' like he was an ex-member of 5ive launching a solo career comeback.

Big Boi is known for his voracious, omnivorous listening habits and willingness to abandon his most successful musical formulas; on his second proper solo album, he teams up with artists like Phantogram, Wavves, and Little Dragon, and the result is a puzzling mess.

Big Boi is known for his voracious, omnivorous listening habits and willingness to abandon his most successful musical formulas. Since he's spent the last few years sharing festival stages with indie rock and electronic acts, it makes some sense that he might want to make a record influenced by indie rock and electronic music. So here on his second proper solo album, he's exchanged the deep, dirty funk of 2010's Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty and his half of OutKast's nearly decade-old double solo LP Speakerboxxx/The Love Below for collaborations with artists like Phantogram, Wavves, and Little Dragon.

ViciousLies and Dangerous Rumors is on the one hand a genre-busting statement of artistic restlessness but it's also a mess. You can try looking at it from a few different angles: as an outgrowth of rap's artsy ambitions, a compilation of indietronic-rap fusion tied together by one voice, or even simply as the new Big Boi record. But each approach carries its own particular set of frustrations when confronted with the 17-track whole.

Some of its weakest moments are actually the ones with the most potential. Teaming up with A$AP Rocky and Phantogram on 'Lines', for instance, makes good sense on paper. Rocky's among the most successful of the current crop of upstart boundary-pushing rappers and Phantogram (who contribute to three of the album's tracks) have demonstrated an ability to infuse traditional pop structures with a sonically adventurous spirit. But the finished product refuses to cohere into the quasi-ambient electro-pop-rap gestalt the line-up promises. The rappers' verses and Sarah Barthel's breathy, multi-tracked choruses basically stand politely next to each other without interacting in any meaningful way.

Other questionable team-ups fare much worse, like the lineup of Big Boi, pop-rapper B.o.B., and snotty surf-pop savant Nathan Williams of Wavves on 'Shoes for Running'. The terminally schlocky B.o.B. comes at this potentially challenging collaboration with the same staunchly middle of the road approach he takes to everything, while Williams yelps his way through a hook that would be embarrassingly twee even if it wasn't presented in the context of a rap record. Imagine a weak, more self-consciously indie-fied song from the Judgement Night soundtrack and you're getting there.

Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors Torrent

The album's saving grace is Big Boi. No matter what setting you place him in, he remains one of the most dextrous, technically capable, and thoroughly entertaining figures in hip-hop. He's still unapologetically lecherous, still styling all over less-smooth fools, still repping for the Dungeon Family and OutKast. (Although the latter trait is starting to seem cruel considering how many people are still holding out hope for a proper sequel to Stankonia and how much more unlikely that possibility seems with every passing year.) He's also still apparently unable to phone in a half-assed verse no matter the circumstances, so at least the flimsiest songs on Vicious Lies still has his performance holding them up, even if there's nothing else helping out.

A few tracks do live up to their potential, and to Big Boi's ambitious vision in general. 'In the A' brings him together with T.I. and Ludacris over a noisy, chaotic funk beat dripping with wah-wah guitar, siren-like synths, and stripper-pole drums that's got enough of the familiar Big Boi energy to bring its differences into compelling focus. (T.I. and Luda both living up to their habit of delivering their strongest material in cameos on other artists' tracks helps as well.) And the deeply louche 'Raspberries' upholds Big Boi's reputation for making sex music that sounds like it's being beamed in from several years into the future.

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He also clicks with Swedish electro-pop group Little Dragon, who appear on three tracks. 'Descending' is sweetly sad and atmospheric, with Big Boi and Little Dragon vocalist Yukimi Nagano trading verses over a delicate fingerpicked guitar and a reverb-laden minimalist bit of drum programming straight out of a Prince slow jam. But on 'Higher Res' and 'Thom Pettie'-- maybe the best cut on the album-- the group shows a surprising facility for producing the kind of booming, nasty beats that suit Big Boi the best. Out of the lengthy list of collaborators on the disappointing Vicious Lies, they're the only ones he should hit up the next time he goes in to record.