Evidently Andre 3000, the flamboyant half of Atlanta’s OutKast, does not tire of being compared with Prince.

After transforming his hip-hop into psychedelic pop on 2003’s Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below, Andre’s model this time seems to be Prince’s 1986 movie Under the Cherry Moon. Hence Idlewild, OutKast’s sixth album, finds Andre — a romantic misfit — fusing contemporary R&B with Cotton Club showstoppers. Often, on this messy and occasionally brilliant album, he seems preoccupied with this schtick, so much so that his tracks try frantically hard to impress. It is left to Big Boi, ostensibly OutKast’s more conventional half, to provide the highlights — wonderfully flighty Southern funk tunes such as Peaches and The Train.

JOHN MULVEY