First of all, be carefull:

This album has been criticized by many people, many times.
All reviews tend to say this album was not "Endtroducing".
And that is totally correct.
But if you hear people saying that this album has nothing to do in the Shadow discography, i can tell they are simply wrong.

If you know (a minimum)what DJ Shadow is doing and has done in his career, you'll clearly understand why he has composed "The Outsider".
The only people who doesn't like it are people who have only listenned to "Endtroducing" or more generally, all instrumental hip-hop releases he has produced over the years.
DJ Shadow comes from hip-hop. It's like that, weither you like it or not.

"The Outsider" confirmes Shadow's producing talents, it embraces lots of musical genres, with passion and greatness.
Recommended!

What a calamity! After releasing groundbreking "Endtroducing...", followed by brilliant "Private Press", Josh Davis AKA DJ Shadow has lost himself in the vortex of commercial, trivial hardcore rap. When he's not copying mtv's rap style, he's copying Radiohead and Coldplay (both songs with Chris James, which are nice but so what?). Apparently Shadow forgot why hip hop sucked in '96. The reason it sucks is still the same and "The Outsider" is the biggest disappointment of 2006. Buy at your own risk.