André 3000 Returns With Flute Album
On Nov. 17, André 3000 released his first solo album, “New Blue Sun.” While he is a highly regarded rapper by fans, critics, and other rappers alike, he announced that this album would not feature rapping or singing at all. Instead, he will spend the majority of the album playing the flute.
Twitter’s reaction to the album varied, with some like @DavidLeonMorgan saying, “André 3000 is doing exactly what I want my favorite music legends to do: take the money, run away, explore new sounds, then share it when you feel like it. It’s such a gift to see an artist be free to pursue their creative inclinations.” Others had similar sentiments like @theloniusly: “Mans made a gorgeous ‘study for the midterms’ album. Love that for us, but can’t help but mourn the idea of the project we all wanted lol.”
André 3000 is mainly known for his role in the rap duo Outkast with fellow rapper Big Boi. Together, they made several cult classic songs such as “Ms. Jackson,” "So Fresh, So Clean,” and “Hey Ya!” After the completion of their sixth album, André 3000 left Outkast. In a recent GQ interview with André 3000, he stated, “There’s a certain chemistry that me and Big Boi had and have…I think over time, people don’t understand that chemistry changes.” After this, he withdrew from the spotlight, only appearing as a feature on other artists' tracks. Some of these include Frank Ocean’s “Pink Matter,” Drake’s “The Real Her,” Beyonce’s “Party” and Anderson .Paak’s “Come Home.”
André 3000 announced his new album on his Twitter account on Nov. 14, only a few days before the album’s full release. When asked by GQ about the reason for the 17 years since his last album, he replied, “I don’t like when I’m trying to do a thing, it just felt inauthentic, and this felt like the realist I could be at the time…You hear me figuring the instrument out, which is new, which I thought was really cool…I’m listening to myself be a baby at something… be a baby at this new machine I’ve never touched.”
Every track features a few common elements, the use of natural sounds, snippets of someone breathing, running water, and André 3000’s flute playing. The opening track, "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time,” uses midi strings, light synths, and edited symbol crash sounds that takes heavy inspiration from psychedelic music like Pink Floyd.
The following track emphasizes louder, jazzy synths and energetic flute sounds closer to an interlude on Tyler, the Creator’s “Flower Boy.” "That Night in Hawaii When I Turned into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control..." once again introduces a new sound with the track focused on a constant 808 kick, with an ever-growing number of percussive instruments. “BuyPoloDisorder's Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered" has a much darker sound, with a heavy emphasis on unsettling synths, uneven rhythms and unsettling background noises.
“Ninety-Three 'Til Infinity and Beyoncé,” the shortest track on the album, almost 4 minutes long, sounds like a combination of the previous four tracks' primary sounds coming together. “Ghandhi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy” leaves the flute and synth sounds in the background to put greater emphasis on piano and background vocals. However, “Ants to You, Gods to Who?” doesn’t introduce anything new into the album, using similar sounds to the rest of the album. While the rest of the album, to this point, seemed relaxing and had movement, this song felt repetitive in contrast. The final track, “Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprouts into Undying Gardens,” adds a vibraphone and acoustic guitar into the mix. This brings back the flow of the record and ends the album on the same peaceful note as the rest.
Sonically, the album is extremely relaxing and feels like great background noise to work with without much distraction. The production of the whole project is well done with a consistent rotation of instruments. However, the album’s lack of vocals and overall slower pace make it only work as a relaxing album and not much else. In the context of André 3000’s career and recent interviews, the album feels like a perfect statement. André 3000 cares about doing what excites him more than being famous or pandering to lifelong fans.