Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun


It's Friday, so today's lunchbreak soundtrack is of course the new Andre 3000 "not a rap album" flute-tacular entitled New Blue Sun... 

[6 hours later]

Ok, time to get back to the second half of New Blue Sun, Andre 3000's first solo album. I listened to the first half on my lunch break, and it was delightful.

I wasn't expecting anything particular going in to it, so the strange melding of ambient bleep-bloopery, improvisatory percussion, and modal melodic meditation was a nice surprise.

Even if you're only familiar with Outkast in passing, i think we're all aware that Andre 3000 is extra, so it's a little odd to hear him plying his orchestrational talents at a slower than turtle's pace, but it turns out those amorphous washes of electronic soup really highlight his quirky and playful melodic sensibiliies. 

I don't know what else you could call it but Ambient Modal Jazz, but in spite of the double digit track times there's plenty of variety to keep your attention. We could dive into the wacky titles, or get hung up on specific tracks, but i think it's more important to point out that this clearly isn't a joke or an attempt to out vitruoso anyone. This is literally where the wind blew him, and it's an absolute delight to hear him play. 

It's playful. You should definitely check it out.

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