best nu-andre 3000 verse

This is "Royal Flush" for me, but I'll rep for "Walk It Out", IPA, and "You" (although lulz at him rapping about hitting on the cashier at whole foods)

"IPA" all the way, with "Throw Some D's" a distant second. "Royal Flush" doesn't really have enough payoff to justify 40-something bars, and a lot of these are full of moments that annoy the fuck out of me (especially "Walk It Out" and "What A Job").

your white tee to me
looks like a night gown

3 stacks don't fuck around, if he wants to wear a nightgown he just wears a nightgown

I like his verse on Goodie Mob's Black Ice:

Friends romans countrymen lend me your eardrums, it was a beautiful day up in the neighbourhood
Yellows and greens and blues and browns and greys and hues that ooze beneath delapidated wood

"nu-"

geez I only know like a third of these, guess I haven't been paying attention. What is Royal Flush from, is that a leadoff single or something for a soundtrack or what...? (I know that one and I voted for it, just curious)

"What a Job" is kind of boring and overrated in general.

xp: supposed to be from Big Boi's solo album

Big Boi is on some battered wife syndrome shit for real, "I'm always underrated and outshined by my partner, so I'm gonna drop this solo album...oh, and the first single features him and he spits so many bars that by the end of the song you forgot I'm even on it"

yeah, that's weird to me, too, but I think RF might have just been a leak

yeah, i think the official single is the one w/ Mary J., I think I heard it recently and it sounded pretty good.

I'm always underrated and outshined by my partner

I don't think this is true at all fwiw - Speakerboxxxx was waaay better than Love Below, but I guess it didn't have the ginormous single on it so maybe you have a point. And really wtf has Andre been doing since all that half-assed shit on Love Below: that cartoon, a few guest verses = eh whatever. Got That Purp Vol II otoh is killer.

'the way you move' was pretty fucking big

yeah but Hey Ya was EVERYWHERE

i'm not saying Big Boi isn't good or doesn't get his respect, but c'mon you can't argue that Andre isn't way more famous and acclaimed overall.

I'd just like to point out that BB's verse on RF is killer, too. Rae's is kind meh tho.

yeah, that's weird to me, too, but I think RF might have just been a leak

-- The Reverend, Wednesday, July 30, 2008 1:44 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

no, it was pressed as an official 12" w/ art and everything

also you are crazy re: raekwon, most listenable verse on the song

but c'mon you can't argue that Andre isn't way more famous and acclaimed overall.

is he? I thought the general consensus was that the Love Below was a bit of an unfocused mess (which it is)

don't get me wrong, i don't trust anyone who thinks that bullshit was better than Speakerboxxx. i'm talking about in terms of media profile and general rap canon bullshit (i.e. Andre making the top 10 of that stupid MTV lists the last 2 years and BB not being mentioned in either).

!!! did not know that

Taking Sides: Andre 3000 vs. Big Boi

rae sounds like he's on autopilot

Walk it out.

lol ``
somedude';

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wooooooow

lol shakey only in the ILM universe is big boi accepted as the better rapper than andre

"but big boi only talks about pimpin...3 stacks talks about real creative shit like SPACESHIPS"

lol ``
somedude';

this shit is depressing

https://soundcloud.com/therealandre3000benjamin

roughness of the vocals aside, I...kinda like "Look Ma No Hands"?

I like these.

these are also apparently half a year old?

new album on Friday (no verses)

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/14/1212661071/andre-3000-album

Possible new "infamous reviled album that was subsequently reassessed and found to be great" incoming.

idk i think this “flute-heavy instrumental album” might not be an enduring classic

i'm looking forward to it

idk i think this “flute-heavy instrumental album” might not be an enduring classic

― is he disgruntled adrian? (voodoo chili), Tuesday, November 14, 2023 7:31 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I laughed at your joke and then I clicked the link.

Huh.

The track titles!

Looking at the track titles at least he is self-aware and has humor about releasing an instrumental flute album.

On the bass, Derek Smalls

He wrote this

the track titles have sold me on this, tbh

Man it's too bad that this will becomes a punch line for most people, he's just out here aging as gracefully as humanly possible.

that one Key & Peele sketch has a lot to answer for

i love that interview and i already hate how this will be received as a prank

who knows if it will be good, but honestly i think the worst case scenario (given the very able people playing on it) is some solid if slightly anonymous floaty jazz stuff

it's not a prank, he's following his muse. like he said says in track #1, "this is literally the way the wind blew me this time"

the tracklist:

01 I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a “Rap” Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time
02 The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue With Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?
03 That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild
04 BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered
05 Ninety Three ’Til Infinity And Beyoncé
06 Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy
07 Ants to You, Gods to Who ?
08 Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens

is this self-released?

nvm, it's on Epic/Sony

[it's not a prank, he's following his muse. like he said says in track #1, "this is literally the way the wind blew me this time"

― is he disgruntled adrian? (voodoo chili), Tuesday, November 14, 2023 10:12 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah totally but i already saw some dumbass on twitter going "metal machine music but with flutes"

(MMM is also great but you know what i mean)

Tangentially related, he was good in the new Kelly Reichardt

87 minutes. In.

xp. Rob I thought it was gonna be an International Anthem release given the line up. I mentioned this in the IA thread a couple months ago. Genuinely surprised it’s coming out in a major label.

song titles put me in the same mood as Don Caballero's ones or a funnier Dirty Three

i thought of Dillinger Four

I mean it’s hard not to see it as prank-ish with those song titles.

At the same time Andre 3000 + instrumental album with flute as lead + kooky song titles - has people talking, so the interest is already there, it just needs to be decent to not be seen as a prank.

it would have been cool if it were on international anthem

Spiritual flute jazz is some of the best shit so I'm pretty hyped for this actually

otm

andre's the best. i love it that a kid from east atlanta has moved on to his jazz phase

would be cool if he had a flute contest with the devil

this is a little too much for me to process.

next up Lauryn Hill releases a vocoder album

you know, pk.... big sigh.

the talks already of this being perceived as a prank or whatever and as soon as i read that preview piece my thought was, "he's self-sabatoging on purpose." then my mind eventually ended up at unplugged 2.0 and the apocalyptic fallout backlash lauryn went (and is still going) through and he's not only the greatest rapper of alltime he may also be some sort of resurrected diety annnnd....

...yeah, this is a little too much for me to process.

i absolutely cannot wait to hear it.

i mean...self sabotaging what? he's obviously got enough money to live forever and hang out all around the world and do whatever he wants to.

why should he rap if he doesn't feel like it (or it sounds like he does some but doesn't feel like putting it out) like how many of us are doing the same stuff that we did in our 40s that we did in our 20s?

yes, that conversation has been happening since 2002.

Maybe it would have been self-sabotage if he put out a jazz record in the early '00s as a more confrontational way to step back from rap fame. But instead he stepped back quietly.

I'm certainly guilty of wanting artists to just keep doing that thing that they are really good at, but it totally makes sense when he talks about his uncertainties about making a rap album. Not wanting to chase youth trends or go backwards, especially considering the attention it would get, but when people ask him to do guest verses (and he doesn't have to worry about whether this is the right thing to present to the world) he takes it seriously and goes for it.

this is less like Lou Reed doing MMM than Lou Reed doing that album of Yoga music. He wasn't taking the piss, he was just really into Yoga at that point.

Tai chi?

yeah tai chi, i dig that album alright, it's kind of a nice drone

he wasn't just doing MMM as a pisstake either according to the new bio

Huh TIL Lou Reed has a yoga album

https://lightintheattic.net/products/the-art-of-the-straight-line-my-tai-chi

This has been a long time coming. I met Andre 3000 at the Vision Festival (annual NYC-based free jazz event) in 2017, buying CDs from the Aum Fidelity merch table.

Sorry I probably mixed up Yoga and Tai Chi because of that story about Lou screaming in pain when his yoga instructor adjusted his pose.

A friend of mine plays on this record. He said that the sessions were completely improvised. So I think there will be at least a small portion of this album that is just free jazz

A friend of mine plays on this record. He said that the sessions were completely improvised. So I think there will be at least a small portion of this album that is just free jazz

I'm definitely interested to hear it. I was planning on writing about jazz flute in my Stereogum column this month anyway even before this news.

produced by carlos niño ?

We nailed it down and we experimented and we found a sound and it ended up being the core four of us — me on different woodwind instruments and digital flutes; Carlos Niño on percussion; Nate Mercereau on guitar, and he hardly ever sounds like he's playing guitar, but he's an awesome guitarist, he's kind of like a magician in a way; and then Surya Botofasina, he's a keyboardist.

And I think Frank pointed out one of his favorite tracks out of the three.

Ha this does sound like the sort of thing your friend would say just to be polite.

haha otm

all the same sounds like tyler and frank are a good hang / good friends

and andre seems like he's in a really good place?

excited for this!

It’s been 17 years since André 3000 released new music. Now, he’s unveiling his first-ever solo project.

In the inaugural GQ Video Cover Story, the rap legend spoke candidly about how he’s changed and why he made a record that nobody could have expected. Dive into the full… pic.twitter.com/bXJBgQrat6

— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) November 16, 2023

I hope this ends up being amazing. In 20 years, kids will be listening to mostly jazz flute-derived music and when grandpa says something about Andre having been a rapper, their minds will be blown.

in the very least it might have some cool material for people to sample and rap over

so looks like, so far, there's only a digital download or an $80(!) 3xLP version of this:

https://epicrecords.shop.musictoday.com/dept/andre-3000?cp=70395_108269_114163

kinda wish the rumors about this getting released by International Anthem would have been true

"first-ever solo project" is "look ma no hands" erasure

Andre Benjamin is talking about getting older and being 48 and other relatable (to me) content, but he can't Epic to put out a CD of this for his fellow olds?

I'm genuinely excited for this just to hear an artist I love following his heart even though most will probably give him shit for it. But I really was hoping for CD heh...

Listening now...

More digital sounding than I was expecting--more Steve Roach than Steve Reich so far.

Feels very definitely fully improvised, after the first couple minutes, for better and for worse. Plenty "wrong" notes, but the musicians around Andre create a bed of structure that it works.

A 70s vibe at root, but so far not a jazz vibe, certainly not a spiritual jazz vibe. Maybe closer to like Jan Hammer's more ambitious stuff?

But that's just through the first two tracks. Third track getting in on a little more Eno 'On Land' but meets something more percussive...

So far, it would be like a curiosity on International Anthem. I dig it. But 99% of people are probably going to have very little to no frame of reference for this sort of music, and put against the pent-up desire for a new Outkast record... I anticipate a lot of very negative reactions, or at best a lot of "WTF??" responses...

I'm about 30 minutes in (so just on the third track lol) and enjoying it but I quite like a lot of new age music and would say this definitely fits that bill, so far anyway.

yeah, this is a noodly new age album. when alice coltrane and kankyo ongaku are more widespread than ever, why not. is the start of his spiritual guru phase?

Definitely nu-New Age. It's appropriate that matthewdavid makes an appearance, it's got a little bit of that Leaving Records LA spiritual psychedelia thing.

There are already 15 "reviews" of this up on RYM, nice to see people really taking the time to evaluate this deeply.

I mean it's got a 3.79 rating that's really good

OK, I definitely listened to this, but I have no memory of what I heard, so I guess it fulfilled its function as ambient/New Age music. He should mail copies to every acupuncturist in the US for in-office play.

flute playin is um not good

yeah i'm about halfway through and it sets a nice mood at times, i like synth textures but he's not really enough of a player to make this compelling, he tends to come across these little 4/5 note quick melodies that he seems to fall back on repeating over and over with a few little random sounding runs here and there, there's really no throughline on his playing it just tends to lay there

i'm not sure i'd still be going on this if it weren't by andre 3000

It’s nice! A song from this might turn up on my tracks list, we’ll see.

It’s cool that he wanted to do this and did it.

would love Danny Brown rapping over flutes imo

"dreams once buried..." the last track is the best imo, goes the most out and out ambient wind chimey new agey

sorry but this is sad

i was so stoked about this and so prepared to dig the fuck out of this. but he ... can't play? wtf

Lil Wayne playing guitar energy

I feel like maybe he and lizzo should collaborate, she could help shore up his flute playing and he could help shore up her bars

Hits a ton of bad notes on the second track

new rays of the blue wild angel sun

bj kinda otm... getting madlib yesterday's new quintet vibes from it -- he clearly has a lot of passion for what he's playing but not the chops.

it sounds fine for what it is but ultimately ums otm- not the sort of thing i'd focus so intently on if it didn't have his name attached to it.

I love it

young people seem pretty in to ambient (in my limited experience)

listening to the closer (junior dad) and it's... nice?

Lol corrs

my co-worker said "this sounds like the shit always playing in your office" so I checked it out, very nice... for fans of Soil Festivities by Vangelis, or like O Yuki Conjugate

this totally totally rules, it sounds like it would be in that Chee Shimizu “obscure sound” book

this feels cringe in concept, but i still need to listen lol

It’s also very embarrassing in execution

I like it. But I probably listen to more New Age/Ambient than most Americans.

The real question is what is the tour gonna be like?

Let's not get it twisted, the issue isn't that it's a new age/ambient record, and theoretically not a bad one by many measures, it's that it's a flute record by a man who, god bless him dearly, cannot play the flute

this totally totally rules, it sounds like it would be in that Chee Shimizu “obscure sound” book

100%. if someone had told me this was a lost Steve Roach, Jorge Reyes, Suso Saiz / Suspended Memories album or similar i'd totally believe them, especially on 03 That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild.

i totally disagree

I think it’s really great that someone as high-profile as Andre 3000 could generate this much interest in an album of drills for amateur flautists

i like it

the music itself is fine but it's ill-served not so much by A's incompetence, which doesn't necessarily have to be an obstacle, but by his lack of any ideas or direction

i think it's kind of a discredit to Shimizu's book to presume that the music is only there because it's rare, when in fact none of it is as lousy as this

i still find this to be okay though, largely due to what everybody else in the band is bringing

lol DJP

he should've released it as a Music Minus One record

i think it's kind of a discredit to Shimizu's book to presume that the music is only there because it's rare,

lots of music in the book is not rare at all.

i don't thimk this music requires any direction either.

obscure/unheralded/"lost"/unknown to many

lol i'm truly glad some people are digging it though. there's just a lot of solemnity to the music and i can't help at certain parts envisioning him taking a deep breath, closing his eyes and leaning in meaningfully as the cymbals swell and ... *botched rudimentary flute exercise*

maybe that makes it good actually

i just got to the end. will i listen again? i may well do. would i consider buying the 3 x lp? unlikely.

Lizzo can play circles around Andre, but I would rather listen to this by an exponential degree

imagine listening to this for the quality of the flute playing

Thelonius Monk said that the Digital Wind Instrument ain’t got no wrong notes

I didn’t mean it sounded like a mysterious “lost” album. I meant it sounded like an album that would have appeared in that Chee Shimizu book, ie it fits into that sonic framework of woodwinds and percussion sparseness and stuff

Hope that the Michael Stipe rap album encourages as much conversation

It's odd to me that the discourse around the new drum-less version of RAM is all "why does this need to exist" while some of the same people with decent taste and presumably large collections of ambient and jazz music are carrying water for a terribly pedestrian vanity project that's three times as long

I mean, good on him for following his muse, and I do believe he's sincere, but no one will convince me that a kid who owns a Laaraji album and SAW2 couldn't have whipped this together on Logic Pro in a single afternoon

maybe that makes it good actually

― budo jeru, Friday, November 17, 2023 3:35 PM

see now you've got me imagining the all-andre band from the hey ya video all doing this in unison, and yes: that 100% makes it good.

i can't help at certain parts envisioning him taking a deep breath, closing his eyes and leaning in meaningfully as the cymbals swell and ... *botched rudimentary flute exercise*

this had me laughing

agree that it's not competent enough to be an ambient jazz album and as a private press new age album it lacks direction, sense of purpose, idiosyncratic ideas

ultimately it's a bit boring

but will enjoy hearing it in the wild if it's picked up on coffee shop playlists

Feel like the track titles are undermining it for me. I've been getting into some tracks and then I look over at the names and feel cheated.

I like this, but to add to a series of FB posts by former ILXor micci0, I feel uncomfortable checking out a flute album by a star/diva when I don't normally check out flute albums.

It’s kind of like children’s books written by celebrities, yeah.

I listened to the first track last night and thought it was kind of nice. It wouldn’t bother me as background music. But not much too it, and for sure the flute playing does not distinguish itself.

idk if i can really listen to this album around the baggage but i do really enjoy some of it, particularly the parts where dré's uh capabilities or lack thereof on the flute ultimately lend these pieces a meditative, hypnotic quality, like on "that night in hawaii" and "ghandhi, dalai lama..." if i'm being honest i sometimes don't even register his playing as flute sounds and instead it's like someone dicking around on a modular synth or something and that's the spirit in which i'm enjoying it

also the piano on "ghandi, dalai lama..." is so beautiful

The band is great yah but the centerpiece of the thing is uncompelling - a rich guy that is bad at a thing hired a really talented band to try to make him sound good. Like a rich hippie guy that just got a didgeridoo and thinks he's good at it but bro it takes years to master that thing.

The second track title is so cringy. For a guy who’s even older than I am, he seems to have a pretty juvenile sensibility.

the incubus dude played the didgeridoo onstage when i saw them open for mr bungle :(

I saw that tour

I heard an interview with Andre 3000 on the radio just now, and it was so serious I couldn't take it seriously. "So there I was, taking a breathing class with Kassia, a world-class surfer, and I heard the most beautiful sound. That is when I got my first flute. Now I have 30, 40 flutes, a lot of them from my flute-maker Guillermo. I got in the habit, when I was in the back of an Uber, of playing along with whatever music was on the radio ... "

Went out on a long walk today listening to this and Don Cherry's - Organic Music Society. i enjoyed it again but did end up skipping it about two thirds in. i think it might have worked better if he had had a good editor on board. Apples and oranges I know (despite both being flute-y), but Organic Music Society did hit the spot way more.

The band is great yah but the centerpiece of the thing is uncompelling - a rich guy that is bad at a thing hired a really talented band to try to make him sound good. Like a rich hippie guy that just got a didgeridoo and thinks he's good at it but bro it takes years to master that thing.

He should have had someone else play flute and just slapped his name on the cover, a la the VU and Nico.

well this is a whole load of whatever

all those people who heard "miley tibetan bowlzzz" and thought "this is good but I wish it was 90 minutes long" will be very happy with this

everyone else should listen to that don cherry album though

i paired this with rain in england personally, which led me to discover lil b released a jazz fusion album last year

sh1t sandwich

lol i was going to ask how this compared to the lil b midi jazz album.

What are comparable vanity projects? Sting’s lute album?

andrew wk solo piano record

Pat Boone's metal album

Billy Joel - Actually I’m a Composer Not a Rock Star, Listen to my Neo-classical Bullshit

While I flip pianos

You know the primary difference here and “I AM SERIOUS COMPOSER” stuff is that André is teaming with a bunch of artists who do cassette tape releases to make improvisation-based music, all of which should ideally allow for a little bit of naïveté, DIY scrappiness and ephemerality.

Carlos Niño put out a really good record with South African pianist Thandi Ntuli this week, too, ftr.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/rainbow-revisited

the issue isn't that it's a new age/ambient record, and theoretically not a bad one by many measures, it's that it's a flute record by a man who, god bless him dearly, cannot play the flute

Reminds me of the Jazz Daredevil album:

Well, I Should Have... (subtitled Learned How To Play Piano) is an experimental jazz[1] album by American comedy actor and jazz daredevil H. Jon Benjamin. It was released on November 27, 2015, on the Sub Pop label.[2] The album was intentionally recorded to sound bad, since, as the album's title indicates, Benjamin does not know how to play piano, but still does so on the album,[3] and Benjamin has never liked jazz very much.[4]

The album also features actual jazz musicians such as Scott Kreitzer (saxophone), David Finck (bass), and Jonathan Peretz (drums).[5]

The funniest thing about that record was the bewildered reactions of the "actual jazz musicians" in interviews.

update i really really like the lil b midi jazz album

3k would've made a great lil b type record back in '09

Looking forward to his Afro-harping album next.

Was fun to give him a mini harp lesson once. I love the new record. What beauty. pic.twitter.com/TNQOQg7SKu

— Mary Lattimore (@marylattimore) November 18, 2023

Well I listened to this while mooching around town yesterday and I quite like it! And I like a lot of ambient/new age/Balearic/neo-jazz type stuff.
Like another poster upthread mentioned, I got partway through track 2 and thought "wait - I'm not hearing much flute on this, unless that dicky little synth is meant to be a flute?!"
But it didn't spoil my enjoyment. I think the whole premise of it, the novelty value, track titles included, is just ludicrous enough to work for me in one way, and the execution is enough to work for me the other

What are comparable vanity projects?

maybe something like Anywhere I Lay My Head by Scarlett Johansson

she's not a singer in any traditional sense, and there's an abundance of hired talent (Dave Sitek, Tunde Adebimpe, Nick Zinner, David Bowie...) which at times drowns out her somewhat understated contributions (she mostly stays in her lower register)

I kind of love that album

The album was awarded BNM in Pitchfork.

Best New Muzak

“he’s trying his best” new music

The track titles would have ruined this for me no matter what but the music sucks too

"GENRE: Rap / Experimental"... huh

among the most fascinating artistic left turns in recent memory.

i wanna hear this version of the album

"It’s more successful as a symbol than as an album."

We're reviewing symbols now

Andre 3K wishes
https://c.files.bbci.co.uk/AE68/production/_89384644_screenshot2016-04-22at07.39.15.png

there are some good moments on this album, but giving this a bnm off vibes while so few actual rap albums get bnm this year is something

The careful wording of that review is really killing me this morning. So much of the praise would need virtually no editing to make it have sense in a 3.1 review rather than BNM: “When André does finally play, he picks his notes carefully…. Even on his handmade flutes, he never lets out the kind of fluid, cocksure flow that sold over 25 million records.”

His decision to be pretty bad at playing his instrument lends a unexpected element to the proceedings, much like the chance-based compositions of fellow searchers John Cage and Brian Eno...

The occasionally lovely textures are not really enough to save the really-quite-shocking flute playing

This was the vibe for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCUMFkfOPnU

I didn't know I needed to see that, although the ending overdoes it

Some of this works for me, mostly on vibes created by the non-flute instrumentation -- there are a few serene and spacious soundscapes that are lovely. But largely agree with the takes above that on the whole it feels like a vanity project lacking in both compositional and performance integrity. A few tracks transported me to a bad yoga studio / massage parlor.

Those yoga soundtracks are usually performed by slick, disciplined pros! Would not want to hear this LP during my full Swedish

the idm equivalent of this was when Cylob put out Mood Bells

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtHsqAjoXXY

now i need to hear new blue sun shittyfluted

the pitchfork review is one of the most unbearably pretentious things "in recent memory"

I like how the the review compares André to John Coltrane (shit, cat!), Pharoah Sanders (though not "in its actual playing"), Philip Glass, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy...

This is the ultimate ambient album, you don't even have to listen to it, it just exists.

it's a nice list of things to listen to instead of this album

xxp Dont forget Raymond Carver!

so my final assessment of this album is a total meme review: after listening to new blue sun, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. five mics. good day, good sirs.

"now let us never speak of it again"

I can’t be mad at this album…One track sounds exactly like David Sylvian’s “Words With The Shaman”….so that’s good….

The notation is minimal, and he repeats short and uncomfortable phrases until they begin to sound right: Listen as he dips, brushes, and dabs in “The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?,”

“The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?" (dip`n`dab remix)

I reviewed it:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/andre-3000s-new-blue-sun-review-1234886904/

I wasn't expecting those conclusions tbh

I can’t be mad at this album…One track sounds exactly like David Sylvian’s “Words With The Shaman”….so that’s good….

And Sylvian joins the conversation...

https://ibb.co/4P83mHM

ha, I thought of Sylvian too

Well that didn't go well...

Will try this again:

The new Andre 3000 record is wonderful. Sounding like a dream @davidsylvian58 might have.

— Ian Webber (@ian_webber) November 18, 2023

@ian_webber
Nov 17
The new Andre 3000 record is wonderful. Sounding like a dream @davidsylvian58 might have.

@davidsylvian58
i'll always have time for people who change the course of their musical trajectory particularly if they've a high profile. take this as you will but this album sounds more like a dream joe zawinul might've had in the mid 80s.

<3

The bit comes around 8:15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gaHB9WPN4g

yuck

My latest Stereogum jazz column is up; I used the André 3000 album as a springboard to talk about Yusef Lateef, Bobbi Humphrey, Hubert Laws, and Nicole Mitchell.

oh if people are saying this sounds like sylvian maybe i actually have to listen to it

the greatest pleasure I get from this release is wondering how many heads of posters on the Philaflava would have exploded if this had come out in like 2006.

The best thing personally about all the discussion of jazz flautists generated by this release is I discovered Prince Lasha's Firebirds album, which is beyond great.

Carrying on with the similar-but-better vibes recommendations, I randomly came across this new reissue:

Sergey Karapetyan - Duduk Solos
https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/duduk-solos
Haunting Armenian duduk (apparently a double reed instrument that's sort of like a low clarinet?) playing over drones

as long as nicole mitchell is getting her due I'm happy this album exists

I only know prince lasha for writing and playing on "music matador" with eric dolphy and I assumed he was a sort of dolphy protege with his playing - esp since it's the 2nd track on an album that starts with a (awesome) dolphy flute showcase - but I don't know his biography. I'm on track 3 of firebirds and it's great - lovely range of textures with flute, saxes, clarinet, cor anglais (always nice to hear in jazz - sonny simmons is also new to me). it has some of the sense of restraint and use of empty space and one-foot-in-the-tradition-ness that I associate with AACM recordings from a few years later. never heard bobby hutcherson and charles moffett together before but they have great chemistry

I only heard one track of the duduk thing but I'll come back to it - it's gorgeous and lonesome and would probably make a better meditation tool than the andre album

anyone fuck with this soul flutes album?

https://youtube/f7FjnNxY21I?si=nNP33XnmhBGnoe3p

the Duduk album is fantastic

Flutes + Joe Zawinul vibe = Stone Flute by Herbie Mann

ya'll-
i know i'm a flippant little shit stirrer but unperson saw the opportunity and seized the fucking day with that piece. bobbi humphrey recs for the kids in 2023? where can i donate to your campaign?

outstanding stuff. thanks for posting.

FYI that soul flutes album is Heriberto Mann on flute with Ron carter and herbie Hancock.

Spell check doesn’t like herbie apparently

What's Najee up to these days?

herbie mann's artier outing "the stone flute" is so good - killer lineup - sharrock, ayers, ron carter and more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwY75gziVIQ

yes that album totally rules

Spell check doesn’t like herbie apparently

― Heez, Wednesday, November 22, 2023 8:26 AM

heriberto hancock

i like Herbie because he likes to lie

Rumor has it that the next album is recorded . Its in the same jazz improv “genre”, but Andre is doing vocals over it

rapping? or is that too much to hope for

if that's true,
i would assume he'll be doing a kind of spoken word thing. "spottieottiedopaliscious" with noodly beatless backings.

and if that is the case,
fuck that fake big rube bullshit. GIVE US THE UNRELEASED BIG RUBE ALBUM FROM 1997 YOU COWARDS!

if no one has yet gathered, this whole thing has been one of the most anticlimactic things in my distant memory and i'm trying to have a good attitude about it. my disappointment is pretty significant tho.

This album is fine. I don't know what people were expecting

the ability to play his instrument beyond a very novice level.

like if this was one of those pandemic era pay-to-stream live performances and they just noodled it out as a one-time thing, fine. that would have been cool to see him!

but idk, to actually make a record out of these improvised jam sessions feels sorta cheap. it's not even clear what he's doing most of the time. i mean he's always been a greenhorn instrumentalist, but on the old records he at least sounded proficient and practiced.

okay, okay... deep breath, good attitude

it has brought one of the big musical philosophy questions back to the forefront of my psyche lately - what's worse: bad music or boring music?

Did anyone like his clarinet feature "My Favorite Things" on The Love Below? It was the first thing I deleted from either of those records.

you know, halfway... very long sigh.

i have so many thoughts about that. that song was the first thing i thought of when i initially read the album promos; nah, i never thought it was anything noteworthy. but who cares, music isn't just music, it's business and it gets very messy. the best summary i can come up with is-
andre is incredibly intelligent. he understands the power of pr and he respects his elders.

never read a single review on love beliw that didn't mention it tho. new album, same sorta deal.

i know there's a lot going on in that post, but...

...just. idk man. we have to live our best lives. no one defines our own standards except us.

-because i am selfish-

i wish he didn’t need to keep his standards so fucking high and just drop another fucking five minute verse. just one last time. come on man. you're already anointed and certified forever. nobody likes gloating, but enough time has passed that a victory lap could never be seen in bad taste.

and i literally don't care. make the whole rap about the stupid fucking flute.

OKAY, OKAY.... GOOD ATTITUDES, PLEASE

There’s absolutely no example of a rapper pushing 50 at his level of skill and popularity releasing anything and not having all of social media call them washed or ass

I even think the late era Jay Z and Dr Dre and Eminem and even a lot of Cool J stuff is perfectly serviceable and decent and everyone acts like they are the recordings of the Jonestown massacre

and there's absolutely no example of a lot of things in hiphop... until outkast started making records.

he's capable.

and i'm here for it.

i will try to have a attitude in the meantime.

a good attitude of some sort, even.

also, whiney re:that-
yeah they kept making mixed-to-decently received records. the difference is: they never really stopped. andre has purposely and intentionally fucked off. again: that young man's brain was constructed incredibly well.

(what about snoop? he had his questionable no limit period, but came back stronger than ever. of course he always has has a bit of a novelty, prankster vibe so he can pull off whatever tf he wants forever and ever afaic.)

Yeah, Snoop and Busta are in that E-40 lane of just endless decent stuff that people stopped paying attention to 15 years ago

I guess that Tribe album was a good example of how to do it right, but then Tribe never had Number One pop hits

xp board was all in the revenue retreivin series when it was out. Go ILM!

the recordings of the Jonestown Massacre were mostly dubstep

Black Thought is 52, and he seems more beloved and respected than ever. But I guess the Roots are an outlier for lots of reasons.

i'd say the anticipation for a proper roots-less black thought solo album reached its fever pitch around phrenology and has been waning ever since to the point that now even people like me (read: lifelong fans) are kinda like, "huh ya i guess that would be cool."

He just had that Danger Mouse record that was well-received, but definitely a trad old heads record.

Killer Mike and El-P are both 48 though.

oh don't get me wrong— black thought ranting about how fucked up and perfect everything is and how much he misses j dilla and malik b in 2023? count me tf in.

Did anybody but me listen to the Busta Rhymes album that came out yesterday?

busta probably listened to it a few times.

Oh that’s why Busta was trending on Twitter.

unperson, how's the album? does he say any swear words? i bet he does.

Black Thought has a lot of interest now, that famous Flex freestyle really put him in the goat conversation

that Dangermouse record is the worst of his recent stuff because it's produced by Dangermouse

all 3 Streams of Thought albums are better

he came out and did a verse on "Johnny P's Caddy" with Benny the Butcher that got a lot of burn on Twitter, he's at the top of his game right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9M7g77cF0I

So I learned about this on Open Mike Eagle's podcast series w/Questlove - when recording Do You Want More, they made this medley where Black Thought impersonated all these rappers in voice and style, but it didn't come out until a couple years ago. Ridiculous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbf7XpbFt0

damn he's good!

New Busta has some nice moments but is far too long and mostly forgettable, being bloated with guests

Haven't listened but I'll take any chance to post this track from his previous record that chops up 'Poison', love the raw edit/mixtape feel, rhythmically it's wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBBZFL0jzYw

"force of nature" could have been invented to describe busta

is that roots' track really from the "Do You Want More?!!!??!" sessions? The track starts off with vocal samples from "things fall apart" and a song from the hurricane soundtrack

re-reading what you wrote maybe the vocal tracks were from that era and the track was put together later

That Busta song is sick

I want a whole album of Busta over fractured old school songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y5J3VUC9qM

is that roots' track really from the "Do You Want More?!!!??!" sessions? The track starts off with vocal samples from "things fall apart" and a song from the hurricane soundtrack

― intheblanks, Monday, November 27, 2023 11:09 AM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

re-reading what you wrote maybe the vocal tracks were from that era and the track was put together later

― intheblanks, Monday, November 27, 2023 11:10 AM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

According to Quest it was a hybrid, the vocals and most of the tracks were done in '94, but he re-did some of the drums (and obv added some other bits) in 2020.

his Guru impersonation is hilarious

somehow the very idea of a perfectly executed Guru impersonation is fun

well wait just a second, if this was the prank, i'm kinda... for it now?

Credit where due...?

Flashback to August 2013. Buzz shows off his prized wooden flute to Andre 3000 backstage at an Atlanta Melvins show. Coincidence? pic.twitter.com/aSyKshzhcu

— melvins.com (@melvinsdotcom) November 30, 2023

I almost RT'd that

this was much worse than i expected and i wasn't expecting anything except some pleasant ambient flute noodling

I have to respect the track titles " That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild"

I don’t…just makes me feel like he’s not confident in his work so has to make these stupid jokes to prove it’s all just off the cuff. Also reminds me of bad 90s emo/post rock song titles.

"This is Andre 3000 in his New Age / Ambient Jazz form - whether you like it or not."

https://www.discogs.com/release/28941661-Andr%C3%A9-3000-New-Blue-Sun

bugglesman1993 Nov 20, 2023
The song titles are too long to be copies over to certain devices due to their file path. I've had to rename these as 'Track 01' etc

Helpful NTFS advice from discogs! I thought microsoft had fixed that +_) https://lifehacker.com/windows-10-allows-file-names-longer-than-260-characters-1785201032 I cant believe they guy from the Buggles doesnt use google

Anyone see the review in the January 2024 edition of The Wire? (not online I think)

A friend told me the other night that Rob Mazurek was singing its praises, but I don't care.

^use this pull quote for the packaging!

https://i.imgur.com/5W5BF6x.png

oh ffs he's going to get spots on actual jazz records now like it's the Make-a-Wish Foundation for retired rappers

https://pitchfork.com/news/shabaka-hutchins-enlists-andre-3000-moses-sumney-and-more-for-new-album-shares-song-listen/

Hahaha

oh yeah, he will surely hurt the sales for these artists

no, but i believe the argument is 'can't actual jazz musicians who have devoted their lives to the craft get a guest spot before someone who just decided in his twilight hour to cosplay as a jazz flautist?'

On an album that also has Saul Williams and Floating Points?

I mean sure if Andre is going to be sitting in with every Jazz quintet making a record I'm sure the Jazz Union could file a grievance

Let's be honest, for the jazz musicians it's the thrill of hanging out with Andre, everybody wins.

He played with band of the Subtle Movements dudes and Joshua Abrams in Chicago, which seems like a pretty perfect grouping

https://thetriibe.com/2024/02/andre-3000-played-his-flute-on-the-west-side-like-a-true-outkast-would-chicago/

I caught a date on his recent theater tour and I am here to report that, at least in the city I was in, even at this late date many people in attendance had no idea he was going to play instrumental new age music instead of singing “Hey Ya”. (This despite huge warning signs in the lobby replicating the “WARNING: NO BARS” sticker on the album.)

Place couldn’t have been a third full to start with, and theater staff were going around begging people to abandon their seats in the back and fill out the front rows like it was a school assembly. Once it started, people were streaming for the exits over the first 20 minutes of the set, many folks audibly astonished at what they were seeing, laughing in disbelief, “Is this a joke?”, etc. Andre ofc seemed totally unperturbed, clearly just having a good time in his zone. One of the absolute strangest concerts of my life but in hindsight kind of the perfect way to experience this.

I was pretty cool on the album but enjoyed it much more as a live show, was cool to see Carlos Nino and the band going off at length. Overall I give it an easy five mics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtHsqAjoXXY

thought the flute album was wack but i'm down with the piano sketches on first listen

Reminds me of the Sun Ra solo piano improv albums where he’s just plunking his way up & down the keys, noodling around. Cant say I’d make a case that its “good” but its simple & short enough that its hard for me to hate on it. Its fine.

I am looking forward to the Pitchfork review that will inevitably compare this to Cecil Taylor, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, and William Basinski

jesus christ, let's hope not. my faith in humanity is already hanging by a thread

I looked at it on Tidal and when I saw it was only 17 minutes long, somehow that convinced me not to even bother.

If you change your mind, the vinyl is only $36

lol

I am looking forward to the Pitchfork review that will inevitably compare this to Cecil Taylor, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, and William Basinski

― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Wednesday, May 7, 2025 3:17 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

you weren't far off. We got McCoy Tyner, Thelonious Monk and...Stephen Sondheim

Ethan Iverson for the prosecution.

André 3000 is famous for the deeply satisfying hip-hop group Outkast, and especially famous for the novelty number “Hey Ya,” an enormous hit that everybody liked (including me). After years of silence André 3000 is now trying to take instrumental music by storm. Last year he made an album of ambient improv flute appropriate for getting high or doing yoga. I was never the target audience for this kind of music, so—despite wall-to-wall coverage in what remains of music journalism—-I ignored it.

But a solo piano album? Enough is enough. I simply demand expertise if the topic is solo piano, and André 3000 is strictly amateur hour. Based on the flute music, the expectation was that the piano music would be meditative and boring. Not at all! These compositions are spiky, weird, and lost. He’s playing with a beat, but the beat is uneven because he’s not a pianist. He’s looking for chords, but the chords don’t live next to each other in true harmony because he’s not a pianist. A few inchoate melodies start to emerge, but he can’t make a song because he’s not a pianist.

...

The tracks are ancient, from 2013, and just done with iPhone voice memo, so the production values are hideous, including during the trivial announcements of song titles at the start of each track. Had he even been thinking about this music before getting the call to peacock at the gala? The whole album is essentially unlistenable. If he was trying to troll, the joke needed to be more obvious.

The press comment for Apple Music declares, “May 5, 2025, will stand now as a historic benchmark for André 3000.” Duly noted. Duly fucking noted. If you are famous, you can do anything.

Read the whole thing; he brings up Bartók, and even offers a partial transcription of one piece.

Matthew Shipp went in on this record on FB. r/jazz is mad about it but I'm not, jazz players laying down the law makes me happy

Recording it on an iPhone sure is something

i liked the flute album and actually gave it another spin after this one. i don't think i'll be revisiting this one save for one track

I have zero interest in this EP (the flute album was shit), but Iverson starting off by comparing a dippy 17-min vanity project to our current fascist oligarchy is kind of pathetic.

and fwiw the pitchfork review cites Monk and Sondheim as comparisons raised by André himself not the reviewer; the Tyner reference is also p qualified

this bad music is def being graded on a curve by critics but let's not go nuts

Matt Shipp said he might take down his FB post, so I'll preserve it here:

so a friend called me up and mentioned that Andre 3000 has a piano album out -- I was like what. I checked it out on YouTube -- my impression of it. I think it is complete and utter crap -- horrific -- god awful insipidly wretched nothing. Oh my fucking god this is some atrocious shite -- is he some type of fucking asshole? Is he a complete and utter dilettante? I could go into detail about why each cut is stillborn -- but why bother -- it does not even deserve the attention of a critique it is so dreadful. The guy is not a pianist -- that is the beginning and the end of it -- what an ugly piano sound -- let's not even talk about telling a story with harmony -- sounds like he listens to a bunch of music gets a couple of gestures in his head -- sits down in a stream of consciousness and gets at some gesture for a few bars of something that he has not internalized -- and barely knows on the most superficial level and then he loses the thread -- of course there is zero composition going on in the improvisations -- no language to speak of just a few cliches in his head that he can't actually play the cliche but he hits and tries at it until he peters out quickly -- wow -- he is so horrible at playing harmony -- so many horn players that piano is not their instrument play so much better -- this sounds to me like pure fraud -- what a lack of respect for the discipline by someone who in my opinion is a complete asshole for doing this -- it is depressing that this garbage will get any attention because he has a name and fame -- there is nothing refreshing about the naivety of it -- it is just downright dreadful and awful -- true fucking crap -- insipidly wretched nothing

i'm surprised he had that much to say about such boring, motionless music.

TT 513: Good God, this new André 3000 piano album is just awful

lol

oops I see that was linked earlier, sorry

Iverson's musical directions in his transcription include "expressionless yet uneven" and "struggling".

the retroactive shade thrown by calling "hey ya" 'a novelty' cuts pretty efficiently. this is the kind of album and pr campaign that "hey ya" was making fun of and reacting to. i don't begrudge anyone who gets something out of these records, but i hate andre and his music now. this is the last thing i'll ever say about it.

okay, one last thing, but this is malicious: i saw a recent interview with him where he was praising and being impressed by how new school rappers record exclusively one line at a time, relying completely on punch-ins. it figures he has no clue how to play an instrument with any respect when he has zero respect for the form he's supposedly really good at. i will reiterate: he's impressed that contemporary rappers literally can't rap. dude's lost the plot completely.

‪Trummors‬
✧@trumm✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 12s
The haters are pissed about Andre 3000's piano album. But wait until they hear about his next project, a series of lectures on Marxist dialectics and cultural critique, in the style of the Frankfurt School, and released under his given name Andre Benjamin (pronounced Ben-Ya-Mean).

just checked this out on youtube and it's all at this sweet spot of being consistently bad without ever being quite bad enough to be interesting.

lol

xxxp I haven’t read that interview but i had the impression that Andre’s feelings about rap were that it had evolved into something that didn’t suit his talents and he no longer had much to contribute, and didn’t want to be an old man complaining about the youth. Idk maybe he’s being too positive and i gave up on the piano album after one track but that’s not a perspective i find offensive.

Why would you want to put any effort into anything ever again when you can sell out tours - and earn praise - doing nothing but half-assed flute?

It reminds of a quote that may or may not be from Zappa about guitar synths: why would a first-rate guitarist want to sound like a third-rate saxophone player?

you mean the guy who made entire albums with a Synclavier?

Point taken, though!

It reminds of a quote that may or may not be from Zappa about guitar synths: why would a first-rate guitarist want to sound like a third-rate saxophone player?

Lemme just email Kurt Rosenwinkel's manager real quick...

xpost well, assuming the attribution is correct, Zappa was nothing if not full of shit!

Anyone's worst work could be a stepping stone to their best work.

My lifestyle determines my deathstyle

otm

Anyone's worst work could be a stepping stone to their best work.

Lol, sure, in the sense that with practice bad piano and flute players in theory get better. As demonstrated through the guitar acting in BOC's "The Marshall Plan."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQqfegOZ_X0

I started comparing this to the moment when John Mellencamp directed a movie, but I’ll go touch grass instead.

Falling from Grace isn't at all bad either

Given his dabbling in acting I'm surprised by Andre's lame pivot to this bullshit rather than the more predictable route of "now I want to direct."

directing requires effort

I bet he could find a way to do it with minimal effort.

Set up a camera, tell people to go in front of it, how hard can it be?

"We decided to try something different and improvise the entire film. Not just the acting, the whole thing. Improvise the set, improvise the lighting, improvise the music ... the whole thing. I've been deeply immersed in the best, Cassavetes, Robin Williams, Marcel the Shell, all of the greats. Did you know David Bowie studied with Marcel the Shell? He's one of my biggest influences, Marcel the Shell. I mean, Bowie, too, that goes without saying, but Marcel the Shell walked so that Bowie can run, and Bowie ran so that I could fly."

Sounds like Masked and Anonymous.

"Give my regards to West Compton"...

How soon we forget the Outlast movie where Andre plays a jazz piano player

I think Jon Benjamin did the definitive version of this with "Well, I Should Have... (Learned How To Play Piano)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTQEVXLAfc4

Well, You Needn't ... Learn How to Play Your Instrument

In a way I respect Andre's view that rap is youth culture and he should bow out of it except when invited, that whatever the current generation is doing with it is de facto cool & correct, and that he has no interest in making throwback old man rap records.

It's also kind of nice and weirdly intimate to hear him noodling around on piano in a very vulnerable way, the only reason it falls flat is that putting out as an album and pressing it to vinyl feels unavoidably like a statement, the kind that he seems loathe to make these days. It's a bind, if he had put it out as a curio under a pseudonym the music wouldn't stand on its own and people would have no interest, but it also doesn't work as an official release under his own name. I think it would have come off better if he had just thrown it up on soundcloud or as a free Bandcamp release.

yeah it looks very much like a scam to get money from his fanbase. even if it isn't that, it certainly looks like it.

I blame the people around him for gassing him up and convincing him to put this out officially (or maybe that's not true and he just felt like it, or he needed some $ and didn't want to have to do Outkast shows).

I guess we should be thankful that he just likes noodling and isn't a nazi.

pretty low bar tbh

sry no more

It sounds exactly like Come On Feel The Lemonheads closing track The Jello Fund

It should be a tape!

as an iPhone memo, it should have been released solely by forcing it onto Bono’s phone and no-one else’s

now that's the sort of artistic trolling i can get behind.

"punish bono, not your fans"