If you don’t know who André 3000 is, he’s best known as a member of Outkast where he raps and sings in hit songs like “Hey Ya!” and “Ms. Jackson.” 20 years later, he released his first solo album “New Blue Sun.”
“New Blue Sun” is made up of eight songs ranging from three minutes and 50 seconds to over 17 minutes long. Adding all the song lengths together, you get one hour and 28 minutes of meditative music. This genre transition to meditative music might seem unusual to fans at first because he’s known for rap.
The first track is called “I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time.” In this song, there is a lot of repetition and swells within the notes he plays, ranging from high to lower notes. You can hear birds in the background and continuous sounds from a gong and wind chimes.
Additionally, you can hear maracas counting the beat as he plays the flute. Through the flute, he’s telling the story of how the wind blew him in a different direction. It’s meant to be moving, with soft beats at the start, gradually getting louder. Near the end, the flute plays quick notes at a fast pace.
The second track, “The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina. Do You Agree?,” starts with an organ playing notes at a moderate tempo. After a few minutes in, the tempo slows down as the flute gradually unites to perform the melody. The organ is the harmony and the song turns into a duet with river sounds in the background. After the river comes in, the duet stays at a steady and moderate tempo.
The third track, “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,” uses a drum at the start. The chords are continued steadily throughout the song with André 3000’s flute playing the melody. This is probably my favorite in the album because I love the combination of eerie sounds from the flute and crackling undertones made by the drums. Like the first song, there is repetition involved to show purring, which is needed to tell the story of how he became a panther in Hawaii.
The fourth track, “BuyPolosDisorder’s Daughter Wears A 3000 Shirt Embroidered,” mainly repeats the elements in the three tracks before which makes this monotonous. While the song is well composed, it’s boring at times. For example, repeated verses, swells and the direction from high to low tempos and sounds.
Also, there is no story told, just another piece of good music emphasizing a statement. I prefer the songs that tell stories so this is my least favorite song on the album.
The fifth track, “Ninety Three ‘Til Infinity And Beyoncé,” starts you off wondering what this means. Bass is added to the wind chimes, adding flow to it. This is a good way to make up for the first four repeated tracks. It’s also the shortest at three minutes and 50 seconds long.
The sixth track, “Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C./Bundy, Jefferey Dahmer, And John Wayne Gacy,” embodies a battle between nonviolence and violence. There are hidden vocals saying “Ahhh” and the piano harmonizes with the flute. This portrays the peaceful acts Gandhi, Dalai Lama and Jesus Christ show throughout their lives.
A gong and cymbal come in frequently to show the three serial killers committing their crimes. This song is more powerful than the rest of the songs because it’s upbeat and slow in a somber way.
The seventh track, “Ants To You, Gods To Who?,” starts off really quietly and slowly gets louder with eerie sounds from the flute as the melody. If vocals were included, it would be an “oooh” or “weee.” In the background, he adds wind chimes and bird echoes to emphasize the eeriness of the melody. As the song ends, the music slows down with a gradual ritardando.
Finally, the last track, “Dreams Once Buried Beneath The Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens,” starts with wind chimes and goes into soft notes like a whistle. This is the longest song, lasting for over 17 minutes. Near the middle of the song, a guitar joins with the flute to add depth. The rhythm is steady and stays the same throughout the song.
Sometimes, a gong and synthetic piano will appear, to increase the volume or a crescendo. This shows the dreams that were under the dungeon floor growing into gardens.
Overall this album focuses on flute as the vocals with different percussion instruments as accompaniment. Each song tells a story or asks for listeners’ opinions to questions. I find it as a tool to help me to block out excessive noise while I’m working. If you are sick of listening to the same songs everyday or looking for more music to your playlist, this is the album for you.