André 3000 announced that he will be releasing a full-length album for the first time since 2006, but ‘New Blue Sun’ will surprise fans with more than just its arrival.
‘New Blue Sun’ will showcase André 3000 in a different light than his previous works, focusing on his work as a flautist. The album features no beats nor bars, but instead numerous different kinds of flutes, including Mayan flutes, contrabass flutes, bamboo flutes and more. André says it is inspired by numerous artists including Laraaji, Brian Eno, Alice Coltrane, Steve Reich, and Pharaoh Sanders in combination with an ayahuasca trip he took (during which he turned into a panther). Working with percussionist Carlos Niño, keyboardist Surya Botofasina, and guitarist Nate Mercereau, ‘New Blue Sun’ was born through improvisations.
In a recent interview, André told NPR reporters that: “It’s not like I don’t try or it’s not like I have a lot of these songs just sitting — I have songs but it’s not like rap things that I really feel happy about sharing. And really, that’s the most important part. I have to feel happy about sharing it. That’s why ‘New Blue Sun’ was something that I realized, whoa, I really want people to hear it. I really want to share it.”
While creating early versions of the album, André says he asked some of his other musician friends to listen and give him feedback. The results were overwhelming, with Frank Ocean loving it and Tyler, the Creator telling him that one of the tracks helped him overcome an artists block. Tyler told André: “It sounds like you’re chasing a butterfly through a garden and I figured it out,” explaining how André’s music helped him to create a new Louis Vuitton collaboration piece.
Although André 3000 still works on some rap projects, he told reporters that “it’s kind of like, I don’t know how to rock on that, really, in a way that I feel great about it. So if I can’t find a way to rock on it, I kind of leave it there.” Each of the track titles in the album are descriptive and very different, leaving fans to decipher how each title connects to the track.
André 3000’s ‘New Blue Sun’ drops this Friday, November 17th. You can check out the full tracklist below.
New Blue Sun:
1. I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a “Rap” Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time
2. The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off the Tongue With Far Better Ease Than the Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?
3. 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
4. BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears A 3000TM Button Down Embroidered
5. Ninety Three ’Til Infinity And Beyoncé
6. Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, And John Wayne Gacy
7. Ants To You, Gods To Who ?
8. Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens