been wrong about andre 3000
Plus new music from 100 gecs, Kali Morgan, Loveshadow, and boygenius
I was wrong, the flute is cool.
For years I was a strong “why can’t Andre just get back to rap” guy – not in a “stick to sports” way, but I genuinely missed hearing someone be amazing at the thing they’re amazing at, in addition to loving all of his (increasingly rare) guest verses through the years.
I’ve found “fame brain” very confounding – when someone whose art you love, who is incredible their craft, convinces themselves they are actually just Good At Creativity and fork off into some wack bullshit. James Murphy, in fact, is one of the few musicians who admitted that he just fooled himself into thinking he was generally good at creativity post-”retirement” because he succeeded at music. He said to Vulture in 2017:
I thought I was a “creative” person and music just happened to be what I was doing. It took me a long time to realize that I understand music better than I understand anything else. It wasn’t just another thing; it was the thing.
So I had the same mindset re: Andre 3000’s pivot to not-rap, and I’m here to say: I was wrong. It’s extremely cool he embraced the path that felt real to him and dropped a flute-powered album that showed us all where he was at. Is he incredible at the flute? No. The opening track of New Blue Sun sits on the same awkward flute motif for its entire twelve and a half minutes, and his sense of “out” notes or phrasing is…limited, at best.
But that doesn’t matter: it’s cool he did this, it’s cool to hear an artist take everyone along on their journey, and even if it’s not the best ambient jazz you’ll ever hear, New Blue Sun is true, brave, and worth your time.
A few other things worth your time:
Want more jazz flute? Stereogum’s jazz columnist has a guide to what you should listen to next.
Some Expectations – Josh Terry’s excellent substack No Expectations has been hitting really hard for me. His essay last week on his changing taste, and why music should make you feel like a kid is particularly enjoyable.
Scaled rooting for the antihero – Ryan Broderick talks about the Taylor Swift info ecosystem and how the internet moves as fandoms instead of platforms
Mallory Hawk started a resource for non-male producers and engineers in an effort to help shift the gender balance in the studio. Women currently only make up 2.8% of producer credits! In 2023!!!
Aaaaand on to the best of the week! You can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter. Enjoy!
Basement Jaxx & 100 gecs - where’s my head at_
Unbelievably stupid dubstep-style flip of “Where’s Your Head At” that sounds like a crowd of 22 year olds losing their shit. Hold my elfbar, I’m opening up this pit.
Andre 3000 – BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears A 3000® Shirt Embroidered
This is my favorite of the record so far – the best use of Andre’s flute playing, and the Carlos Niño-led ensemble. The glitchy looping in the middle and underlying arpeggiation nods to Phillip Glass as much as new age jazz.
Loveshadow – Another Dream
“Another Dream” is the highlight from Loveshadow’s aptly named 2nd LP, II, sitting somewhere between an 80’s freestyle deep cuts and Chairlift’s 2012 album Something – like if “Let The Music Play” came out on Terrible Records. There’s an erudite coolness to the SF duo’s compositions that keep their songs from feeling like a throwback – but the group’s delightfully pitch-perfect analog tones and “Another Dream’s” dramatic second half wouldn’t be out of place in a chase scene from Beverly Hills Cop.
Kali Malone - All Life Long (for organ)
“All Life Long (for organ)” is a gorgeous ambient composition for the organ from American composer Kali Malone. I flipped to this after tiring from the Erewhon good vibes of Andre’s record, and the austere yet plain harmony of Malone’s composition felt perfectly grey for a winter afternoon here in Brooklyn.
boygenius & Ye Vagabonds – The Parting Glass
2023’s favorite supergroup flex their harmonic muscles on this cover in tribute to Sinead O’Conner. All proceeds go to the Aisling Project – “a Dublin-based charity chosen by O’Connor’s estate, which provides after-school activities, support and meals for disadvantaged children and young people” per CNN. The song surges to a devastating yet glowing climax, with dark, brooding strings haunting the group’s beautiful vocal arrangement.
throwww w w back
The Olivia Tremor Control – Can You Come Down With Us?
I’ve been listening to OTC’s Dusk at Cubist Castle since I watched the Elephant 6 Recording Company documentary this summer. The doc is a delightful watch, and it motivated me to dig back into Elephant 6 deep cuts and ask myself if I, too, needed to make a psych masterpiece on a four-track.