Review Summary: Dabbing at the edge of the audience’s consciousness like Bob Ross with white gesso
An iconic scene from the cult Australian film
The Castle finds chronically inept suburban lawyer Dennis Denuto before the Supreme Court. Stumbling over words and fumbling with papers, Denuto, attempting to challenge the compulsory acquisition of protagonist Darryl Kerrigan’s home, decries the action as a contravention of the Australian constitution. When asked to cite the specific section of the constitution which has been violated, Denuto falters, before uttering his infinitely quotable retort:
”It’s just the vibe of the thing.”
One gets the sense that if Andre 3000 was drug before the court of public opinion and asked about
New Blue Sun, his appeal to “The Vibe” would be just as central to his defence as Denuto’s. His first full-length release since recusing himself from the rap game almost two decades ago, the unexpected
New Blue Sun sees the erstwhile Three Stacks forsake hip-hop entirely; instead performing with assorted woodwinds on a collection of long-form, new age / ambient tracks, replete with self described smatterings of spiritual jazz, and track titles longer and more patently ridiculous than those of even the most garrulous Midwest emo group.
Much has been made of the former rapper’s admiration of John Coltrane — ostensibly the original source of inspiration for Andre 3000 to begin performing with woodwinds and attempt to rebrand as a latter-day hep cat — but the harmonic frameworks and melodic phrasing here for the most begin to resemble the boldly baited lines Coltrane hooked listeners’ attention with only in the few restrained, almost tentative crescendi present in nearly ninety minutes’ worth of music. For the most part, Three Stacks’ flute work dabs at the edge of the audience’s consciousness like Bob Ross wielding a brush thick with white gesso. It’s a vibe, to be certain - but there is a listlessness here, exacerbated by excessive runtime, that makes these compositions feel more like improvisational noodling than expression.
New Blue Sun’s spiritual leanings feel similarly amorphous. Unlike Coltrane disciple Pharoah Sanders’
Karma, which compels submission to its terrifying exuberance with the implied threat that divine retribution may otherwise be meted upon the listener,
New Blue Sun proffers only a vague invitation toward contemplation. There is none of Sun Ra’s cacophonous exaltation; none of Alice Coltrane’s meditative intrigue.
New Blue Sun contents itself with setting a vibe and atmosphere that may be conducive to a spiritual experience if the listener is inclined towards pursuing that end, but little inherent spiritual exegesis seems discernible beyond this. In this sense, it is the soundtrack to a liminal space — its eerie featurelessness existing only to facilitate movement from point to point, and not as an end unto itself.
How to evaluate then music only intended to set a mood? Is the measure of a good ambient album merely how quickly one falls asleep to it? The breadth of Andre 3000’s talent is undeniable.
New Blue Sun, is troubled not by a lack of potential, nor even by Three Stacks’ departure from hip-hop, but by a lack of anything much else to grab on to at all — even compared to more compelling ambient artists.
New Blue Sun is undoubtedly a passion project, but cultivating a beginner’s mind here leaves Andre 3000 sounding like a dilettante tootling over backing tracks. Some may find reward in plumbing its depths, or use for it as a tool to aid spiritual transcendence. For the rest of us, it is mood music; enjoyable only insofar as its being unobtrusive enough to set the vibe for other activities — like reading music criticism on the internet.
