This isn’t what I expected from him at all, but I really enjoyed this.
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I got a lot out of listening to it as well.
All the weird hype in the few days building up to it had me thinking it would be flute only, was pleasantly surprised to find its basically a synth ambient album.
I’m a little torn about the vocals thing. On one hand he can and should totally do whatever works for him and this seems like it was the perfect move; on the other hand I think the song titles suggest hes got something to say. He says he has nothing to rap about now that hes 48, fair enough to not force it, but I kept thinking the titles would have made really good prompts for like free-form spoken word pieces or something.
I could point to rappers like Danny Brown who are making great music well into their forties, but if it ultimately comes down to him not feeling rap as an artistic outlet anymore, that’s fine by me, and I think people clowning on this record (including some jackass from SNL, the worst show in the history of mankind) are stuck in the past.
I’d love a new Outkast album as much as the next guy, but I liked this record for what it was and Andre has reached that point where he can do whatever the fuck he wants as far as I’m concerned.
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I really dig this. I am so overwhelmingly in favour of artists making weird experimental stuff that’s different from their other work (who would’ve thought I’d be a Gizz fan). I like these sorts of experiments even if they don’t really work out, because I like when people push the boundaries of their medium. In this case though, I think the result is also great on its own merits. (And the titles are fun.)
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I’ve listened to it now actively rather than treating it as a background ambient piece and found it surprisingly rewarding.
Very fascinating that the album is basically the learning process of the instrument in real time, you can really hear him toying with it and getting more confident as he goes. It’s much jazzier than I originally thought.