André 3000 – 7 Piano Sketches – clashmusic.com

André 3000 is doing his own thing. Forever one of rap’s true individualists, his time with OutKast helped to re-define Southern hip-hop, granting modern pop culture one of its most immaculate catalogues. As a solo artist, the Atlanta figure has steadfastly refused to go down old paths – he’s given up rap, citing it as a young person’s game, instead channelling his flute-fixation on 2023 album ‘New Blue Sun’.
While some performances – in particular his late afternoon stint at London’s All Points East – were divisive, the record proved to have longevity, its pleasing, bubbling ambience finding its own role in the landscape.
Released mere minutes after his appearance on the Met Gala red carpet, ‘7 Piano Sketches’ is much more perfunctory. An artist we should really begin to take at his word, this is only 16 minutes of music, and the pieces are – if anything – less formed than his prior flute diversions.
Opener ‘bluffing in the snow’ is pretty but aimless; ‘and then one day you’ll…’ is nice, if meandering. A fan of oblique titles for his compositions, André 3000 steps up to the plate with a ginormous suggestion, one that is a boon for writers struggling to hit their word limit:
‘when you’re a ant and you wake up in an awesome mood, about to drive your son to school, only to discover that you left the lights on in the car last night so your battery is drained’
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As the project continues, there’s a feeling that while the melodic sharpness remains, the focus is absent. ‘hotel lobby pianos’ as a title sums up where the seven-tracker sits – it’s more exercises for fingers than something fixed or permanent, even containing a nod to lounge classic ‘Take Five’ by Dave Brubeck.
The recording techniques are switched up on the slightly more raw ‘blueberry mansions’ – the subtle distinctions allowing for a more jagged, angular melodic thrust than the record’s prior Debussy echoes.
The spoken introduction to ‘off rhythm laughter’ is slowed and stretched, and this woozy feel is draped across the performance. The sonorous, somnambulist ‘I spend all day waiting for the night’ finds itself stuck in honey, a finale with a suggested hip-hop beat lingering in the background.
To fans, everything André 3000 touches is fascinating. A heroic figure who has shunned repeated attempted as colossal, money-fixing OutKast tours, he is genuinely out there doing his own thing. Being objective, however, ‘7 Piano Sketches’ feels slight – a bookmark, rather than a tome.
5/10
Words: Robin Murray

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