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Nov 20, 2023Moving in this decidedly uncommercial new direction is a bolder step, which proves him to be the sincere and genuine artist that his biggest fans always knew he was.
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Nov 20, 2023New Blue Sun is the most emotionally direct music André has ever made. The methods might be oblique, the instrumentation often unclear, the man himself occasionally missing in action or off on his own pursuits, but the sense of intermixed sadness, loss, and peace that permeates this music is impossible to miss.
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Nov 27, 2023Yes, New Blue Sun is receiving a healthy amount of praise because it’s André 3000, but it’s also a truly wonderful piece of music.
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The WireDec 6, 2023It’s all well played and lusciously presented, and if you’re meditating to the album, little here will disrupt your vibe. [Jan/Feb 2024, p.77]
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Nov 20, 2023New Blue Sun is not the best ambient record you can hear in 2023. .... However, New Blue Sun will probably be the only ambient record many people do hear in 2023, and it’s great that such a lively, sumptuous album gets the gig.
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Nov 17, 2023“New Blue Sun” is ecstatic and dreamy, even when, at the times, its sounds are ferocious and fearful. If André 3000 wasn’t going to release a chattering, rap-filled hip-hop album this time out, “New Blue Sun” may count as that theoretical project’s intriguing instrumental equal.
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Dec 8, 2023This album can work when it's in service of something other than itself. Listened to in smaller stretches, it becomes a bit easier to digest, and opens up a bit.
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Nov 16, 2023New Blue Sun is probably not the André 3000 solo debut most OutKast fans had expected or hoped for, but it does continue the integrity and spirit of his creative journey, in a way that's fittingly bizarre and beautiful.
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UncutDec 8, 2023Despite a few interesting textures, New Blue Sun never really takes flight. [Jan 2024, p.25]
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Nov 27, 2023Just as André 3000 isn’t as good at singing, acting or guitar playing as he is at rapping, he also isn’t as good at playing wind instruments, going some way to justify the disappointed reaction to this record’s announcement. That being said, the fun he’s having through experimentation is undoubtedly infectious, and at various points the musical ensemble create such an otherworldly vibe that one forgets the main artist is famous for something very different.
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Nov 27, 2023Benjamin has woodwind form. He contributed flute to the soundtrack of Everything Everywhere All at Once and played clarinet on 2018’s epic tribute to his mother, Look Ma No Hands. New Blue Sun is more weirdly charismatic than either of those.
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Nov 17, 2023Ultimately, the Achilles heel of the whole project is how invested, how much fans will truly believe in this. To some, it’s a meme stretched to breaking point, the elasticity of his flute-playing hauled out to become an opaque sheet, void of detail. To others, it’s an excellent – almost unclassifiable – mood piece. Whether it’s the meanderings of an internet-savvy millionaire or the crucial work of a modern day ambient auteur is perhaps in the eye of the beholder.