7 piano sketches Review — beachboymusicreviews

7 piano sketches is the second album from Atlanta rapper, singer, producer, musician, and actor, André Benjamin, better known by his moniker André 3000. He’s widely considered to be one of the greatest rappers of all time through his work in the hip hop duo Outkast, with rapper Big Boi. As a kid, it was impossible to avoid hearing “Hey Ya,” on the radio back in the early 2000s, and tracks like “Ms. Jackson,” and “B.O.B (Bombs Over Baghdad),” still remain in my head all these years later. What’s fascinating, however, is that despite being considered one of hip hop’s greats, he has never released a solo rap album. His first record, 2023’s New Blue Sun caught everyone completely off guard as it was him demonstrating his impressive skill as a flautist. That’s right, in addition to his rapping/singing ability, he also plays flute, guitar, and keyboards. The title of this new release basically tells you what the album is going to be, which is a piano album, that being said how does it sound?

I don’t think I need to go into great detail about this, but André 3000 is an amazingly talented pianist. I mean what can’t this guy do? If he released an album where he showed off his trumpet skills I would be impressed. That being said, I don’t really know what his overall end game is when it comes to these instrumental and ambient records. I don’t see him releasing instrumental albums as him trolling his fans or deceiving the public, I see it more as him wanting to make what makes him happy. The 7 tracks on this thing only total up to 16 minutes, and the songs themselves don’t exceed the 4 minute mark (the longest song is 3 minutes and 31 seconds). I honestly was sort of unable to figure out what I wanted to say with this review, because I’m so accustomed to reviewing not just the instrumental/production side of music, but the vocal/lyrical side as well. The spoken word in these tracks don’t really add anything to the album in my opinion, as they only serve as introductions to each track. This quite literally might be the shortest album I’ve ever written about, and while it’s not bad, I just don’t really understand what Andre’s vision is going forward. I get that he’s trying to release what makes him happy, and I can respect that, but this album just doesn’t wow me. I don’t have a favorite or least favorite track on this thing, as I honestly think it’s too short for that kind of analysis. The musical aspect of it sounds beautiful, but creativity wise, it just doesn’t impress me. I will say that the sixth track, “off rhythm laughter,” gives me the creeps after a while. Sorry that this review was so short, but I’m sort of at a loss for words, as when I went into this, I knew it was going to be piano focused, but I didn’t know it was going to be this bare bones and minimalist.