André 3000 has surpassed Tool for the longest Hot 100 hit of all time. As Billboard reports, his track “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time” charted at #90 on the Hot 100 this week — it’s the first song on his new instrumental album New Blue Sun. It clocks in at 12 minutes and 20 seconds, longer than Tool’s “Fear Inoculum,” which is 10 minutes and 21 seconds and debuted at #93 back in 2019. André 3000’s track notched 5.8 million streams over the past week.
I definitely thought this was an onion article when I read that song title.
It feels 100% honest that’s for sure
He intended to write a light novel but ended up making a song instead.
The novel:
“Doot doot doot doot doot doot doot…”
The takeaway for me here is that Taylor Swift has a 10+ minute song.
That surprised me too
Mine is that Dire Straits’ Telegraph Road didn’t make the list.
Coincidentally, I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
Is it also the longest title?
Compact view thumbnail looks like he’s wearing hand glasses
I’m a big ambientish electronic instrumental music listener, and I thought the track name was amusing so I went and checked it out. I got halfway but it’s not doing much for me.
It started out with some almost Rue the Whirl by Boards of Canada vibes which I’m a fan of, but it doesn’t seem to go very far and seems to focus on whether it sounds OK in that moment rather than as a full song journey. I’ll pass, but good for him for doing whatever the fuck he feels like.
One of my favourite 10min instrumental songs for comparison, which sort of shows what I mean by journey. The peak hits around 5 mins in Moya - Godspeed You Black Emperor.
Of the tracks listed in the article David Bowie’s blackstar is my favorite. The album is fantastic too
Its because all the melodies are just him noodling on what sounds good to him (what he said in a GQ interview at least) so zero song construction. Just 3000 noodling over a backing track for a hot minute.
Yep, that completely fits with what I thought it sounded like. Thanks for the verification of my gut feeling!
Great post and a quick question for you: How does Onion Tube differ from YouTube? Is it federated?
Onion tube is an instance of invidious. It’s an alternate frontend for YouTube, and as such isn’t a federation thing. My limited understanding is that it just queries youtube via API, but I’ve not delved into the source code to confirm that.
I only listened to ‘Dreams once buried beneath the dungeon floor slowly sprout into undying gardens’ and I know what you mean about it not being a focused thing. Makes good tabletop music tho.
Fair, I can definitely see it in that context. When I’m in the mood for an hour long atmospheric meandering background noise journey, I find the Shenzhou album by Biosphere a good bet, amongst others of his work. (I seem to have a thing for Arctic Circle rural desolate ambient soundscapes?) It’s repetitive enough to be unobtrusive, but I don’t feel like I’m listening as much to modern elevator music like I did with the other track.
If you like Biosphere and you haven’t heard him, Loscil is wonderdully minimalistic dub ambient very focused on “cold” granular synths with tastefully meanderingly monotone progression.
Thanks for the recommendation! I will try him out right now.
I didn’t realize either of them were still releasing music at this point. Pretty cool.
André just came out with an album I think. The tool song is from 2019
Last I listened to new music from either was early 00’s, lol.
You have your entire retirement already planned out then
“The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina. Do You Agree?”
Was my personal favorite.
I need a follow up about vulvas.
Oh wow, this was fucking terrible and I enjoy hour long chill loops on YT… It’s like elevator music, 90s ocean wave sound effects, and bad flutes had a child and that child was Hitler.
How the fuck is this on any hot list?
I listened to the entire thing twice (I do that with all albums I don’t hate) and thought it was incredible mediocre. The comments on YouTube make me think people have never heard ambient music before with how much they’re hyping it up.
I’m happy for Andre that he can just do whatever he wants in life but…yeah. There is nothing about the album that makes me want to relisten. He wrote most of it on the fly while recording. The best parts are the track names
Fantano was pretty excited for it but still only gave it a 6/10
That was a steaming hot turd. I couldn’t last more than 15 seconds.
I also listen to lofi chill beats all day while working and this was 100% not good.
Pitchfork gave it best new music as well
My go to music for household chores: Duke Ellington’s Mood indigo (From the album Masterpieces by Ellington). It’s 15:26 long and I know every part of the song that I can almost use it as a timer.
Tool’s Descending is longer and better.
They’re two completely different genres of music and Fear Inoculum is the worst TOOL album.
What’s the first comment have to do with anything? The article started the comparison.
The comparison was between songs that have been on the Billboard Hot 100, which includes Fear Inoculum and the aforementoined Andre 3000 piece.
Descending was not on the Billboard Hot 100, which means this went from comparing top hits of any genre to Tool fans circlejerking about their favorite Tool tracks.
Dear God Tool fans are insufferable. No wonder Maynard got a kick out of getting them all to wear shirts that label them as tools.
Dear God Tool fans are insufferable. No wonder Maynard got a kick out of getting them all to wear shirts that label them as tools.
If anyone doubts this, listen to the lyrics of their song Hooker with a Penis. It’s a giant fuck you to pretentious fans who say they’ve sold out.
And no, no hookers or penises are actually in the song.
It is also from one of their earlier albums. They don’t respect their fans and I don’t blame them a bit.
Who says there’s not enough musical innovation right now
I forgot about this guy, and now I see him everywhere. Haven’t listened to his album, I think I should, because I’m totally out of the loop lol
Craziest thing is that this isn’t even Andre’s longest song if you count Do Ya Thing clocking in at like, 13 mins
It’s also apparently the longest song title ever on the Billboard 100
This really reminds me a lot of the more experimental and instrumental music that Mac Miller started producing before he died. It is in that vein, so I can certainly understand why people don’t connect with it. I am really enjoying it though.
