Janelle Monae

i read the pokemon outfit as like, that's mom and dad behind her

ok i'm seeing the subbiness now for sure. it's such a fun video!

Song is earworm-y too, wasn’t sold on the first single - perhaps got too hyped with the idea of an afrobeat Janelle song and it wasn’t quite that.

She's become a songwriter in the last five years to match the persona.

This is an interesting swerve from the android aesthetic.

But... it's such a slight non-song? Even in terms of production, how can you make a reggae groove without a bassline? I get that the video is a statement, but when this song is alone in the audio world, it's not much...

I get that the video is a statement, but when this song is alone in the audio world, it's not much...

A lot of that going around.

She is a strikingly beautiful individual though

Watched the video, ordered the record, just realized I couldn’t tell you anything about the song.

Well played, Janelle.

Dirty Computer is probably my favourite Janelle album, but these two singles have done absolutely nothing for me. The songwriting just feels so weak this time round. Hopefully there's better to come.

i think it's a good song. i mean it's not groundbreaking or anything but it's well-constructed w/ plenty of hooks & her singing is .. gorgeous i think? and the bassline is very much there and good? lol. has a little bit of a throwback feel, maybe not as cutting edge or as saturated as wizkid or koffee or sza.

I think the Float song isn’t too bad, and the other song isn’t too good…

Not sold on the song, tbh. Have loved all her LPs so far but… this ain’t up to much. Video is great in so many ways but I’m hoping for better content musically. Dirty Computer took a while to grow on me but became my #1 jam of 2018, so maybe this will do the same.

Video was fun, almost a relief to see good old explicit sensuality and communal feelings rather than the usual "oh, is this what you want ? you think you can have it ? probably not, but let me put it in your face"
Song is a bit non-descript reggae pop, but I like it when it's Lila Iké or Sevana, so if the rest of the album is 70s licks and jams, I'm down with a "modest" single.

found out she was an author earlier. blooming renaissance woman innit.

video is great, songs are... ehh, OK.

i like the sound she's going for but this is pretty slight overall? feels like wasted potential

Listened to it a couple of times at work and the whole thing passed me by.

janelle monae is a tremendously talented performer but isn't a particularly strong songwriter. i appreciate that she wants to write her own weird shit but the songs are almost never as good as her performances!

i find this record's vibe deeply cringe tbh

I feel like at this point, aside from a few songs, she has more fun making her music than I do listening to it

For a fun summertime record it's weirdly devoid of hooks. It's cool that all the tracks flow together but that doesn't work when none of them are particularly good. I'll echo that it's kind of cringey, idk what it is exactly but she's just so universally liked and obviously she's super attractive and talented to boot, so the fact that it's so confrontational just feels a little odd. also the fact that this whole thing seemed to be handled a lot better on Dirty Computer, idk. but it's still an okay record. I like the horns a lot.

I think my favorite song of hers is still “Oh Maker.”

Yeah sorry to say but this feels super bland.

She's...not a good songwriter.

This was true a decade ago. She's a triumph of image, and I love that image; I'll always extend her goodwill. In many ways she was ahead of the curve in 2010.

When that first album came out, I saw a couple of shows of hers that just completely blew my mind. But then I saw her several years later with Prince, and something had changed, and it was all just a bit too much, and at the same time not enough.

Yeah, this is pretty thin. Vibes, but uh, not much else. And I say this as a huge Janelle fan (I’ve seen her twice - once opening for Badu way back when and again touring for the last album, which was an absolutely amazing show) who was really looking forward to new material.

hey, "Oh Maker" my fave too. the kind of song a great songwriter writes, even.

feel like the new one's all hooks, or maybe I don't know what a hook is

I feel like she was still producing awesome music through "electric lady" though it started to go downhill around that point
Well, this kind of album is what streaming services are for

well I've listened 3 times and don't remember much outside of the general vibe and some lyrics, compared to her other stuff which sometimes was just bursting with melody

tbh I don't really know what her creative process is, she doesn't talk much about it and the one article I've read about it makes it sound like a bunch of people are involved. indeed all her songs have like 5-7 writers credited on them. maybe it's like a Taylor Swift situation but who knows could just be a different songwriting team

I listened to this back to back with the Amaarae and boy does this suffer by comparison. It's fine, but a lot of it to me feels like outlines more than songs — like, "this is the banger," and "this is the sex jam." Nothing jumped out like the best 3-4 tracks on the last one.

nate wonder is still her main collaborator on this but chuck lightning is less involved than previous albums, and nana kwabena and sensei bueno are newer collaborators (kwabena only previously contributed to a few tracks on dirty computer)

I'm enjoying it enough, but I agree that it suffers from having been released on the same day as the Amaarae album which I'm much more inclined to reach for at present.

i like the reggae and afrobeats stuff better than the disney-fied trap (why even try this sound in 2023?), but it still feels like a xeroxed version of music made by contemporary artists who live and breathe those genres. "lipstick lover" sounds somehow worse in album context.

One of those not-uncommon artists whose records get worse each time. The first two kind of stand up, but I never go back to them.

Strong disagree, I think Dirty Computer was great and filled with bangers. I grow to appreciate it more with each passing year.

^^ this

I miss the droid shit tbh

maybe it represents the closet or whatever but it was fun

if I was having a better time like I hope she is now I'd probably be more into this one

The record's a party! The next pool party I attend I'm going to ask to stream it.

i'm with you, miss the Android stuff but she was bound to change styles/gimmicks at some point

I like this more than the earlier stuff myself. The Android thing was never very convincing to me and actively detracted from my enjoyment of those albums. Maybe I am boring.

I like this album, its low stakes-ness seems like part of the point? It is like a (more) poolside ready version of Meshell Ndgeocello’s Comfort Woman.

yeah I've come around to it too. No great songs, but she masters a groove where make believing is the real thing.

I dug it ok, can't remember how any songs go though. but sounded good.

monae just has theater kid vibes she can't ever completely shake is the thing.

low stakes albums are cool and all but it's kind of a weird choice at this point in her career. her last one was 5 years ago and it got a lot of hype, she's landed a starring role in a fairly big movie since and is starting to become sort of a household name, so now would be the time to drop a big magnum opus with a dozen guest spots and a bunch of singles. I mean I get it she probably just didn't have time for it but idk it feels like right now could have been her moment

so now would be the time to drop a big magnum opus with a dozen guest spots and a bunch of singles

would this be preferable though?

the guest spots on here are largely wasted imo