Janelle Monae

But did it have an Obi strip? Or a bonus remix track?

For some reason this album only works for me in bite-sized segments... I can listen to almost any sequence of two or three songs from this and find something to enjoy but taken as a whole it's just irritating.

"the r&b album that dog latin likes" is in apt enough summation of this

**rolls eyes**

lol

**rolls eyes**

*follows trend*

**rolls blunt**

**rolls 20 deep**

*rmdb*

how DOES one roll one's damn balls?

**checks**
**achieves**

*rollin rollin rollin*

saw her live last week. was surprised that her band was so tiny (keyboardist/bassist, guitarist and drummer, but hey it is a recession) and weirdly that they all looked like dre3000 doubles from the hey ya video. too much rocking out (or too much of the rockier numbers from the album) for my liking, with lots of widdly guitar soloing towards the end too. might just be my own tastes, but i find her rock songs a bit 'anonymous', so would have liked to heard more of the ballads from the album, or hear the band play around with the arrangments more (was surprised that even though she had about 3 dancers on stage, the backing vocals were from tape). but she herself was fantastic, both as a dancer and singer, and general interesting person to look at. i read some complaints that she is a cold performer (yawn) but thats exactly the point. and the cover of smile was sublime. was also surprised the audience was so white - i thought it would be more like 50/50 than 80/20.

xpost - cant listen to the album in one go either - its too all over the place.

For some reason this album only works for me in bite-sized segments... I can listen to almost any sequence of two or three songs from this and find something to enjoy but taken as a whole it's just irritating.

― Matt DC, Sunday, 12 September 2010 23:30 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well yeah i think the issue is that it's clear that the album's a chopshop of what was originally intended to be two separate ep suites, though i'd now argue that it's the additional haywire middle section in particular ('oh maker', awful awful awful 'come alive', 'mush & roses'), bisecting said suites, that ends up draping the catastrophically enervating pall over the rest as a whole. (and suites 2 & 3 would have already been awkward enough put together anyway.)

the charge follows i suppose as to why monae's magpie irritances over the course of an album would be any less magnified over the course of these would-be ep's - because from an objective perspective they're clearly not. perhaps the concision of the shorter format inherently suggests a kind of relieving self-awareness that implies more interest in creating something tangible for the listener than is currently been shown here with this; and again i have to return to the resulting loss of the archandroid "theme" which in its seriocomedy allowed a suspension and an immersion to happen concomitantly.

the "kitchen-sink-dj-mix" argument remains some bullshit sophistry.

Actually yeah I'd agree with that first para, that middle section is the bit that really annoys me.

i'd be interested to hear what the indifferent ppls thought of the suites (1-8, 12-18) as listened to independently - for me they hang together way way better, and retain the still-not-unflawed but nevertheless oddly forgiving x-factor i've been on about.

naw, this album is stronger for its blown-out, huge, all-over-the-placeness

(plus hating on "oh maker" = gtfo)

"the r&b album that dog latin likes" is in apt enough summation of this

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Sunday, 12 September 2010 23:44 (Yesterday) Bookmark

It's a gateway album, LOL!

But seriously, I'm also having a hard time classifying this as R'n'B necessarily

For a start, it's steeped in '60s pop and rock which isn't really a contemporary r'n'b trope is it? I've been enjoying Badu, Quadron and Solange recently too FWIW.

oh let's do this again

Don't do it dog latin!

okay, forgive me for not realising this was a squillion-post thread and that it had been done to death already.

I'm just warning you as one of the people who expressed "in a way this isn't really an R&B album" type sentiments earlier on the thread.

No mention of this at all so far?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xP9edv-RcA

http://www.jmonae.com/blog/janelle-monae-featured-on-the-for-colored-girls-soundtrack/

Not that I have anything to say about it on first listen, except that it's okay. I am interested in seeing the film. When I saw a broadcast of this play (okay, "chorepoem") on TV, it was pretty wrenching.

choreopoem, god, get it right.

There's something about "Without a Fight" that reminds me a bit of "Crazy."

There is just so much more music on this damn album than anything else this year.

It feels like about 5 hours worth of music crammed into one and change.

"chorepoem" seems fine to me, idk

Nah, it's actually pretty good, or that's how I remember it. It's been many years since I read it or saw that TV broadcast, so it's hard to say.

Oddly, despite making a big deal of the typo I didn't even register what it would actually mean.

haha, i have such a crush of shame on this album tbh (if it wasnt already obvious to everyone)

couldnt resist pulling its pigtails again

interested in xgau's dislike for this he touched on in his essay

did he ever review it

he said what a lot of ppl in this thread said

this ended up being my record of 2010 fwiw

xgau nailed it

She's no Wussy.

She's no Joy of Cooking

she's no woman

he said what a lot of ppl in this thread said

― J0rdan S., Monday, January 17, 2011 3:47 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

link?

Janelle Monae

smartass

link?

― *gets the power* (deej), Monday, January 17, 2011 4:14 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

i don't feel like searching for it but iirc there were a few ppl that thought that all the pizazz lacked strong songwriting behind it

I thought he was asking for a link to xgau

The Dean's 2010 essay (I have not read this myself): http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/Live-Albums/ba-p/4025

im asking for a link to his writing about janelle that apparently echoed the haters in this thread

'faster' is still one of the best songs of the year imo

I think the last link I posted is what people are talking about.

that was the essay that inspired my initial question

Okay now I've gone from attempting to be a smartass to being confused. Too bad in Christgau's world being a "technical singer" can't coexist with being expressive. Why can't Janelle Monae sound more like Corin Tucker?