Janelle Monae

She's coming to DC shortly (with the presumed winner of the drummer audition mentioned above)

I would rather listen to lady gaga than this bullshit

i like what i've heard of janelle a lot.

i hear a lot of her sound in Beyonce's Radio

realizing that r&b'ers will be forced to listen to of montreal if they listen to this record ^_^

What was the "song of the century" at the top of this thread? The Youtube link's broken and I'd like to hear it!

I love this woman so fucking much.

i think this new song is kind of missing a chorus -- and comparing it to "1 thing" is pretty much blasphemy in my eyes

it sounds mostly like raphael saadiq throwback soul way more than it sounds like rich harrison

it's definitely not missing a chorus but idg the "1 thing" comparison either

sounds like james brown schtick with neo-retro production. more than anything it reminds me of that one christina aguilera record, or cupid '369'

james brown schtick with neo-retro production

That pretty much describes the two tracks I heard from the forthcoming album. She seems to have so much potential, but it's almost like she's trying to be as unoriginal as possible on these two songs. If it weren't so retro maybe I would like it less, but is it really necessary to clobber us over the heads with the retro references?

the poster upthread was closer with the liza minelli reference - 'tightrope' et al is twee retro, obviously, but theatrically framed in way that i think is different to its soundalikes. i do agree with the general criticisms here though in terms of it being of tiresomely little use as a single per se, but since nearly everything she's done so far has been album-orientated i'm not taking it as such just yet.

plus the production's pretty admirable for this kinda thing, especially for the second half.

i dunno, monae and her fans can & do often lean toward being pretty annoying, but all things considered there's many worse cases of those same annoyances flourishing in other popular artists that i'd much sooner rather stfu. for the moment, anyway.

Plus, even if Tightrope isn't your cup of tea, "Cold War" is straight fire.

And ends with a fade out that could lead into Boulevard of Broken Dreams, oddly enough.

no, that one actually is dire whatever context you put it in.

I TIP ON ALLIGATORS
AND LITTLE RATTLESNAKERS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc

BUT I'M ANOTHER FLAVOR SOMETHING LIKE A TERMINATOR

monae got heat

I'm ridiculously excited to see her next week

Same here in two weeks -- though for her EMP talk rather than a performance!

I watched this video before bed and had dreams about it. Been in my head since...

Yeah, Tightrope is awesome (and I maintain that Cold War is too, even if it's a little messier structurally).

Digging the video and hoping that this means that Monae isn't just hanging out with Big Boi and Diddy and of Montreal and Solange (and by extension Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors and Beyonce) but also with Yeasayer, since they've both put out videos this year with the creepy mirror-face dudes.

Like, WKIW ^^^

yep, so pumped for this.

I love that video. Cool dancing!

http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/archandroid_cover.jpg

YES!

wow. that's some awesome art.

ha, outbaduing badu

okay let's not get crazy

more like outbaduing xtina

just the visuals, just the visuals

wait

she spells it monáe

how on earth is that supposed to be pronounced? there's no á in french, and i'm not aware of another reference point.

if it's pronounced MOE-NAH-EE, it should perhaps be spelled monàe. if it's pronounced MOE-NAY, then monée would be more appropriate. if it's MOE-NAH-AY, then monaée is possible (but awkward).

explique-moi.

http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/4/4c/Itisamystery.gif

is it sort of like the heavy-metal umlaut?

also i'm getting a bit tired of videos that have a rock band hanging around "playing" instruments that aren't to be heard in the arrangement.

i mean, i get it, it's just played at this point.

ha, the r&b acute is totally like the metal umlaut

ágrééd

Meshell Ndegeocello
Janelle Monae
Esmee Denters
Beyonce
who else?

Mýa

Mýa

Zhané

not sure why the double post

teairra marí

deserves a thread imo

T-Páin

R. Kellée

Forksclovétofu

see ü and raise ü

But what about Jaÿ-Z?

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

amaarae sounds great, ckay okay, but grace and sister nancy seem to be here because monae admires them, not because she had any great ideas about how to collaborate with them

would this be preferable though?

I think so. idk maybe that Off the Wall thread is making me think of how MJ absolutely seized the moment, because that's what superstars do. and I think Monae wants to be a superstar. so yeah putting out an album that's been mostly received as "it's nice but I don't remember any of the songs" seems kinda bad