Janelle Monae

her vocals are never not bland and manicured though

Moka, i've seen her live four times; every single show she's that hyper in performance. She bumrushed the crowd the first three times, fourth time the audience was to big to do that i think.

seems clear the new one will have the same problem the archandroid did, namely the unsatisfactory disparity between mussed-up scenes from a musical and actually listening to it as a record. even individually i love watching the videos and experiencing the craft and whatnot but can't imagine ever feeling the need to own the songs themselves

i mean i guess i'm saying it "works" artistically (ie it's not a problem problem) but the mode of consumption is more like that of buying a glee soundtrack than yr usual music blah

one is doubtless repeating oneself from upthread

something about monae's "hey kids let's put on a show" manic mode does not appeal to me.

― i didn't even give much of a fuck that you were mod (forksclovetofu),

otm

my only problem with the her theater-kid mode is that it feels like its defensive, like a way of saying "see I gave the black power fist at the end of my performance, but I sort of didn't because it's _acting_". I'm not sure if it's because she doesn't want to commit fully, or because she thinks other people don't want to hear her commit. But like I said a bit upthread, her performance at the BET awards seemed, for the most part, very commanding and sincere.

And there's something problematic about the cross promotion of this stuff that's obviously supposed to have a v. radical undercurrent with e.g. this target marketing campaign. So maybe the performativity is Monae trying to navigate what she can sell.

But you then have a performance like her anarchic Q.U.E.E.N. on 106th and park where she's like the lost animaniac meets P.I.L. and those concerns only go so far, because she's obviously got this very focused vision of what she's doing as an individual performer, and the fact that she uses this high-concepty stuff to get there starts to seem much less important.

hard to judge what the new album will be from the singles tho. neither of the archandroid singles really were like the rest of the album.

clover otm

Yeah, I agree with that too. I have COMPLICATED FEELING wrt monae but I am very glad she is making music

WE GOT NEWS

http://pitchfork.com/news/51157-janelle-monae-reveals-electric-lady-tracklist-featuring-prince-miguel-solange-big-boi-plus-album-cover/

WE GOT ALBUM COVER

http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/51157/121d76c1.jpg

Too many Janelle Monaes! I might die.

I like that cover

If you don't like that cover you are to be disdained.

Too many songs.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyjfscsHpG1qbv7alo1_r1_400.png

ha

17 Sally Ride

askronaut

ayo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va_RU-tph-Y

ahahahah sorry to put an emo band in the janelle monae thread, wrong youtube link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va_RU-tph-Y

i need another cup of coffee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ewB-o5N9A

omg lol

anyway this is nice

damn

Love the Miguel duet. Like most people I didn't really get into Dance Apocalyptic but this and Q.U.E.E.N give me hope this album will deliver. I really want the album to be as great as the artwork but I'm not sure I should get my hopes up.

Archanoid delivered and it has a couple of songs that would be incredibly irritating when isolated out of sequence (thinking specifically of the Of Montral song)

Nah, that one is still pretty irritating when played in sequence.

I was just flicking through The Archanoid trying to decide which songs I'd cut. Along with the Of Montreal one which is by far the worst thing on there I'd get rid of Come Alive and Baboybye too. The rest is pretty solid.

haha "Come Alive" is the other one I was going to mention but honestly I love it

Always thought that one just not fit on there at all.

Just playing Q.U.E.E.N again, those last 40 seconds are possibly my favourite bit of music I've heard all year.

Nah, that one is still pretty irritating when played in sequence.

― MarkoP, Monday, August 19, 2013 2:58 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm.

I'm possibly the only person who likes the Of Montreal song who isn't Janelle Monae or a member of Of Montreal

Come Alive is worth it for a)the floaty bridge with the bells and b) the verse where she starts shrieking.

PrimeTime >>> #Beautiful - I wasn't convinced I would like this anywhere near like I loved ArchAndroid based on everything else so far, but now I am fully back on board.

naw, I came around to the OM jam

xp also the 20-second scream

this is good - i already love more songs off this monáe album than the archandroid - but NO WAY is it superior to "#beautiful"

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/sep/03/janelle-monae-electric-lady-album-stream

uk only sadface

http://www.okayplayer.com/news/janelle-monae-the-electric-lady-lp-stream-mp3.html

I'm outside the UK and that's working for me.

i'm US and that's not loading either

Idk maybe you did something to piss off Janelle Monae?

wouldn't surprise me
this ("exclusive" lol) isn't working either: http://www.vh1.com/music/tuner/2013-09-03/vh1-exclusive-album-premiere-janelle-monae-the-electric-lady/

any americans getting this?

the vh1 link is working for me, but i think by "exclusive," they mean "exclusively strange design for an album preview page."

(and that's coming from an american, btw.)

vh1 suddenly working for me too, yay

Yeah I sat here for a minute trying to figure that VH1 link out.

The list of guests reads as a ILM fantasy!

soundtrack for the Obama era, something that spoke to the beautiful, majestic and revolutionary times that we're living in.

Oh, Jesus Christ. I wish she'd shut up and make music at this point.

this is pretty solid on first spin; the prince collabo is dope

To be fair, I'm pretty sure that in 20 years, I'll associate Janelle Monae to the Obama years.

"we were rock & roll" has a pretty pitch-perfect disco backing. probably my favorite thing i've heard from her since idk "many moons"