Janelle Monae

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"

Yeah I'm loving this after a couple of plays. The skits are going to get old very fast but apart from the album seems like a bit of step up from the last album. It's not quite as all over the place, like she's grown up slightly. Some of the production is just excellent too.

Production on It's Code is some amazing 70's Stevie Wonder magic. We Were Rock & Roll is another highlight, should have been the second single. No idea why she put out Dance Apocalyptic as a single, easily one of the weakest songs.

ponderous bossanova showtune janelle on "look into my eyes"

feelin' just as spotty and boring as the archandroid but i'm glad i at least love one song off of it so far

Even through this super lo-res stream that Miguel track sounds amazing

w00t got the vh1 stream working

yeah these skits are wearing on a second listen already

So happy Of Montreal aren't in the vicinity of this album.

ghetto woman is a good time

Is it true Monáe and Susan Rice are lovers?

Susan Rice the National Security Advisor?

Rice is on record as being anti-android so likely not

The song with Prince isn't very Prince-y and also isn't very good.

beg to differ on the latter
what an experience is the major new weak track for me

in the pitchfork feature on her today, it's revealed that prince called the head of BET directly to demand that monae perform at the awards

makes sense, her vocals are about as blank and devoid of personality as the average Prince protege

the new album sounds pretty good to me. "queen" is easily her best song imo, like the solange one a lot. the final track was amazing. nice little album.

now that she's gone ahead and made a pretty normal R&B album i wonder if people will realize they got sucked in by the artifice or if they're still be a lot of writing about her being futuristic or w/e

feel like I like her more in theory than in practice

it's hard for me to STAY excited about any of the tracks on the album. but i like most of em.

I've only heard the tracks on the Pfork preview and Q.U.E.E.N. seemed like the best of the lot - agree that the material is likeable but not jaw-dropping. nothing grabs me instantly the way, say, Badu's best stuff has.

now that she's gone ahead and made a pretty normal R&B album i wonder if people will realize they got sucked in by the artifice or if they're still be a lot of writing about her being futuristic or w/e

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:38 (33 minutes ago) Bookmark

idk in a funny way i kinda think her straightest moments (like much of the settled second half here, in partic tracks 10-12 and 16-18) are actually when the schtick (perhaps unintentionally) works best - the normality takes on the artifice (instead of vice versa) and the weirdly synthetic effect is like offworld cheap plastic flamingo ersatz exotica, akin to dr buzzards or maybe even the little thread david toop mined with his ocean of sound comps in the 90s

'cant live without your love' especially is like a single tear of saline solution from an optic module, i mean it's not a credible soul ballad or even a musical score, it's just... a sort of cognizant sad pretty thing perfectly observed

don't really add up to much tho this album i agree

the tryhard stuff is only surpassed in wackness by whatever the dull damp squib of the final track is supposed to be

still, impeccably high production value pleasant as ever