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| The Electric Lady by Janelle Monae |
For those of you who have been having a good new music drought (like I have), I finally have something for you to listen to!
I'd been hearing a lot of buzz about Janelle Monae lately, but I hadn't really paid much attention to it until I heard a preview of her album online a few days ago. I was very impressed and today the album came out and I gave it a listen.
The album begins with Suite IV Electric Overture, an short instrumental piece whose instrumentation ranges from classical instruments to electric guitars to a choir, recalling a 60's jazzy sound. The song flows directly into the next track, Givin Em What They Love, so much that at first I didn't realize the first one was over. This song features Prince and begins with a percussive opening, leads into some amazing powerhouse vocals from Monae, and exits on an orchestral note similar to the first track. Apart from a few verses, Prince mostly keeps to backing vocals. This song flows into Q.U.E.E.N. featuring Erykah Badu, which from its fun, funk feel to the great, feminist lyrics ("tell me what's the price of fame/Am I a sinner with my skirt on the ground", "are we a lost generation of our people/Add us to equations that will never make us equal") is my absolute favorite on this album. It flowed right into The Electric Lady featuring Solange, which is neck-and-neck for the spot of my favorite with the previous track. This one has a great dance-y feel to it to match its funny, slightly dirty, yet still girl-empowering lyrics ("she can fly you straight to the moon or to the ghettos/wearing tennis shoes or in flats or stilletos"). While this one doesn't have the same jazzy feel of Q.U.E.E.N., it includes a retro rhythmic style and brass section.
Throughout the whole album the strong jazz and funk tones remained, like in Dance Apocalyptic, which presented a very retro, funk vibe to it, along with Look Into My Eyes. This one is another favorite of mine, with its very Spanish jazz sound and Monae's spectacular vocals. The same sound can be heard in the next track, Suite V Electric Overture, another instrumental, but a much more prominently jazz sound than the first. Those same jazz vibes were present in Dorothy Dandridge Eyes featuring Esperanza Spalding, a fun, smooth jazzy song that brought in Spalding's style. The album closed out with What an Experience, a very Michael Jackson-like song, with 80s vibes and a smooth ending to a great album as the music fades away.
Apart from the jazzy dance songs, there are a few slower and balladlike songs, such as Primetime featuring Miguel, It's Code, Ghetto Woman, Victory and Can't Live Without Your Love. Though they were slower and sadder songs with powerful lyrics, like Victory's: "surrounded by the schemes and senseless lives/and blaming others, feeling victimized/oh tomorrow, one day they'll know/to win you'll have to lose all the things you know." They maintained her individualized sound with the strong vocals, orchestral and choir backup and the slight jazzy feel. While they often could easily have been written out in the 60's, there were clear Jackson 5 influences in the vocal style and structure of the song. Ghetto Woman went back to a faster speed but with a similar style to the last song with huge Michael Jackson and Prince influenced sound. The only song that I didn't really like was We Were Rock & Roll. This one was not as strong as the others, from the lyrics to the more poppy sound and almost disco vibe to it, save the bridge, which includes a choral breakdown and guitar solo.
The album includes three interludes, including Good Morning Midnight, The Chrome Shoppe, and Our Favorite Fugitive. They were pretty weird - in fact, at first I thought they were Spotify advertisements - because they are backup music with dialogue over it that sounds like radio station. However, upon closer listening, you can still hear Monae's style shining through as the first one closes with "Love not war, we're tired of fires, quiet no riots, we are jamming, dancing and loving. Don't throw no rock, don't break no glass, just shake yo ass." They could easily have been commercials on an old radio station.
Separate from the music, the album addresses social issues using the excuse of telling the story of a fantastic world of Metropolis, full of androids and zombies (hence the title, electric ladies). Using this concept, Monae tackles heavy topics like gender, race, and sexuality in a context apart from our own. In one of the interludes, a caller rants, saying "robot love is queer!" The D.J. responds to him with laughter and the question "well, what I wanna know is how you know it's queer if you haven't tried it!" In Q.U.E.E.N., her lyrics ask "say, will your God accept me in my black and white?/will he approve the way I'm made?/or should I reprogram, deprogram, and get down?" Monae raises discussion about issues without them seeming forced or angry. She's feminist, a civil rights activist, opinionated and yet still approachable without the messages being shoved in your face.
Throughout the whole album the strong jazz and funk tones remained, like in Dance Apocalyptic, which presented a very retro, funk vibe to it, along with Look Into My Eyes. This one is another favorite of mine, with its very Spanish jazz sound and Monae's spectacular vocals. The same sound can be heard in the next track, Suite V Electric Overture, another instrumental, but a much more prominently jazz sound than the first. Those same jazz vibes were present in Dorothy Dandridge Eyes featuring Esperanza Spalding, a fun, smooth jazzy song that brought in Spalding's style. The album closed out with What an Experience, a very Michael Jackson-like song, with 80s vibes and a smooth ending to a great album as the music fades away.
Apart from the jazzy dance songs, there are a few slower and balladlike songs, such as Primetime featuring Miguel, It's Code, Ghetto Woman, Victory and Can't Live Without Your Love. Though they were slower and sadder songs with powerful lyrics, like Victory's: "surrounded by the schemes and senseless lives/and blaming others, feeling victimized/oh tomorrow, one day they'll know/to win you'll have to lose all the things you know." They maintained her individualized sound with the strong vocals, orchestral and choir backup and the slight jazzy feel. While they often could easily have been written out in the 60's, there were clear Jackson 5 influences in the vocal style and structure of the song. Ghetto Woman went back to a faster speed but with a similar style to the last song with huge Michael Jackson and Prince influenced sound. The only song that I didn't really like was We Were Rock & Roll. This one was not as strong as the others, from the lyrics to the more poppy sound and almost disco vibe to it, save the bridge, which includes a choral breakdown and guitar solo.
All in all, I give this album a big thumbs up. I haven't heard an artist with a sound much like this before. It's new and modern while still recalling very retro sounds, from 60's-esque jazz, to the Motown style of the Jackson 5, to the good 80's pop of Michael Jackson and Prince, and even classical music with its near constant orchestral backup. It was extremely cohesive in a way I haven't heard anyone pull off so well ever before. While it didn't have an exact shape but flows like a classical piece with a big opening, high points scattered throughout the piece, and a quiet ending. I would definitely recommend buying this album. Monae is right - what an experience.
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