Janelle Monae Appreciation Thread

[Mr. Dent]

The Electric Lady leaked yesterday. I've yet to listen to it because I like putting off good things but I've had Metropolis and ArchAndroid playing on a loop for the past two months.

For those unfamiliar with her work, all her albums and songs are concepts that tell the story of an android who fell in love and is now being hunted in the city of Metropolis (not the same one as the movie but you can surmise it's based off of it, obviously). Her songs are intelligent and combine many forms of music into one, with the theme of "fantasy" being the overarching connective tissue. However, at the same time, she uses this as a vehicle to comment on social issues and politics today. She has great range.

Examples of her work (the first one is one of her earliest songs and pre-Metropolis):

 

[venom892]

I absolutely love Janelle Monae. She is soulful, a great singer and tries out different things in her music to great effect. It's a shame she isn't more popular, especially with all the sub par music on radio now.

 

[Mr. Dent]

It's because she won't conform and make "radio music" that she isn't more popular, I think. She's more talented than 95% of the hacks on the radio right now and if she made a more mainstream, bubblegum song I think or acted foolish to get attention she'd be more popular.

 

[gap5ewl]

I love Janelle, she is without a doubt one of the most talented artists in a while. Cold War and Many Moons are just amazing to listen to. It's a damn shame she isn't more popular, yet artists like Katy Perry are

 

[KenK]

I don't know, I feel like her popularity has really been on the rise on the last few years. It's taken a while, but she's been getting a lot of exposure lately. She's got endorsement deals, she was featured on one of the biggest pop songs of the last year, and continues to work with some of the heaviest hitters in the music biz, Eryka Badu, PRINCE?!?!? That ain't nothing to scoff at.

 

[Mr. Dent]

Yeah I have noticed she's getting increasingly popular although she's obviously not on the level of a lot of the artists on the radio. BUT, she's far more respected and respectable than most of them with the exception of people like Adele and Lady Gaga and honestly I'd rather she not be cursed with the burden of being that popular. I like where she is right now, it's a sweet spot where she's popular enough to keep doing what she wants artistically but isn't popular enough to start suffering from big head syndrome and selling out.

Speaking of which these two tracks from Audition (her first, self promoted album) are sooooo good. It's cool she was singing about androids even back in 2003.

 

[venom892]

Metropolis is one of my favorite tracks from her. Very melodic. I haven't heard anything from her new album yet, but I'm excited to.

 

[Mr. Dent]

Just copped Electric Lady deluxe edition with the Target-only cover. Was holding off on listening to the leak...listened to three songs and all I can say is Janelle is back.

She makes me realize just how untalented and bad some of today's artists really are.