Janelle Monae

[makenshiww]

Originally Posted by Superficial Fan

I wouldn't say it's exactly the same, but close, yes (and maybe I'm taking you too literally anyway). I'd missed it before you pointed it out. And the whole song seems like it wouldn't be out of place on a Tokyo Jihen album.

totally agree

[Scribble R]

Nearly sold on all of Suite II, and even liking Cold War a bit more. I liked Come Alive when it was first released, but listening to the album in its entirety I now realise that it sounds like an obligatory rock track created to fill the genre-hopping thing she's got going.

I think Many Moons is far too recent for her to make Neon Gumbo out of it. Great title though.

[Superficial Fan]

I could do without "Make the Bus." If I wanted to hear Of Montreal. . .

[Superficial Fan]

More similarities between her and the main topic of these forums: I just realized that I accidentally typed her name "Monae Janelle" somewhere!

[Scribble R]

Haha, sheesh That's bad

[Scribble R]

Tightrope on Letterman

Hope she does well. Mainstream needs more of this.

[Superficial Fan]

It does feel to me as if some real changes are getting ready to happen in popular music, not that I really want to guess in detail of how things are going to go. But things feel like they are loosening up. I think it's significant that there seems to be a wave, or various waves, of strong female artists who have a clear sense of what they want, and want something that's a little different from what we've mostly been getting. And at the risk of pontificating on something I don't follow very closely at all, it seems like this could be especially necessary in African-American popular music. The women may need to take the lead in digging it out of the gangsta/crunk hole it's gotten into.

Actually, white American popular music might benefit from a black female musical messiah as well!

I really don't think white American popular music is in a better state than African-American popular music (and I have to admit I'm a little hazier about what the former would mean than what the latter means), but I can't help feeling there's more of a social cost to the state of African-American popular music. In the latter case, I'd put less emphasis on things being aesthetically unsatisfying and more on problems with the ethos around the music. But I'd actually really like most current American rock to just go away along with most mainstream rap, and probably most mainstream R&B.

(And yes, I am aware, really, that there is a whole world of underground hip-hop and R&B that I'm pretty unfamiliar with. I've seen enough of it to know it's there and to know that I don't know about it. OTOH, what I've seen hasn't really inspired me to dig either, but maybe I've just seen the wrong things.)

Just did a Google search and saw her listed as: "45th most popular search in the past hour," so I'd say she's breaking at this point.

[hoopra]

locked inside is my favorite track after a couple listens through the album, got that micheal jackson rock with you feel

[a_grumble_cake]

well, like other people in this thread, after a few listens I still have to figure out how much I like it. It's obvious to me that this album is GOOD (not sure how cohesive it is), but do I love it? There's so much stuff going on that it's going to take a while.

one thing I didn't like is how many times I found myself thinking "hey, this sounds like..."

[Superficial Fan]

Originally Posted by a_grumble_cake

well, like other people in this thread, after a few listens I still have to figure out how much I like it. It's obvious to me that this album is GOOD (not sure how cohesive it is), but do I love it? There's so much stuff going on that it's going to take a while.

one thing I didn't like is how many times I found myself thinking "hey, this sounds like..."

I can see how that would be a negative, but for some reason it doesn't bother me. When being derivative sounds this good and is this varied, it doesn't bother me.

I already feel much more certain of this album. I'm starting to think it will end up as my favorite album from this year. I don't find it overly long (a common complaint even in favorable reviews). Although there are a couple tracks I wouldn't mind removing, I want more every time the album closes. Yes, really. None of this is to say it's flawless. Still, the sequencing is basically very good. Occasionally it sounds more like a mix tape than an album, but that doesn't bother me. And it may not be the best test in the world, but my head has been full of songs from this album since I started listening to it. It seems as if one after another they have colonized my mind.

I just got my CD copy yesterday, but the case was so smashed up, I'm going to send it back. Why is it that when I order CDs from Japan they arrive intact, but when I have CDs sent from elsewhere in the U.S., they frequently come with damaged cases? (Rhetorical question. I think I know the answer. It seems that Japan, for all its emphasis on politeness, is not like the U.S. where "how is your day going?" retailer friendliness and PR are somehow supposed to make up for incompetence.)