(2010)
It is a crying shame that Ms Monáe is not already a massively known pop icon. She is talented in the good old-fashioned genuine, visionary, and prolific genius category. The 24-year-old Kansas City, Kansas by way of Atlanta singer mixes a potent gumbo of influences. Everything from Sun Ra Afro-Futurism, James Brown, Thriller-era Michael Jackson, 1950s two-tone ska, Ziggy Stardust era Bowie, Judy Garland, English folk music, and decadent musicals can be found within her latest offering, The ArchAndroid.
Deeply inspired by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, The ArchAndroid is parts two and three of a four-part series of albums based on Monáe’s alter-ego, android Cindi Mayweather finding liberation and love on Planet Metropolis. It is a TKO upon first listen, leaving the listener overwhelmed and reeling by the range, eclecticism, and insanely talented offering. I have never experienced anything like this album. The only thing I can find in memory is the feeling I experienced at three-years-old of seeing the television premier of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
It is best to experience this album in bite-size chunks. A first listen of this 18 track opus could prove potentially fatal. There is no such thing as “filler tracks” in Janelle’s universe as each track is of stand alone, high caliber quality. You want epic suites ? Check. Hip Hop anthems of rebellion (Dance or Die featuring enormously talented slam poet Saul Williams). Got it. Eerie neo-English folk (Sir Greendown). It’s in there. Defiant anthems of revolt. Yep. “Cold War is a particular stand-out in which Monáe pleads, “I was made to believe there was something wrong with me,” from one recovering Kansan to the next : I hear ‘ya Janelle.
Tightrope featuring Outkast’s Big Boi is a dangerously infectious soul anthem. This lady makes James Brown look lackluster ! Oh Maker is pure 60s mod mixture of Dusty Springfield and The Kinks while Come Alive (War of the Roses) attacks with the urgency of Shirley Bassey providing lead vocals for The Clash. It is simply staggering. Mushrooms & Roses and Make the Bus (featuring long-time comrades and tourmates Of Montreal) provide wacked-out psychedelic soul. She doesn’t simply touch on genres, she inhabits them. Wondaland could easily be a hidden track from Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual while sublime 57821 (featuring Deep Cotton) could be mistaken for Vashti Bunyon. This is what truly makes Ms Monáe a true 21st Century Torch Singer : she defies barriers of R&B and Indie Rock, glam and grime, black and white. She is as equally appreciated by P. Diddy as by Kevin Barnes. Janelle Monáe doesn’t break down barriers, she liquefies them.