If you haven't gotten on board with Diddy's weirdo, tuxedo sporting protege
Janelle Monae, you better get your ears checked for STUPID PILLS. Her album, despite being all over the blogs, is going to be a cross-over success in everyones brains, because it's too awesome for high/low boundaries and Lady GaGaisms. "Tightrope" featured a-la-minute rapper Big Boi, but Monae proved on Letterman last week that she can carry a stage all alone... bopping like Brown and sliding like Jackson, she's a true performer. And "Cold War" shows her versatility on this record... it sounds more like a Gnarls Barkley banger than anything else (maybe Outkast, it's been suggested), and it's just really excellent.
The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) is part of a larger concept, an afro-futuristic saga that Monae has concocted. It started with her EP,
Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase), and it centers around a messianic android, with themes of love, identity, and self-realization, etc. But more than anything, it's just really, really, really good stuff.
ArchAndroid is out now on Bad Boy/Wondaland. -
joe puglisi
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MP3: "Cold War" (The ArchAndroid)
Janelle Monae on Myspace