"Tip on the tightrope"
Janelle Monae comes to the stage with an incredibly successful album release in 2010 with "The ArchAndroid," which is a continuation of her 2007 EP "Metropolis Street I of IV: The Chase," which follows the story of Cindi Mayweather, an android she introduces in the EP. With Big Boi from Outkast mentoring and collaborating with her on this album, she has a solid rap background, but even so, she manages to jump to a pop/gospel/funk sound with seamless effort. I can easily say that I did not expect much at all from this album. I feel like female singers pop up every so often that have these great voices, but don't do anything incredibly special with them. The last female vocalist I was really impressed by in terms of creativity was Regina Spektor. Now, Monae is no Spektor, not to say Spektor is better, but they're in completely different fields entirely. Where Spektor is unique because of her quirkiness, Monae is unique because of her intense vocal and instrumental experimentation.
Monae's single for the album is titled "Tightrope" which features a rap from Big Boi. The music video for this song is what made me give Monae a chance. In watching the video, she's incredibly different looking, but very entertaining. Her sound is unique and although she seems like she would be one of those knockout singers who would just stand in front of you in a pretty dress and belt her lungs out, she presents an entirely different persona. She seems fun and energetic and this song emulates that perfectly. "Tightrope" is a very fun song and I'm sure it is the standout favorite among listeners.
What is most surprising about Monae is her versatility in sound, which can best be seen in comparing her songs "Cold War" and "Oh, Maker." In the former, Monae has very gospel like singing, with long held notes and an intense chorus. In "Cold War" Monae sounds very reminiscent of Cee-lo from Gnarls Barkley, calling to mind most "Transformer" and "Storm Coming" from Barkley's hit debut album "St. Elsewhere." Only three songs later, however, Monae sings "Oh, Maker," which starts out with a very soft beat, with an almost indie sound. Then, a steady bass line drops in with some simple percussion and backup singing while Monae starts to belt a little more. Suddenly the indie feel (sounding very similar to Panic at the Disco's most recent release) turns into an rhythm and blues sort of feel. Monae's ability to transform her sound on a dime and, furthermore, be able to pull it off without sounding awkward or wrong is incredible. As Metacritic put it, "Monáe playfully leaps from cabaret to gospel to rap with a versatility that would make mentor/collaborator Big Boi’s head spin," a statement that could not be more true.
Another song to mention would have to be "Come Alive (War of the Roses)," which is Monae's most experimental song vocally. The harshness of her voice and almost anger and despair she presents puts the listener on the edge of their seat. The funky baseline, however, keeps the listener interested and even though the vocals are somewhat cacophonous, the funky instrumentals help to make a perfect synthesis of sound. Although Monae has this radical experimentation in her album, she manages to keep some of her songs more mainstream to draw in a more traditional audience with songs such as "Faster" (a very poppy song) and "Dance or Die" (a more traditional hip-hop song).
Monae's versatility is incredibly impressive and there's more on her album I could go on and on about such as the quirky "Wodnaland" (something I personally think should have been on the "Alice in Wonderland OST" in place of some of the bullshit that was on there *cough* Avril Lavigne *cough*). Monae, throughout the entire album only lost me at one point, which was with the last two songs of the album; both are roughly eight and six minutes long respectively, but sound so similar that they merge into one fourteen minute epic. Its the only time I looked at my iPod confused as to whether or not the song had changed; with so much versatility in her album, I didn't expect the same sound for more than four or five minutes.
Monae received high reviews from Chicago Tribune (100), Entertainment Weekly (91), and Pitchfork (85) with an overall Metacritic score of 90, the highest rated album of 2010 so far. I would highly, highly recommend "The ArchAndroid" to anyone who enjoys music. Every song may not appeal to you, but with how experimental Monae is, its almost impossible that she won't have at least one or two songs you won't enjoy. Overall, I have to give "The ArchAndroid" a 94. Take a listen to it here.
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