AMS Album of the Week:The Electric Lady

Janelle Monáe – The Electric Lady

Janelle Monáe recently released her latest offering; a double album consisting of two so-called “suites”, expanding on the Metropolis conceptual series of her first two releases. After a rise in fame due to her barely-there feature on Fun.’s abysmal hit ‘We Are Young’, The Electric Lady is a wonderful journey through the past, present and future of R&B, with a nice sprinkling of afrofuturist tinged intersectional feminism! Try saying that with your mouth full. The double album features R&B giants such as Prince and Erykah Badu as well as newcomers Miguel, Esperanza Spalding and Solange. Despite this, each song remains entirely in Monáe’s domain, stylistically and lyrically. However, The Electric Lady is less of an obvious concept album as with 2010’s The ArchAndroid, and I found had to dig deeper to find the context of the world within which Monáe writes. Interspersed are the hilarious radio show skits, which give further snippets of the man vs. android concept. A personal highlight of mine is Monáe and Miguel’s take on the traditional 90s slow jam ‘Primetime’, featuring a crafty and well utilised Pixies sample. It seems only fitting that the album has moments that harp back to the classic ‘Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’, as Hill has just been released from prison for tax-evasion. Even ‘Electric Lady’ sounds just like a TLC song, if TLC was two parts Monáe and one part Solange. ‘Ghetto Woman’ is perhaps the only low point of The Electric Lady. I think the jumbled Stevie Wonder-esque production really lets the song down, as the lyrical content is socially significant. Aside from this, the production work courtesy of funk act ‘Deep Cotton’ is pretty awesome. I have so much more to say about this great double album, but I really recommend you give it a listen. “What an Experience” indeed.