I listened to this next album for
a couple of days knowing that I’d be going to see the artist in concert last
Thursday night, and wanting to get in the mood.
Strictly speaking, I didn’t roll the album randomly, but since I’m going
to review the concert, it seems as good a time as any to review the album.
That's random enough for me and besides - the rules are supposed
to be fun!
Disc 413 is…The Archandroid (Suites II and III)
Year of Release: 2010
What’s up with the Cover? A head & shoulders shot of Janelle Monae, dressed
as her alter-ego, the 28th century android Cindi Mayweather. The less said about that the better, so I’ll
just say – cool hat.
How I Came To Know It: I was watching late
night TV – I can’t remember if it was a music channel, or just one of those
times that a channel has five minutes of dead air time and they put on a music
video. I saw the video for the now-famous
“Tightrope” and I thought to myself –
“here is something really good, that I haven’t heard before.” I searched it out and discovered Janelle
Monae. Sadly, the song has gone on to
star in many boring car commercials. I
hope they at least paid her well for it.
How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Janelle Monae album, so it can’t
really stack up.
Rating: 3 stars
This review is two-in-one, and I’ll
start with the traditional studio album review, before I get to the concert at
the Royal Theatre.
The album
“The Archandroid” is an ambitious
project by an artist with a keen appreciation of the rich musical history she
is building on.
If you’re in any way a student of
music, you’ll enjoy the many musical traditions Monae draws from, to create a
very fresh and new sound. Some songs
like “Dance or Die” or “Tightrope” have clearly drawn lines back
to 60s and 70s R&B, and mixed them with modern hip-hop stylings. Other songs, like “Locked Inside” and “Say You’ll
Go” sound like 70s pop throwbacks, part Disco and part AM radio.
When Monae is rapping, she has a
rapid-fire, but clearly enunciated delivery that Erik B. & Rakim would be
proud of. She fills short lines with a
seemingly impossible number of syllables, cut short at the end of each bar just
as your brain is about to run out of short-term storage for what she’s just
told you. When she is singing more
traditionally, she is equal parts pop princess and jazz diva. She has great vocal chops, although the many
layered production on “The Archandroid” downplays the sheer power of her voice,
in favour of a more textured, otherworldly sound (you know, for the sake of all
the ‘I’m an android from the future’ bumpf – yawn). When she does cut loose, like on “Cold War,” you find yourself wishing she’d
go even further, but that’s just not how the album is put together.
The album is a loosely held
together concept album, and for an artist’s first full length record, that is a
brave decision, particularly in today’s climate of the downloadable
single. It is a testament to Monae’s strength
of character that she was able to get someone to buy into this concept and let
her record this album as it is. It is a
testament to her genius that she is able to pull it off and deliver a very
listenable product – it could easily have ended up a hot mess.
This album jumps around styles
quite a bit, but it generally works. “Tightrope”, “Dance or Die” and “Cold War”
are exceptional pieces of art, which feel like they could be a hit in any
decade all the way back to the sixties.
Other songs, like “Mushrooms and Roses” and “Make the Bus” are a bit over-wrought and
try too hard to be musically or lyrically clever. For example, on “Make the Bus” we hear Kevin Barnes from the band “Of Montreal”
singing “You’ve got ‘Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep Under Your Pillow.”
Um…just because the title of the book features androids, doesn’t mean
you should just pointlessly put it in the song, particularly given how clumsily
it is dropped in, and then never referenced again.
On these songs I feel the
fingerprints of one of her mentors, Big Boi (from Outkast fame). For more on how Outkast actively wreck their
own songs, read my review at Disc 269.
Despite being relatively new to
fame, Monae is the far superior artist, and shouldn’t let these folks overly
complicate what she’s got going on.
Also, “The Archandroid” is 18
tracks long, which is far too many. As
usual, if four to six of these songs had been left off the album, it would be a
lot tighter and easier to listen to. As
it is, it is brilliant, but just a little too long.
I think objectively, “The
Archandroid” is a four star album, but because of some of the production
decisions and the length, I’m bumping it down to the high end of three star
territory.
The Concert – June 28, 2012 – The Royal Theatre, Victoria
BC
Sometimes, when an artist’s record
has such heavy production, it can result in a very poor live show – but not in
this case. If anything, Janelle Monae’s
live show is so dynamic and amazing it made me appreciate the album even more
after I’d seen her.
Stripped of all of the layered
production the first thing that shines through is the power of Monae’s
voice. She must be all of five foot nothing
and ninety pounds soaking wet, but when she opens her mouth she is a vocal
giant. I couldn’t believe the power and
purity of the sound that came out of her tiny frame. It was like listening to Sheena Easton,
Billie Holiday and James Brown all rolled into one. Monae is on point from the beginning, and her
energy consistently pulled us out of the Royal’s plush chairs and onto our feet
(which is not easy to do in that building, which is known for its staid audience).
The band is tight and plays with
passion, including a Rick James look-a-like on lead guitar with a few moves of
his own and the most energetic big man I’ve ever seen on the trombone. None can hold a candle to Monae though, who
mixes amazing vocals, with some truly funky dance moves. Some of them are her own, and some are
borrowed from R&B and pop greats of the past (she does a first-rate
moonwalk, and reverse moonwalk).
She is possessed with the music
and when she’s dancing, it is like watching Elvis, possessed with the spirit of
James Brown. When at one point she drops
to one knee and her band mates toss a cape over her, it seems a perfectly
appropriate homage. Monae is Soul Sister
Number One. She is Ms. Dynamite.
She played all the songs from her
album I wanted to hear, and none of the filler (see my overlong comments in the
album review above). Of course, when you’re
relatively new, you often have to supplement with some cover songs, and Monae
hit these out of the park.
She sings the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” and Prince’s “Take Me With U” with such energy and
enthusiasm that I think I preferred her version to the original. For her encore she does a James Bond set,
singing “You Only Live Twice” and “Goldfinger.” Monae doesn’t do a lot new with these
classics, but she absolutely nails them nonetheless.
As if that weren’t enough, at one
point Monae belts out a song while simultaneously painting a picture live in
front of us (of a nude woman, seen from the back). At the end of the concert, audience members
wearing tuxedo-inspired clothes are invited onstage, and the person with the
best outfit is given the painting, which has been framed backstage while the
concert was going on.
This is a participatory show,
where audience members are encouraged to stand up, and shout out their
love. Monae is a must-see live, who is going
to be a much harder ticket in future years, I suspect.
Also, a shout out to the opening
act, Mr. Roman Gian-Arthur, a funky guitar player who has a sound that is a mix
of Marvin Gaye, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix, and some funky dance moves that
almost rival Monae’s.
Best tracks: Dance or Die, Cold War, Tightrope, Oh Maker, Come
Alive.
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