Well, the pussy *is* pretty powerful, afaict.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Friday, 23 February 2018 08:01 (six years ago) link
Not feeling "Make Me Feel". Sounds too much like "Kiss".
― daavid, Friday, 23 February 2018 20:15 (six years ago) link
Why can't women celebrate being women and be trans allies at the same time?
― how's life, Friday, February 23, 2018 1:36 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
framing womanhood and the vagina as inherently linked is kinda.... the opposite of being a trans ally....
since i haven't seen it come up here yet, anyone got any feelings on the april 28 release date?
― heliogabberlus, Friday, 23 February 2018 22:35 (six years ago) link
jesus did Drake ghostwrite "Django Jane"? soooo Drake
Make Me Feel is p good but I think they went one too far bringing in the guitar lick on verse two, just brings the "Kiss" comparison a little too in focus
― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 23 February 2018 23:14 (six years ago) link
xp
Is it inherently anti-trans for a woman to mention vaginas in the context of a song about feminism?
― Moodles, Friday, 23 February 2018 23:27 (six years ago) link
cis male here, so while acknowledging this music isnt really for me, i fell that the "funky" one is really unfunky.
― kurt schwitterz, Friday, 23 February 2018 23:50 (six years ago) link
"Not feeling "Make Me Feel". Sounds too much like "Kiss"."
not feeling your comment, don't understand something sounding "too much" like "Kiss"
― akm, Saturday, 24 February 2018 00:36 (six years ago) link
as an afab woman i feel like 'acknowledging a body part that has been a major part of my life since my first period and especially since the first time i bled through my peach cotton capris' is by no means ignoring the trans experience. (also... why don't dick references get called anti-trans male?)
also i'm glad the men have weighed in. 'so drake' huh? lol
― maura, Saturday, 24 February 2018 02:23 (six years ago) link
like i think there has to be a way to acknowledge the trans female experience while also acknowledging that having a vagina needs to be transmuted from a situation that is often a pain in the ass (feel free to figure out a tampon/pad/liner/cup budget every month, or even to find one when you're desperately in need of one and have run out, those of you who never have had to) into a situation that is powerful
― maura, Saturday, 24 February 2018 02:26 (six years ago) link
i feel like i'm treading on touchy ground here and i'm sorry but i also feel like it's weird that trans men rarely speak up for their rights as vociferously and i wonder if it's at least partially because of socialization
― maura, Saturday, 24 February 2018 02:27 (six years ago) link
Glad you jumped in, maura. I wasn't feeling great about piling into this argument, but also felt Janelle was being unfairly called out.
― Moodles, Saturday, 24 February 2018 02:31 (six years ago) link
it's really frustrating because obviously transphobia is a big problem! but the erasure of afab women's experience – which has its own HOST of societal stigmas, like i have lived in so much fear of bleeding through my various menstrual supplies that my life is markedly different now that i have an apparatus to stop my period, because i have often been confronted with zero supplies – isn't the answer
― maura, Saturday, 24 February 2018 02:34 (six years ago) link
anyway these songs are both great
(and i know gloria steinem's 'if men could menstruate' is problematic in the lexicon of the times but seriously, if amab men could menstruate, things would be REALLY FUCKIN DIFFERENT in public bathrooms)
(ok maybe not in gas station ones but most others)
― maura, Saturday, 24 February 2018 02:36 (six years ago) link
but then again, cis white male talking, so....
Moodles is so close to having a breakthrough right here
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Saturday, 24 February 2018 02:36 (six years ago) link
Haha, don't hold your breath, I'm rapidly turning into old man yells at cloud.
― Moodles, Saturday, 24 February 2018 03:08 (six years ago) link
― heliogabberlus, vendredi 23 février 2018 17:35 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
God forbid the idea that someone with a different sexual/racial/gender experience can't identify with something different.
― Van Horn Street, Saturday, 24 February 2018 03:29 (six years ago) link
My brain keeps mixing up "Make Me Feel" with "Kiss", except not the Prince version. The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones version.
― MarkoP, Saturday, 24 February 2018 15:48 (six years ago) link
xpost hey maura the drake thing was me and to me her flow sounds exactly like drake, which may be more a testament to how influential he has become and how far his flow has really been incorporated into rap at this point.I personally can't hear that flow and not think Drake but maybe others hear it different.
― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 24 February 2018 15:56 (six years ago) link
i blame Drake for everything
― Nhex, Saturday, 24 February 2018 16:06 (six years ago) link
― Van Horn Street, Saturday, February 24, 2018 3:29 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
maura's otm but trans women shouldn't have the burden put on them to identify w afab women
― lowercase (eric), Saturday, 24 February 2018 17:21 (six years ago) link
Prince connection is legit, guys:
So it turns out that Prince did the music on the new Janelle Monae track, "Make Me Feel", according to his DJ, Lenka Paris :) pic.twitter.com/FqosHWK5MZ— Casey Rain | S-Endz | The Neosoulja (@CaseyRain) February 24, 2018
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 25 February 2018 07:40 (six years ago) link
:O
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 25 February 2018 13:26 (six years ago) link
I heard this for the first time at the weekend and had to go hunting for what it was later, thought it might be her but wasn't sure. Think it's terrific, who cares if it sounds like 'Kiss'? The vocal line in the bridge is what really makes it, and that's new.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 28 February 2018 23:03 (six years ago) link
I’m sorry but I think it’s terrible...kinda has the same effect on me as Uptown Funk...leaves me cold...can’t hear the Kiss comparisons either...
― X-Prince Protégé (sonnyboy), Wednesday, 28 February 2018 23:12 (six years ago) link
c'mon
― Number None, Wednesday, 28 February 2018 23:19 (six years ago) link
I'm not a fan either, but it's clearly heavily indebted to Kiss
― Number None, Wednesday, 28 February 2018 23:20 (six years ago) link
It might be but I haven’t been able to get to the end...
― X-Prince Protégé (sonnyboy), Wednesday, 28 February 2018 23:24 (six years ago) link
so is this going to be a lock for pazz & jop #1 once it becomes her first mainstream hit? lol
― dyl, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 02:51 (six years ago) link
Well Carly Rae Jepsen does have a new album planned for this year...
― MarkoP, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 03:43 (six years ago) link
That's ILM's #1
― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 6 March 2018 03:47 (six years ago) link
Maybe we'll see a tie.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 03:59 (six years ago) link
like Django Jane
― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Saturday, 24 March 2018 03:43 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaYvlVR_BEc
collab with grimes(?), really great i think
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:19 (five years ago) link
I don't love it. So far "Make Me Feel" is the only single from this record that's really worked for me. It's the guitars that ruin it.
But it could have been worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfbBqBOSXlU
― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:27 (five years ago) link
thanks for that
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:31 (five years ago) link
it's like red but not quite
― like æ duce says, smell my anvil vapre (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 16:38 (five years ago) link
I like this one a lot.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 17:21 (five years ago) link
Well as much as I like this new song, it certainly doesn't extenuate the critique heliogabberlus offered up-thread.
― fragglerock, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 19:51 (five years ago) link
I like the song, but the video is a masterpiece of queer art.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 22:00 (five years ago) link
This is fantastic, and the vid is A+++ too <3
― lilcraigyboi (Craigo Boingo), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 22:17 (five years ago) link
This is my least favorite of the new ones, a little too cutesy for me.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 22:20 (five years ago) link
videos are all better than the songs, which makes sense i guess
― Nhex, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 23:35 (five years ago) link
this is so great
― ufo, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 00:21 (five years ago) link
just read a funny Grace Jones dis of JM that i'll link later if i'm really bored
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 02:27 (five years ago) link
Video is A+ but something about the car/boulevard line that makes me think of Rebecca Black's "Friday".
― Yerac, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 02:34 (five years ago) link
lol Aerosmith got writing credits for this
― ufo, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 16:38 (five years ago) link
the song isn't great tbh
― imago, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 16:46 (five years ago) link
but all for this further-out-and-prouder vibe
― imago, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 16:48 (five years ago) link
Ha ha, holy shit, I had no idea it was actually borrowed from the Aerosmith song. I just heard the similarities and made the joke.
― grawlix (unperson), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 17:13 (five years ago) link
To further clarify - and this may seem rockist, if that's still a thing - but it now sounds like she's singing over beats, whereas on the earlier stuff it felt like the music was coming out of her, if that makes sense.
― paulhw
like in this sense?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig-ZoUQKst4
― Arch Bacon (rushomancy), Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:46 (five years ago) link
No.
― paulhw, Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:49 (five years ago) link
gross
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Sunday, 6 May 2018 02:13 (five years ago) link
Oh me oh me oh me oh my
― Peak redundacy (Ross), Sunday, 6 May 2018 09:59 (five years ago) link
Read (most) of the Wilson review and I left it thinking this album (which I haven't gotten to yet) must sound like St. Vincent making Prince's symbol album. I did see her play a club show with Prince once, and I felt that he (or probably more specifically/fairly, the situation) was bringing something different out of her, compared to when I'd seen her before. Curious!
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 6 May 2018 12:27 (five years ago) link
wait hold up "the beats kinda suck"? out of all the criticisms, this is what i'd least expect, the production is so lush and limber. (not to mention that one of the first things that struck me is how flexibly her voice moves w/in the songs' landscapes; even phrasing aside "singing over beats" is such a wrong take)
― lowercase (eric), Sunday, 6 May 2018 12:42 (five years ago) link
eric otm
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 6 May 2018 13:09 (five years ago) link
That stretch from Crazy, Classic Life to Django Jane just flows so nicely. Even after listening to the album like 10 times, I'm still surprised when each song in that sequence is actually better than the last one.
Also, it never occurred to me that she has only an average voice until I read it on this thread (but as a fan of Astrud Gilberto and Neutral Milk Hotel, you'd have a hard time convincing me that's a real limitation). I listened again after reading that, and her voice still sounds better than 95% of the other stuff I listen to.
― enochroot, Monday, 7 May 2018 13:30 (five years ago) link
Do you also think Dionne Warwick only had an okay voice?
― Embalming is a flirty business (DJP), Monday, 7 May 2018 13:36 (five years ago) link
Yeah that's crazy, Always felt like there was an obvious gulf between the range of things she can do with her voice and what she's trying to do in her music.
On a lot of songs her singing is often clipped and tense (best word I can think of to describe it) because of the density and occasional clunkiness of her lyrics, and her pastiching ways but I didn't imagine that the underlying quality of her voice would be obscured by that.
Like if she made a career of singing like this it wouldn't cross anybodies mind to question her voice.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoJz8yWNbNg
― tsrobodo, Tuesday, 8 May 2018 06:11 (five years ago) link
Janelle has an amazing voice
― Dyslexicon (Ross), Tuesday, 8 May 2018 06:15 (five years ago) link
I wish I could love Janelle like you guys love Janelle. It all sounds flat to me.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Tuesday, 8 May 2018 08:00 (five years ago) link
I think her voice is great, which is why the autotune on this disc sorta irks me
so far I like this a lot. I'm glad it's not ultra long like the last two. ArchAndroid probably had better tunes but I think this is her most solid offering so far.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 22 May 2018 16:24 (five years ago) link
Excellent article (cover story) of recent rolling stone
― don piano (Ross), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 18:12 (five years ago) link
Confirmed how pivotal religious music and culture was to her growing up which is all over this record but in monae’s unique spin
― don piano (Ross), Wednesday, 23 May 2018 18:14 (five years ago) link
my favourite record this year
― Y'all (Ross), Saturday, 30 June 2018 05:11 (five years ago) link
Saw her live for the first time this past Friday. Great show- strong vocals, dancing, backing visuals, good band and dancers. A fair amount of social and political commentary. While I have nitpicked her songwriting and vocal delivery in the past, those items didn’t bother me too much Friday. Had me reconsidering a bit.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 12:45 (five years ago) link
she is excellent live
― Ross, Friday, 27 July 2018 17:13 (five years ago) link
She makes a couple appearances on the just-released Sorry to Bother You OST.
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Friday, 27 July 2018 17:19 (five years ago) link
Saw her on Colbert last week too
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 28 July 2018 04:16 (five years ago) link
thanks for the tip Simon
― baby bird (Ross), Monday, 30 July 2018 15:54 (five years ago) link
man the Pharrell track really sounds like she's trying to do Fergie doesn't it
idk it might be my favorite song on here
― frogbs, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 20:36 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ivqFkLYxp8
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Ui5QKq4yA
― Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 22 August 2018 15:51 (five years ago) link
Yes! Saw those. I think they first aired the night I was seeing her live
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 26 August 2018 01:07 (five years ago) link
Anyone read this?
https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/the-memory-librarian
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Sunday, 17 July 2022 18:04 (one year ago) link
back with some slightly reggae-ish afrobeat-trap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xf28VXMB2wJanelle Monáe feat. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 • Float
― let us now celebrate ama ‘piano’ smith & the clowns (breastcrawl), Saturday, 18 February 2023 11:18 (one year ago) link
really underwhelming
― ufo, Saturday, 18 February 2023 11:23 (one year ago) link
Yeah I got really excited at the prospect of Janelle Monae doing afrobeat when I saw the artwork and Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 involved but then the actual song isn’t really interesting.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 18 February 2023 14:53 (one year ago) link