Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer album/film

akm - sounds like him

the film's OK but it neglects so much of the album it doesn't feel too relevant to the record

the ionnalee film this year excelled in merging the clips with the album but this seems like an afterthought

the film looks good but it doesn't do a good job in filling in the story

this album seems disconnected from the last two narrative wise

but the video just sells beautiful images and scenes without a lot of conviction narrative wise

This is clearly destined to win pazz & jop and lose all the grammies to Taylor Swift.

It's almost as if we've become spoiled with political pop these last few years, but wow, take a step back and consider how incredible the existence of something like 'Americans' is.

Virtually every second of this is a delight, and when I got to the end of Americans I felt like applauding.

Americans is great, ain’t gonna lie it made me tear up

Virtually every second of this is a delight

― Matt DC, Saturday, April 28, 2018 3:35 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

undelightful seconds of this record occupied by pharrell

Well -intentioned , sometimes great but flawed. HerPrince homages are too studied.

I haven't even heard the Pharrell track because I'm scared.

xp taylor swift's album will definitely not be grammybait

excited to listen to this + watch the film!

I love how smoothly this flows from one track to the next.

The Pharrell track is fine.

Her Prince homages are too studied.

this is a bad take, I propose this take instead: her Prince homages are fun & good

Last two posts otm

I found her previous james brown homages much less fun tbh

pharrell's verse is good

Screwed/Make Me Feel/Americans already all-time for me. Still working on the rest.

the whole record rules. incredibly happy with this record

chill out N co-exist

"screwed" has been running through my head all weekend

Pynk is a such great late-night-driving-through-the-city song

current fave is I Like That

was kinda cool to this until "django jane" and then it started to click for me emotionally.

Her "Americans" >> Prince's "America"

I like most of this but I find her rapping cringey for some reason I can't quite place (it might be the perceived Drakeness)

closing stretch is the strongest despite some mild corniness

not crazy about this after first listen, but i was only half-paying attention.

juice sounds like hollaback girl

It really does!

I like some of the grooves, not the lyrics so much. Do *not* care for the rapping.

Ctrl+F "Miguel". Esp "Afraid" but also in parts of Pynk and elsewhere I hear a clear Wildheart connection...

well it's a very Prince influenced R&B album with prominent guitars so it does sound a lot like Wildheart

yeah obv there is all that Prince in there and maybe it's just recency bias but there are specific inflections that are easier for me to connect to Miguel

love 2 listen to janelle rap

will take janelle rapping over tony m rapping any day of the week

Thanks. Now I've got Monae rapping "Jughead" on the brain.

nothing original to add but gosh do i love this album

dang this DOES sound like a recent Prince protege album so yah not good haha

her rapping on crazy sounds like RHCP

predict this will easily be a 1-4 place record overall

Pretty big disappointment to me. Much middle of the road pop backing tracks, Nile Rodgers guitars and highly digital sounding drums. No swagger... Her lyrics are a little embarrassing in parts too.

My guess is that people tied to album no. 1 felt... OK about no. 2, and will get off the train at this point.

I have never been particularly interested in her so I'm not an expert but after listening to this album a couple of times, I like it but don't find it great.
There are some nice moments which may grow on me but also some corny lyrics and songs (I suppose "Americans" might work better if you're american but to me it sounds like an 80s big american movie's closing song !).
That said "Screwed" is so great and fun ! It would deserve to be this summer's ubiquitous jam.

(I suppose "Americans" might work better if you're american but to me it sounds like an 80s big american movie's closing song !)

People in America are very traumatized by Trump right now so this kind of corny bullshit works really well on them. Plus, never forget the Santayana quote "Americans love junk. It's not the junk that bothers me, it's the love."

Americans has very corny lyrics but the music is great as an album closer

there's been so much of corny protest lyrics everywhere lately that i just tune it out now

The pop and cornyness is a feature, not a bug, though. There's no accounting for taste, but it is really explicit on the album, the second song quotes the declaration of independence and makes a little pause before 'the pursuit of happiness'. The whole point of the album is Monae insisting on being a black queer woman. And HAPPY about it. Which is quite radical in and of itself. I mean, the relentless poppiness of the album does at times tire me out as well, and '80s big american movie's closing song' is not wrong at all, lol. I do get a bit sad by the critical reaction, though. There is of course also a subtext to a queer artist insisting on making a positive story about being queer instead of a sad and weary one, and it being rejected by tastemakers for not being serious enough.

other examples plz of corny protest lyrics. i want to make a playlist.

I don't really know how more explicit she could make it that she was going for happiness, and that is what's supposed to be political about it. There's like, a speech about it on the second track. It's almost too obvious, like, I expected reviewers to all note it, and then saying she was wrong. But no.

There is of course also a subtext to a queer artist insisting on making a positive story about being queer instead of a sad and weary one, and it being rejected by tastemakers for not being serious enough.

oh, come on. the praise has been almost completely universal outside of a few people itt

it's literally tied for the top spot of 2018 on metacritic rn

Which is as it should be. But if you read those metacritic reviews, it's a common theme in the less enthusiastic ones.

And, I mean, it's not that it shouldn't be criticized, a song like Screwed is almost like a parody of politics-less liberal identity politics. But ignoring it is annoying.

I also find yr conflation of "pop" and "happy" and "cornball" to be weird but I don't want to turn this into another fred b struggle session so I'm gonna peace out here

I'd love to hear you de-conflate it, because for me, yeah, it's conflated. The unique thing about the record is the bright sounds, major chords, and sloganistic/kliché ridden lyrics, so pop, happy and cornball are in this case the same thing.

You are accurately describing what I'm saying instead of yelling at me about something I've never said, so so far it's not turning into any kind of session.

It's sunny, 20 degrees out, cool breeze and this album is everything rn.