We are all reaching for something unattainable. The thing about reviews is I know why the record tastes good - don’t need a calorie and ingredient spreadsheet
Music is for enjoying not quantifying
― Tosser full of secrets (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 15:35 (five years ago) link
I know this is really not the point to be drawn out, but as a Canadian, Wilson has no business calling the American left "despairing."
― Simon H., Friday, 4 May 2018 15:37 (five years ago) link
I’m Canadian man
Love to Simon
― Tosser full of secrets (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 15:38 (five years ago) link
Sorry Simon what do you mean?
― Main man (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 15:50 (five years ago) link
oh just that the canadian left is an incredibly dismal, pathetic state at the moment compared to the States where there's been quite a bit of energy and potential for momentum by comparison
― Simon H., Friday, 4 May 2018 15:54 (five years ago) link
LBI otm
Treating a record like a jigsaw - take a load off n enjoy
― Main man (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 15:54 (five years ago) link
Simon I’m sad to say I don’t know much about Canadian politics
― Main man (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 15:56 (five years ago) link
Carl Wilson's review
― incel elgort (cryptosicko), Friday, May 4, 2018 10:30 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
kinda looks at first like he's giving the album a 0
― frogbs, Friday, 4 May 2018 15:56 (five years ago) link
I do find it kind of funny that Wilson alleges the album is being slightly overrated for its positive vision while Fred alleges more or less the opposite is true
― Simon H., Friday, 4 May 2018 15:56 (five years ago) link
Can’t figure out wtf Fred is on about
― Main man (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 15:57 (five years ago) link
Back in arch days Janelle added me to MySpace and man that made my day. Her happiness on this record and gospel upbringing rings hard for me. Janelles happy = I’m happt
― Main man (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 16:00 (five years ago) link
Happy
I like that
― Main man (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 16:39 (five years ago) link
the jubilance + strength combo is so addictive, cannot stop listening.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 4 May 2018 17:00 (five years ago) link
Sorry only Toto on take a byte, does anyone know what that reference is?
― breastcrawl, Friday, 4 May 2018 21:34 (five years ago) link
Not hearing any drakeness I’m confused.
Enjoying the record but I still prefer the first two she did.
― Van Horn Street, Friday, 4 May 2018 21:38 (five years ago) link
drake flow has been so pervasive in pop i barely hear it anymore. genuinely think janelle’s raps are better lyrically than what she sings on this record
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 4 May 2018 21:51 (five years ago) link
but also i can handle a lotta corniness especially when it’s gay as hell
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 4 May 2018 21:52 (five years ago) link
(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."
― grawlix (unperson)
so ever since tom pepinsky briefly went viral way back in early 2017, i've been following his blog. and his latest post - hey this board could have something to say about it! it's called "glam, metal, and regime change". (link: https://tompepinsky.com/2018/04/27/glam-metal-and-regime-change/ ) i clicked through to the slides. i clicked through to his example of a video from the "arab spring":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgw_zfLLvh8
okay, now this is what the music of regime change sounds like. resistance depends on manufacturing a viable alternative, on manufacturing _hope_. i understand that's a discredited neoliberal concept right now, but it will need to be rehabilitated.
― Arch Bacon (rushomancy), Saturday, 5 May 2018 00:24 (five years ago) link
To clarify my not-really-liking-it statement upthread. It's the combination of:- Janelle having an OK voice, not great, but in the past having interesting melodies that carry her average voice. Not to be all Geir Hongro, but this has some pretty average tunes.- It used to feel, lyrically, like she was a little less of open book. Now the sexual references, social media references, political references are more obvious, even simple. I won't argue the sexual politics of this though - I have a lot of respect for what people have said upthread about what it means to them. - The beats kind of suck. Actually, for me this a big thing. There was so much exciting music on vol. 1, and a good amount on vol. 2. No track on here has me all "shit!" and searching for production credits the way the first 2 albums did. For me, this album has become the Janelle Monae show "as personality," and not the Janelle Monae show "as musical prodigy."
― paulhw, Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:12 (five years ago) link
mmmm. i didn't take it as "average" at all. i do think it's simpler and more straightforward than her past work, and that's really what i like about it. it's the sort of thing that's difficult to do well, and she does it well.
― Arch Bacon (rushomancy), Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:32 (five years ago) link
Forgive the comparison in advance, because it just popped into my head, but this seems like her 90125. After a career of concepts and overkill, I really appreciate the straightforwardness of Dirty Computer.
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:35 (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, Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:37 (five years ago) link
it felt like the music was coming out of her, if that makes sense.
I've felt that way before (re: a number of artists), but not with this album. idk
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:39 (five years ago) link
what
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 6 May 2018 01:44 (five years ago) link
― 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