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