Janelle Monáe - The Electric Lady (2013)

9/3/13 2:00PM

FULL ALBUM STREAM BELOW (or at the link)

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Get More: Janelle Monae,

The Guardian Stream (UK and others?)

8/19/13 9:03PM

3rd/New single "Primetime (ft Miguel)." Ballad. Not bad, but also not something I imagine will stand out on this record.


8/13/13 4:41PM

Wow, a double fucking album! I was a little wary about this record, and am still slightly compared to the ArchAndroid, but man, the way it looks both in concept/ambition and potential storytelling again, I'm now a little more optimistic about it.



link

Disc 1:


1. Suite IV Electric Overture

2. Givin Em What They Love (ft. Prince)

3. Q.U.E.E.N. (ft. Erykah Badu)

4. Electric Lady (ft. Solange)

5. Good Morning Midnight (Interlude)

6. PrimeTime (ft. Miguel)

7. We Were Rock & Roll

8. The Chrome Shoppe (Interlude)

9. Dance Apocalyptic

10. Look Into My Eyes

Disc 2:


11. Suite V Electric Overture

12. It's Code

13. Ghetto Woman

14. Our Favorite Fugitive (Interlude)

15. Victory

16. Can't Live Without Your Love

17. Sally Ride

18. Dorothy Dandridge Eyes (ft. Esperanza Spalding)

19. What An Experience

Bonus Tracks:

21. Q.U.E.E.N. (ft. Erykah Badu) [Wondamix]
22. Electric Lady (ft. Big Boi and Cee Lo Green) [Dungeon-Wondamix]
23. HYTB
24. I Want You Back

According to NME, the Miguel track, "Prime Time," will feature a sample of the indie-rock godfathers, The Pixie's, classic "Where Is My Mind?" 

We have a feeling this album is gunna push a lot of boundaries and bend a lot of genres. After all, this is the electric lady who adores talking about cyborgs almost as much as (and maybe more than) music!

Some background about the COVER ART

8/4/13 5:51PM-

This is apparently the cover art. I also noticed on Wikipedia, she is covering "I Want You Back" from the Jackson 5 as an exclusive bonus track with the Target store release.


7/3/13 2:13PM
New official video for "Dance Apocalyptic."

iTunes Preorder 

6/28/13 7:37PM
no embed of course. I never get why it isn't embed-able since it'll probably be ripped onto Youtube within a few hours anyway.

Cool, catchy tune anyway. Can't wait to hear the whole thing in the coming months.

Stream "Dance Apocalyptic"

edit: the official video teaser below confirms the video for this song will be released on Tuesday July 2nd.

6/27/13 10:48PM

Instragram Video announcing this album is coming on September 10th, 2013

embed? I can't find it.

I can share what I have seen on Wikipedia

Prince and Miguel will be among the other guests, besides Erykah Badu on the 1st single.

Some song titles mentioned below:
-Q.U.E.E.N. (feat. Erykah Badu)
-Dorothy Dandridge Eyes
-Dance Apocalyptic
-Victory
-Primetime (feat. Miguel?)

Monáe's first single from The Electric Lady, "Q.U.E.E.N.", which features Erykah Badu, premiered on SoundCloud and made available for download purchase at the Itunes Store on April 23, 2013."Q.U.E.E.N" garnered 31,000 digital sales according to Nielsen Soundscan with the accompanying music video gaining four million Youtube views within its first week of release. Thematically, 'Electric Lady' will continue the utopian cyborg concepts of its predecessors, while presenting itself in more plainspoken, personal territory in addition to experimenting with genres beyond conventional Funk and Soul such as Jazz ("Dorothy Dandridge Eyes"), Pop-Punk ("Dance Apocalyptic"), Gospel ("Victory") and woozy, sensual vocal ballads ("Primetime", slated to be a duet with Miguel). The album will so far feature confirmed guest appearances by Prince and the aforementioned Miguel with production from previous collaborator Deep Cotton (a psychedelic punk act) and Roman GianArthur (a soul music composer), and is targeted for a September release date

11/5/12 1:45AM


In June 2012, Monáe performed two new songs, "Electric Lady" and "Dorothy Dandridge Eyes" — from her upcoming sophomore studio album, The Electric Lady — at Toronto's Jazz Festival.^[24][25] In July 2012, for the second year in a row, she appeared at the renowned North Sea Jazz Festival in Europe as well as in the 46th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on the 14th.

Take the above source for what it's worth, being Wikipedia. Here's a couple of videos of the 2 songs mentioned about the album, live.

Certainly this album The Electric Lady, whenever it does come out (hopefully in 2013) is pretty high on my anticipation list. I doubt, but what if the name had some connection to either Jimi Hendrix or The Electric Ladyland studios.

Also a cool note I discovered over the weekend about Janelle in this link about Hidden songs the 8th track "Neon Gumbo" from The Archandroid (Suite II and III), when played backwards, sounds like a sequel to "Many Moons," from her debut EP Metropolis Suite I . "Many Moons" by the way, I have come to totally love, and find it as good if not better than anything off The Archandroid. There's even a cool short film/video of it.

Kimbra - Vows (2011)

1. Settle Down 4:17
2. Cameo Lover 4:03
3. Two Way Street 4:29
4. Old Flame 4:27
5. Good Intent 3:32
6. Plain Gold Ring 4:03
7. Call Me 4:32
8. Limbo 3:52
9. Wandering Limbs 5:27
10. Withdraw 4:06
11. The Build Up 8:21


I've been wanting to write something about her, pretty much when I started listening and then sharing the video for Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" a couple of weeks ago. And I finally got to hear this debut LP from her this week and am still digesting much of it. But if I manage to add to this entry at some point, I'm just going to give some initial thoughts.

Kimbra (or Kimbra Johnson) is a new, young singer/songwriter from New Zealand (edit: I guess I assumed she was from Australia. Then again, Gotye is originally from Belgium, lol..so nationalities can easily be mistaken).. And there's been much anticipation for this debut album of hers I guess, for even many years. I suppose in many ways, she does remind me of among others, 2010's great discovery artist in Janelle Monáe. But also the style of her music on this album does share things in common with Ms. Monáe. The genre blending, passion, and soulfulness in her vocals especially. The depth and flow of this record. And maybe most of all, she doesn't really come across as another pop-diva (which is what I initially pegged Janelle as). A few other names that I'll admit I'm reminded of that come to mind might be Imogen Heap or St.Vincent in a way as well. Heap perhaps in the use of textures.

Specific songs? I don't skip any track at this point, but perhaps the last 3 tracks "Wandering Limbs" "Withdraw" and "The Build Up/Somebody Please" have stood out the most. "Wandering Limbs" features a male singer named Sam Lawrence, who'll I can't deny, I thought was Daniel Johns from Silverchair/Dissociatives. I suppose like Kimbra in the Gotye song, maybe I should inquire about his music as well.

 But this is definitely an album I anticipate listening to a fair amount over the next few weeks or more, as I keep enjoying more things about it. Very much of an album-lover's album, like The Archandroid and some others. And while I am still enjoying Gotye's new record Making Mirrors, I guess I can already say right now, this is at least a bit better. Although I'd be surprised if I'll find any 1 song as good as "Somebody I Used to Know."

 

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid (2010)

on July 13th Media Reviews Said:

The same night, of Montreal w/ Janella Monae are in The Mainroom. I actually would go for seeing of Montreal live sometime, as much as I've been underwhelmed by their studio music. But Monae has become hipster band 101 as well.

1. Suite II Overture Nathaniel Irvin III, Roman GianArthur Irvin, Charles Joseph II, Janelle Monáe Robinson 2:31
2. Dance or Die (feat. Saul Williams) Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson, Saul Williams 3:12
3. Faster Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 3:19
4. Locked Inside Irvin III, Robinson 4:16
5. Sir Greendown Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 2:14
6. Cold War Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 3:23
7. Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) Irvin III, Joseph II, Antwan Patton, Robinson 4:22
8. Neon Gumbo Robinson, Chuck Lightning 1:37
9. Oh, Maker Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 3:46
10. Come Alive (War of the Roses) Irvin III, Joseph II, Kellis Parker Jr., Robinson 3:22
11. Mushrooms & Roses Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 5:42
12. Suite III Overture Irvin III, Irvin, Joseph II, Robinson 1:41
13. Neon Valley Street Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 4:11
14. Make the Bus (feat. of Montreal) Kevin Barnes 3:19
15. Wondaland Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 3:36
16. 57821" (feat. Deep Cotton) Irvin III, Joseph II, Robinson 3:16
17. Say You’ll Go Irvin III, Irvin, Joseph II, Robinson 6:01
18. BabopbyeYa Irvin III, Irvin, Joseph II, Robinson 8:47

I'll confess, when I 1st saw her name back in the Spring, I wasn't really buying into her music with the way she was being mixed in with the hipster crowd. And her song "Tightrope" just seemed like another pop-diva I didn't need to give 5 minutes of my time to.

But after finally checking out The ArchAndroid a little over a month ago, I've totally come around on her.

I WAS WRONG, I WAS WRONG, I WAS WRONG. I'M SORRY JANELLE, YOU'RE AWESOME. I'M SORRY I PRE-JUDGED YOUR MUSIC

It's an excellent record. Catchy, creative, eclectic, and really a lot more original or ambitious than I would ever have thought. She does combine genres rather effectively. But the thing is, many people like to pigeon-hole her to be like James Brown, but I would compare her music more with someone like St.Vincent or Apes and Androids. The dreamy, mystical and emotional sides especially.

I can't deny, her new album is kind of a breath of fresh air to an extent. I've been hoping something new would come along this Summer and grab me, and she is definitely among my favorite new artists (to me) this year.

And it's prog, whether 99% of the people into her music realize or would agree with that, I know it when I hear it. I mean her use of orchestral parts, some of the synths and textures, and definitely the guitar parts and tones; I hear people like David Gilmour and Steve Hackett. I'm not sure who plays the guitars on this record, but it wouldn't be surprising if they were a fan or/listened to stuff like Floyd and Genesis.

I will say though, the 1st 12 or 13 tracks really flow incredibly well, and the last 8+ minute closing piece "BabopbyeYa" is a great closer to this album. But the tracks leading up to it are a bit hit and miss, and that's why at this stage it's not really a top record or even top 5 probably candidate for my 2010 index.

But it's become rather addictive, and the whole concept with the Metropolis (the film?) ideas, Artificial Intelligence/Lifeforms, is rather cool.

I also have gone on to check out her 1st EP Metropolis, Suite I: The Chase from 2007 and The Audition from 2003, which I guess technically is a circulated bootleg or lengthly demo, that some consider her debut album.

And I am going to see her on September 23rd, although probably not much of Montreal as well, with the 3-show 3-venue seeing the performer-I-most-want-to-when-they-are-on-stage at every venue that night. I'd rather see her headline, but given she's not, the triple-concert deal should work. But hopefully the next time she comes in town, she'll be the headliner and it won't be on the same evening as another concert or event.