The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae

Janelle Monae represents the sort of artist that comes along rarely - one that loves music passionately, and thinks it has the potential to change the world.  She moulds and shapes it like a master artisan, to create forms of artistic expression that generate a spectrum of human emotions, harvesting and harnessing every possible note, instrument and octave to generate a spellbinding work of art. Her latest album, The ArchAndroid finds the artist at her peak, demonstrating the magic good art can wield, and why it is one of humanity's greatest forms of expression.

Inspired by a whole range of artistic works over the years, most notably Fritz Lang's Metropolis - Monae constructs a story of a revolutionary messianic female android, Cindi Mayweather, who uses music to sow seeds of revolution in the android minority in the distant future. Janelle has already expressed her intention to make a video for all the songs on the album - a wonderful thing since each song carries so much personality and drama. The songs segue into each other, effortlessly bending genre and musical eras and masterfully creating arguably the best album of 2010.

The album starts with Tightrope, a funky anthemic ditty with an equally good music video - Janelle doing the moon walk in a pompadour, talking of magic, freedom and breaking free. The video starts with the matter of fact quote - "Dancing has long been forbidden for its subversive effects on the residents and its tendency to lead to illegal magical practices". Monae then proceeds to escape her cell, and dances her legs away. 

Publications have described Monae as someone who uses the past and the future to create a breakthrough sound that is tough to fix in one genre. And that is exactly what strikes you as you listen to the complete album, song by song. Songs play into each other, and beautifully switch genres and eras. One moment its the futuristic trip-hop of 'Dance or Die', one of the best songs on the album, and three minutes later it flows into the rushing and grindin' 'Faster'. 'Dance or Die' and 'Faster' are like yin and yang, songs destined to be heard together, with Janelle telling you to dance, run faster, or die. The clap and dance routine of 'Faster' is overtaken by the swingin' 'Locked Inside'. The song sounds something out of an 80s Jackson album - yes Jackson. That's how good she is. There is little of the trashy lyrics and wasteful instrumentation so prevalent in today's hip hop or R&B music - Janelle picks sounds carefully, sings her heart out, and sounds like a different person and a different artist in each song. She is sometimes a 70's hippy chanteuse (Come Alive and Make the Bus), or a soul diva in Say You'll Go, and a jazz princess in BaBopByeYa. And still, each song has a story to tell, and heard together weaves a pretty good yarn about Cindi Mayweather and the Metropolis.

You will be transported to the hypnotic 70s with 'Sir Greendown', as Cindi Mayweather sings about forbidden love - castles and rescues - from the society where she is trapped. Is it the android singing to herself of escape and forbidden love, or is she speaking to every listener of those songs? A wonderfully moody song, it is followed by the breathless rock epic 'Come Alive (The War of the Roses) - "Tommy says the children are clouding my head/ when everything is wrong I dance inside my mind/ that's when I come alive/ like a schizo running wild (2)/ now let's go wild!" The song is talking of a dystopian future where music is banned and androids are the repressed minority - dancing and music offer the escape. 

Mushrooms and Roses is a trippy journey into the hazy sleepy era of Woodstock, albeit with 'droids and... lovers'. Fabulous once again.

"Blueberry Mary, and she's crazy about me/ (She's so crazy about me)/ She's wild man, she's wild! /She gives the boys all of her kisses and electricity"

Other songs include the edgy chorus-filled "Make the Bus", the sprightly "Wondaland" and the gorgeous "57821". 57821 is presumably Cindi Mayweather's code name, and this code reappears throughout the album interspersed in the lyrics of songs. It's this storytelling quality that reminds one of Kate Bush, arguably one of the best musician singers of our time, and Janelle seems to be following in her footsteps - an eccentric confident voice with the vocal chops, imagination and most importantly, guts to go beyond the usual and offer something as good as The ArchAndroid.

Tightrope as featured on David Letterman: