"I am convinced now that 1954 is not just a year - it is an army"

July 1, 2015 1:50 PM

I mean, sure, she’s got a major label record deal, is one of only a handful of black women to run her own record label, is one of the most critically acclaimed artists working, and is making a good living while making art according to her own vision and nobody else’s, but her best-performing album only hit #5 in the charts, so obviously she’s doing something wrong. And looking at her work and her career, I think I know what her problem is: she’s never had a white male science fiction fan whose only credentials for writing about music are having co-authored a book about They Might Be Giants write a detailed guide to her work.

Philip Sandifer writes A Short Guide to Janelle Monáe and the Metropolis Saga.
posted by MartinWisse (15 comments total)

I just got back from the gym where whoever was in charge of the music just straight up played The Metropolis Saga in full so I like to think today the universe is pandering directly to me
posted by The Whelk at 2:12 PM on July 1, 2015 [20 favorites]

Presumably via the Reddit group, Explain Like I'm White.
posted by straight at 2:24 PM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Amusing opening paragraph! Also, I want to know what gym The Whelk goes to, because I'm getting really tired of Pitbull.
posted by Edgewise at 2:31 PM on July 1, 2015

So I was having a conversation when I glanced at this and read "Adam Sandler writes..." changes the whoooooooole thing.
posted by nevercalm at 3:06 PM on July 1, 2015

Am I misreading this, or is this guy making the assumption that all of Monae's vocals are from the perspective of Cindi? When I listen to the Archandroid Suite, I get a distinct sense that she's using different voices to play the part of multiple characters. You don't need to make weird justifications about a song referring to the 21st Century after a future one if its from the mouth of a lady old enough to have lived back now.
posted by egypturnash at 3:39 PM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I know she's critically acclaimed, and a Prince favorite, but I find her very over-rated. I get that there's some kind of overall structure, but I don't like any of the parts enough to care about it.
posted by yesster at 7:35 PM on July 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

I love Janelle Monae and her sci-fi singing. However...this didn't really clarify for me what the heck is going on in the Arch Android plot (or "plot?") too well. Maybe that's the point, I don't know, but I was hoping I could figure out what was going on after the first few albums.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:55 PM on July 1, 2015

I feel into a Monae rabbit hole a few months ago, looking up interviews and liner notes and essays by Janelle and stuff for several hours trying to piece together some sense of what the actual narrative arc is of her work thus far.

I'm glad to see that I'm basically not alone in concluding that the piece is less of a direct narrative arc and more of an emotional/socio-political manifesto arc that, while it contains narrative elements, is not formalized into anything one might consider to be "a concept album". Or a concept group-of-albums.

(Much less straightforward even than Marillion's first four albums, which are nearly one giant narrative arc about a young man's disaffected youth and failed love affairs [or one in particular] and how they led to his decline and ultimate non-redemption in an alcoholic haze.)

This was a great read. Thanks so much for posting!
posted by hippybear at 1:02 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Forget the plot and overarching storyline and just appreciate the absolute jam that is Electric Lady.
posted by PenDevil at 1:22 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

I wasn't sure of this was satire, and completely made up. Upon reading these comments, I'm still not sure.
posted by clvrmnky at 5:43 AM on July 2, 2015

If you're listening to "Q.U.E.E.N." and "The Electric Lady" and going "BUT WHAT'S THE NARRATIVE??" then maybe you need to put down the headphones and go back to solving the great mystery of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, "what was the disaster that happened???"
posted by Legomancer at 6:08 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Janelle Monae is the Sun Ra we all needed.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:38 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

space hobo: or Sun Ra and Grace Jones' love child?
posted by dylanjames at 7:00 AM on July 2, 2015

Oh, come on, you're not a bit curious that a freaking musical opus about a sci-fi world is a bit vague? (Which is to say, I want a movie of this whole thing. Nyah.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:52 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

jenfullmoon, you might be interested in reading about Afrofuturism and Janelle Monae. It was through her that I was introduced to the concept and it really appeals to my nerdy interest in the limits of humanity as it interact with techonology.
posted by Gor-ella at 8:56 AM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]