The Archandroid Is Back With New Programming

June 4, 2023 5:06 AM

Happy Pride Month! Longtime MeFi favorite Janelle Monáe has been in process for years. Their newest singles Lipstick Lover [3m26s, possibly age restricted, clean version] and Float continue the unpeeling, unveiling of her current incarnation, a goddess of Pleasure. Janelle sits with Angie Martinez to talk [55m] about where they are now, how they got here, and what they're thinking about with the new album [Jun 9!] and tour. Similarly, here is a print interview with OUT Magazine about this new phase in their presentation.

For more Janelle, here they are for WaPo Live sitting down with Jonathan Capehart [29m] for a conversation about their book The Memory Librarian and how it fits into The Dirty Computer era.

For me personally, I was introduced to them through a comment here linking their song Tightrope.

The song I keep coming back to, perhaps more and more in these troubled times, is Cold War.

posted by hippybear (14 comments total)

Monáe is so much fun and so unfairly good at so many things.

I love that “lipstick lover” is not just sexy but just unabashedly overflowing with pure joy.
posted by obfuscation at 5:18 AM on June 4, 2023 [7 favorites]

That interview with Angie Martinez is a really fascinating look at how she's come to cope with the stress and pressure.
posted by restless_nomad at 6:51 AM on June 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was so delighted to get seats on presale for their tour. For those wanting to see Monae in person (pure joy!), public on sale date is Wednesday.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:28 AM on June 4, 2023

Love her music and love her acting—she's so much fun in Glass Onion. I hope she has time and opportunity to do lots of both.
posted by straight at 2:01 PM on June 4, 2023

Love them so much! They had a great interview in Rolling Stone recently too, plus an archive link.
posted by ellieBOA at 4:02 PM on June 4, 2023

Monáe is so much fun.

Indeed.
posted by y2karl at 4:08 PM on June 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Their newest singles Lipstick Lover [3m26s, possibly age restricted

That's a great video, and a much better party than the ones I get invited to. It didn't ask me for age verification, and I hadn't realized that you could have content that spicy on YouTube these days.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:16 PM on June 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

We have tickets for the San Francisco show and are very, very excited. We're bringing our teenager and had to have the chat about "this is probably gonna be a pretty spicy show -- we're fine with that, and you're fine with that, but y'know, let's all be ready for that."
posted by feckless at 6:51 PM on June 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

I love how she's basically trolling fools with the "clean" version of Lipstick Lover. If anybody thought she was going to hide her queerness she answers that in the first three seconds. And the subsequent pixelation just makes it look like there's more on display than there actually is.
posted by xigxag at 12:09 AM on June 5, 2023

Mah gawd our summer anthem is here and it is glorious.
posted by Katemonkey at 4:48 AM on June 5, 2023

Janelle is the human personification of the concept of Joy.
posted by Faintdreams at 7:36 AM on June 5, 2023

Janelle is playing in town on my birthday this year, which is very considerate of her.
posted by gingerbeer at 10:27 AM on June 5, 2023

The Age of Pleasure [Official Trailer]
posted by mbrubeck at 12:52 PM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Janelle sits down with Zane Lowe for Apple Music to talk about her album's release [yesterday]. [54m]
posted by hippybear at 7:29 PM on June 10, 2023