Album Review: Janelle Monae - The Archandroid

Can anyone ever fault ambitious, daring projects? I never seem to be able to do that - someone puts their heart and soul into it to create something refreshing and exciting, and even if it doesn’t pan out I would probably still rate it over any mediocre album with half an idea behind it. I’d rather see David Byrne making an Imelda Marcos double album with all its flaws than seeing people not really attempting much of anything. Of course, I’d much rather see someone like Janelle Monae making her debut album - which she has done now, and which is excellent. Thing is, not only does Monae have more ambition than most musicians, she’s got the talent to match it. Monae released the delicious Metropolis-Suite 1: The Chase EP a few years back, and she has somehow found a way to match, and at times transcend, that concept EP to create an even bolder debut album.

This album, called The ArchAndroid, is all over the place in terms of musical genres. The first five tracks are all completely different, but yet somehow they find a way to morph into each other fluently. It starts with an instrumental overture and ends with a slow nightclub ballad, and the songs in between sound nothing like them. After that quintet come the two “singles” ‘Tightrope’ and ‘Cold War’, the latter being one of the most amazing tunes I’ve heard in yonkers; Monae sings “This is a cold war, you better know what you’re fighting for”, which is sung with such fervor that you cannot help but attach your own meaning and interpretation to it and have an evangelical moment. That one-two punch is right on the money, and we aren’t even halfway yet.

Truth is, you can talk about every song, because every song is different from the one before. Despite that the album is tight and cohesive despite the genre hopping. Meanwhile, we’re being taken on a history tour with Iraq, the Cold War, the War of the Roses (three wars, three different eras, as if we’re learning nothing, eh?), while also going into the future. That future is one where Androids, like the narrative persona Cindy Mayweather introduced on an earlier EP, are forbidden to fall in love with human beings. On the EP we hear she does, and it is ordered she should be disassembled. Now, I’m going to take a page out of the excellent Popmatters review by Quentin Huff because this debut album seemingly continues that story, albeit not as clearly as the EP sets it up. Huff likens it to Bowie’s Ziggy album, though instead of the dramatic suicide here we witness an ascension of the dramatic persona.

Does the story really matter? Well, it does, but it doesn’t - because like a modern painting you can either let the sense, the atmosphere and emotion of the painting/music capture you, or you can go and try to interpret and analyze it from whichever angle you pick to try to uncover as much as you can and to enjoy it on a deeper level. With The Archandroid, you can ride the musical/cinematic train with its nods to cabaret, 20s jazz, 30s movies, James Brown, David Bowie, horror, sci-fi and enjoy it. However, there is also room to uncover, to go on a treasure hunt within the music, and to have multiple options to enjoy it is enthralling in itself.

Sure, it is a debut, and there are some flaws. The last tracks are very good, but they are less immediate, and they are track 15, 16, 17, and 18, you know? It perhaps goes on a bit too long (I, personally, would’ve released Suite III as an EP later this year. I think that would’ve done more justice to the interesting yet less immediate songs which are now squeezed in at the back). Also, hey, I love Of Montreal a whole bunch, but ‘Make The Bus’ is literally an Of Montreal track on a Janelle Monae album. Now if they would’ve put their ‘Moonage Daydream’ duet on it, that would’ve been different (if anyone needed yet another Bowie link, there you go). Anyway, those are minor quibbles about an album daring, deep, original, and ballsy. To, in this music age, come up with an album, and an ‘old-fashioned album’ at that - I take my hat off to that.