Sometime last year I was browsing music blogs randomly downloading stuff when I came across a track called 'Come Alive' by a singer called Janelle Monae. Because it was a kind of almost Cramps-style slightly deranged psychobilly tune that talked about being a schizo running wild, I thought that maybe it had come from the soundtrack of one of those Vampirey things like True Blood. It went onto a CD containing lots of different stuff and I listened to it quite a lot.
Then, a few weeks ago I heard a song on the radio. Just by chance I flicked onto 6music and there it was. It was groovy upbeat funk tune with a great female lead vocal. It always happens that when you catch a tune you want to know more about the DJ segues it into another tune or a trailer and you never get hear what it was. This caught my ear enough that I searched the tracklisting of the show online. Sure enough, the track seemed to be Tightrope by Janelle Monae.
So I got her albums, and they have instantly become the soundtrack of my summer. I ripped both albums (Metropolis and The Arch Android) onto a single CD and it has not been out of my car stereo ever since. Passengers always comment on how great the music sounds. What is that? Who is the singer?
I'm sure people have said this before but they have the feel of Prince. Not that they are exactly similar, but in that they are so varied and interesting as albums. Like Around the World in A Day and Under the Cherry Moon they are kind of all over the place but make perfect sense as whole albums.
If Monae can keep up this level then she is destined to become a major artist worth following.
Then, a few weeks ago I heard a song on the radio. Just by chance I flicked onto 6music and there it was. It was groovy upbeat funk tune with a great female lead vocal. It always happens that when you catch a tune you want to know more about the DJ segues it into another tune or a trailer and you never get hear what it was. This caught my ear enough that I searched the tracklisting of the show online. Sure enough, the track seemed to be Tightrope by Janelle Monae.
So I got her albums, and they have instantly become the soundtrack of my summer. I ripped both albums (Metropolis and The Arch Android) onto a single CD and it has not been out of my car stereo ever since. Passengers always comment on how great the music sounds. What is that? Who is the singer?
I'm sure people have said this before but they have the feel of Prince. Not that they are exactly similar, but in that they are so varied and interesting as albums. Like Around the World in A Day and Under the Cherry Moon they are kind of all over the place but make perfect sense as whole albums.
If Monae can keep up this level then she is destined to become a major artist worth following.
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