Entertainment For Lively Minds
Janelle!
Editing the Word Inbox, I do so love to read The Massive's tales of Who I Saw Before They Got Big. Pink Floyd at Cleethorpes; Colosseum at the Redcar Jazz Club; Queen at Truro City Call. As a child of the ’80s I never saw a legend in the making because, by the time I came to fruition, all the ledges had already been made. However last night, I managed to squeeze in to the tiny Hoxton Bar and Grill to see Janelle Monae – the broadway-trained, Fritz-Lang inspired, bowel-shatteringly talented Outkast discovery from Kansas – playing on a piece of staging no larger than a bus stop.
Monae is a tight theatrical concept years in the making: an R & B Master of Ceremonies in a top hat and white gloves prepared the audience for an "Emotion picture" while two dancers in cowls and Venetian plague doctor masks glided on stage. Monae – looking a bit like a gimlet in her Victorian high-neck blouse – burst on and hammered out the opening rap, Dance Or Die, from her forthcoming record The ArchAndroid (a visionary concept album far too complicated for me to understand). Drummer played like he was in a metal band; guitarist did warm, fat Santana-style riffs. Some of Monae's vocal lines sound like Gloria Estefan and others like James Brown. This is an unclassifiable act – they don't just pick and choose from the familiar bits of pop history, they seem to break it down and raise up something dark and new. If pop music was New York, this would be Gotham City. And Monae is a new performer in the Michael Jackson mould. While she never lost the audience, still she gave nothing away – didn't speak a word, never let the mask slip even as the foot-high quiff came loose from its lacquer and drooped like a bunch of palm fronds. Amazoid.
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Good stuff
have seen the videos people keep posting I seem to be put off by the "distance" she projects. Also confused by your description of her looking like a "gimlet" isn't that Marlow's favourite gin and lime cordial?
A gimlet, yesterday
I'm still reserving judgement
Leaving aside the Grace Jones at The Cotton Club-segues-into-Kid Creole Gets a Right Strop On stylings (which do have their appeal, I will admit), I'm still wondering what makes her any more special than Carmel was or, as it turned out, wasn't 25 years ago.
Don't think Carmel did anything quite as lively as this
Don't understand ...
... why she's being compared to Carmel.
Clever stuff ...
Clever stuff though Janelle Monae may be, I can't work out whether you enjoyed the gig, rather than really admired it.
Anyway, is she the R 'n' B Gaga?
OMG
Ms Monae the first new singer in a while I've got properly excited about. If I'd known about that gig, I'd have definitely been there (though I'd probably be stopped at the Hoxton border for not dressing well enough). From what I've heard of her, she's almost like a tour guide with her music being a trip through the history of soul and R n B, from Ella Fitzgerald to Outkast.
Kate Mossman, I am officially extrememly jealous of you having seen Janelle Monae.
her album...
Covers much more than soul/R'n'B though. She's not afraid to Rawk out or go all 'Mama's and Pappas' and even likes a bop down the indie disco.
She's really somthing special.
Obviously a stunning talent.
There again, so was / is Lewis Taylor..
i note that the album is on Spotify
but unavailable in the UK? why's that then?
Maybe
Because it's not out in the UK yet? The release date here is July 12.
Janet Jackson? This was far more exciting & hip,unfortunately...
she never built on it.
and she's hardly this...
It never fails to amaze me why people keep getting suckered in to style over substance and really,let's be honest.Not that much style.
Out tomorrow ? Buying on the first day ? Now there's a rarity,,,
..at least these days, but from what I've heard, it may have to done.
Itis being heavily hyped, but y'all may just be right. It sounds like the sound of this summer already.
http://www.myspace.com/janellemonae
I've been living with the album for a few days
and I'm not especially moved.
I bought it, partly on the strength of the rave reviews, but mainly for the enthralling video and the fabulous single Tightrope.
However, I find the album a bit meh. I'd classify it as R&B inflected showtunes and it's no more artistically original than Beyonce's I Am Sasha Fierce or, even, Christine Aguilera's Bionic.
Having said that, she has a great image. Let's see if she really does have 'legs' as a modern day David Bowie or a smaller, younger Beyonce. Somehow, I think not.
Monae the Moocher
Reluctant as I am to gainsay Wor Mossman, I really am put in mind of the over-mannered retro schtick of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. I wish I could appreciate her as much as many people obviously do but I apparently don't have it in me.
As for "Tightrope", yes, the video is fetching enough, but the song's only other notable feature for me is that it manages to be so upfront about referencing/homaging/ripping off (delete as appropriate) James Brown while remaining, from start to finish, irreductibly not funky.
Just my opinion...
Jack of all Trades, Master of None. Fun though.
I've listened to 2 new things recently:
Janelle's cd, which I can't get to like much at all, and Hjaltalin - who I find amazing.
Anais Mitchell's Hadestown is amazing
But it's scary that I find the nubile, energetic young lady a bit dull, yet a suite of songs about Orpheus performed by a serious, beard-stroking cast of vocalists and muscicians, I find deep, rich and moving. I must be getting old.
All you naysayers should just watch this