Album of the Week: 'The Electric Lady' by Janelle Monae
R&B singer Janelle Monae's latest release sounds like a push for the kind of success that eluded its predecessor, much beloved of critics but relatively coolly received by the public.
R&B singer Janelle Monae's latest release sounds like a push for the kind of success that eluded its predecessor, much beloved of critics but relatively coolly received by the public.
The Electric Lady certainly dials down the psychedelic aspects of The ArchAndroid and pinballs from one expertly rendered musical imitation to another: everything from smooth Delfonics-like soul on It's Code, to sultry pre-rock'n'roll torch song on Look Into My Eyes, to Dorothy Dandridge Eyes' sharp rendering of slick late-1970s jazz-funk.
An audible tribute to Music of My Mind-era Stevie Wonder it may be, but Ghetto Woman is such a fantastic song that it becomes a rare thing: an homage that doesn't make you wonder why you don't just go and listen to the original artist instead.
But there's no doubt Electric Lady is at its best when it ventures into more original, even iconoclastic territory. Best of all is Givin Em What They Love, driven by a rattling, bleak guitar riff and dashes of organ, over which Prince offers an explosive guitar solo and a vocal that wraps itself around Monae's.