Archive for the ‘Janelle Monae’ Category
Top 10 Dance/Urban/Electro Singles of 2008
My Top 10 Dance/Urban/Electro Singles of 2008 (in no particular order). If you’ve read enough of reviews, you’ll know that I like to dance. Yeah, but I have to dance to “smart’ music. There has to be creativity involved, even in dance/urban/electro singles. I don’t think having good beats is an excuse for having weak lyrics. This is my dance/urban/electro list, so don’t take it personally if your favourites aren’t here. And obviously I don’t know every song out there, feel free to comment and add to this based on your preferences.
I’ve created this list based on 3 things:
1) it made my feet move.
2) it made me put the sh&t on repeat.
3) it made me put it on a playlist.
A. Let’s Go To War – Burn Down The Disco. This group is from Toronto and have opened for M.I.A. and Santogold, and performed at the Virgin fest. This track crosses the “urban” boundaries in my opinion, a nice mix of rock/urban/electro. I love: The intro, the bridge and the riff through the song.
Let’s Go To War – Burn Down The Disco
B. Brazilian Girls – Losing Myself. I’m pretty sure this is not a “single”. But, during their show at the Diesel house (which I weakly reviewed, lol), this track stood out to me most from their 2008 LP. I love: the bilingualism and the strangeness of her voice during the chorus.
Brazilian Girls – Losing Myself
C. Yelle – Je Veux Te Voir. This track is a re-release from 2006. Yelle is French singer from France. The intro is similar to the beginning of the 20 Fingers’ 90s track Short D*ck Man. I love: her high pitch annoying voice, the electro beat and the bridge.
Yelle – Je Veux Te Voir
D. Björk – Earth Intruders. It’s nice to see Timbaland produce something outside his tim-box and evidence that he’s beyond pop. Björk is always producing something innovative and then singing it weirdly. This song sounds like a dance march for funk and freedom I love: the lyrics, her weird articulation, and the beat.
Bjork – Earth Intruders
E. Robyn – Cobrastyle. I’ve always liked Robyn, even when she was a pop star. Robyn came back these last two years an independent artist with a dance movement. Her album is excellent, but this track is most electro danceable for me. I love: the lyrics (I press trigger, I don’t press people button) and the bass line.
Robyn – Cobrastyle.mp3
F. Kanye West – Love Lockdown. I so wanted to do this LP review, someone beat me to it. lol. Anyway, I was thoroughly impressed with this 808 album because it’s Kanye somber, electro and outside his box. The lyrics are weak as hell. I’ll make it an exception on this track because it’s heartfelt. I love: the Auto-tune, the tribal drums on the 808 and the simplicity.
Kanye West – Love Lockdown
G. N.E.R.D. – Spaz. There’s no doubt that N.E.R.D.’s Everybody Nose is a cool electro/dance track too… but Spaz‘s drum-n-bass effect works so much better for me. I always like N.E.R.D.’s work anyway, but this song, it’s a step towards what I want to hear from them. I love: the lyrics “Spaz if you want to…” damn right, the drum-n-bass beat and the mix of rock for the chorus.
N.E.R.D. – Spaz.mp3
H. Santogold – You’ll Find A Way (Switch and Sinden Remix). Of course everybody loves Creator, that’s her anthem (I do too). You’ll Find A Way is always overlooked in favour of L.E.S. Artistes. This track though is “tough” though… I love: the opening beat, the whispers and the bridge.
Santogold – You’ll Find A Way (Switch and Sinden Remix).mp3
I. Janelle Monae- Sincerely Jane. A lot of people like Many Moons more, but I think it sounds too “Outkast”ee for me. Sincerely, Jane is an original urban track that’s danceable with live horns.. mid-tempo dancing maybe, lol, but I still groove to it. I love: the lyrics, the scratching, the live horns, and her voice.
Janelle Monae – Sincerely, Jane
J. Weezer – Troublemaker. Yes, I’m well aware this is not a dance/urban/electro track. But… this track is just so much fun and makes me want to rock out the dance floor. These self-proclaimed nerds’ guitars and drum line makes me move. I love: always the nerdy and sarcastic lyrics, the beat, the little interruption bridges… “I’m gonna be a rock star… marrying a biatch”. lol. This is my anthem of the year. I know.. I’m a total geek. Yes, and the buildup bridge, works every time.
Weezer – Troublemaker.mp3
Janelle Monáe – Metropolis, The Chase Suite Review
Janelle Monáe is a strange chick. She’s been around for a little while, but is really starting to blow up now. Maybe I shouldn’t be writing about her eh? But, she’s not “mainstream” yet (well, except for one thing, I’ll get to that later). Anyway, she looks and sounds like a Broadway version of Kool Keith and Andre 3000. She’s always wearing a tuxedo and a beehive Elvis hairdo. When I wiki’ed her, it seems like she was pretty “normal” before and finally started to embrace the ‘weird’ in her. I like everything about her, except that she’s signed with P.Diddy’s Bad Boy (the mainstream factor). Well, it’s something about her label being signed to PBad Boy, not herself as an artist. Her EP (Metropolis) was released before the deal. Still… The P.Diddy factor, Ugh…That one thing just bugs the shit out of me. I hope he doesn’t destroy all that she has become. Let’s hope she keeps complete creative control and he won’t be all over her new work talking his crap “uhs” and “yeahs”.
Originally, she was supposed to release her album “Metropolis” in 4 short albums or suites (I think one each quarter). Something about wanting to keep people’s attention. Ok. Whatever. Now she’s with P. Diddy and releasing an album in January 09. I have no idea if it’s all the material put together, or re-released. Her first “suite” was called Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase, released in 2007, then re-released in 2008 as a “fan package”. What-the-eff-ever. I really don’t understand why artists have to make their shit so complicated… stop trying to be so clever, just release the damn thing once.
Monáe’s album attempts to take you into another world, a cyberspace society where she is a robot called “Cindi Mayweather” (who has her own myspace page). Musically, the album is excellent. Great melodies. Great vocals. Great lyrics. Great orchestra music. I love the horns all over the music. It’s very Outkast circa Aquemini‘s “SpottieOttieDopaliscious”, which is a great track of horns mixed with modern hip-hop. Listen to Sincerely, Jane. That’s my favourite track on the CD, it’s a very well written and produced track, mixes the jazzy horns with her Broadway vocals, and has bits of scratching in it.
I really don’t get the whole “cyberworld” thing. I guess it’s just a marketing thing because her songs relate to “Earth” and what’s happening here. It’s not like she’s relating to us via robot/alien behaviour. And, the whole “Black cyberfunk” thing was already done by Kool Keith then Outkast. As strange as she is, her music doesn’t have a “cyberfunk” element to it. In fact, the album sounds a lot like old school Motown (not neo-soul), mixed with Harlem Renaissance horns and modern funk.
Still, I like the album a lot. I appreciate the efforts of bringing live orchestra into modern music. This EP is very short and starts repeating before you know it. It kinda sucks because I would have liked to hear more (I guess her complicated cleverness worked eh?). She seems to have a whole philosophy behind her work, which is great, but I can’t really understand it just by listening the music. I’ve had to read her blogs etc to get it. I think this element sucks, in the sense that, it means her music doesn’t speak loudly enough. I think she can get there though. Musically, she has the goods to deliver. I just think her message needs to be more clear.
Janelle Monae – Sincerely, Jane
Janelle Monae – Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!
