The Electric Lady
by Janelle Monáe

Janelle killed it on this one. I think she showed definite improvement in her songwriting and furthered her pop aesthetic while still maintaining her R&B/funk roots of The ArchAndroid. The songs don't flow as seamlessly as they do on the first album, but there are so many stand-out songs here that it makes this work in its own right. While I certainly enjoyed The ArchAndroid, the flow of that album made some of the songs comparatively a little less memorable due to their similarity. Not here. Practically every song on here is terrific, which is hard to pull off on albums with this type of length and ambition. I think Janelle Monae showed her true talent on this and successfully utilized a multitude of genres. Love the instrumentation here, especially the guitar solos. Extremely catchy, very creative, and high replay value. Can't wait to see what she does next. Favorite tracks: "Givin' Em What They Love," "Prime Time," "Dance Apocalyptic," "Victory," "What An Experience."

From buzzdainer TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/19/2017 19:33 | #201664 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis notes that "[The] Electric Lady is at its best when it shakes free of its influences and ventures into more original, even iconoclastic territory: 'I'm tired of Marvin asking me what's goin' on,' she sings on Q.U.E.E.N., while the superb ballad 'Sally Ride' conflates the chorus of 'Mustang Sally' with the story of the U.S.'s first female astronaut, its dramatic orchestration battling with squealing distorted guitars." That's an apt summary of this album, which I think shows real verve and originality far more often than it feels derivative. In fact, I sort of reject the pejorative use of "derivative" when I'm evaluating new albums, since in a sense all music derives from somewhere, and I don't mind when artists wear their influences on their sleeve--or in the case of this album, try their best to move past them.

From AlexZangari 09/13/2013 07:03 | #85846 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I expected more from this record, so I'm going to need to wait for that initial disappointment to wash out before I can have a real opinion.

From ShaneSpear TOP 100 COMMENTER 09/26/2013 00:31 | #86842 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Do Electric Ladies Dream of Electric Sheep?

Pretty much every bit as good as her last release, and this probably cements her status as this generation's Lauryn Hill. There aren't many attributes that Janelle comes up short on in a close inspection of the comparison.

Some seriously cool guitar solos, mixed with some fine vocals and drop in a over excited radio station DJ, combines to be a excellent album. One of my albums of the year.