tragabigzanda wrote:run2death wrote:I do appreciate the songwriting on the album, but again, I think this one's kinda missing her stamp of individuality.
The last two albums have blended soul and funk with her own tweaks.
I feel like the influences are soooo prominent on this one. "Make Me Feel" is great, but all I hear is Prince, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
With one exception, every song immediately reminds me of a other artist.
Dirty Computer = Beach Boys
Crazy Classic = generic modern pop
Take a Byte = Daft Punk
Screwed = generic modern pop
Django Jane = Nicki Minaj, Wiz Khalifa
Pynk = generic modern pop
Make Me Feel = Prince
I Got the Juice = Rihanna
I Like That = generic modern pop
Don't Judge Me = (ok, this one is pretty good and unique)
So Afraid = Pink
Americans = generic modern pop
I see some of what you're saying, but there are also some real head-scratchers in this breakdown (I object to each one of your uses of "generic modern pop", for instance). Others seem designed as homages or allude to the artists in question. "Dirty Computer = Beach Boys", yeah, the intro was written that way, that is literally Brian Wilson doing background harmonies; other than that section, the song sounds nothing like the Beach Boys. "Take a Byte = Daft Punk", yup, it's got that future-disco sound, and she literally name-checks them in the lyrics. "Make Me Feel= Prince", yup, he worked on it too, and Janelle is no stranger to the Prince influence on earlier albums (listen to "Givin 'Em What They Love", another Janelle track featuring prince. It is essentially a Prince song). Other stuff is just puzzling-- "So Afraid= Pink"? Really? Why? Pink isn't the only female who does guitar-based emotional power ballads about helplessness. "I Got the Juice = Rihanna" is just completely off the mark unless you are specifically referring to "Pon de Replay", and even that is a stretch.
Janelle's stamp is all over this thing, both musically and lyrically. I understand and agree that it operates under a more rigid pop framework than the first two albums, but it is still filtered through her musical sensibilities. Listen to the background harmonies in the aforementioned "So Afraid", they are straight-up out of The Archandroid; "Django Jane" is like a song-length version of the rap at the end of "Q.U.E.E.N"; as Trag rightly points out, "Don't Judge Me" sounds like something nobody else could have written. "I Like That" uses a trap beat and places it against a dreamy synth line that sounds like the sequel to "Oh Maker". Also thematically, this is 100% Janelle Monáe; it's sci-fi take on black identity and the fluidity of desire. It's not as unwieldy or ambitious as her earlier stuff -- The ArchAndroid remains her masterpiece -- but she delivered a really solid, soulful, and (crucially) emotional pop album, and she did that by chipping away at the layers of artifice. It may be her most commercial release yet, but it also feels like the most personal.
