The ArchAndroid
Jun. 15th, 2010 21:49![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyJanelle Monáe. The ArchAndroid. Bad Boy Records/Wondaland Entertainment, 2010.
The ArchAndroid, to agree with the guys on NPR's Sound Opinions, is one of the best albums I've heard in years. As much as I liked Monáe's first EP Metropolis: The Chase Suite I, The ArchAndroid, which comprises parts II and III of the suite, is just worlds more amazing--and the Metropolis EP was pretty darn awesome.
There's one level on which Monáe is simply the latest in a long line of people writing epic science fiction concept albums, and on that level alone she's ridiculously accomplished; from the very beginning of the first track it's clear that she, like many of us geeks and nerds, spent her childhood glued to the TV watching Star Wars and all the other great sci-fi movies with their sci-fi soundtracks, particularly those scored by John Williams. (That first track, "Suite II Overture", is listed in the liner notes as being inspired by "Princess Leia's cinnamon buns hairstyle, Tim Burton's 'Blue Girl With Wine,' and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2," which ought to give you an idea of the range of Monáe's inspiration, and ambitions.) The music on this album, just as music, is amazing; Monáe came out of OutKast's Idlewild crew, and she does wide-ranging, syncretic music as well as or better than absolutely anyone I've ever heard--there are some tracks that are R&B in here, and some that really strain at the boundaries of genre, and others that are just pop, but they're all amazing. For these reasons alone I would recommend the album to everyone I know; and I do.
But to only talk about the music, and the science fiction, is to miss at least half of the impact and scope of Monáe's vision. Newsweek actually wrote an article about Monáe in which they managed to make it sound, passe Fritz Lang's Metropolis (by which this work, either directly or indirectly by way of the Metropolis anime, obviously is heavily influenced), that Monáe's Chase Suite is all about class, which I found irksome. Even I can tell that the Chase Suite is as much about race as it is about anything else; in this society, telling a story in which a black woman, android or no, is the world's only possible savior can't help but have (revolutionary?) implications w/r/t race.
I'm trying to find my peace
I was made to believe there's something wrong with me
And it hurts my heart
Lord have mercy, ain't it plain to see?
That this is a cold war,
Do you know what you're fighting for?
This is a cold war,
You better know what you're fighting for.
(from "Cold War")
In some ways there's more than a little of The Matrix in the story of Cindi Mayweather, the android who falls in love with a human and over the course of the Chase Suite so far not only realizes that there is something very wrong with her city, but that she is the only one who can stop it, and that that fact places on her the responsibility to try to do so. Which leads back to the question, what would The Matrix have been like, have meant, if the Wachowskis had been able to cast Will Smith as Neo?
On the other hand, though, I don't want to make the mistake of saying "The ArchAndroid is about race," because that would limit Monáe and the album in ways that they explicitly defy. The album is about freedom and oppression--how to break free from the constraints an oppressive society would place on you, how to be free even in the midst of oppression, the imperative of freedom itself. I could write a whole other post on the tropes Monáe deploys across her album and EP, starting with the idea of the madwoman as the only one who's actually in her right mind; the quotation above, from the liner notes, is purportedly written by the director of the Palace of Dogs, the insane asylum in which the "Tightrope" video is set and in which Monáe, in the story, was imprisoned when she arrived from the future. Just watch the video:
Yeah, it's like that. Dancing on a tightrope as a metaphor, dance as the literal ends and means of revolution; I could go on. Just, seriously, if you listen to one album this year, make it The ArchAndroid. No matter what kind of music you like, you'll find something in it to love.
(P.S. Semi-relatedly, can we kill the meme wherein people praise one (female) musician by dissing another? As in, I don't need to read articles about how great Janelle Monáe is which open by hating on Lady Gaga. They are both amazing female artists who deserve international stardom, and that is all.)
Dubious claims and inconsistencies aside, is Janelle Monáe crazy? Is she truly from the year 2719? Is she making music with apparitions? Is her direct cloned descendant the ArchAndroid? Is the American government tied to the Great Divide? Is there a world called Metropolis waiting for us in the future? A world full of elves and dwarves? Humans and androids? Clones and aliens?
And most importantly, if the ArchAndroid does exist…can she truly save us?
The ArchAndroid, to agree with the guys on NPR's Sound Opinions, is one of the best albums I've heard in years. As much as I liked Monáe's first EP Metropolis: The Chase Suite I, The ArchAndroid, which comprises parts II and III of the suite, is just worlds more amazing--and the Metropolis EP was pretty darn awesome.
There's one level on which Monáe is simply the latest in a long line of people writing epic science fiction concept albums, and on that level alone she's ridiculously accomplished; from the very beginning of the first track it's clear that she, like many of us geeks and nerds, spent her childhood glued to the TV watching Star Wars and all the other great sci-fi movies with their sci-fi soundtracks, particularly those scored by John Williams. (That first track, "Suite II Overture", is listed in the liner notes as being inspired by "Princess Leia's cinnamon buns hairstyle, Tim Burton's 'Blue Girl With Wine,' and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2," which ought to give you an idea of the range of Monáe's inspiration, and ambitions.) The music on this album, just as music, is amazing; Monáe came out of OutKast's Idlewild crew, and she does wide-ranging, syncretic music as well as or better than absolutely anyone I've ever heard--there are some tracks that are R&B in here, and some that really strain at the boundaries of genre, and others that are just pop, but they're all amazing. For these reasons alone I would recommend the album to everyone I know; and I do.
But to only talk about the music, and the science fiction, is to miss at least half of the impact and scope of Monáe's vision. Newsweek actually wrote an article about Monáe in which they managed to make it sound, passe Fritz Lang's Metropolis (by which this work, either directly or indirectly by way of the Metropolis anime, obviously is heavily influenced), that Monáe's Chase Suite is all about class, which I found irksome. Even I can tell that the Chase Suite is as much about race as it is about anything else; in this society, telling a story in which a black woman, android or no, is the world's only possible savior can't help but have (revolutionary?) implications w/r/t race.
I'm trying to find my peace
I was made to believe there's something wrong with me
And it hurts my heart
Lord have mercy, ain't it plain to see?
That this is a cold war,
Do you know what you're fighting for?
This is a cold war,
You better know what you're fighting for.
(from "Cold War")
In some ways there's more than a little of The Matrix in the story of Cindi Mayweather, the android who falls in love with a human and over the course of the Chase Suite so far not only realizes that there is something very wrong with her city, but that she is the only one who can stop it, and that that fact places on her the responsibility to try to do so. Which leads back to the question, what would The Matrix have been like, have meant, if the Wachowskis had been able to cast Will Smith as Neo?
On the other hand, though, I don't want to make the mistake of saying "The ArchAndroid is about race," because that would limit Monáe and the album in ways that they explicitly defy. The album is about freedom and oppression--how to break free from the constraints an oppressive society would place on you, how to be free even in the midst of oppression, the imperative of freedom itself. I could write a whole other post on the tropes Monáe deploys across her album and EP, starting with the idea of the madwoman as the only one who's actually in her right mind; the quotation above, from the liner notes, is purportedly written by the director of the Palace of Dogs, the insane asylum in which the "Tightrope" video is set and in which Monáe, in the story, was imprisoned when she arrived from the future. Just watch the video:
Yeah, it's like that. Dancing on a tightrope as a metaphor, dance as the literal ends and means of revolution; I could go on. Just, seriously, if you listen to one album this year, make it The ArchAndroid. No matter what kind of music you like, you'll find something in it to love.
(P.S. Semi-relatedly, can we kill the meme wherein people praise one (female) musician by dissing another? As in, I don't need to read articles about how great Janelle Monáe is which open by hating on Lady Gaga. They are both amazing female artists who deserve international stardom, and that is all.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-16 02:09 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-16 02:13 (UTC)Definitely if you're looking to get a handle on the narrative the Metropolis EP is essential to track down; I listened to all three suites in a row the other day, and they definitely link up and back to each other in a way that makes me really excited for IV.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-16 02:30 (UTC)And WHAT YOU SAID about the Gaga-hating. I really love her, even though I think there's room to criticize some of the stuff she's done. I really got behind her after reading This interview in The Times.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-16 02:33 (UTC)And yes, joy! A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having, after all.
(I read that interview, and WHAT YOU SAID about loving Gaga despite room to criticize.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-17 02:36 (UTC)Also...
As in, I don't need to read articles about how great Janelle Monáe is which open by hating on Lady Gaga. They are both amazing female artists who deserve international stardom, and that is all.
This are fact.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-17 03:40 (UTC)And, yeah.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-19 12:38 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-19 15:08 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-20 17:42 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-21 17:26 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-28 14:53 (UTC)I confess I'm not much of a Lady Gaga fan, but a lot of Monae fans are making me give her more of a chance. Even though most of her music make her cringe, I do like the outrageous way she dresses...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-28 17:28 (UTC)A good chunk of what Gaga does is problematic, I think, but I like her a lot anyway--though I have to say, I like her second album much, much better than her first.