Janelle Monae - ArchAndroid Suites II and III
PostPosted:Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:45 am
I saw her performance at the Grammy's this weekend,
She totally owned the show; I loved the performance. Two days later I bought the album. It blew me away. It is difficult to descibe it. It mashes up all sorts of different styles. At its core it's like contemporary motown Opera that takes in influences from all over the past century. Everything from rap, R&B, psychadelic rock, to new wave, to jazz, to folk, orchestra, post punk, electronic, etc... These are parts 2 and 3 of a 4 Suite concept series which is based around the 1927 film Metropolis; so you'll notice a lot of Metropolis references; as well as Brave New World references. It surrounds an Android by the name of Cindi Mayweather from Metropolis; she is the Messiah who will end the great divide between the two classes.
The next day I went out to buy the first suite, but couldn't find it anywhere.
Suite II is the more standard of the two, the third suite has a lot of Opera/Blues/Jazz type stuff that doesn't utilize the hooks and verse chorus verse structure of pop music. The album should be listened to in full, as taking songs from the middle is taking it out of the context of the album; like reading Chapter 6 of a book, and ignoring the first 5 chapters, and those that follow. Although there are a few songs that can stand out on their own as singles: Cold War, the one performed at the Grammy's is probably the best example. When listened to in full, there is zero filler.
Anyway, here are the first three songs of Suite 2 (Although the album has an overture before this):
She totally owned the show; I loved the performance. Two days later I bought the album. It blew me away. It is difficult to descibe it. It mashes up all sorts of different styles. At its core it's like contemporary motown Opera that takes in influences from all over the past century. Everything from rap, R&B, psychadelic rock, to new wave, to jazz, to folk, orchestra, post punk, electronic, etc... These are parts 2 and 3 of a 4 Suite concept series which is based around the 1927 film Metropolis; so you'll notice a lot of Metropolis references; as well as Brave New World references. It surrounds an Android by the name of Cindi Mayweather from Metropolis; she is the Messiah who will end the great divide between the two classes.
The next day I went out to buy the first suite, but couldn't find it anywhere.
Suite II is the more standard of the two, the third suite has a lot of Opera/Blues/Jazz type stuff that doesn't utilize the hooks and verse chorus verse structure of pop music. The album should be listened to in full, as taking songs from the middle is taking it out of the context of the album; like reading Chapter 6 of a book, and ignoring the first 5 chapters, and those that follow. Although there are a few songs that can stand out on their own as singles: Cold War, the one performed at the Grammy's is probably the best example. When listened to in full, there is zero filler.
Anyway, here are the first three songs of Suite 2 (Although the album has an overture before this):