I’ve found my new favourite album for the year. I don’t discover much “modern” music, but I came across Janelle Monáe watching the musical act on the show “So You Think You Can Dance”. The musical acts on that show are usual nausea inducing, but I immediately loved the performance. It reminded me of James Brown, but more melodic. This was a similar performance of the same song “Tightrope” on Letterman. The song builds throughout the whole performance and the second half is worth watching.

I got her album “Archandroid”, and absolutely love it. It’s an album in the 70’s style, where the songs flow between each other, and is a concept album. It’s meant to be listened to in order. I’ve read that her influences are James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Outkast. You can hear them all over. Here’s another album cut called “Cold War” (music starts at 10s).

The song reminds me rhythmically of the song Bombs Over Baghdad, by Outkast (another great group), but again, more melodic. Here’s their video for comparison (embedding only in Flash, here’s a direct link for iOS).

The whole album is gold, and I recommend it. It’s nice to see a modern artist who is doing something innovative. She’s pushing pop music forward.