Janelle Monae is ushering us into The Age of Pleasure

25:00Janelle Monae releases their first album in five years, and Apple looks into the future

Today, Janelle Monae released her first full-length album in five years.

While the multi-hyphenate artist took a break from music to star in some high-profile films like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, she's back with The Age of Pleasure.

Culture critics A. Harmony, Jackson Weaver and Stacy Lee Kong joined guest host Talia Schlanger to review the new album, as well as the controversy surrounding some of its content leading up to its release.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Talia: Before we get to talking about the new album and really digging in here, Janelle Monae really got a lot of people talking with the first bit of video she released for this record last month. It got a lot of positive feedback. There were some criticisms, too. Jackson, can you briefly fill us in on what those criticisms were?

WATCH | Official music video for Janelle Monae's Lipstick Lover (clean version):

Jackson: Yeah, I mean going back to the beginning of Janelle Monae — if you're not familiar with her, she has a very specific sort of style. She played this character called Cindi Mayweather, a futuristic android. She'll wear a lot of suits, a lot of outfits, and that bled into the music as well. Lipstick Lover off the new album is kind of a left turn for a lot of people, a lot of her fans, because it's very, very overtly sexual both in the lyrics and in the music video.

There's a lot of nudity, and she said she was actually forced to pixelate it, censor it against her will. And she performed a live version of the song a little bit ago, and she flashed her chest. That went on social media, and a lot of her fans were sticking up for her. But a lot of her fans were saying that this is a step backward for Janelle Monae. She is relying on sexuality in a way that is negative. I'm not saying this, I need to clarify, but that's a lot of the criticism that's been going around her since that song came out.

Talia: Harmony, what do you make of that?

A. Harmony: I think Janelle is absolutely right. Not only is Janelle grown — she's 37 years old. She has autonomy over her body, and can express herself any way that she wants to. But she's absolutely right in that the idea that anyone has to dress a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way to deserve respect — that is an absurd notion. I think that's something, especially within the Black community that people used to play into — "Oh, well, maybe if I'm a little docile or I turn parts of my personality off, I'll be accepted, I'll be respected. I might be able to shield myself against racism." It's an idea that doesn't work. She's absolutely right in that it's killing us. Everyone deserves respect just by virtue of being a human. And humans are a lot of things; they're not just one thing. I think she's just expressing another side of herself here, and we should allow her and anyone else to do that.

Talia: It almost seems like an act of protest, you know? Like the personal and how we use our bodies is always political, but especially with her seeming devotion to being naked and doing whatever she wants — it feels political.

Stacy: It's not actually that hard a turn. I don't know if you guys remember, but the music video for PYNK was like, literally…

Talia: Oh.

Jackson: Oh, yeah.

Stacy: Right?

A. Harmony: Exactly, exactly.

Stacy: It was like a vagina pair of pants, with her poking her head through.… This is not actually unusual, or different. It's fine!

WATCH | Official music video for Janelle Monae's PYNK:

A. Harmony: And I think it's absurd that just having your body in its natural state, and being proud of that and planting your feet in that, is seen as political or seen as something that's so rash to begin with.

Talia: Yeah, my favorite tweet about this said something like, "May she always be blessed with good lighting and good moisturizer," and that's it. Okay, so we've talked about the video. Let's talk about the album. I'm so excited about this. Stacy, let's start with you. What was your initial reaction to what you heard?

Stacy: I loved it. I listened to it last night at midnight, and then listened to it again this morning and was like, yes! Okay, you know what it feels like to me? It feels like a getting-ready album. You know what I mean? You're getting ready to go out. It's summer. You want something that's a vibe, but you also have to put on your eyeliner so it can't be too hype…. Maybe this is very specific to me. I'm not very good at eyeliner. But it feels summer-y; I feel like there's some dancehall, reggae, Afrobeats happening.

Jackson: Mhm, mhm.

Stacy: And I feel like her previous albums — I liked them, but they were so high concept. And so this feels listenable and approachable to me. I'm going to make a Beyoncé comparison, but not in the way that you think. So if you've seen any footage from the Renaissance tour or if you've been to the Renaissance tour, I think one thing that stands out is Beyonce looks like she's having so much fun. So everything is still very technically excellent — it's a spectacle, all of those things. But there's something relaxed about how Beyonce is performing. I feel like that is the same vibe in this album. Which maybe is what we need in 2023, honestly.

Talia: Absolutely, absolutely. Jackson, what about you?

Jackson: I mean, I don't want to be a stick in the mud. I will say that I'm kind of the opposite, where I love the high concept stuff. She strikes me as kind of like a non-binary Jacob Collier, in the sense that there's so much going on in her music.

Talia: Nice one.

Jackson: It's so odd and strange and weird. She has, like, microtonal things in Make Me Feel. There's like an LSD, Black Moth Super Rainbow vibe for Mushrooms & Roses. And there's just so many time changes, signature changes. Everything's weird. This one, it's kind of like Lorde's Solar Power, where she does kind of make it more accessible — make it more listenable. I like being weirded out, but that said, this is a great album. I just have my own personal biases, but objectively this is a really good summer listen.

Talia: That's a good take. Harmony, I want to know where you feel like this sits against Janelle Monae's other releases.

A. Harmony: Yeah, so it's too early to say where in the catalog this one sits; I like to kind of sit with an album before I make that assessment. But I absolutely agree with Stacy in that this is the most fun that I've heard Janelle having. It's the most fun I've had listening to her. It's a great hot weather-summer vibe album, and I am just happy to see Janelle so comfortable and so confident in her skin. She always has been, but I really feel like she's doubling down on that in this album and I am happy to be along for the ride.

Talia: Yeah, big time. I read somewhere that she road tested this stuff by actually playing it at parties, like that was a big part of the creation process for her. And the thing that struck me as I was listening this morning was the horn arrangements and the legacy also of Afrobeat horns on this record.

Jackson: Mhm.

Stacy: Yes!

Talia: You have Seun Kuti, who is Fela Kuti's youngest son, playing brass and leading his band Egypt 80, like a big part of this record. And it's subtle sometimes, but it's just in there and you can feel it. It elevates things, I think.

Jackson: You've got a lot of samba beats there too, as well.

A. Harmony: Yup.

Jackson: Like Stacy was saying, it's very groovy-jazzy, Afrofuturism, Afrobeats. And so I do love that. I don't want to be too negative.

Talia: Fair enough.

Stacy: Jackson is like, "Don't be mad at me!"

Jackson: It's good, I swear!

Talia: You're allowed to have a critical opinion, though.

Stacy: This is a safe space.

Talia: And I love the Jacob Collier comparison too, right? Because he's like such a wild creative that pulls from things that you're like, "I didn't even know you could put those things together, but here you are taking me on this journey." And she is a creative like that, Janelle. Any last words on the record?

A. Harmony: Listen to it, and have fun.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show, where the panel discuss the future of Spotify Podcasts, the upcoming Canadian Law & Order spinoff and Apple's new VR headset, on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.