Janelle Monáe to release her 4th studio album, The Age of Pleasure

Janelle remembered she does music too, and has announced that she will be releasing her long awaited follow-up to 2018’s Dirty Computer. An album that despite being one of Janelle’s most commercial sounding and having a handful of songs which coulda been smash hits (“Screwed” coulda been a smash), kinda came and went. And I feel a lot of the album got the air sucked out of it, by Janelle coming out and the ‘are they, aren’t they’ of it all of her and Tessa Thompson - which was great for queer visibility, but a shame for the music. And it was also unfortunate that Dirty Computer didn’t really have anybody curious to check out the albums which came before, The Electric Lady and The ArchAndroid. Especially given that Dirty Computer provided SO much context to what The Arch Android was truly about.

HENNYWAY.

Here we are, about to get The Age of Pleasure, which feels like the ushering in of a new era for Janelle - where musically there is no longer the avatar of Jane or 57821. Just Janelle Monáe. And this couldn’t be more evident between the music video for “Lipstick Lover” and the album cover.

1. Float
2. Champagne Shit
3. Black Sugar Beach
4. Phenomenal (featuring Doechii)
5. Haute
6. Ooh La La (featuring Grace Jones)
7. Lipstick Lover
8. The Rush (featuring Amaarae and Nia Long)
9. The French 75 (featuring Sister Nancy)
10. Water Slide
11. Know Better (featuring CKay)
12. Paid in Pleasure
13. Only Have Eyes 42
14. A Dry Red

I wanna see what album cover Saudi Arabia gon’ get.

Between the album cover, the album title, “Float”, “Lipstick Lover”, some of the features on this album and Janelle spending her time throwing pool parties with the titties out and a blunt in her mouth - it’s safe to say that this album will be vibes, Jamaica, ‘Ooo, na na’ and hedonistic. A complete shift the likes of what Janelle had given us before.

But Janelle is pulling a Blackpink with this release. Saying this shit is an album, when it’s a glorified EP. Looking at the runtimes of these songs, only half of these songs are ‘song’ length. Everything else is a minute long. And there are only 2 songs on this ‘album’ which are over 3 minutes. Fans of Janelle’s sprawling ArchAndroid and Electric Lady albums better brace themselves.

I ain’t mad at it. If the listening experience is great, then...GREAT. But I feel the diehard fans who aren’t content with just saying ‘I love it’ are probably going to feel a type of way about waiting 5 years for an album, just to get half an hour of music. But, hopefully the whole thing sounds so good and flows so well from start to finish that it won’t matter.

I’m glad to have a new Janelle album on the way, but I am not a fan of the singles we’ve gotten so far, and do fear these songs may be the direction of the entire album.

Mankaprr Coneth did a great piece on Janelle Monáe for Rolling Stone, in which Janelle talks about themselves, their career, the album, how it all came about and life in general.

The Age of Pleasure releases on June 9, 2023.

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💿 Album (and EP) reviews: Dirty Computer | The Electric Lady | The ArchAndroid | Metropolis