The ArchAndroid
- Janelle Monae
- Band Name: Janelle Monae
- Record Label: Atlantic
- Release Date: May 18, 2010
- Critic Score
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100Either allow this the dignity of being played through a quality sound system or go invest in a pair of Beats by Dres. This is far less an album than a cinematic experience.
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100To say it's ambitious feels like damning with faint praise; its sheer musical scope--from the James Brown funk of Tightrope to the English pastoral folk of Oh, Maker--is spellbinding.
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Through the different flavors of ice cream on here, The ArchAndroid: Suites II and III remains a proudly boastful album. It should be discussed by a lot of people and the love it's receiving is no fluke either: this is a skillfully talented artist.
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100Its sweep across genres and eras is exactly the point. The time-traveling heroine of "The ArchAndroid" aims to uncover previously hidden points of harmony amid chaos. In this case, it's a big risk that brings big reward.
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The ArchAndroid is a fully immersive, theatrical experience. It's a near-perfect R&B album; hell, it's a fantastic hip-hop, psychedelic, neo-soul, dance and orchestral album too.
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Does every genre suit her equally? Of course not, but most of Janelle Monée's mad experiments yield spectacularly catchy results.
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Monae's inexhaustible swagger and singular style sell both the high-concept theatrics and the schizophrenic sonics.
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90For a first album, The ArchAndroid is astoundingly accomplished. It would be a lie to say there aren't a few lulls in the back end of the record as Monae begins to take fewer risks, but only the truly seminal albums can keep the quality level so high for over an hour.
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90The result is a dizzying fusion, marked by its lofty ambition and stunning central performance.
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90Some songs fade out just as they're transforming into something else; others split into several movements, and poetic lyrics psychedelicize hefty topics like war and slavery. Even at 18 tracks, The ArchAndroid feels condensed.
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90As this wildly talented, unpredictable and near flawless young singer and musician bids her farewell with the album's longest track, BaBopBye Ya, this time in cocktail club torch singer style, one can but marvel at the impressive range, ambition (realised) and detail of this deeply polished, professional yet utterly, brilliantly bonkers album.
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90The Archandroid is everything her fans had been hoping for and then some; Monae has earned her place at the forefront of black music in 2010. This ballsy, funky, and furiously intelligent album is pop as everybody wishes it would be.
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90It's funky and fantastic, futuristic but retro. It's in a category of its own.
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The reason ArchAndroid is so good is because, from minute one, it is so apparent that its author loves music. And for those of us that love music, that's a real treat.
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At times, the fumes of ambition are so thick off "The ArchAndroid," it's hard to absorb in one sitting. All the same, it's a star-making debut.
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85Where many concept albums run a high risk of being pompous, cryptic, and self-important, Monáe keeps things playful, lively, and accessible. It's a delicate balancing act, but Monáe and her band pull it off, resulting in an eccentric breakthrough that transcends its novelty.
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She is what we say we want. The ArchAndroid is not my favorite album of the year so far, but it is undoubtedly the best.
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Manipulating her voice as much as she does her sound, Monáe widens the cast of characters and pushes along the self-explorative narrative. The ArchAndroid could be the stuff of stage or screen, 3-D without the annoying glasses.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 66 out of 70
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Mixed: 2 out of 70
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Negative: 2 out of 70
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10
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ChetanP10
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Bill9