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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

New Electric Lady Video!



I'm so pleased Janelle Monae's marvelous album Electric Lady has gotten the support of another video release. This one is a slick rather laid back dance party video in the manner of 90s Janet: Girls in the Electra Phi Beta mid-century Eichler modern sorority house enjoying sisterhood being powerful and also fabulous, even if some stiff stick-thin flyboys are allowed in to strut their stuff as well here and there -- hell, even Solanas allowed some men to join the SCUM Auxiliary, after all. This time out, Monae's vocabulary is quite a bit shorter on the afro-futurism and longer on synchronized dance moves. For once, an anthemic line like "Come on, get in! My spaceship leaves at ten!" yields not the least expectation that a real spaceship is parked in the drive. An early juxtaposition of a Dick Tracy cameraphone and a clunky 8-track pluuged into an oil-slick black gas guzzling muscle car performed a nice collapse of gizmo-fetishism into retro-futurism, but I'll admit that Monae's captain majorette outfit (with cape, trust) was the real standout style moment for me. It was quite nice to see Estelle, Esperanza, and T-Boz bopping heads on a video wall at the sorority house since I love them and like the thought that they love her. Monae still radiates that almost eerie Lena Horne perfection that comports so well with her archandroidality schtick, and in a dance party scenario she seems at once playful but also, you have to admit, a little glacial, a bit like a hologram projected from elsewhere into the crowd. All that said, Janelle Monae remains the most consistently exciting and even inspiring figure in entertainment today for me -- she and Adore Delano are the only new artist entertainers who are sustaining my attention these days.

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