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Janelle Monáe - 'Cold War'

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Fraser McAlpine | 10:00 UK time, Saturday, 28 August 2010

Janelle Monae

This week alone, there are three notable tales of soul heartbreak doing the rounds, three different ways of saying broadly the same thing - you, my man, have done me wrong. Why is this? - in an ocean of similarly-themed songs from last week, and next week, and all the weeks of the year rolled into one.

Beyoncé is releasing the upbeat, funky-as-hell as another single from 'I Am...Sasha Fierce'. This brings her running total so far up to, what, seven? Six? Something like that. As is often the case, the way she chooses to express her heartbreak is through the medium of rampaging self-regard - if her nickname for herself isn't The Irresistable Force, it damn well should be - butting up against a stone wall of indifference. She thinks she's amazing, so why doesn't he? It's a mystery to all of us, frankly, although there's something to be said for not being quite so clingy.

Fewer singles, more mystique. It's just a thought.

Meanwhile, Shontelle is making a decent fist of being Beyoncé. is a very nowadaysy ballad, blessed with a perfectly weighted versal melody, a huge, pleading (if entirely repetitious) chorus, and the kind of production sheen you can see your face in, even if you're listening on headphones. It's quite good, but doesn't linger in the mind at all. Craft over astonishment, y'see.

But, enjoyable as both of these are, the show has once again been well and truly stolen by Janelle Monáe. And here is why...

(. Actually, I could just stop here and my point would be proven.)

Now, first things first. Janelle seems to be becoming something of a critic's artist. Her album 'The Archandroid' has had to wallow through a massive swamp of gushing praise from *cough* tastemakers */cough* and journalists and bloggers alike. This does not yet seem to have translated into the kind of sales figures it so clearly deserves. And I say this as a fully-paid up representitive of the League Of Janelle Exciteamotrons.

So, you'd expect a certain amount of "come on world, get with the quality" to come from this quarter, just because she happens to have a new single out. And, well, that's basically what you're going to get. But only because this is a) really really good, and b) really distinctive and c) NOT a hallmarked-with-a-craftsman's-seal statement of the very nowness of music. It's got a '60s Farfisa organ on it, fercryingoutloud!

It's a really good song, played slightly too fast for its own good, sung by a very distracting lady with a commanding, glassy voice, and accompanied by a video in which she really actually cries. Just like Sinead O'Connor did, ages ago.

It's not so much that what she does is better or more real than what Beyoncé does - it's not like pop music is a race - it's just it seems to go into places that 'Why Don't You Love Me?' and 'Impossible' can't go.

On the other hand, it's highly possible that one place 'Cold War' can't go is the Top 20, so y'know... *wobblyhands*

Four starsDownload: Out now


91Èȱ¬ Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

"Sometimes, simple is just the way to go."

"A song that seems to have lifted its raucous beat straight from Outkast's 'Bombs Over Baghdad.'"

"What I love most about Janelle is her versatility and how she refuses to be suppressed to a single genre"
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