The Daily Spin, June 19
Janelle Monae | The Age of Pleasure
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: The Age of Pleasure (2023)
Artist: Janelle Monae
Link:
With this album, Janelle Monae really moves directly into her horny era - and it’s not entirely unwelcome direction, but there’s not a moment where she shies away from that, from the album cover that is full titties out to the plethora of references to explicit sexual acts in song titles and in lyrics.
Following up on Dirty Computer, I think I was hopeful that this would be a bit more like that work, and instead - as much as I can respect her unabashed pride in her own sexuality and putting a voice to something that’s often repressed… this isn’t exactly an album I’ll be regularly revisiting.
The production is solid, but unspectacular, and it never seems to fully realize its potential the way I want it to. So much of the production seems to either drown the vocals or fade away into nothingness, and it’s too few and far between where I feel that balance is really struck right.
Rating: 7.4/10
Best Tracks: Phenomenal; Know Better
Worst Tracks: The French 75; Oooh La La