#artist: janelle monáe

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Suite II Overture • Dance or Die • Faster • Locked Inside • Sir Greendown • Cold War • Tightrope • Neon Gumbo • Oh, Maker • Come Alive (War of the Roses) • Mushrooms & Roses • Suite III Overture • Neon Valley Street • Make The Bus • Wondaland • 57821 • Say You'll Go • BaBopByeYa

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[x-artist-was-right]

Janelle Monáe was right - some people do talk about ya like they know all about ya

[music]

Artist of the Moment: Janelle Monáe

Oooh La La! We really got a thing for Janelle Monáe.

The wait is over and we're officially in The Age of Pleasure so stream the new album right here.

We also dropped a custom theme that you can download here to make your blog look Phenomenal.

(interview credit: angie martinez)

[timetravellingkitty]

SAPPHIC ARTISTS TO LISTEN TO

(instead of writing your 69th essay about how Taylor Swift is a closet lesbian)

Starting off with my holy trinity:

Rina Sawayama (she/her, bi/pan): if you follow me you're probably aware of what a huge Rina fan I am. Lots of pop and rock, with a chunk of her earlier songs being R&B. Her debut album SAWAYAMA (my favourite album of all time!!) was her major breakthrough moment as it received critical acclaim and her sophomore album Hold the Girl made her the highest charting Japanese artist in the history of the UK. Known for her musical versatility, she made her acting debut in John Wick 4. I recommend: Cherry, Frankenstein and Bad Friend

Janelle Monáe (she/they, bi/pan): pop, funk, neo-soul and psychedelic. They have an entire series of concept albums about an android named Cindy Mayweather (her ALTER EGO?!) as she commits the crime of falling in love with a human. Lots of social commentary. Her album Dirty Computer comes along with a narrative film and a book taking place in its world. She's starred in movies like Antebellum, Glass Onion and Moonlight. I recommend: Electric Lady, Django Jane and Pynk

Raveena Aurora (she/her, bi): Experimental pop, R&B and soul. Her second album Asha's Awakening is a concept album following the journey of Asha, a Punjabi space princess, as it explores Aurora's South Asian identity and past relationships. Such a beautiful and soft voice to die for. I recommend: Headaches, If Only and Kathy Left 4 Kathmandu

Moving onto some other artists I like:

Boygenius: a band comprising of three sapphic women- Phoebe Bridgers (indie darling™), Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker (the first two are bi while the third is a lesbian). Indie, folk and alternative rock. Very melancholic. I urge you to check out their individual projects too (especially Phoebe's, I love her Punisher album). I recommend: Emily I'm Sorry, Satanist and True Blue

Kelela (she/her, queer): R&G, electronic and alternative R&B. Her debut EP Hallucinogen covers the beginning, middle and end of a relationship in reverse chronological order. Her second album Raven showcases Black futuristic art, which I fuck with. I recommend: Contact, The High and Bluff

Zolita (she/her, lesbian): dark-pop, R&B and electropop. She incorporates witchcraft into her music and mvs. She literally has an EP called Sappho what more could you want? I recommend: Holy, Ashley (the sapphic Speak Now) and Bedspell

Victoria Monét (she/her, bi): pop and R&B. She's written songs for artists like Ariana Grande (7 Rings) and Chloe x Halle (Do It). Go stream her Jaguar EP you will thank me later. I recommend: Touch Me (erotic sapphic song), Cupid and Love U Better

And finally some honourable mentions (can't make this post too long now can I): mxmtoon, Michelle Zauner, Arooj Aftab, Sir Babygirl, Dodie, Chloe Moriondo, Lauren Jauregui, Baby Queen, Sara and Teagan, The Butchies, Sofya Wang and Melissa Etheridge

[banana-peppers]

The Age of Pleasure 💋

Illustration by Bri Pippens

@bpeppersart

[fyeahtimwalker]

Janelle Monáe by Tim Walker for Vogue UK, July 2023 edition

Styled by Kate Phelan. Set design by Miguel Bento.

[agnesandhilda]

fascinated by conservative handwringing about janelle monáe’s age of pleasure era. “she’s flashing her chest at concerts! 😱 she’s been corrupted!“ outta my way GAYBOY I’m about to get it

[not-xpr-art]

Janelle Monáe as a Mermaid - colouring pencil drawing (plus gems/pearls for some extra glam lol)

(06/2023)

something I did that's inspired by her new album The Age of Pleasure because I love it so so much!!!

[hopeinthebox]

tagged by the tastemaker @cordiallyfuturedwight for the july list 💕 Category 5 Breakdown in the tags as per usual but tagging some favs if you fancy a go @aprylynn @thvinyl @monismochi @banghwa @pauls-mccharmly @avizou mwah

[pyrocephalus-rubinus]

Hello! Yes, I know I barely post but I love these little games with @two-hands-toward-the-sun . Thanks for tagging me! So here are some of the albums i’ve had on repeat lately.

Funfact about me: I used to get a laugh out of my parents by randomly identifying Santana's guitar cameos in other songs. That's totally their fault by the way, Supernatural was the soundtrack to my first 5 years of life lmao. That album and Caraluna by Bacilos which if you haven't heard it, that's another banger.

Oh, and I suppose I should mention the Sentimientos album. I recently made a trip to Puno, in Peru, a place in which saya and afrobolivian music is very popular because... well, they are neighbors XD. Afrobolivian music, morenadas, diabladas and caporales are soooo good and make me wanna dance all the time! Give them a shot if you want to experience some different sounds!

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

One of my goals that's ever-present in the back of my mind is to listen to more hip hop and rap by women. I discovered Queen Pen through Blackstreet's song "No Diggity" (on which she features, and her verse in it is AMAZING) and either I've listened to her album My Melody before and just forgot that I'd already listened to it, or I've at LEAST heard "All My Love" before. Whether or not I've listened to this album (or song) before, this song is SOOO GOOOOOOOOOOD, and I'm also enjoying plenty of My Melody so far as I listen to it, too.

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Suite IV Electric Overture • Givin Em What They Love • Q.U.E.E.N. • Electric Lady • Good Morning Midnight (Interlude) • Primetime • We Were Rock & Roll • The Chrome Shoppe (Interlude) • Dance Apocalyptic • Look Into My Eyes • Suite V Electric Overture • It's Code • Ghetto Woman • Our Favorite Fugitive (Interlude) • Victory • Can't Live Without Your Love • Sally Ride • Dorothy Dandridge Eyes • What An Experience

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[phtalogreenpoison]

Gonna try to start uploading some more of my art 😊

Also this was more before I figured out how to work with crayon so it's interesting to look back and see how my style has changed

[notchainedtotrauma]

Janelle Monáe by Erik Carter

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I think a lot of what's currently informing my fellow white people curdling like milk and shitting their pants when asked to interrogate their relationship with rap is the way many people (especially well-meaning white people) still can't help but think of racism as something that you get accused of rather than something that influences the entire world in pernicious ways.

like, I think a lot of people currently posting the most cringe takes about rap right now would very much agree that Racism Is Bad and probably even acknowledge that rap has been and is still widely maligned and devalues for racist reasons.

but that last step, acknowledging that your personal tastes and interests are also influenced by systemic racism, is where a LOT of people stumble. it's very easy to assume that because you consider yourself against racism, then your tastes and interests cannot possibly be at all informed by racist. if you're a white American, that's simply extremely unlikely to be true.

speaking from personal experience, I had to Work to decenter whiteness in my media tastes. when I was like 19 I listened to a podcast where a white Jewish man talked about keeping a spreadsheet of the books he read to make sure he was reading a roughly equal number of men and women, and I started doing the same thing to track how many authors of color I was reading. at the time I took pride in my belief that I was reading diversely, but when the year ended I was shocked to discover that people of color had written barely a quarter of the books I'd read. I had been giving myself way too much credit while still unintentionally prioritizing white authors, because white authors were the ones I knew best. so I started making an extremely conscious effort to seek out books by authors of color, both fiction and nonfiction, that sounded like my kind of shit.

music was extremely similar. I grew up a little white girl in a very white city in a very white state; nobody was offering me an education in rap or r&b or soul or hip hop. as an young adult there were definitely some Black artists I liked, like Janelle Monáe, but I had to take the initiative of seeking out more artists to find out who I fuck with. you're not going to like everybody, which is fine, but are you even giving anyone a chance? are you even looking?

racism has roots everywhere, bro. it's not enough to just acknowledge it, you have to actively get digging.

[storiesandstars]

It's going to be a Monáe/Monet summer.

It will be glorious.