Janelle Monáe

The Electric Lady

The Electric Lady features so many different styles yet each one is done near perfectly. Moving between genres is seamless and each track is so full of character as a result of this diversity, the exemplary arrangements and, of course, Monáe herself leading the way.

The Electric Lady is also a dazzling artistic statement, a fiendlishly clever album that oozes enough feminine charm, wit and charisma to endow dozens of regular pop starlets with.

What could be unwieldy becomes a vast patchwork of influences buoying empowerment.

All in all, it is one of the most exceptionally realised albums to enter the world since her last release, and confirms that both as an artist and a role-model Monáe really ought to be celebrated as Electric Lady number one.

This is smart, intelligent, thought-provoking music. And it will make you want to dance.

Janelle Monáe has not simply lived up to our expectations here; she has shattered them, delivering a confident, creative, and enormously entertaining record that marginally betters her sublime debut.

Taken as a whole, The Electric Lady is a convincing argument for the virtues of micromanagement, but some of the most powerful, tender moments come from acknowledging  limits.

Janelle Monáe thankfully narrows her sonic scope on The Electric Lady, her equally epic and frequently wonderful second album.

The songs themselves are undeniably empowering without being especially overt or sloganeering about it; where Beyoncé claims that girls run the world, Monáe has gone ahead and created her own world, one with her own rules.