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If you managed to catch Janelle Monae at the Academy last night, then well done; this may be the first and last time we’ll see the 25-year-old Kansas-born singer in this sort of light.
As hardcore fans will know, her album is the sung-out story of a messianic android sent back in time to free the citizens of Metropolis. New fans (ie. most people at the Academy) may just think she’s a fruit loop with a brilliant voice.
Monae has become an overnight success with her now Grammy-nominated first studio album ‘The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)’, but it seems her current tour was booked well before the music industry had time to catch up with her undeniable talent.
The crowd at the Academy clearly knew this would be a gig worth seeing - despite many only seeming familiar with her two already-released singles ‘Tightrope’ and ‘Cold war’. So it was up to Monae along with her band, dancers and backing singers, to present her album with an animated display of theatrics, crazy costume and dazzling effects to keep the crowd well entertained.
And that they did, flooding the modest stage with their extrovert ArchAndroid antics.
Opening the show with ‘Dance or Die’, Monae displayed rap skills reminiscent of ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’. It would have actually been a safer bet for her to create a 2010 reincarnation of that revolutionary hip-hop soul album, but Monae is no safe player as her multi-genre, split personality, mystical stage presence reveals.
Her rendition of the Charlie Chaplin song ‘Smile’ (originally by Nat King Cole) was Monae broken down to her purest form – proving that the she has staying power on stage without the aid of the show itself. The highlight of the night, her voice trickled around the Academy like spring water; fresh, clear and crisp. The crowd lapped up every drop in complete silence until one fan (there’s always one), clearly unable to contain his admiration, shouted ‘You’re an angel’ in his loudest and proudest Manc accent. However, for once, it’s safe to say he spoke on behalf of everyone there.
Dressed in her trademark white blouse and cravat, Monae looked and sounded like she’d fallen straight from heaven and ‘Wondaland’ further asserted her gospel influences with the ‘Hallelujah’ ending. Yet the eccentric themes running through her album, brought to life in other parts of the show, suggested she’s as much in tune with the virtual world as she is the virtuous one.
As hardcore fans will know, her album is the sung-out story of a messianic android sent back in time to free the citizens of Metropolis. New fans (ie. most people at the Academy) may just think she’s a fruit loop with a brilliant voice.
At one point she brought out an easel which she splattered with paint like a possessed infant whilst singing ‘Mushrooms & Roses’. She did indeed seem like she was on mushrooms, but somehow managed to come up smelling of roses as far as the vocals were concerned.
‘Come Alive (The War Of the Roses)’ saw her shed her halo and rock so hard that her trademark quiff fell down several times. She didn’t seem to care though, as she belted out: “That’s when I come alive, like a schizo running wild, that’s when I come alive, now let’s go wild” encouraging an astonished audience to let loose.
Unfortunately though, that’s about the most interaction we got from Monae, who was so intensely involved in herself that she didn’t speak to the crowd once throughout the evening.
The show ended quickly (she’d only been on for one hour) and abruptly - no bow, no thanks or goodbyes. It did make a refreshing change to artists who spend too much time plugging but as a concert-goer, you couldn’t help but feel somewhat neglected too.
Perhaps this is her way of keeping the mystique she’s created and letting the music speak for itself or maybe underneath it all the prim and petit looking singer really isn’t that eccentric when the record has finished playing. My bet is on the latter.
Either way, she’s certainly come a long way from Kansas – her Manchester gig was one of only a few live appearances on these shores so far - and with this album receiving so much critical acclaim, she’s almost certain to go much further. For the time being, like fellow Kansas native Dorothy Gale, maybe Janelle Monae isn’t used to being away from home yet. Give her time though.
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