I’m going to go on the record and predict that this is the year that Janelle Monáe breaks big. If you want to bet against me, watch this video first. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, but this is something else — accessible, super-modern, and completely infectious. Now imagine that, after quoting James Brown in “Tightrope”, she took on seventeen other styles of music over seventeen tracks — that’s basically her album. If you need any more convincing that she’s the real deal, here’s what she can do live. And she’s young enough that the only explanation is — well, I guess she was just born this way.
I don’t see how America can resist this little nova of futurist pop. Because be honest with yourself — when was the last time you saw something this exciting?
(Here’s a side bet: I will bet anyone fifty bucks that Sasha Frere-Jones will write a column on her in the New Yorker this year. She’s so deep in his wheelhouse that on Facebook she lists her hometown as “Sasha Frere-Jones’s Wheelhouse.”)
