The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)
Encyclopedia
The ArchAndroid is the debut studio album
of American recording artist Janelle Monáe
, released May 18, 2010, on Wondaland Arts Society and Bad Boy Records
. Production for the album took place at Wondaland Studios in Atlanta and was primarily handled by Monáe, Nate "Rocket" Wonder, and Chuck Lightning, with only one song without production by Monáe.
It consists of the second and third parts to Monáe's Metropolis concept
series. Incorporating conceptual elements of Afrofuturism
and science fiction
, The ArchAndroid continues the series' fictional tale of a messianic android and features lyrical themes of love, identity, and self-realization. The album has been compared to artists such as David Bowie
, Outkast
, Prince
and Michael Jackson
. The album features multiple collaborations with artists; Saul Williams
, Big Boi
, of Montreal
and Deep Cotton.
The album debuted at number 17 on the US Billboard 200
, selling 21,000 copies in its first week. It achieved moderate chart success and produced two singles, "Tightrope
" and "Cold War
". Upon its release, The ArchAndroid received general acclaim from music critics, earning praise for its conceptual themes and Monáe's eclectic musical range. It was named the best album of 2010 by several critics and earned Monáe a Grammy Award
nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album
. As of February 23, 2011, The ArchAndroid has sold 141,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan
.
series. Partly inspired by the 1927 film of the same name
, the series involves the fictional tale of Cindi Mayweather, a messianic android sent back in time to free the citizens of Metropolis from The Great Divide, a secret society that uses time-travel to suppress freedom and love.
In an interview for the Chicago Tribune
, Monáe said that she was inspired by the quote "The mediator between the hand and the mind is always the heart" for the record. She discussed her incorporation of the android as a metaphor for a minority
, whilst being the role of the story's protagonist also. In an interview for Blues & Soul
, Monáe said "she represents the MEDIATOR between the haves and the have-nots, the minority and the majority. So in that way she’s very similar to Neo
, the Archangel from The Matrix
. And basically her return will mean freedom for the android community".
Monáe has said about the recording sessions "Over the last year and a half when we were recording the ArchAndroid I went through a very transformative period in my life". Monáe completed the album in Atlanta at the Wondaland Studios and the famous asylum The Palace of the Dogs. Monáe has stated that the album signifies "breaking the chains that enslave minorities of all types". She has said of recording the album, "Overall, this music came from various corners of the world—from Turkey
to Prague
to Atlanta—places we were on tour. While recording, we’d experiment with different sounds. Once we became engulfed in the sound, we all had an emotional connection to the album. It has definitely transformed my way of thinking, the way that I approach the stage and overall, my life".
mixed with albums like Stevie Wonder
’s Music of My Mind
and David Bowie
’s Ziggy Stardust
, along with experimental hip hop stuff like Outkast
’s Stankonia
". Huw Jones of Slant Magazine
described her sound as "a unique gray area between neo-soul
, funk
, and art-rock
". Music writer Greg Kot
noted that the album "touches on" musical genres such as funk, hip hop
, folk
, electro-pop, glam rock
, big-band jazz
, rock
, and classical music
. Conceptually, Kot described the album as "a self-empowerment manifesto couched inside a futuristic 'emotion-picture' about an android’s battle to overcome oppression. The notion of space travel and 'new worlds' becomes a metaphor for breaking the chains that enslave minorities of all types – a theme that has a long tradition in African-American music, from Sun Ra
and Parliament-Funkadelic
to Cannibal Ox
and OutKast". The Atlantics Brentin Mock called The ArchAndroid "unique, forward-looking, and apoplectic... something of a jitterbug between Prince's 1986 movie Under the Cherry Moon
and the 1977 Watts movie Killer of Sheep
, and Daughters of the Dust
". Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek
described the album as "rocking in parts like Dirty Mind
–era Prince
, unfolding in a suite form that recalls Abbey Roads side two, and bumping throughout with the best innovations of contemporary hip-hop".
and contains neo soul influences. It then transistions into "Faster", which has gospel and retro-pop influences. The song "Locked Inside" features a rhythm similar to the opening break
from "Rock with You" by Michael Jackson
, and it has been compared to Jackson's music with Quincy Jones
. It has also been noted for similarities to artists such as Estelle
and the Jackson 5, the track features a more mellow R&B style in contrast to previous tracks. "Sir Greendown" continues with this theme and has been noted for its ‘Old-Fashioned’ Pop themes. The track "Cold War
" has been described as having big hooks and a “sugar fuelled” beat. influences. It has been described by a few media outlets as being the next James Bond
film theme tune. The track "Tightrope" features vocals from OutKast
star Big Boi
and it has been noted as having influences from their single "Hey Ya". "Oh Maker" is the next song which features themes from such artists as Alicia Keys
or Corinne Bailey Rae
and is another of the less up-beat tracks on the album. "Come Alive (War of the Roses)" has been described as having rock and punk themes. "Mushrooms & Roses" is the next track on the album and it has themes of psychedelic music and it has been noted for its influences by such songs as The Beatles
' "Strawberry Fields Forever
" and Prince
's "Purple Rain
". The next track features of Montreal
on vocal parts and it has been compared to such artists as Placebo
and George Clinton
. The song "Wondaland" has themes of Disco synth and themes of the 1980s. Then Deep Cotton guest stars on the song "57821" which has a softer melody and has been compared to such works by Simon & Garfunkel this is followed the track "Say You’ll Go" and features samples of "Claire De Lune" by Debussy.
. For promoting the album, Monáe hosted a listening session for press and VIPs at Rubin Museum of Art in New York City on March 4, 2010. A short film, teaser trailer
style, was released on April 14 on YouTube
showing an aerial view of the fictional futuristic city of Metropolis. She joined recording artist Erykah Badu
on the latter's Out My Mind, Just in Time Tour
during May to June 2010. Monae performed to her television debut on the Late Night with David Letterman
where she performed the album's lead single "Tightrope
" to acclaim from critics. Monae also performed the single on the television show So You Think You Can Dance
. She also performed the same track on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
and her mentor Sean "Diddy" Combs
joined her on stage to introduce her to the show. Monae also performed at the 2010 ESPY Awards and during her performance she was joined on stage by comedian Will Ferrell
. Monae also took to the stage on the Live with Jools Holland
show where she performed the non-released track "Faster". She also performed her single "Tightrope" on the Mo'Nique Show. After performing her single "Tightrope" in the majority of her performances she performed her track "Cold War" live on the Last Call with Carson Daly
. She has spent time supporting such acts as; No Doubt
, Paramore
, and Erykah Badu. In February 2011, Hooligans in Wondaland , a joint co-headlining tour with Bruno Mars
was announced. The concert tour was performed in North America in May and June 2011.
) premiered on February 11 on Pitchfork Media
's website, with a companion song entitled "Cold War" debuting the following day via Monáe's official website. On March 31, 2010, the video for "Tightrope" was released presenting Monáe dancing in the Palace of the Dogs also starring Big Boi. Monáe performed the song on the Late Show with David Letterman on May 18, 2010, The Ellen DeGeneres Show on May 26, Lopez Tonight
on May 27, Last Call with Carson Daly
on May 28, and The Mo'Nique Show
on June 9, 2010. Rolling Stone
named "Tightrope" the eighth best single of 2010 in its year-end list.
chart, with first-week sales of 21,000 copies. The album dropped to number 40 in its second week on the Billboard 200, and fell to number 49 on the chart in its third week, selling 7,500 copies. Whilst its fourth week, the album moved to number 71 on the Billboard 200. It has spent seventeen weeks on the Billboard 200. In the week of February 23, 2011, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 171, after selling an additional 3,900 copies. As of February 23, 2011, The ArchAndroid has sold 141,000 copies in the United States. It also entered at number four on Billboard
s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
and at number seven on its Digital Albums chart.
In the United Kingdom, The ArchAndroid debuted at number 51 on the UK Albums Chart
. The album also reached number 12 in Germany, number 15 in Denmark, number 22 in Norway, number 24 in Ireland, number 36 in Switzerland, and number 63 in Austria.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 91, based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". One of 2010's best-reviewed releases, the album received praise for its Afrofuturistic concept and Monáe's eclectic musical range. Allmusic writer Andy Kellman praised Monáe's musical creativity and called it "an extravagant 70-minute album involving more imagination, conceptual detail, and stylistic turnabouts than most gatefold prog rock epics". Entertainment Weekly
s Simon Vozick-Levinson gave The ArchAndroid an A- rating and wrote that "most of Janelle Monáe's mad experiments yield spectacularly catchy results". Barry Walters of Spin
noted German Expressionism
and Afrofuturism
as conceptual elements on the album and stated "She's venturing so far away from soul that she's come back around to it". Chicago Tribune
writer Greg Kot
gave the album four out of four stars and called it "an audacious, sometimes bewildering statement". Sputnikmusic
's Nick Butler called it a "ballsy, funky, and furiously intelligent album" and commended Monáe's "near-psychotic ambition". Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek
commented that Monáe's voice "can make the hyperspace leap from its crooning, chanteuse register to the gritty exhalations required by funk".
James Reed of The Boston Globe
found the album's second suite less "compelling" than the first, but cited it as "one of this year’s most thrilling albums". Jon Pareles
of The New York Times
commented that "Monáe gets away with most of her metamorphoses, and the sheer ambition is exhilarating even when she stretches too far". Rolling Stone
s Jody Rosen stated "Monáe's charisma and energy are so forceful that the jumble makes perfect sense". Despite writing that "her musical schizophrenia might cause her to overreach at times", Bill Friskics-Warren of The Washington Post
noted its "expansive, high-spirited music" and compared her fusion of "science fiction/fantasy and genre-defying funk" to the 1970s work of George Clinton
. Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine
described it as "an elaborately performed and consummately freaky cyber-punk epic... so stylistically leftfield in terms of its sound". The A.V. Club
s Genevieve Koski wrote that "Monáe’s inexhaustible swagger and singular style sell both the high-concept theatrics and the schizophrenic sonics". Pitchfork Media
's Matthew Perpetua called the album "about as bold as mainstream music gets, marrying the world-building possibilities of the concept album to the big tent genre-mutating pop of Michael Jackson
and Prince
in their prime". Perpetua elaborated on Monáe's incorporation of science-fiction and Afrofuturist concepts and the album's "basic appeal", stating:
URBs Dan Vidal gave the album five out of five stars and described it as "a spectrum of sound — packed and arranged perfectly into a masterfully composed (debut) full-length body of work... [a] genre-defying masterpiece". Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters
called it "a smorgasbord of music, well-executed if not readily identifiable as having a common sound, and, most importantly, sincerely rendered". Paste
s Justin Jacobs compared the album to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life
(1976) and wrote "its stunning, sophisticated tunes spanning styles, speeds and sentiments, all tied together by a smorgasbord of artistic personalities". Michael Cragg of The Guardian
noted its "sheer musical scope" as "spellbinding". Comparing it to singer Janet Jackson
's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989), Brentin Mock of The Atlantic called The ArchAndroid "a smothered funk, though perhaps at times too thick, too inaccessible, but not so much I didn't want to shake my ass" and viewed it as musically progressive, stating "Monáe has given pop music its first Toni Morrison
moment, where fantasy, funk, and the ancestors come together for an experience that evolves one's soul... You really don't know whether you want to diagram it, dance to it, or just be dumbstruck. It owes as much to Parliament-Funkadelic
as it does to Samuel Delaney and Octavia Butler. She is finally doing what a number of artists—particularly black artists—have not been able to do in years, and that's move pop music forward".
for Best Contemporary R&B Album
, presented at the 53rd Grammy Awards
in 2011. The ArchAndroid appeared on several music critics' and publications' end-of-year albums lists. It was named the year's best album by several critics in their year-end lists. Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot ranked it number one on his top albums list. Nitsuh Abebe of New York
ranked the album number six on his top albums list. Paste
named it the second best album of 2010 in its end-of-year albums list. Chris Yuscavage of Vibe ranked it number five on his list of the 10 Best Albums of 2010. NME
ranked the album number 21 on its list of 75 Best Albums of 2010. Spin
placed The ArchAndroid at number six on its 40 Best Albums list for 2010. Pitchfork Media
included the album at number 12 on its year-end list and called it a "hugely ambitious full-length debut—more Sign 'O' the Times than Kid A
". PopMatters
named it the best album of 2010 in its year-end list. MTV
and Entertainment Weekly
placed it at number eight on their lists of the 20 Best Albums of 2010. The Guardian
ranked the album number one on its list of 2010's top 40 albums, stating in conclusion "No other album this year seems so alive with possibility. Monáe is young and fearless enough to try anything, gifted enough to pull almost all of it off, and large-hearted enough to make it feel like a communal experience: Us rather than Me". The ArchAndroid was voted the fourth-best album in The Village Voice
s Pazz & Jop
critics' poll for 2010. Five songs from the album were included in the poll's singles list, including "Tightrope" (number two), "Cold War" (number 22), "Wondaland", "Locked Inside", and "Sir Greendown" (all tied for number 549).
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
of American recording artist Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe is an American R&B/soul musician signed to Bad Boy Records and Atlantic Records.Monáe debuted with a conceptual EP, Metropolis: Suite I ...
, released May 18, 2010, on Wondaland Arts Society and Bad Boy Records
Bad Boy Records
Bad Boy Records is a record label founded in 1993 by producer/rapper/entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and is distributed by Atlantic Records.-Beginnings:...
. Production for the album took place at Wondaland Studios in Atlanta and was primarily handled by Monáe, Nate "Rocket" Wonder, and Chuck Lightning, with only one song without production by Monáe.
It consists of the second and third parts to Monáe's Metropolis concept
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
series. Incorporating conceptual elements of Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise,...
and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, The ArchAndroid continues the series' fictional tale of a messianic android and features lyrical themes of love, identity, and self-realization. The album has been compared to artists such as David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Outkast
OutKast
Outkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
and Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
. The album features multiple collaborations with artists; Saul Williams
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
, Big Boi
Big Boi
Antwan André Patton , better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, song-writer, record producer and actor, best known for being a member of American hip hop duo OutKast alongside André 3000. His work in the duo has produced six studio albums. During the duo's hiatus, he and André...
, of Montreal
Of Montreal
Of Montreal is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. It was founded by frontman Kevin Barnes in 1996, named after a failed romance with a woman "of Montreal." The band is one of the bands of the Elephant 6 collective...
and Deep Cotton.
The album debuted at number 17 on the US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, selling 21,000 copies in its first week. It achieved moderate chart success and produced two singles, "Tightrope
Tightrope (Janelle Monáe song)
"Tightrope" is a 2010 song by American singer Janelle Monáe.It is the first official single from The ArchAndroid . The single premiered on February 11 on Pitchfork Media website, earning an immediate 9/10 rating and their coveted "Best New Music" tag with the companion song entitled "Cold War"...
" and "Cold War
Cold War (song)
"Cold War" is a 2010 song by American singer Janelle Monáe. It is the second official single from The ArchAndroid and her second to receive Pitchfork's coveted "Best New Music" tag. The single premiered on February 12, 2010 on Monáe's official website one day after "Tightrope" premiered on...
". Upon its release, The ArchAndroid received general acclaim from music critics, earning praise for its conceptual themes and Monáe's eclectic musical range. It was named the best album of 2010 by several critics and earned Monáe a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre...
. As of February 23, 2011, The ArchAndroid has sold 141,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
.
Background and recording
The ArchAndroid is the follow-up to Janelle Monáe's debut EP Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase) (2007) and consists of the second and third parts to her Metropolis conceptConcept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
series. Partly inspired by the 1927 film of the same name
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
, the series involves the fictional tale of Cindi Mayweather, a messianic android sent back in time to free the citizens of Metropolis from The Great Divide, a secret society that uses time-travel to suppress freedom and love.
In an interview for the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, Monáe said that she was inspired by the quote "The mediator between the hand and the mind is always the heart" for the record. She discussed her incorporation of the android as a metaphor for a minority
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
, whilst being the role of the story's protagonist also. In an interview for Blues & Soul
Blues & Soul
Blues & Soul is a British music magazine covering black music. Genres covered include soul, R&B, jazz, hip hop, reggae and world music. It was first published in 1966 and is known for first using the term Northern Soul....
, Monáe said "she represents the MEDIATOR between the haves and the have-nots, the minority and the majority. So in that way she’s very similar to Neo
Neo (The Matrix)
Thomas A. Anderson is a fictional character and the main protagonist in The Matrix franchise, as well as having a cameo in The Animatrix short film, Kid's Story. He was portrayed by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Trilogy and The Animatrix. Andrew Bowen provided Neo's voice in The Matrix: Path of Neo...
, the Archangel from The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
. And basically her return will mean freedom for the android community".
Monáe has said about the recording sessions "Over the last year and a half when we were recording the ArchAndroid I went through a very transformative period in my life". Monáe completed the album in Atlanta at the Wondaland Studios and the famous asylum The Palace of the Dogs. Monáe has stated that the album signifies "breaking the chains that enslave minorities of all types". She has said of recording the album, "Overall, this music came from various corners of the world—from Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
to Atlanta—places we were on tour. While recording, we’d experiment with different sounds. Once we became engulfed in the sound, we all had an emotional connection to the album. It has definitely transformed my way of thinking, the way that I approach the stage and overall, my life".
Musical style
Monáe has noted that the album's musical influences encompass "all the things I love, scores for films like GoldfingerGoldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
mixed with albums like Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
’s Music of My Mind
Music of My Mind
- Side One :# "Love Having You Around" – 7:21#* Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, Fender Rhodes, talk box, drums, Moog bass#* Art Baron – trombone#* Background Singers – uncredited...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
’s Ziggy Stardust
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a 1972 concept album by English musician David Bowie, which is loosely based on a story of a rock star named Ziggy Stardust. It peaked at number five in the United Kingdom and number 75 in the United States on the Billboard Music...
, along with experimental hip hop stuff like Outkast
OutKast
Outkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...
’s Stankonia
Stankonia
Stankonia is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released October 31, 2000 on La Face Records. The album debuted at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling over 530,000 copies the first week. Stankonia received general acclaim from music critics, based on an aggregate...
". Huw Jones of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
described her sound as "a unique gray area between neo-soul
Neo soul
The term neo soul was originally coined by Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, and art-rock
Art rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
". Music writer Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
noted that the album "touches on" musical genres such as funk, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, electro-pop, glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
, big-band jazz
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. Conceptually, Kot described the album as "a self-empowerment manifesto couched inside a futuristic 'emotion-picture' about an android’s battle to overcome oppression. The notion of space travel and 'new worlds' becomes a metaphor for breaking the chains that enslave minorities of all types – a theme that has a long tradition in African-American music, from Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
and Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums...
to Cannibal Ox
Cannibal Ox
Cannibal Ox, also known as CanOx, is an abstract hip hop duo from Harlem, New York City. Its members include Vast Aire and Vordul Mega. They are often accompanied by DJ Cip-One...
and OutKast". The Atlantics Brentin Mock called The ArchAndroid "unique, forward-looking, and apoplectic... something of a jitterbug between Prince's 1986 movie Under the Cherry Moon
Under the Cherry Moon
Under the Cherry Moon is a 1986 film directed by and starring Prince as a gigolo named Christopher Tracy and Time member Jerome Benton as his partner, Tricky. Together, the pair swindle wealthy French women...
and the 1977 Watts movie Killer of Sheep
Killer of Sheep
Killer of Sheep is a 1977 American film written, directed, produced and shot by Charles Burnett. It features Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, and Charles Bracy, among others. The drama depicts the culture of urban African-Americans in Los Angeles' Watts district...
, and Daughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash. It tells the story of three generations of Gullah women at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on the family's migration from the Sea Islands to the American mainland.Featuring an unusual narrative...
". Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
described the album as "rocking in parts like Dirty Mind
Dirty Mind
Dirty Mind is the third studio album by American musician Prince, released October 8, 1980 on Warner Bros. Records. Produced, arranged and composed primarily by Prince, it contains prominently sexual lyrics and incorporates musical elements of funk, dance and rock music. The album debuted at number...
–era Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, unfolding in a suite form that recalls Abbey Roads side two, and bumping throughout with the best innovations of contemporary hip-hop".
Content
Monáe has stated that the album's lyrical themes and storyline were heavily influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The song "Dance or Die" features performer Saul WilliamsSaul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
and contains neo soul influences. It then transistions into "Faster", which has gospel and retro-pop influences. The song "Locked Inside" features a rhythm similar to the opening break
Break (music)
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
from "Rock with You" by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, and it has been compared to Jackson's music with Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
. It has also been noted for similarities to artists such as Estelle
Estelle (singer)
Estelle Fanta Swaray commonly known as Estelle, and formerly as Est'elle, is an English R&B singer-songwriter, rapper and record producer.-Early Life:Estelle was born 18 January 1980 in Hammersmith, London, England...
and the Jackson 5, the track features a more mellow R&B style in contrast to previous tracks. "Sir Greendown" continues with this theme and has been noted for its ‘Old-Fashioned’ Pop themes. The track "Cold War
Cold War (song)
"Cold War" is a 2010 song by American singer Janelle Monáe. It is the second official single from The ArchAndroid and her second to receive Pitchfork's coveted "Best New Music" tag. The single premiered on February 12, 2010 on Monáe's official website one day after "Tightrope" premiered on...
" has been described as having big hooks and a “sugar fuelled” beat. influences. It has been described by a few media outlets as being the next James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film theme tune. The track "Tightrope" features vocals from OutKast
OutKast
Outkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...
star Big Boi
Big Boi
Antwan André Patton , better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, song-writer, record producer and actor, best known for being a member of American hip hop duo OutKast alongside André 3000. His work in the duo has produced six studio albums. During the duo's hiatus, he and André...
and it has been noted as having influences from their single "Hey Ya". "Oh Maker" is the next song which features themes from such artists as Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...
or Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist from Leeds, who released her debut album Corinne Bailey Rae in February 2006....
and is another of the less up-beat tracks on the album. "Come Alive (War of the Roses)" has been described as having rock and punk themes. "Mushrooms & Roses" is the next track on the album and it has themes of psychedelic music and it has been noted for its influences by such songs as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Strawberry Fields Forever
Strawberry Fields Forever
"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and attributed to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. It was inspired by Lennon's memories of playing in the garden of a Salvation Army house named "Strawberry Field" near his childhood home."Strawberry Fields...
" and Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
's "Purple Rain
Purple Rain (song)
"Purple Rain" is a power ballad by Prince and The Revolution. It is the title track from the 1984 album of the same name, which in turn is the soundtrack album for the 1984 film of the same name, and was released as the third single from that album. The song is a combination of rock, pop, gospel,...
". The next track features of Montreal
Of Montreal
Of Montreal is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. It was founded by frontman Kevin Barnes in 1996, named after a failed romance with a woman "of Montreal." The band is one of the bands of the Elephant 6 collective...
on vocal parts and it has been compared to such artists as Placebo
Placebo
A placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient...
and George Clinton
George Clinton (musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
. The song "Wondaland" has themes of Disco synth and themes of the 1980s. Then Deep Cotton guest stars on the song "57821" which has a softer melody and has been compared to such works by Simon & Garfunkel this is followed the track "Say You’ll Go" and features samples of "Claire De Lune" by Debussy.
Release and promotion
The album was released May 18, 2010 on Wondaland Arts Society and Bad Boy RecordsBad Boy Records
Bad Boy Records is a record label founded in 1993 by producer/rapper/entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and is distributed by Atlantic Records.-Beginnings:...
. For promoting the album, Monáe hosted a listening session for press and VIPs at Rubin Museum of Art in New York City on March 4, 2010. A short film, teaser trailer
Teaser trailer
A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
style, was released on April 14 on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
showing an aerial view of the fictional futuristic city of Metropolis. She joined recording artist Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...
on the latter's Out My Mind, Just in Time Tour
Out My Mind, Just in Time Tour
Out My Mind, Just In Time Tour is a tour by American R&B/soul singer, Erykah Badu, in support of her album, New Amerykah Part Two ....
during May to June 2010. Monae performed to her television debut on the Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
where she performed the album's lead single "Tightrope
Tightrope (song)
The song, "Tightrope", was recorded by the Chicago pop-punk band Screeching Weasel during the sessions for their tenth studio album, Emo. The song was, however, left off the album when released "simply because Ben Weasel didn't feel it [fitted] in thematically". The song was later released in 2000...
" to acclaim from critics. Monae also performed the single on the television show So You Think You Can Dance
So You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)
So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance competition and reality show that airs on Fox in the United States.The series first premiered on July 20, 2005, and was created by American Idol producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions...
. She also performed the same track on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...
and her mentor Sean "Diddy" Combs
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
joined her on stage to introduce her to the show. Monae also performed at the 2010 ESPY Awards and during her performance she was joined on stage by comedian Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
. Monae also took to the stage on the Live with Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...
show where she performed the non-released track "Faster". She also performed her single "Tightrope" on the Mo'Nique Show. After performing her single "Tightrope" in the majority of her performances she performed her track "Cold War" live on the Last Call with Carson Daly
Carson Daly
Carson Jones Daly is an American television host. He is the host of NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, a late-night talk show that began airing on January 7, 2002. Before his role as host of that program, Daly was a VJ on MTV's TRL, and a DJ for the Southern California based radio station KROQ-FM...
. She has spent time supporting such acts as; No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
, Paramore
Paramore
Paramore is an American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, formed in 2004. The band consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams, bassist Jeremy Davis, and guitarist Taylor York...
, and Erykah Badu. In February 2011, Hooligans in Wondaland , a joint co-headlining tour with Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez , better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an Filipino-American singer-songwriter and record producer. Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age...
was announced. The concert tour was performed in North America in May and June 2011.
Singles
The first official single "Tightrope" (featuring Big BoiBig Boi
Antwan André Patton , better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, song-writer, record producer and actor, best known for being a member of American hip hop duo OutKast alongside André 3000. His work in the duo has produced six studio albums. During the duo's hiatus, he and André...
) premiered on February 11 on Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's website, with a companion song entitled "Cold War" debuting the following day via Monáe's official website. On March 31, 2010, the video for "Tightrope" was released presenting Monáe dancing in the Palace of the Dogs also starring Big Boi. Monáe performed the song on the Late Show with David Letterman on May 18, 2010, The Ellen DeGeneres Show on May 26, Lopez Tonight
Lopez Tonight
Lopez Tonight was an American late-night television talk show hosted by comedian George Lopez. The hour-long program premiered on November 9, 2009, on cable network TBS. Lopez was the first Mexican American to host a late-night talk show on an English-language network in the United States. The...
on May 27, Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....
on May 28, and The Mo'Nique Show
The Mo'Nique Show
The Mo'Nique Show is an American talk show hosted by comedienne actress Mo'Nique. Aired on BET, the series began October 5, 2009. She is the first African American woman to host her own late night show. The show's second and final season premiered on Monday, October 4, 2010.On July 18, 2011, BET...
on June 9, 2010. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
named "Tightrope" the eighth best single of 2010 in its year-end list.
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 17 on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, with first-week sales of 21,000 copies. The album dropped to number 40 in its second week on the Billboard 200, and fell to number 49 on the chart in its third week, selling 7,500 copies. Whilst its fourth week, the album moved to number 71 on the Billboard 200. It has spent seventeen weeks on the Billboard 200. In the week of February 23, 2011, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 171, after selling an additional 3,900 copies. As of February 23, 2011, The ArchAndroid has sold 141,000 copies in the United States. It also entered at number four on Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
and at number seven on its Digital Albums chart.
In the United Kingdom, The ArchAndroid debuted at number 51 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
. The album also reached number 12 in Germany, number 15 in Denmark, number 22 in Norway, number 24 in Ireland, number 36 in Switzerland, and number 63 in Austria.
Critical response
The ArchAndroid received general acclaim from music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 91, based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". One of 2010's best-reviewed releases, the album received praise for its Afrofuturistic concept and Monáe's eclectic musical range. Allmusic writer Andy Kellman praised Monáe's musical creativity and called it "an extravagant 70-minute album involving more imagination, conceptual detail, and stylistic turnabouts than most gatefold prog rock epics". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Simon Vozick-Levinson gave The ArchAndroid an A- rating and wrote that "most of Janelle Monáe's mad experiments yield spectacularly catchy results". Barry Walters of Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
noted German Expressionism
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
and Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise,...
as conceptual elements on the album and stated "She's venturing so far away from soul that she's come back around to it". Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
writer Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
gave the album four out of four stars and called it "an audacious, sometimes bewildering statement". Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites...
's Nick Butler called it a "ballsy, funky, and furiously intelligent album" and commended Monáe's "near-psychotic ambition". Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
commented that Monáe's voice "can make the hyperspace leap from its crooning, chanteuse register to the gritty exhalations required by funk".
James Reed of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
found the album's second suite less "compelling" than the first, but cited it as "one of this year’s most thrilling albums". Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
commented that "Monáe gets away with most of her metamorphoses, and the sheer ambition is exhilarating even when she stretches too far". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Jody Rosen stated "Monáe's charisma and energy are so forceful that the jumble makes perfect sense". Despite writing that "her musical schizophrenia might cause her to overreach at times", Bill Friskics-Warren of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
noted its "expansive, high-spirited music" and compared her fusion of "science fiction/fantasy and genre-defying funk" to the 1970s work of George Clinton
George Clinton (musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
. Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
described it as "an elaborately performed and consummately freaky cyber-punk epic... so stylistically leftfield in terms of its sound". The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
s Genevieve Koski wrote that "Monáe’s inexhaustible swagger and singular style sell both the high-concept theatrics and the schizophrenic sonics". Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Matthew Perpetua called the album "about as bold as mainstream music gets, marrying the world-building possibilities of the concept album to the big tent genre-mutating pop of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
and Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
in their prime". Perpetua elaborated on Monáe's incorporation of science-fiction and Afrofuturist concepts and the album's "basic appeal", stating:
URBs Dan Vidal gave the album five out of five stars and described it as "a spectrum of sound — packed and arranged perfectly into a masterfully composed (debut) full-length body of work... [a] genre-defying masterpiece". Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
called it "a smorgasbord of music, well-executed if not readily identifiable as having a common sound, and, most importantly, sincerely rendered". Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
s Justin Jacobs compared the album to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life
Songs in the Key of Life
Songs in the Key of Life is the 13th album by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, released September 28, 1976, on Motown Records. It was the culmination of his "classic period" albums. An ambitious double LP with a 4-song bonus EP, Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and...
(1976) and wrote "its stunning, sophisticated tunes spanning styles, speeds and sentiments, all tied together by a smorgasbord of artistic personalities". Michael Cragg of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
noted its "sheer musical scope" as "spellbinding". Comparing it to singer Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989), Brentin Mock of The Atlantic called The ArchAndroid "a smothered funk, though perhaps at times too thick, too inaccessible, but not so much I didn't want to shake my ass" and viewed it as musically progressive, stating "Monáe has given pop music its first Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
moment, where fantasy, funk, and the ancestors come together for an experience that evolves one's soul... You really don't know whether you want to diagram it, dance to it, or just be dumbstruck. It owes as much to Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums...
as it does to Samuel Delaney and Octavia Butler. She is finally doing what a number of artists—particularly black artists—have not been able to do in years, and that's move pop music forward".
Accolades
The album has been nominated for a Grammy AwardGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre...
, presented at the 53rd Grammy Awards
53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
in 2011. The ArchAndroid appeared on several music critics' and publications' end-of-year albums lists. It was named the year's best album by several critics in their year-end lists. Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot ranked it number one on his top albums list. Nitsuh Abebe of New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
ranked the album number six on his top albums list. Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
named it the second best album of 2010 in its end-of-year albums list. Chris Yuscavage of Vibe ranked it number five on his list of the 10 Best Albums of 2010. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
ranked the album number 21 on its list of 75 Best Albums of 2010. Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
placed The ArchAndroid at number six on its 40 Best Albums list for 2010. Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
included the album at number 12 on its year-end list and called it a "hugely ambitious full-length debut—more Sign 'O' the Times than Kid A
Kid A
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A...
". PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
named it the best album of 2010 in its year-end list. MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
placed it at number eight on their lists of the 20 Best Albums of 2010. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
ranked the album number one on its list of 2010's top 40 albums, stating in conclusion "No other album this year seems so alive with possibility. Monáe is young and fearless enough to try anything, gifted enough to pull almost all of it off, and large-hearted enough to make it feel like a communal experience: Us rather than Me". The ArchAndroid was voted the fourth-best album in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
s Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics' poll for 2010. Five songs from the album were included in the poll's singles list, including "Tightrope" (number two), "Cold War" (number 22), "Wondaland", "Locked Inside", and "Sir Greendown" (all tied for number 549).
Track listing
- All tracks produced by Nate "Rocket" Wonder, Chuck Lightning, and Janelle Monáe, except track 14 by Kevin Barnes and tracks 1, 12, and 18 by Roman GianArthur Irvin.
Musicians
- Young Pete Alexander – drums, string arrangements
- Kevin Barnes – synthesizer, drums, guitar (bass), keyboards, vocals, vocals (background), producer, drum programming
- Terrence Brown – organ, piano
- Deep Cotton – vocals (background)
- DJ Cutmaster Swiff – scratching, cut
- Nworb Ecnerret – piano
- Sknuks Eht – vocals
- Eánom Ellenaj – vocals
- Jason Freeman – horn arrangements
- Jerry Freeman – horn arrangements
- Roman GianArthur – percussion, piano, arranger, conductor, vocals (background), producer, engineer, vocal arrangement, string arrangements, mixing
- Hornz Unlimited – horn
- Felicia Long – flute
- Janelle Monáe – arranger, vocals, vocals (background), producer
- The Neon Valley St. Anthony Choir – vocals (background)
- The Neon Valley Street Chancel Choir – vocals (background)
- Monroe Nervine – dulcimer, clarinet, mandolin, bassoon, harp, oboe
- Tang Nivri – percussion
- Kyle O'Brien – French horn
- Rekrap Odnillek – guitar
- Alexander Page – violin, viola
- Kelindo Parker – arranger, ukulele, guitar, guitar (rhythm), vocal arrangement, soloist
- Grace Shim – cello
- Rekrap Sillek – guitar arrangements
- Skinks – vocals (background)
- The Skunks – vocals (background)
- Dashill "Sunnovah" Smith – trumpet, soloist
- Kelly Sparker – brass
- Thesaurus Rex – harp
- Saul Williams – vocals
- Wolfmaster Z – drums, guitar (bass), guitar (rhythm), theremin, tubular bells, bass marimba
- The Wondaland ArchOrchestra – strings
- Wondaland String Ensemble – strings
- Nate "Rocket" Wonder – organ, guitar (acoustic), bass, guitar, percussion, arranger, conductor, drums, guitar (bass), guitar (electric), keyboards, vocals, vocals (background), producer, mellotron, vibraphone, horn arrangements, string arrangements, editing, mixing, Hammond B3
- Nathan Yelurvin – percussion, glockenspiel, harp, mellotron, woodwind
Production
- Larry Anthony – mastering
- Christopher Carmouche – mixing
- Jessee Clarkson – wardrobe
- Sean "Diddy" Combs – executive producer
- Control Z – engineer, mastering, mixing
- Rednow "Tekcor" Etan – arranger
- Jeff Gillies – wardrobe
- Dr. Nathaniel Irvin III – arranger
- Charles Joseph II – arranger
- Damien Lewis – engineer, editing
- Chuck Lightning – arranger, vocals (background), producer
- Lord Mitchell A. "MitchOW!ski" Martian – mastering, mixing
- Antwan "Big Boi" Patton – executive producer, vocals (background)
- Max Stellings – liner notes
- Phil Tan – editing, mixing
- Carolyn Tracey – package production
- Chad Weatherford – costume design
- Andrew Zaeh – photography
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums Chart | 63 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (Flanders) |
57 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
12 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
24 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 100 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
36 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
51 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
17 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
4 |
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
| Danish Albums Chart IFPI Denmark IFPI Denmark is the Danish branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Denmark.-Gold and platinum awards:... |
15 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
65 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 47 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
155 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
22 |
| UK R&B Albums Chart UK R&B Chart The Official UK R&B Chart is a forty-position R&B/Hip-Hop chart compiled by The Official UK Charts Company. Although the chart does not receive any airplay, its compilation is viewed on BBC Radio 1's website and publications such as ChartsPlus and Music Week... |
11 |
External links
- The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...