Janelle Monáe: The Electric Lady

“'There’s nothing that I will not try,' Janelle Monáe said by phone from a car traversing Maryland. The album she is releasing on Tuesday, 'The Electric Lady' (Bad Boy), bears her out. Its 19 tracks hint at Stevie Wonder and spy-movie soundtracks, Jimi Hendrix and hip-hop, reggae and gospel. It has guest appearances by Prince, Erykah Badu and Esperanza Spalding. ... And then there’s the album’s overarching concept, which follows through on Ms. Monáe’s 2007 EP, 'Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase)' and her 2010 major-label debut album, 'The ArchAndroid.' In the lineage of sci-fi-loving, high-concept musicians like Sun Ra, George Clinton and David Bowie, Ms. Monáe is a trouper whose songs dance to big ideas. ... 'The Electric Lady' extends, with Suites IV and V, the tale of Cindi Mayweather, a fugitive android in danger of being disassembled" (Jon Pareles, "'What Would the Electric Lady Think?,'" New York Times, 9/6/13).

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