When Janelle Monáe was engaged on her fourth album, she road-tested it the place it was meant to be heard: events at Wondaland West, her Los Angeles inventive headquarters. “I used to be like, ‘OK, if we have now a celebration in spring of 2022, I wish to have information prepared,’ ” the singer-songwriter-actor-artist informed Rolling Stone. “‘I wish to honor this expertise, and be actually particular about it.’ One of the best ways to determine it out? ‘Let’s play that shit on the occasion.’”
What resulted is The Age of Pleasure, a half-hour fever dream that looks like a hazy stretch of time at a sun-dappled gathering of individuals whose gorgeous magnificence is matched by their alluring personalities. Beats from everywhere in the map move into one another; snatches of dialogue slip into the combination; the lyrics are centered on feeling good, whether or not by way of carnal pleasure or being comfy in a single’s personal pores and skin.
On the floor, The Age of Pleasure is a departure for Monáe, whose high-concept, genre-spanning albums have made her one of the critically acclaimed artists of the previous decade-plus. If there’s an overarching idea for this album, it’s summed up by a line within the luxurious boast “Champagne Shit”: “Don’t ask me shit about work, ‘trigger I’m on my champagne shit.” Monáe has been prolific and profitable in the whole lot she’s finished, whether or not it’s placing on energy-packed reside reveals, commanding motion pictures, or pulling collectively head-turning seems. The Age of Pleasure is her second to soak all of it in — and to ask others to the enjoyable.
Which isn’t to say The Age of Pleasure feels tossed-off — fairly the other. Its 31-ish minutes are exquisitely wrought, as easily combined as a top-tier set from a DJ with an infinite assortment that features Fifties doo-wop sides and cutting-edge cuts from the African diaspora. “Phenomenal,” a collaboration with the MC Doechii, shape-shifts from a skittering amapiano beat right into a Latin jazz breakdown, Monáe and her visitor possessing a room-ruling swagger as they declare “I’m a thousand variations of myself … and we’re all tremendous as fuck,” the final 4 phrases slowed down for emphasis. “Water Slide” activates a thinly veiled metaphor about varied types of wetness, however the way in which it opens up from tightly syncopated verses into a luxurious, harmony-piled refrain sells it. Different visitors embrace Grace Jones, Sister Nancy, and CKay — Monáe’s occasion is one the place sharing the mic is welcome, so long as the central purpose of feeling good and making others really feel the identical method is honored.
The Age of Pleasure ends nearly too quickly; the breezy come-on “A Dry Pink” closes out with Monáe reminiscing concerning the summer time, till her voice is flipped and spun out in a method that looks like being time-warped out of paradise. However that’s the character of delight; it’s fleeting, but it surely’s price luxuriating in — and dealing to get again there’s definitely worth the effort most of the time.
