Prince and Miguel to feature on Janelle Monae's new album
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Janelle Monáe's upcoming sophomore album, "The Electric Lady," will include guest appearances by Prince and Miguel.
In a new Billboard cover story, Monáe says she aims to "tell universal stories in unforgettable ways" on the album, due in September, and that conversations she had with collaborators helped inspire some of the tracks.
"We are great friends, and he is a mentor to us, to me," she says of Prince. "It's a beautiful thing to have a friend -- someone who cares about your career, and wants to see you go far and to push boundaries and shake up the world -- give whatever they possibly can to the cause."
Monáe jumped at the opportunity to work with her iconic friend, who is not exactly known for making guest appearances.
"I had a chance to produce an icon," says Monáe, who is keeping the name of their song under wraps. "It's not every day that he collaborates. I'm honored and humbled that he trusted me. He is forever my friend, and I am forever indebted. I can't say too much else about it."
Meanwhile, Miguel guests on the glimmering "Primetime," which interpolates the Pixies' famous "Where Is My Mind?" "ooh" section atop a spare funk beat. It's a love duet that builds on harmonies and the chorus -- "Primetime for our love/Heaven is bettin' on us" -- and unites their glossy croons so well one can almost feel them melting into one another
The Electric Lady promises to expand on the utopian cyborg themes Monáe explored on her debut album, 2010's "The ArchAndroid," into more plainspoken, personal territory, and further fiddle with genres beyond funk and soul, including jazz ("Dorothy Dandridge Eyes"), pop-punk ("Dance Apocalyptic"), gospel ("Victory") and woozy, sensual vocal ballads ("Primetime").
"This album has a lot of songs that can get played on mainstream radio," Atlantic Records Group chairman/COO Julie Greenwald says. "Before, we got a lot of attention in the press, on the blogs, on the video networks. But we didn't crack the code at radio. So if you connect that last dot, it's going to be a significant improvement from the last album cycle. Which is really going to put her music in so many people's homes."
. I'm excited for the album just to know what it sounds like. I don't think it'll top TAA, but I don't really care.
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