JANELLE MONÁE

The Age Of Pleasure (Atlantic)

While younger generations are rumoured to be having less sex than their predecessors, genderfluidity is increasing and so is a dose of the STIs, so Janelle Monáe’s celebration of her sexuality certainly chimes with the times of hedonism post-you know what. There’s a 70s soundsystem vibe pulsing through Janelle’s best album yet, with hefty reggae grooves – Lipstick Lover and Only Have Eyes 4 2 have a lover’s rock feel; Sister Nancy makes a brief cameo on The French 75 – and little outstaying its welcome.

Tracks are nicely sequenced, with the modern afrobeats slowly brewing on Champagne Shit bubbling into afrobeat on the all-too-brief Black Sugar Beach. Phenomenal rides the glass pony between the challenge and confidence of Jamie Principle and Beyoncé, meltsing into Haute and its pithy lyric “they say I look better than David Bowie in a Moonage Dream”. That in turn segues into a short interlude featuring Grace Jones, whose classic Nightclubbing album must have been a touchstone.

The horns of Egypt 80 grace Know Better – alongside a neat Lafayette Afro Rock Band sample – and the r’n’b slowjam of Float. Album closer A Dry Red is a sublime Jon Lucien-esque summer groove, its line “I’m choosy, but me and you can fuck in my jacuzzi” epitomising the heady air of decadence. 

words CHRIS SEAL