The ArchAndroid (2010)

The ArchAndroid is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Janelle Monáe, released on May 18, 2010, by Wondaland Arts Society, Bad Boy Records, and Atlantic 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. She also collaborated for certain songs with Saul Williams, Big Boi, of Montreal, and Deep Cotton.

The album is composed of the second and third parts to Monáe's Metropolis concept album 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. Critical commentaries have compared the album to the works of David Bowie, Outkast, Prince and Michael Jackson.

The ArchAndroid debuted at number 17 on the US Billboard 200, selling 21,000 copies in its first week, while charting modestly in several other countries. Monáe promoted the album with the release of two singles – "Tightrope" and "Cold War" – and concert tours in 2010 and 2011. A widespread critical success, The ArchAndroid received praise for its thematic concepts and Monáe's eclectic musical range. It later ranked among 2010's best albums in many critics' lists and earned the singer a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album.

Writing and recording

The ArchAndroid follows Janelle Monáe's debut EP Metropolis: The Chase Suite (2007) and is composed as the second and third parts to her Metropolis concept 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 drew inspiration for the album from the quotation, "The mediator between the hand and the mind is always the heart". She explained her incorporation of the android as a metaphor for the minority, in addition to being the role of the story's protagonist. In an interview for Blues & Soul, Monáe said the character "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. 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".

Music and lyrics

Monáe has stated that the album's musical influences encompass "all the things I love, scores for films like Goldfinger mixed with albums like Stevie Wonder's Music of My Mind and David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, along with experimental hip hop influences from albums such as 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 stated that the album "touches on" musical genres such as funk, hip hop, folk, electro-pop, glam rock, big-band jazz, rock and classical music.

Monáe has stated that the album's lyrical themes and storyline were heavily influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. 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 Atlantic's 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 Road's side two, and bumping throughout with the best innovations of contemporary hip-hop".