Dirty Computer [Explicit]

Rating

Album: Dirty Computer
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Dirty Computer (feat. Brian Wilson)	More Info...
2)	Crazy, Classic, Life	More Info...
3)	Take A Byte	More Info...
4)	Jane's Dream	More Info...
5)	Screwed (feat. Zoë Kravitz)	More Info...
6)	Django Jane	More Info...
7)	Pynk (feat. Grimes)	More Info...
8)	Make Me Feel	More Info...
9)	I Got The Juice (feat. Pharrell Williams)	More Info...
10)	I Like That	More Info...
11)	Don't Judge Me	More Info...
12)	Stevie's Dream	More Info...
13)	So Afraid	More Info...
14)	Americans	More Info...
2)	Crazy, Classic, Life	More Info...	0:04
3)	Take a Byte	More Info...	0:04
4)	Jane's Dream	More Info...
5)	Screwed (Feat. Zoë Kravitz)	More Info...	0:05
6)	Django Jane	More Info...	0:03
7)	Pynk (Feat. Grimes)	More Info...	0:04
8)	Make Me Feel	More Info...	0:03
9)	I Got the Juice (Feat. Pharrell Williams)	More Info...	0:03
10)	I Like That	More Info...	0:03
11)	Stevie's Dream	More Info...
12)	Don't Judge Me	More Info...	0:06
13)	So Afraid	More Info...	0:04
14)	Americans	More Info...	0:04

Album: Dirty Computer
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Dirty Computer (feat. Brian Wilson)	More Info...
2)	Crazy, Classic, Life	More Info...
3)	Take A Byte	More Info...
4)	Jane's Dream	More Info...
5)	Screwed (feat. Zoë Kravitz)	More Info...
6)	Django Jane	More Info...
7)	Pynk (feat. Grimes)	More Info...
8)	Make Me Feel	More Info...
9)	I Got The Juice (feat. Pharrell Williams)	More Info...
10)	I Like That	More Info...
11)	Don't Judge Me	More Info...
12)	Stevie's Dream	More Info...
13)	So Afraid	More Info...
14)	Americans	More Info...
2)	Crazy, Classic, Life	More Info...	0:04
3)	Take a Byte	More Info...	0:04
4)	Jane's Dream	More Info...
5)	Screwed (Feat. Zoë Kravitz)	More Info...	0:05
6)	Django Jane	More Info...	0:03
7)	Pynk (Feat. Grimes)	More Info...	0:04
8)	Make Me Feel	More Info...	0:03
9)	I Got the Juice (Feat. Pharrell Williams)	More Info...	0:03
10)	I Like That	More Info...	0:03
11)	Stevie's Dream	More Info...
12)	Don't Judge Me	More Info...	0:06
13)	So Afraid	More Info...	0:04
14)	Americans	More Info...	0:04

Performer Notes

Director: Joe Prez .
Photographer: Juco.
"Yoga" was an ostensibly minor part of the Janelle Mone discography by the arrival of Dirty Computer. Three years old and outshined by another Wondaland release, Jidenna's "Classic Man," it nevertheless became Mone's first single to hit the Billboard Hot 100. That Mone hadn't previously hit the chart as a headliner was further evidence of a flawed industry, given that she and primary collaborators Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning had been making songs with pop appeal for nearly a decade. "Yoga" did show that Mone was more open to messing with contemporary trends. Moreover, the song's humanized, sexually uninhibited, and anti-authoritarian qualities -- she was earthbound, celebrating her body, asserting "You cannot police me" -- also indicated the course she has taken with her third album. Oddly enough, "Make Me Feel," the one Dirty Computer track on which Mone employs a wholly pop songwriting team including Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, and Mattman & Robin, is the funkiest and friskiest number here, clearly influenced by the late (and uncredited) Prince. Mone and her trusty Wondaland partners, the album's dominant creative force, colorfully twist and flip new wave-leaning pop with booming bass drums and rattling percussion. They transmit powerful and defiant jubilance in response to "wack ass fuckboys everywhere (from the traphouse to the White House) who make the lives of little brown girls so damn hard," among dozens of other inspirations Mone acknowledges in the essential liner notes. Almost every track is densely packed with quotables delivered in approaches that shift from easygoing elegance to hard-fought, triumphant conviction. The latter approach yields the album's apex, "Django Jane," in which Mone raps throughout with inhuman precision, threatening a pussy riot, declaring "We ain't hidden no more," and uplifting the "highly melanated" while dropping some of the set's few sci-fi allusions, "Made a fandroid outta yo' girlfriend" among them. Not to be lost in all the power moves are indirect and direct references to a romantic relationship -- another form of dissent -- referenced and explored throughout, from the glowing "Crazy, Classic, Life" through the fiery "So Afraid," the only moment of emotional fragility. While this is easily the most loaded Mone album in terms of guests, with Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, and Grimes among the contributors, there's no doubt that it's a Wondaland product. It demonstrates that artful resistance and pop music are not mutually exclusive. ~ Andy Kellman

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "[S]he weaponizes Prince's fluidly radical pop-funk spirit for a new power generation, targeting oppression on various intersectional fronts....It's a sexy MF-ing masterpiece."

Spin - "The album is best in its meatiest section, a run of songs in the middle of the tracklist that remind us that Mone and her team -- including the writers and producers Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning -- have the songwriting chops to justify their reverence."

Entertainment Weekly - "[A] collection of funky, smart, and ferocious tracks combining echoes of her heroes -- including Prince -- with her own special feel."

NME (Magazine) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "It's one of the greatest artists of our time carrying Prince's baton into the new world....She's got The Purple One's punk, mad-scientist approach but creates a world all of her own."

Pitchfork (Website) - "DIRTY COMPUTER's opening act is harmonically lush, filled with bright synthesizers and rhythm guitars that refuse to linger in the melancholy found in the lower frets -- their realm is one of tentative exhilaration, of becoming."

Clash (Magazine) - "DIRTY COMPUTER captures the plight of today's outsiders who are fighting back, forming the world to be. Mone is 10 steps ahead, past the Trump era, embracing the robot-utopia that gives hope to an unprejudiced and equal world."