...What am I listening to. Is this a full orchestra at Carnegie Hall? Is this the hottest new dj cranking up an interplanetary set from a high-above sparkling silver podium? Weirdly I'm mostly blown away by the percussive elements. Drums aside, Monae paints the beat picture with their full hand, accenting the driving basslines with manual and electronic beat additions. This is so addictive, you keep waiting for the energy to cool down and it just doesn't! Even downtempo songs like Sir Greendown envelop the listener in a shifting, permeable atmosphere, pierced only by Monae's dreamy spell singing. The next thing that I notice strongly on this album is her falsetto yell/cry from the dark cabaret tune Come Alive. Try listening to that back to back with Sir Greendown. and then try dipping quickly into the Diablo Swing Orchestra. Monae literally does it better than that entire group. This artist is obviously non-binary cause they really cannot pick a single genre to stick to. call me queer because it looks hot on them.