(Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid)[https://imgur.com/a/Pk4EGYZ]

And now we have the third and final album in the rate! The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monae. It's been a hot minute since we've rated Janelle so it's great that we are going back to arguably her most ambitious album from a conceptual level. The album itself follows Janelle's first EP, Metropolis, and follows the same character throughout. It isn't essential to listen to Metropolis in order to follow the story into The ArchAndroid, but it is a great listen so I'd recommend it. The projects follow Cindi Mayweather, an android sent back in time in order to save her fellow androids from The Great Divide, a secret society whose purpose to oppress android kind.

The Metaphors of androids as this world's minority population is prevalent throughout the album, as they are often hypersexualized, and degraded throughout the story. The power of artistic expression is also seen as extremely important, specifically in the dance and music forms. This can be seen in the Tightrope music video, where the power of dance enables Cindi and friends to enact a jailbreak. The Great Divide knows of this power, and wishes to continue to suppress the androids from using it to its potential. This can be seen in the art included with the album on release of the (Ten Droid Commandments)[https://imgur.com/gPjzQgh] I don't want to go too far into the story as to spoil it, but the use of these types of metaphors and lyrical themes don't stop there.

Musically this album is very similar to other albums in the rate as it blends various genres and sounds, without being nailed down to any given one for too long. One moment you'll grooving to a retro soul bop, the next you'll be whisked away by a gorgeous string arrangement, setting the stage for the story to unfold. At it's core I'd say that type of retro R&B is what really drives this album's base, but at the same time it does not do justice to Janelle's varied musical pallet that she takes from on this album. That retro sound is not only there to drive the music, but the setting and themes as well. As the story is loosely derived from the 1927 film Metropolis it makes sense that this album would look backwards to drape atmosphere and intrigue over the already rich setting. Janelle's vision has an attention to detail so vivid that it makes for more than a worthy challenger to the other two high concept albums in the rate.