Album arts + tracklisting: Janelle Monáe - The electric lady

Janelle's second full length studio album The electric lady makes other chicks' creativity look stale, lazy and dead in waters and this is all before we've even heard the album!

The artwork above was painted by illustrator Sam Spratt and is the regular edition artwork for the album. Can I get three cheers for Janelle opting to have a painted album cover, when she could have just gone the photographic route? It would have been a heck of a lot easier and cheaper.

You can read all about the processes Sam went through here to create this artwork for Janelle, along with the different ideas which were dropped and refined before settling on what we'll see in stores from September 10th. His article also features a video which contains an instrumental piece of music which I sure as hell hope is from a song on the album.

Peep the full tracklisting for the The electric lady is after the jump.

1. Suite IV: Electric overture
2. Givin em what they love featuring Prince
3. Q.U.E.E.N. featuring Erykah Badu
4. Electric lady featuring Solange
5. Good morning midnight (Interlude)
6. PrimeTime featuring Miguel
7. We were rock and roll
8. The chrome shoppe (Interlude)
9. Dance apocalyptic
10. Look into my eyes
11. Suite V: Electric overture
12. It's code
13. Ghetto woman
14. Our favorite fugitive (Interlude)
15. Victory
16. Can't live without your love
17. Sally ride
18. Dorothy Dandridge eyes featuring Esperanza Spalding
19. What an experience

A limited edition will retail exclusively at Target, featuring 2 discs with the suites split across them and an additional 4 bonus tracks. It will also come with a completely different cover art, also painted by THE BOWSS that is Sam Spratt.

The Target cover is bad ass. I prefer it to the original. This is what I'mm use for the album art on my iPod. Fuck dem 60's wigs.

Preferences aside, we can all agree that both covers are retro sexy and creative. I'm loving the 70's vinyl sleeve throwback and that Janelle came different from the standard 'lemme stand here and pose with dis weave with a wind machine blowing muh tracks seductively in my face' shit we usually get popular females in music nowadays.

In anticipation of this album, I've started played The ArchAndroid again. Still mad that Janelle didn't release "Faster" as a single.

Album reviews: Metropolis suite: The chase | The ArchAndroid

Album art + tracklisting: Mademoiselle Yulia - Whatever Harajuku

I would like to thank Mademoiselle Yulia for taking the time to listen to the pleas of the few who had be pleading for a follow up to her gravely underrated debut album Mademoworld. How the world let that album pass them by, I do not know.

The swagtastic Mademoiselle Yulia will release her sophomore album Whatever Harajuku on September 18th. I don't want to shit on Yulia's chances of a hit, but chances are that this album will flop faster than a bouncy castle at the garden party of Lady Deathstrike. But I will remain grateful that the album even saw the light of the day if the music is good. And if Verbal handled his executive production role for this album as well as he did for Mademoworld, then we'll be in for a treat.

1. Boom Boom Boom
2. BGNLT (Bad girls need love too)
3. Harajuku wander
4. Sunny
5. Don't tell me goodbye
6. Like the 1st time
7. I'm a Mademoiselle
8. Bad vibrations
9. The void
10. Runner
11. UFO featuring Verbal of M-Flo

The lead single from this album will be "Harajuku wander" and it sounds like a Euro dance mess. It's certainly no "Gimme gimme". But the video is bold enough, bright enough and features enough pink, coloured wigs and mention of Harajuku that people will compare it to Nicki Minaj and Kyary Pussy Pamyu - which will in turn have Mademoiselle Yulia in people's mouth. GIT DAT PROMO. Plus it features it girl Kiko Mizuhara - who is taking so many modelling gigs in Japan right now, that you would think she is the only model over there.

Yulia knew exactly what time it by putting Hirari Ikeda in this video. You can't drop a song about Harajuku, shoot that shit in Harajuku and not feature that girl. It's like a crime. She is Harajuku fashion personified. If you don't know about Hirari Ikeda, Google her. Those of you who shop religiously at Uniqlo may recognize her, as she was one of the faces of their recent UT campaign.

Please take the time to check out Mademoiselle Yulia's debut if you haven't already. It's a good 'un.

Album review: Mademoworld

Album art + tracklisting: Jasmine - Complexxx

Jasmine will finally release the follow up to her 2010 debut Gold. J-R&B's quickest wig rotator will drop her second studio album Complexxx on August 28th, which will feature all of her singles and their accompanying tracks from as early as her Stargate produced 2011 release "One".

Jasmine usually always looks a ghetto trash mess. It's nice to finally see her scrub up with a nice wig which doesn't look like it was bought in a Halloween pop-up shop. I am feeling this album cover. My only issue with it are Jasmine's toes gripping the front of her shoes for dear life. I'm undecided about the basic ass pole making Jasmine look as though she's about to bust a n***as car windows. Jasmine looking like cheap descendants of Final Fantasy VIII sorceresses for her Gold era made it difficult for me to take her seriously. And the styling for her "High flying" and "Hero" single arts were so horrendous that it didn't occur to me once that her album cover would look half way decent. She sure shut me up.

1. High flying
2. Best partner
3. Addiction
4. Touch me on the Beach
5. B*TCH*S
6. I hate you
7. Weekend high
8. Only you
9. Realize
10. One
11. Hero
12. I'll be there

In true J-Pop fashion, this album comes after at a point when everybody has heard 80% of it as a result of a long string of singles. I don't have an issue with this when the singles are good. "One", "Best partner" and "B*TCH*S" were hot. I have zero fucks to give anything else. The new songs are going to have to be perfect for me to so much as care for this album. Jasmine had better hope the music buying public of Japan don't feel the same. Although given the ORICON chart positions of her singles, they probably do.

Album arts + tracklisting: Beni - Red

Beni thought she'd hit the jackpot with Covers, which went on to be the biggest seller of her career and push more units than an Ayumi Hamasaki album. Beni thought she was the teflon don with the sales. So much so that she rushed out Covers: 2 thinking she could match prior success. But she quickly saw that Japan really ain't got no time for that.

Shockingly, Beni has done an Emancipation of Mimi and scrapped naming her albums after Care bears. I was expecting this album to be titled Sparkle, Diamond or Sapphire. But she curve balled me with Red.

How is this woman going to call her album Red, rock a fly red couture dress sat in a red chair, with a red lampshade and not rock a red bottomed Louboutin? Bitch, bye.

1. Intro
2. Reason
3. Satsuki ame | さつきあめ
4. Our sky
5. Fly high
6. Concrete rose
7. Red
8. Angel
9. Sweet danger
10. Sands of time
11. Home sweet home
12. Eien | 永遠
13. AM 2:00

Shockingly, regular contributor and master beat-recycler Daisuke Imai has only contributed to one track to this album: "Sands of time". D.I is a hot producer, but that man recycles beats like Evian water bottles. Given his dwindling output across Beni's Jewel, Fortune and Covers albums, it was only a matter of time until he was slowly kicked to the curb. Beni has instead opted to draft in Hirofumi Asamoto to handle the Lion's share of the album, who last worked with her when she was signed to Avex over 6 years ago. Beni is on that throwback shit.

Album reviews: Bitter & Sweet | Jewel | Fortune

Single art: Justin Timberlake - Tunnel vision

Justin Timberlake's 3rd single from his record breaking 3rd studio album will be *cue Timbaland drum roll with a beat so thick it'll make bitches twerk their weave out* "Tunnel vision". 

I love "Tunnel vision". It is an album highlight from The 20/20 experience. But "Don't hold the wall" or "Let the groove get in" would have made much better single choices, especially for the Summer. "Tunnel vision" is the type of song you release as a single when you've already had a 4 to 5 single run and you're just putting out another song because well...you might as well. It's not what you roll out when your album is still somewhat fresh and you want a hit. Then again you could argue JT was never after hits with the release of "Suit and tie" and I certainly never thought "Mirrors" would go on to be the mammoth hit it was. Justin just needs to make sure he dances his arse off in that music video. 

If you've not yet heard "Tunnel vision", be sure to check it out. It doesn't scream 'release me as a single' as the aforementioned "Don't hold the wall" and "Let the groove get in" do, but it is a great song. A welcomed return of classic Timbo, hearkening back to his Missy, Aaliyah and Ginuwine days. Dem drums are the truth.

 Album review: The 20/20 experience

Album art + tracklisting: Namie Amuro - Feel

Namie Amuro may have failed us with the singles for upcoming album of hers, but boy did she come through with the album covers. The queen of Okinawa will release her 11th studio album Feel, which will release on July 10th, graced with what are some of her best album covers to date. Beautiful. Classic. Classier than your faves' album covers. This shit even has meaning, with Namie representing the proverbial mantra of 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' on each individual cover. Loving this shit. LOVING IT WITH ALL MY HEART!

The album track listing is still to be finalized with the addition of 2 tracks (which I pray to Yevon are not "Damage" and "Beautiful") and the order may change upon release, but thus far it's as follows...

1. Alive
2. Big boys cry
3. Can you feel this love
4. Contrail
5. Hands on me
6. Heaven
7. La La La
8. Let me let you go
9. Poison
10. Supernatural love

A teaser is also in circulation which features the album track "Alive", which sounds like Madonna's "Jump" meets Daft Punk, meets Kevin Rudolf's "Let it rock".It also gives us a glimpse of what how the scramble crossing in Shibuya will more than likely look when this album drops.

Having seen this teaser and hearing a clip of a new Namie song I actually like, I am now slightly interested in this album. I hope Namie turns this shit out for the album tracks, because ain't nobody got time for "Big boys cly", "Contlail", "Can you feel zis lubu".

Namie Amuro will also be embarking on a tour to support this album, which will visit venues around Japan from August to December. It will be exactly like her last 20th anniversary tour, except with a few new songs. Once you've seen one Namie Amuro tour, you've seen them all. She wears the exact same ruffled skirts, the same tired arse boots, and guaranteed there will be at least one section in the gig where she dances with pom-poms.

Also, something which is a bigger deal than news outlets and blogs are giving it credit for is that Feel will be the first release from Namie's very own record label Dimension point. The name is derived from where Namie throws other bitches wigs. Into another dimension. Ayu best have her home girl sew dem tracks down, because her scalp is now officially NOT safe. All Dimension point releases will be distributed by Avex who also own the label, but Namie will be the manager of it.

Namie had expressed a desire to nurture new talent, but I for one didn't think she would actually set-up a new label as a means to do this. This is great move and goes a way towards shifting societies perception of what women in Japan should have the option to be. Not only has Namie defied odds of having a successful career in the wake of a young pregnancy, a divorce, the loss of a parent and a swift career decline that many thought she would not recover from, but she will now be a handling her own business. LITERALLY. I just hope she does sign new and / or existing artists and really nurture them. It would be a shame for somebody of Namie's iconic stature to have a platform to put artists in di spotligh', but not ever do it.

Single art + info: Beni - Our sky

Beni will be releasing her third original single following 2 years of releasing lifeless covers of other people's songs; completing her hat trick of flop singles following "Eien" and "Satsuki ame".

The latest Beni news to come through the wire is that she will also be releasing a brand new album on July 31. No tracklist or artwork has been revealed as-of-yet. But music outlets have begun listing this date as when Beni's new set drops. And often in J-Pop when this shit happens, it turns out to be pretty legit. So expect album info to surface real soon.

Given Beni's Mariah Carey like penchant for titling albums, we could probably guess what her next album is going to be called. So far we've had Girl 2 lady, Gem, Bitter & sweet, Lovebox, Jewel and Fortune. I say her next album will be called Vajazzle or Diamond. Or be a 2 disc album titled Diamond vajazzle.

I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I was looking forward to this new album of Beni's. She bludgeoned me within an inch of my life with her cover albums to the point where I began to lose interest in her. But I always respond to the muzak. So if Beni's new album drops and she gives me something on a level with Jewel or even Lovebox, then me and Beni will be cool again. I really hope she dials back on the ballads for this new album. She needs to stop chasing the pursuit of that iconic, memorable ballad which everybody will remember her for. Especially when they all sound like boring pieces of shit. 

Album reviews: Bitter & sweet | Jewel | Fortune

Album art + tracklisting: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Nanda collection

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but Pussy Pamyu's new album is on my list of anticipated albums of 2013.

Pussy Pamyu's second full length LP Nanda collection will be released on July 26th, the album title being a play on words. When the Japanese title is romanized it reads as 'What in the world is this collection?' What is what everybody is going to wonder when they see these albums covers in stores and they hear the songs. A more appropriate title may have been Nanda this shit desu ka.

Peep the full tracklist to Pussy Pamyu's Nanda collection below. I hope "Saigo no ice cream" is an anthem for giving head. There aren't enough J-Pop versions of those.

1. Nandakorekushon
2. Ninjari ban ban
3. Kimi ni 100%
4. Super scooter happy
5. Invader invader
6. Mi
7. Fashion monster
8. Saigo no ice cream
9. Norikotonorio
10. Furisodeshon
11. Kura kura
12. Otona na kodomo

I can't wait to hear this album because it could either turn out to be one of the best produced LP Nakata has crafted or it could be the worst. The singles thus far have all been decent and satisfied me in a way Perfume's singles have failed to post "Spending all my time".

I don't know who that bitch is on Pussy Pamyu's shoulder on the CD version of the album cover, but I fucking love her. Dat gapped out grill is giving me everything and the wig fits right. Ain't no ho snatching that.

Album art: Kelly Rowland - Talk a good game

Beyoncé's ex back-up singer has released 2 singles about her pussy, so it's only right she sells some sex on her album cover and boy does she sell it. Kelly McRowland looks hawt! Kelly's display of strategically covered titty and choice of wig looks much better and sexier than Beyonce's on 4. Just putting that out there.

Kelly's third studio flop is slated for a June 18th release. We all wondered why Beyoncé hadn't let the cat out of the bag regarding her album release date. This is why. She was waiting for Kelly to announce her shit first so she could doo-doo on her from a great height with a release date which throws Kelly's chances of success into utter jeopardy. Not that she needs Beyoncé to do this. Kelly is capable of flopping all by herself. Let's all set our watches for Pepsiyoncé to announce her album is dropping the week before Kelly's and that she's making an in-store appearance at the grand opening of a new store H&M in NYC the day Kelly's album drops. Beyoncé won't let the step children of destiny catch no shine.

If Talk a good game is more Ms. Kelly than Here I am, then I'll be pleased. But if it's going to be 13 tracks of Kelly singing about the needs of her pussy, then I'm going to have to pass. And based on "Ice", "Kisses down low", the album title and the album cover, all signs are pointing towards Kelly's vagina.