Late last month Janelle Monáe released “Make Me Feel,” a single from her upcoming album, Dirty Computer (April 27, 2018). If you want a nice jam to keep your mind off Week 1 and don’t have any strawberries left, check it out! Now, if that terrible joke isn’t enough of a reason to listen to the song, this music nerd is going to review it.
The track opens with an interesting funk rhythm track (possibly written by Prince?) with a strong bass synth that sits on beat one. It leads into beat three with a tongue click on beat two and snaps on beat 4. The use of body percussion with occasional added vocal improvisations is a wonderful tradition stemming from older funk and pop. This trend has been reemerging in creative ways in modern pop, and has been making songs, such as this one, more fun, while increasing the physicality of certain lines.
The verses are relatively simple, with quick runs up to a high point on the front of the measure, which then falls with the phrase. Lyrically, this first verse introduces the idea of her talking to her lover, although the lines “Yeah, baby, don’t make me spell it out for you / You keep on asking me the same questions” can be easily read as a reference to people’s questions about her sexuality.
The pre-chorus is by far my favorite part of the song. The bass in the rhythm line is dropped and replaced by massive slabs of sound. Each line of the pre-chorus is split between a relatively unremarkable chordal first half (“It’s like I’m powerful with a lit-”) with a second half (“-tle bit of tender”) that really stands out as a chromatic descent (using every note between the start and end pitch: think both white and black keys on the piano), which is relatively rare in pop music. This beautifully janky, chromatic passage gives it a slight seductive edge, emphasized by a large jump in range and the style in which she sings.
The chorus leads nicely out of the pre-chorus, with a call of Monáe singing a reference to Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” with whispers as a response. This is joined by synths and a guitar track creating a satisfying hook. As the song nears its end, the pre-chorus and chorus come in much faster, first by cutting the verse in half, and then by replacing the verse with a short bridge that makes heavy reference to the chorus. This creates a rising intensity towards the end of the song, reinforced by added guitar and vocal lines, which ends rather suddenly at the end of a verse. This is still better than an unsatisfying fadeout.
One of the best parts of this song is the instability in its harmonies, mostly around the regular question of whether it’s in some sort of F# Major or E Major realm. I’m not going to get too technical (read my first draft if you ever want a prose-induced headache) but basically, she rarely sits in one key for a long time, instead she fluidly moves around, while often emphasizing notes that disagree with the bassline, which creates a unique sound. This step towards bitonality (simultaneously implementing two key signatures) reflects an aforementioned theme in the song: bisexuality. Janelle Monáe has never expressly come out as bisexual, but several of her songs have lyrics suggesting an attraction to women as well as men.
Overall, I have a very mixed opinion regarding the song. Certain aspects like the pre-chorus and bridge are very explorative, but the verses and the lyrics in general are too conservative for my taste. Janelle Monáe’s music often sits in this middle ground, with a few cautious steps in a new direction without ever fully committing to strong musical exploration. Still, it serves as an enjoyable song that (very vaguely) discusses a topic that is rarely touched on in mainstream music.