• Letters from CAMP Rehoboth
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Advertising Information
    • Where Can I Get Letters?
    • The Write Stuff
  • Events
    • Featured Events
    • Past Events
    • Current Classes + Events
    • Women's FEST
  • Programs
    • Arts & Culture
    • Education & Advocacy
    • Health & Wellness
    • Community Building
    • CAMP Facilities
  • About Us
    • Membership
    • Volunteers
    • Board of Directors
    • CAMP Rehoboth Staff
    • Reports and Financials
    • History
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Press
  • Resources
    • Beach Guide Directory
    • LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Providers
    • LGBTQ Delaware Data
    • Trans & Nonbinary Resources
    • BIPOC LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Local and National Resources Guide
  • Contact
  • Shop
close× Call Us 302-227-5620
close×

Search form

September 13, 2013 - Hear Me Out by Chris Azzopardi

Ariana Grande, Janelle Monáe

Ariana Grande, Yours Truly

Hold up, people. Ariana Grande, even with all the belts and coos and high notes, is not the new Mariah Carey. As good as the onetime child actress can be—and she has many earth-shattering, stratospherical vocal triumphs on her debut—she’s her own singer, and she’s not yet reached Carey-at-the-height-of-her-career caliber. Not that she doesn’t come close on Yours Truly (just listen to the last bit of “Baby I,” where she goes for M.C.’s signature whistle note), especially when she breaks from the trends to deliver—with the help of ’90s-diva guru Babyface—a throwback to a classier, twerk-less time in music. “Tattooed Heart” swoops with the doo-wop sound of the early ’60s; it’s a lovely listen as its finger snaps and piano line reach a steady rhythm, so it’s easy to overlook the silly title and the track’s altogether nauseating mawkishness. The better ballad, “Almost is Never Enough” with The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes, goes subtler and turns in a sophisticated, handsomely produced sound that’s a definite highlight. What’s surprising—and pleasantly so—is that those are the only outright slow tempos. “Piano” is a buoyant delight that dances on air, “Right There” falls back to ’90s hip-hop and then, for the last song, the unnecessary “Better Left Unsaid,” it’s to the club with a slow-building bounce. Yours Truly, an exciting, very respectable debut that almost gets everything right, will give Ariana the platform and cred to make her next release the pop knockout this one so desperately wants to be. Grade: B

 

Janelle Monáe, The Electric Lady 

Janelle Monáe is a consummate singer, rapper, performer, dancer, suit-wearer and…actress? She is if you’ve been following her idiosyncratic mythology of an alter-ego android named Cindi Mayweather, who’s basically a badass standing for the liberation of the “others,” much like Monáe herself. The third chapter in this ambitious sci-fi saga is a prequel to her other two outings, 2010’s The ArchAndroid and its predecessor, the Metropolis EP. This time, though, themes previously addressed—individuality, equality, self-empowerment and freedom from oppression—rise to the surface in Monáe’s musical vision to unify through song. It’s also the gayest of the three, with an interlude insisting that “robot love is queer,” an allusion to lesbian “undercover love” on “Givin Em What They Love” with Prince, and a crush on a girl in tights during the funky drag-anthem “Q.U.E.E.N.,” a morphing swag song featuring Erykah Badu and a fierce rap outro. Though far less psychedelic than on ArchAndroid, Monáe doesn’t forsake art for commercial appeal even as she vends her Afro-futuristic queerness—and opens up her sound—to the world. Slicking up the sonic palette with shades of straight-up R&B power-ballad adornment (“Primetime”), “oooh-oooh” girl-group melodies (“Electric Lady”) and retro-inspired synths (“What an Experience”), there’s still an air of cool hovering atop Monáe’s pompadour that tells you—with a thrilling, multifaceted and intellectual approach to performance—this android is the real deal. Grade: A- 

Chris Azzopardi is editor of Q Syndicate, the international LGBT wire service. Email Chris Azzopardi

‹ September 13, 2013 - Thinking Out Loud by Abby Dees up September 13, 2013 - Buzz Worthy by Deb Griffin ›

Past Issues

Issues Index

  • February 8, 2013 - Issue Index
  • March 8, 2013 - Issue Index
  • April 5, 2013 - Issue Index
  • May 3, 2013 - Issue Index
  • May 17, 2013 - Issue Index
  • May 31, 2013 - Issue Index
  • June 14, 2013 - Issue Index
  • June 28, 2013 - Issue Index
  • July 12, 2013 - Issue Index
  • July 26, 2013 - Issue Index
  • August 9, 2013 - Issue Index
  • August 23, 2013 - Issue Index
  • September 13, 2013 - Issue Index
    • September 13, 2013 - Acknowledgments
    • September 13, 2013 - The Way I See It by Steve Elkins
    • September 13, 2013 - In Brief
    • September 13, 2013 - CAMPmatters by Murray Archibald
    • September 13, 2013 - CAMP Out by Fay Jacobs
    • September 13, 2013 - View Point by Richard Rosendall
    • September 13, 2013 - CAMP Stories by Rich Barnett
    • September 13, 2013 - CAMP Talk by Bill Sievert
    • September 13, 2013 - MCC Rehoboth by Fay Jacobs
    • September 13, 2013 - Before the Beach by Bob Yesbek
    • September 13, 2013 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer
    • September 13, 2013 - Thinking Out Loud by Abby Dees
    • September 13, 2013 - Hear Me Out by Chris Azzopardi
    • September 13, 2013 - Buzz Worthy by Deb Griffin
    • September 13, 2013 - Eating Out by Fay Jacobs
    • September 13, 2013 - Volunteer Spotlight by Chris Beagle
    • September 13, 2013 - Volunteer Thank You
    • September 13, 2013 - Ask the Doctor by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D., LCSW
    • September 13, 2013 - CAMPshots Gallery Index
    • September 13, 2013 - CAMP Arts by Doug Yetter
    • September 13, 2013 - CAMP Dates
    • September 13, 2013 - Gray & Gay by John Siegfried
  • October 11, 2013 - Issue Index
  • November 15, 2013 - Issue Index

Follow Us

Follow us on Social Media!

RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL

Information

  • Letters
  • Events
  • About Us
  • CAMP Center

Support CAMP

  • CAMP Membership
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
Copyright © CAMP Rehoboth, 2022
  • p. 302-227-5620
  • info@camprehoboth.com
  • 37 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971