With this album, Monáe says that she and her cohorts “just set out to turn the rubbish all around us into something beautiful.” The album’s courageous, outrageously funky first single “Q.U.E.E.N.” features the queen herself, Erkyah Badu. Bad Boy/Wondaland/Atlantic Records (janellemonae.com). —Suzie Lynde
Editor’s note: See Monáe live in Houston on November 13 at House of Blues.
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