This is the pitchfork review.

I'm senior editor Anna Gata, and today we're talking about the rich and eclectic career of Janelle Monet.

They're a musician, a writer, and an actor, and they've got a new album out that celebrates pleasure and being present.

And it's a bit of a detour from their previous work.

Since there's so much to talk about, I want to get right to it with our fabulous guests,

contributing writers, Julianne Escobedo Shepard, and Heaven Hila.

Hey, y'all. Hey. Howdy? I'm so excited to talk about Janelle Monet with you both.

Their new album just dropped. It's called The Age of Pleasure. And they've also recently starred in movies, including hidden figures and Glass Onion, which is where I want to start today.

How do you each think of Jean-L Monet? Do you think of them as an

actor first or as a musician first? I think of Genel Monnet as more of like a world builder. They

have done so much in like their acting career and in their music and like writing sci-fi short

stories that it's difficult to like put them into one specific category because

everything is so connected. They are a very, very good actor. I actually wonder if it's because

those projects are by other people. They kind of can feel separate from the world building

that you're talking about

heaven. But I agree. I see them as very much a full spectrum creative. And they approach it in a

different way than a lot of pop stars right now. And that like a lot of multi hyphenates are kind of you know they do their art forms and then they

also do some sort of capitalist venture like you know a clothing line or a skincare everyone has

freaking skin care but they sort of seem to really channel most of their efforts in just like these creative worlds.

That's not to say that they're not within the capitalist rubric, but they just seem more interested in crafting this career-long narrative that they've been doing that's rooted in like sci-fi and Afrofutrism and

freaky shit. So this new album, The Age of Pleasure, it's Janelle's fourth studio album.

And Heaven, in their previous records, they were really building like a futuristic world.

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