Janelle Monáe Announces First New Album in Five Years
Alongside the release of an age-restricted music video for “Lipstick Lover.”
Janelle Monáe has announced her first new album in five years, titled The Age of Pleasure. The forthcoming record will follow her Grammy-nominated Dirty Computer, which was released in 2018.
The upcoming album, which features 14 tracks, opens with “Float,” featuring Seun Kuit and Egypt 80, and includes a newly-released track, dubbed “Lipstick Lover.” Notably, the new cut, out on Thursday, arrived alongside a new age-restricted music video.
“That song, ‘Lipstick Lover,’ I’m like, ‘Why didn’t I write this song years ago?’” Monáe told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “Because if you know me … Today, I don’t have on any red lipstick, but I’m always in red lipstick. And there have been so many instances where I’ve made out with somebody at a party, and it’s dark. Nobody notices it. But when the lights come on, whoever I’ve made out with, lipstick all over their face.”
On her forthcoming album, Monáe told Lowe that all the songs were written from “such an honest space.” She added, “I hope that people feel that when they listen to the music, that they feel that when they come and, you know, counter with me when I’m around, I definitely have had an opportunity to evolve and grow and to tap into the things that bring me pleasure, the things that perhaps I should rethink and rework.”
The Age of Pleasure will release on June 9. Watch Janelle Monáe’s age-restricted “Lipstick Lover” music video above, and see the tracklist for her forthcoming album below.
