In the lead up to Dirty Computer, her first new album in five years, Janelle Monáe has shared a bevy of impressive singles: “Django Jane,” “Make Me Feel,” and the Grimes-featuring “Pynk.” The album’s release date is creeping closer and closer (it’s less than two weeks away now, one April 27), but ahead of that, she’s shared another new single, a self-assured examination of her own weirdness titled “I Like That.”
She drops to the TLC album CrazySexyCool in the pre-chorus when she sings about embracing the more unusual things about her personality, “A little crazy, little sexy, little cool / Little rough around the edges but I keep it smooth / I’m always left of center and that’s right where I belong / I’m the random minor note you hear in major songs.”
Elsewhere in the midtempo R&B anthem, Monáe addresses a specific incident in which somebody reacted negatively to one of the many different hairstyles she’s worn over the course of her career, singing that while it hurt, it didn’t impact her confidence: “Uh, I remember when you laughed when I cut my perm off / And you rated me a six / I was like, ‘Damn’ / But even back then with the tears in my eyes / I always knew I was the shit.”
Listen to “I Like That” above. Dirty Computer is out 4/27 via Atlantic. Pre-order it here.
