{"id":694673,"date":"2026-05-26T10:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/694673\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:42:09","slug":"aja-monet-the-color-of-rain-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/694673\/","title":{"rendered":"aja monet: the color of rain Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSay it with your chest,\u201d aja monet<\/a> commands in the opening seconds of the color of rain. The phrase, popularized by an old Kevin Hart bit<\/a>, tends to be a taunt, but monet freaks it. With growing vim, she likens a chest to an engine waiting to be fired, the cavity within to a \u201cdarling darkness,\u201d the heart to a tenderly cupped firefly\u2014each metaphor diluting the machismo of the saying. By the time monet repeats the expression at the end of her verse, chanting it gently as pitter-pattering drums and hushed keys subsume her voice, \u201csay it with your chest\u201d is more spell than jeer, a mantra for staying true to self.<\/p>\n

monet goes full high priestess on her second album, a liquid set that shapeshifts like a trickster god. Over fizzling jazz, soul, and electronic arrangements that sway from calm to chaos, she moves fluidly between registers and genres, her performances more emphatically musical even as her style remains rooted in slam poetry. These tracks are as tuneful and rollicking as they are stately, poems to sing along with and groove to. monet is a bard now, a level-up that unlocks her alchemical lyricism.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

Spoken word recordings often try to approximate the spaces where poetry is performed: Voices are centered, music and audience chatter pushed to the edge of the mix. The poem feels enclosed. the color of rain rejects that standard. These restless arrangements\u2014produced by monet, polymath bassist Meshell Ndegeocello<\/a>, and virtuoso drummer Justin Brown with assists from trumpeter Nico Segal<\/a> and engineer Chris Connors\u2014push outward. The instrumentals nudge, stretch, and press, the layered rhythms and background vocals in constant conversation with monet\u2019s slick poetics. If songs are rooms, these are under construction: warm, expanding, a little noisy.<\/p>\n

monet builds on the syncretic style she introduced on when the poems do what they do<\/a>. Where that record drew heavily from the sounds of the Black Arts Movement, the color of rain reaches a bit farther. The songwriting channels the Los Angeles jazz and beat scenes, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe diaspora<\/a>, and the experimental sound collages of artists like Moor Mother<\/a> and Matana Roberts<\/a>. These influences are subtle though, the connections tangled like roots.<\/p>\n

Reminiscent of a wooly Blood Orange<\/a> record, there\u2019s a gamesome way to how the songs come together. Georgia Anne Muldrow<\/a> might show up to sing (\u201celsewhere\u201d) or play the kazoo (\u201ci know that i don\u2019t know.\u201d) A clacking typewriter might be the sole instrument (\u201ci came to the poem\u201d). Backbeats thunder in, then sputter out. That anything-goes feeling is amplified by monet\u2019s wayward metaphors. \u201cThe carnival of flowers sprouting from closed fists\/Earth-skinned\/The perfume of stones kissin\u2019 cuss words\/The rhythm, echo, and reverb, riffin\u2019,\u201d she intones on \u201celsewhere,\u201d capturing the adventurous, free-wheeling mood.<\/p>\n

Her writing is grounded and mystic, often zeroing in on common images and injecting them with wonder. Sharing a room with loved ones makes her feel like \u201cthe color of rain.\u201d A miracle is \u201ca muscle we practice.\u201d Silence among lovers is \u201ca garden of breath.\u201d Black skin, the subject of the soothing \u201cskinfolk,\u201d is \u201cThe color of Garvey\u2019s Star Line\/Or Nina\u2019s fearless freedom\/A sheet of obsidian silk\/Moonbeams hollering.\u201d And impressively the lyrics are just half the story. The engine of the record, the chest if you will, is monet\u2019s expanded vocal repertoire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSay it with your chest,\u201d aja monet commands in the opening seconds of the color of rain. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[342,49,48,75,341,343],"class_list":["post-694673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}