Review: 'A Song For Cindi'

Here is a fantastic song, not just a remix of Janelle Monae's Neon Valley Street but the required response to it. (Aside: if you haven't heard Janelle Monae then you need to drop everything that you are doing RIGHT NOW and buy your copy of the Archandroid here)

Now, by the looks of his webpage's opening video, Stef is a backslidden Christian who needs to learn the obvious lesson of Amy Winehouse's tragic demise and STOP TAKING DRUGS. They're bad for you.

But that doesn't change the fact that in this particular song he has written a pretty poem which acts as the perfect counterweight to the unrequited love ("For now, I'll pretend//I'm holding your hand") of Miss Monae's original song. And dare I say it, if there were to be a rap contest between him and Big Boi, then my vote would go with our man here in this corner -- at least on the strength of this song and the weakness of the alleged's Big Boi underwhelming interlude in the otherwise impeccable Tightrope.

Final rating, then, 4 STARS OUT OF 5.

Why not five? Because for all the track's sweetness ("They'll never make another like her in the factory//So i'm hopin' and prayin' maybe someday she'll come back to me//So till she returns and we get to actually speak//I'll replay that day that we met on Neon Valley Street") there is here a significant mistake. Anthony Greendown, the object of Cindi Mayweather's affection, as declared in the opening track of Metropolis: the Chase Suite (Ms. Monae's first release) is most definitely a human. And the narrator of this fine track is apparently not.

So we're pedants. Shoot us.

And enjoy the track.



Soulful, soulful...

(May the song reach your heart...)

I saw this beautiful robot
At the metropolis.
She's got my wires on fire
Nothing's stopping this
She wore a crown
And it wasn't to be trendy
I asked her her name
And she told me it was Cindi

She's a queen
I wanna make her my girl
But she jus kept telling me
She had to save the world
I asked why
And she said that we were slaves
Simply androids living our lives in a daze
She said the great divide
told everybody a lie
She had arrived
To come and open up our eyes
Open up our eyes
But what do we need to see?
That the power resides
In you and me

What?

Now may the song journey on
Until it touches your control
Hope you realise your destiny
Begin to take control
Cuz what energy you're given
Is given not to be sold
Hope you're on the right side to fight
The war is cold

It's so cold
So be sure to get your heaters up
Cuz the time's tickin and be sure to get your metres up
They beat us up and chain our minds with ignorance
We're just machines waiting for scheduled maintenance

Cindi Mayweather you're the queen,
Be forever mine
The archandroid i met you, it was after nine

She came to save Metropolis and bring the better times
The crown's hers, look how she [..?*?..] shine
They'll never make another like her in the factory
So i'm hopin' and prayin' maybe someday she'll come back to me

Till she returns and we get to actually speak
Replay that day that we met on Neon Valley Street
_____________________________
* If anyone can interpret the blank in the lyrics, then please tell me what Stef is trying to say here.