Janelle Monáe recently told Zane Lowe at Beats 1 that her forthcoming album, Dirty Computer, will be “extremely vulnerable.” So far, the route Monáe has chosen to take equates vulnerability with boldness. The artwork for her new single, “PYNK,” features Monáe in Bowie-style wide-brimmed trousers shaped like a vagina; its video is a multisensory, radical journey into a new dimension of queer sexuality. In these visions, the governing symbols aren’t phallic, as usual, but shaped like the female reproductive system, where life always begins. With that, “PYNK” heralds a new start for Monáe’s musical journey, using a color synonymous with girlishness to discuss the future of gender.

The song is a collaboration between two excellent women, reuniting Monáe with Grimes. The two previously met on Grimes' “Venus Fly,” and here Grimes’ head spinning, bubblegum pop aesthetic influences producer Wynne Bennett’s spacious R&B beat. There are still the Prince-ly guitar riffs and funky rhythms of Monáe’s past hits, but the track’s most pleasurable moments are accompanied by Grimes’ gentle digital bleeps, understated finger snaps, and a plush, fluttering vocal line from Monáe. When the two come together on the chorus to exclaim, “We got the pink!” it feels both punk and psychedelic, like a cross between the Go-Gos and George Clinton. As an expression of unity and an appeal to see people beyond gender, the song’s genre-bending sonics and the video’s femme-dominated utopia underscore Monáe’s long-held desires for a more fluid society. Flirty and delicate, wishful and raw, “PYNK” finds Monáe building a future worth believing in.

Correction: An earlier version of this review mistakenly credited Nate Wonders and Chuck Lightning as the producers of “PYNK.” This article has been updated to reflect that Wynne Bennett is the producer of the song.