Rebeljuice said:

I dont know how much of an influence Josh has had on AOA, but I suspect more than I think. And it is certainly a good thing. People are dissing Josh and saying Prince should work with established producers but I disagree.

Josh as a solo artist is ok. Nothing outstanding. He was middle of the road and couldnt really write a good song.

Prince has needed to update the production on his work. His production has been outdated and bland for quite a while. But he can still write a killer song.

These two worlds have collided. Prince has brought out the best in Josh and taught him many things. He has written some great songs and Josh has put his stamp on them. And whilst Josh's solo stuff may have been somewhat bland, with Prince "tutoring" him, he has managed to capture Prince's sound and take it to a level he could not have done before.

I think its a great combination. 2 people learning from each other and coming up with something new. People say AOA is an RnB album, but I dont hear that. I hear a Prince album with a new soundscape. It sounds like music which is being experimented with and I think, if there is to be another album, we will see how that experiment has advanced. AOA was dipping the toes in the water. Hopefully we will see a lot more daring in the future.

Prince with an established producer would be a train wreck from the get go. Egos would collide.

Nah... Prince isn't learning from Josh. Prince isn't teaching Josh. Y'all need to come off that cornball stuff. Paisley Park is a business, not a school for budding musicians. They aren't exactly collaborating either. Here is what it sounds like to me, just from listening to the tracks. Prince listens through Josh's various beats, finds something that inspires him and then adds parts to it however he damn well chooses. In some cases throwing a curveball and rebelling against the track completely. Then Josh is free to tweak what Prince added and then Prince hears that and declares some of those tweaks to be new songs entirely.

I'm sure Prince is having a lot of fun playing with the new toys, but in the end he didn't get all the guidance he needed to bust him out of his writing malaise. He makes many of the exact same writing turn-offs on the Josh produced material, that he made on his own material of the last 20 years or so. Someone more experienced, would hopefully be able to catch that and gently coach/guide him away from it. I hear bad lyrics, bad recording and other things that should never make it to the point of release. I want a more complete album from Prince.

To me 20Ten/MPLSound was rock bottom, AOA is 30/70 bad, PE is 60/40 good. With a more seasoned pro, 100/100 good could happen. Prince is still the most talened artist in music, but he's never going to return to making music the world actually likes and embraces until he can work out some of the kinks in his writing. There is an extremely cool message in the concept of AOA, but it isn't fleshed out and properly realized. Perhaps they lost it in all the editing. Either way, what good is getting an outside producer if, Josh didn't help him with any of that.

BTW Prince is doing the same thing with his guitarist's tracks too, I just forget her name.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

dandan said:

Just hearing Prince working with a producer is great. Josh is definitely not the best however, so I can only imagine what Prince would sound like with a worldclass producer.

New producers have to start somewhere! is the BEST teacher ALIVE! Pharrell isn't the only producer. Plus his songs don't have any longevity. Whose going 2 b playing "Gust of Wind" in the year 3000 .

Nobody. Never mind 3000. With Ebola, we'll all be lucky to be alive and see the end of 2017. Prince will be ok, safe and sound, sat in his vault wondering why sales aint what they used to be.

[Edited 10/15/14 16:33pm]

jobyjayy said:

Askani said:

Don't really care one way or another.

He's had other producers with him in the past that either got (or should have gotten) a co-producer credit, who basically came in and "finished" songs for him. And in some cases put them together from some very rudimentary tapes. Notably, W&L, Levi, Ricky Peterson, Kirky J, etc.

There doesn't seem to be any different.

Speaking of Ricky Peterson, he produced and mixed The most beautiful girl in the World and it sounds amazing compared to anything Prince has recorded in last 20 plus years. Don't believe me? Go listen to it right now!

Isnt that JUST the single version... not the one on the album?

I like the product more than I like most of the music on AOA.

I seriously do not like about half of the songs. The strength

of the album is the sequencing and the overall tone of

the work as a whole. The sum of is parts are truly stronger

than the individual parts on this album. There are 3 standout

tracks, and for once, we have an album that benefits from

the entire work as a whole--this hasn't happened on a Prince

track since LoveSexy (I love that album but dislike several songs).

So, if Josh had anything to do with it, I applaud him. And, I

applaud Prince for taking a chance in that respect.