Please discuss the album and tracks from the album on this thread. Thank you

[Thread salvaged from vicious troll - luv4u]

[Asking for .... in any variation .... eg, send via orgnotes, *coughing*, I have not heard it yet, etc., will warrent a temp ban which we will hand out gladly with the swiftness. You have been warned - luv4u]

After back-to-back-to-back plays, I unreservedly LOVE this album! IMO, as a cohesive artistic statement this is Prince's strongest album in two decades. From here on out when I discuss Prince's best records, I will be including AOA in the list. What a thrill to have Prince release such a brilliant set at this point in his career.

.

I've been sitting here for a few minutes trying to choose my 3 favorite tracks but I can't narrow it down. The quality from top to bottom is just too high for me to pick right now. The one thing I do know is The Gold Standard is probably my favorite Prince song that wasn't released in the 80s.

[Edited 9/25/14 0:00am]

ART OFFICIAL CAGE

Not really feeling this. Its ok i guess
The Tony M rap midway was a total surprise

THE GOLD STANDARD

Upon listening to the 30 sec clip i was a bit disappointed.. This is the song every one was hyping?!
The clip doesn't do it justice This is funky!

Reminiscent of 80's style. The keys, chicken scratch guitar The Jamie Star 'esk talking near the end of the song
Love it!

THIS COULD BE US

I like it, Pretty much what i expected from the clip
"You know you want me like a new pair of shoes"

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE
Undesided yet.. Musically It reminds me of Come On the late night remix

WAY BACK HOME

Cool song, I like it better than Time
The line "all i ever wanted, to be left alone" sounds a bit deep

TIME

I like the bass, its a bit long, i expected more of a pay off

affirmation III
An instrumental continuation of Way Back Home

[Edited 9/25/14 0:22am]

Okay, just listening to it for the 2nd time now and the last 30-45 seconds of The Gold Standard are something we haven't heard from Prince in a while, him just having some fun! This cd is definitely the most different I have heard from him in a long while. The music on Time is outstanding, plus Andy Allo?!?!? Just awesome. Finally we get something from Prince that sounds interesting. Not everything is brilliant but it is not Prince by the numbers. How can a man 56 years old keep coming up with great songs?

Stand Outs:

The Gold Standard

This Could Be Us

Way Back Home

The Breakdown

Time

You may not love this but you won't be dissapointed. This is not MPLS Sound 2!!(I hated that cd by the way)

livewire said:

After back-to-back-to-back plays, I unreservedly LOVE this album! IMO, as a cohesive artistic statement this is Prince's strongest album in two decades. From here on out when I mention Prince's classic records in conversation, I will mentally be including AOA in the list. What a thrill to have Prince release such a brilliant set at this point in his career.

I actually concur at this point. I've been at least a little disappointed with every release since NPS. There have been a couple of greats and a bunch of junk, more often than not (except Planet Earth which was all junk). Rainbow Children, Musicology, 3121 and MPLSound have been the four with maybe more good than bad in the last decade.

This album skews the other way: it's more good than bad and I got a few of those goosebump-inducing "Prince is a fucking genius" moments that I've been missing. Note: every song (on every album) is a work of art as far as arrangement goes and if listened to on a good system. Always lots going on.

It seems to me that he got too confident in his ability to improvise a song in the studio, then arrange and produce/mix it on the fly and have it be something rad and special. He USED to be able to do that. He needs to take a little more time to pick the gems, nowadays. I think there was actually some inspiration to this record and he took the time.

I also think he needs inspiration from others. He's like the musical Doctor Who. In the world of Time Lords he'd be The Artist . If he travels alone for too long things start to unravel. Give him some good folks to try to impress/bounce things off of and watch the magic unfold...

All I can say is Gold Standard, Way Back Home, And Time are "crazy amazing."

PopcornFetus said:

I got a few of those goosebump-inducing "Prince is a fucking genius" moments that I've been missing.

Somewhere in a previous thread someone said they got goosebumps upon listening, I litteraly rolled my eyes at the comment
And what do you know, i got goosebumps too

Typo fix

[Edited 9/25/14 0:18am]

How are you all managing to hear it? Im still 5 long days away from getting my hands on it. I would love to get my hands on it for the weekend, but I see no leaks anywhere I look.

Rebeljuice said:

How are you all managing to hear it? Im still 5 long days away from getting my hands on it. I would love to get my hands on it for the weekend, but I see no leaks anywhere I look.

All I want to say now: That last segment in "Time"...

I like the sound on the album, and I like most of the songs, a rather high score from me,


Art Official Age.. gets a 8 or 9 out of 10.

The only song I don't like is FunkNRoll.

The Gold Standard is pure Prince-dope.

And Clouds, Breakfast, U Know, This Could Be Us =

Are u also hearing Bass-Ida (I guess its her), speaking DANISH at the beginning..?

"Mine damer og herrer, konger og dronninger og alt det midt imellem, velkommen til timen, I skal til at gøre noget der vil forandre jeres liv for evigt - åben det her bur".

as a dane that's a HUGE surprise.... to hear that.


"Ladies and gentlemen, kings and queens and everything in between, welcome to this hour, you are about to do something that will change your life forever - open this cage."

[Edited 9/25/14 0:53am]

How come some of you got the whole thing while I do not see any leak out there in the usual places?!

thedance said:

Are u also hearing Bass-Ida (I guess its her), speaking DANISH at the beginning..?

"Mine damer og herrer, konger og dronninger og alt det midt imellem, velkommen til timen, I skal til at gøre noget der vil forandre jeres liv for evigt - åben det her bur".

as a dane that's a HUGE surprise.... to hear that.


"Ladies and gentlemen, kings and queens and everything in between, welcome to this hour, you are about to do something that will change your life forever - open this cage."

A small correction to the translation:

"Ladies and gentlemen, kings and queens and everything in between, welcome to the class, you are about to do something that will change your life forever - open this cage."

the class: (in danish velkommen til "timen"),

- like you are being in school - going to learn something..

Langebleu, you got too busy locking, many of us stll have only the snippets, we're :

- not able to review the whole albums;

- can't have threads on songs that were released;

- hate everyone that got it early at least from now to Tuesday.

We have the spend the 5 days before Princemas talking about how some copies of the Paisley Park single actually contain Raspberry Beret? Cruel and unusual punishment! By the way, this AOA thread will be one of the longest, most annoying to navigate of the Org's history, like reading the merged diaries of all the schoolgirls of a large high school.

Scroogey Mod! Well at least you broke the world record in locking.

[Edited 9/25/14 1:56am]

I'm very confused by the coughing. Are the coughers saying it has leaked and they have it, or saying that they want it?

I can't find it anywhere, dont want to wait until Monday!

Why only one thread per album? Wouldn't make more sense to have at least one separate thread for the reviews? And what about people who want to discuss one specific song? This is going to become a complete mess, reaching 10 pages by the end of the day and making it virtually impossible to make sense of it!

[Snip - luv4u]

TheEnglishGent said:

littlebandit said:

[Snip - luv4u]

Fair enough. Glad you can wait. Best album since For You.

It's very very good. Jesus, I'm really taken aback by how good it is.

[Snip - luv4u]

I think I am going to hold off and wait until it is officially out... If I can muster the patience. It is taking it's toll reading the reviews from those who have heard it all, I must admit. The new Lenny album and reggae for the 5 next days and then..

way back home...what a track...goosebumps all over the place...he still has it...only in some doses..but my god this is brilliant...the gold standard and time are superb as well..

Hurrrahhhhhh.

I can't get past the gold stnadard. That's not happened for a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time

Outstanding album! Prince hasnt been this cohesive since TRC and, most importantly, it sounds fresh as if he has a new lease on life. If this is a new direction, then I like it. If its a one off, then he should reconsider and see where this takes him.

I could still do without BCW and the Breakdown. I never really liked those tunes.

Art Official Cage is a WTF moment. Part cheesy dance, part madness and part Prince. A good opener.

Clouds is the same as the prerelease. I like it and the chick in the middle section of the song now makes sense in terms of the whole album.
Breakdown is still pretty dull to me. Im not sure it really fits and could do with some more studio trickery to place it better.

The Gold Standard is pure gold. Welcome back Bob George. Love this tune!

U Know, well, you know...

Breakfast Can Wait is not a song I particularly like. Could have done with a high tempo song here.

This Could Be Us is an ok ballad. Will take a few listens to get this one I think. But I reckon its his best effort in terms of vocal layering since Adore! Dont think the song will ever be quite that good though.
What it feels like is a brilliant mid tempo tune with a great deep base line and also starts the best half of the album for me. The production and feel of the album takes a step up from this point on.

Affirmation I & II bring some atmosphere to the whole thing. Not sure where II is though.

Way Back Home has a driving march of a beat but remains quite mellow and atmospheric. Certainly not something we have heard from Prince before. Really like this one.

FunkNRoll is still awesome despite having over played it recently. Love this song.

Time is just too good to explain properly. Strong slow beat, minimal sonically with nice strings and funky slap base. This is my favourite song on the album.

Affirmation III, well, again nothing we have ever heard from Prince before. I think this is an extension of Way Back Home. Lots of strings and pads. Great way to end the experience.

Brilliant album. This is what I had almost given up on hearing - a return to creative form. There are enough nods to the old school but mainly it is Prince moving forward. I hope he continues.

Now need to track down the PE leak

TheEnglishGent said:

The only thing I don't get on the entire album is the first half of the opening track. Art official Cage sounds like 90's euro club music. Very odd and dated, it even has a whistle blow. Thought it was someone having a laugh first listen.

The rest of the album is pretty great.

Rebeljuice said:

Outstanding album! Prince hasnt been this cohesive since TRC and, most importantly, it sounds fresh as if he has a new lease on life. If this is a new direction, then I like it. If its a one off, then he should reconsider and see where this takes him.

I could still do without BCW and the Breakdown. I never really liked those tunes.

Art Official Cage is a WTF moment. Part cheesy dance, part madness and part Prince. A good opener.

Clouds is the same as the prerelease. I like it and the chick in the middle section of the song now makes sense in terms of the whole album.
Breakdown is still pretty dull to me. Im not sure it really fits and could do with some more studio trickery to place it better.

The Gold Standard is pure gold. Welcome back Bob George. Love this tune!

U Know, well, you know...

Breakfast Can Wait is not a song I particularly like. Could have done with a high tempo song here.

This Could Be Us is an ok ballad. Will take a few listens to get this one I think. But I reckon its his best effort in terms of vocal layering since Adore! Dont think the song will ever be quite that good though.
What it feels like is a brilliant mid tempo tune with a great deep base line and also starts the best half of the album for me. The production and feel of the album takes a step up from this point on.

Affirmation I & II bring some atmosphere to the whole thing. Not sure where II is though.

Way Back Home has a driving march of a beat but remains quite mellow and atmospheric. Certainly not something we have heard from Prince before. Really like this one.

FunkNRoll is still awesome despite having over played it recently. Love this song.

Time is just too good to explain properly. Strong slow beat, minimal sonically with nice strings and funky slap base. This is my favourite song on the album.

Affirmation III, well, again nothing we have ever heard from Prince before. I think this is an extension of Way Back Home. Lots of strings and pads. Great way to end the experience.

Brilliant album. This is what I had almost given up on hearing - a return to creative form. There are enough nods to the old school but mainly it is Prince moving forward. I hope he continues.

Now need to track down the PE leak

Great review!

Still trying to track down the albums online

::cough:: ::cough:: my throat is so sore