NDRU said:

I'm sure I am not the first to observe that Plectrum Electrum sounds like The Ocean, and that Pretzylbodylogic sounds like Iron Man?

When I first heard the opening chords of Plectrum at a live P & 3EG gig I thought it was Led Zeppelin's The Ocean... I was also reminded of Iron Man with Pretzel--glad I'm not the only one who thought so.

Having listened to the whole album 3.5 times, I can say it has grown on me more, but I still like AOA more, overall this is a Good album and it has some great songs on it.

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WOW - I really like, introduces the group and the musical sound - guitar heavy chanting, democratic vocal chores and live party feel. I love the sweeping guitar feel at the start which for some reason evokes memories of the opening scenes of Under The Cherry Moon?

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PRETZELBODYLOGIC - A definitely more polished version and clearer sound of this fairly good chant. The hooks are mesmerizing and instantly memorable lyrics. Not sure what the song is actually about, being on each others tongue or playing blistering guitar driven rock with some hot white girls. Anyway its fun!!! But I like the rawer version of that appeared on several leaks last year.

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AINTTURNINROUND - More bizarre song title, this is some solid rock guitar soloing and again more weird lyrics here. There has not been this much rock in a Prince album since Chaos and Disorder. Its nice and polished, but there has been better. I see this being a skipper in years to come. The Lotusflow3r like sample cut at end is quite amusing too.

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PLECTRUM ELECTRUM - Quite a nice piece of Hendrix like guitar soloing, it proves all along that at the heart of things, Prince is still the big bad axe man, but here Hannah, Donna and Ida are playing along. Donna is bashing the shit out of those drums and cute rhythm guitar solos are great too. I actually like this instrumental as I feel the music is carrying you.

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WHITECAPS - This is brilliant and a great slow down from the guitar driven freneticism of the first 3rd of the album. The lyrics are believable and instantly evoke images of a lonely person sitting by the sea on some rocks watching white capped waves hit those rocks. Harmonies are nice and Prince's backing vocals to Hannah's (I think it is) just add more cream. Just a beautiful piece of music.

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FIXURLIFEUP - Another favourite, a great message song with driving guitars and Prince delivers some frantic vocals. Nice stuff and again the drums set it off.

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BOYTROUBLE - Just not feeling this, it feels like filler and a bit plastic compared to the rest. It could have bot been here and the superior Screwdriver added instead. Not feeling it. Silly chants make it feel more like Lady Gaga meets Gwen stefani rather than anything in the Prince.

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STOPTHISTRAIN - This again is not the strongest track, but the melody of it is addiqtive, there is something about that bass lick that grabs me and makes this track instantly memorable and then Prince croons along. This is not Grade A, but its definitely a strong grade B track. I can actually see the teenage wasteland that listens to chart music dig this.

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ANOTHERLOVE - This is more Prince rock and I just don't really get it that much. Its alright, but becomes a bit forgettable, I find the 2nd half of the album less satisfying than the start.

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TICTACTOE - Like Stopthistrain, this is another naggy hook laden pop song. I like the vocal harmonies and some nice strings/keys, but yes this is pretty sugary stuff here.

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MARZ - Another funny track, some angry lyrics served up with a frantic feel and again like Anotherlove, more a Prince solo joint rather than the 3rd eye girls. Its quite good.

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FUNKNROLL - I really like this version except for the extra samples, do we really need that fake clapping at the end, it sounds like he's playing a scout hall (The clapping and talking is similar to "I can't get next to you" a 1969 smash hit for the Temptations. It works much better there. The vocals are strong and I like the drums.

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OVERALL - I like the fact, this feels like a band album and a rock band, but 2 o 3 of the songs are pretty fillery (Tracks, 3, 7, 9) and the rest is great. I would have loved to have Screwdriver, Fall in Love 2nite and Ain't gonna miss u in those slots instead. Also it becomes more a solo joint at the end (Not that it is bad). Still this is the closest Prince has come to a true "I am just one of the band members sound". The joy is that here is a successful marriage of a Black male funk musician with a White female rock group and from that perspective, this is a killer from start to finish.

I AM LOVING THIS ALBUM TOO!. Yes some of it is quite 'disney fied/ high school musical' BUT it's fun, hard rockin' & mostly cut live whihc is the main thing for me.

this album is very bad .. AOA had some good moments .. this one only has one good moment .. another love .. and whitecaps is a blatent rip off of Wooden Ships by CSN .. stop that train is ok in a place in heaven kind of way .. otherwise if u are thinking of getting this record .. don't .. I wonder if it is even live like prince says .. I have a hard time believing hannah is singing while playing drums .. so many bad lyrics on this record .. its like an 8 year old girl wrote these songs ..

[Edited 9/27/14 7:20am]

Adorecream said:

TrevorAyer said:

this album is very bad .. AOA had some good moments .. this one only has one good moment .. another love .. and whitecaps is a blatent rip off of Wooden Ships by CSN .. stop that train is ok in a place in heaven kind of way .. otherwise if u are thinking of getting this record .. don't .. I wonder if it is even live like prince says .. I have a hard time believing hannah is singing while playing drums .. so many bad lyrics on this record .. its like an 8 year old girl wrote these songs ..

[Edited 9/27/14 7:20am]

not hearing it dude. I can see some similarity if you're looking for it, but a blatent rip? psh.

thisisreece said:

Anyone else get major 'Debra' (which in itself, is Beck doing Prince) vibes during the spoken segments of 'Wow'?

[Edited 9/26/14 3:00am]

Hah, yeah.

am I in the freakin' twilight zone. I received the warner package today for plectrum spectrum and there were no cd's in it. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?

TrevorAyer said:

I wonder if it is even live like prince says .. I have a hard time believing hannah is singing while playing drums .. so many bad lyrics on this record .. its like an 8 year old girl wrote these songs ..

[Edited 9/27/14 7:20am]

There's no way the vocals are live, and there are clearly overdubs.

I agree the lyrics on this album are not as polished as AOA

mkaye8 said:

CarrieMpls said:

udo said:

Pardon my ignorance, but WHO are Lizzo and Eris?

Why would P work with these individuals?

They are Mpls local up-and-coming artists. Lizzo especially is ALL OVER the place here. Sophia Eris is one of her partners in crime, they work together a lot. Here's a coupke of fun links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFeSQJJQyjE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQaRQe86suA

I saw Har Mar Superstar in Nottingham UK last year and Lizzo & Eris were his support act. It was the first time I'd heard of them but they plenty of energy and a good live set.

Now a Prince & Har Mar collaboration might be fun

Some excellent tracks towards the end of the album. "Anotherlove" gets the rock cover thing right almost two decades after "One Of Us". I quite like "TicTacToe" because it really does have a nice "afterparty" vibe (it was apparently recorded late at night at Bryan Ferry's house). The version of "Funknroll" on this album is a masterpiece, I think. I loved the version with compromised sound quality they gave us earlier and it's nice to have it finally as a "hires" version.

I'll still have to give the record a few more spins. I'm not so sure about Hannah's "punky" singing on "Aintturninround", but there are no greater offenses on the record (can't say the same about some of the bullshit on AOA, although it's probably still the more appealing record due to just having "more Prince" on it).

The sound quality of the album seems higher than AOA, which is probably "optimized" for radio, ipod's etc. I'm not so sure if having this much dynamic range and clarity always benefits rock music, as sometimes a flatter, grainier overall sound just works better. It does sound nice, regardless. Ida's bass playing is rather nice too, like someone else noted.

[edit - "fucnkroll" to "Funknroll" ]

[Edited 9/28/14 1:59am]

TrevorAyer said:

this album is very bad .. AOA had some good moments .. this one only has one good moment .. another love .. and whitecaps is a blatent rip off of Wooden Ships by CSN .. stop that train is ok in a place in heaven kind of way .. otherwise if u are thinking of getting this record .. don't .. I wonder if it is even live like prince says .. I have a hard time believing hannah is singing while playing drums .. so many bad lyrics on this record .. its like an 8 year old girl wrote these songs ..

[Edited 9/27/14 7:20am]

I don't think Prince said the album was live? 3rdeyegirl said that what they recorded is what you hear on the album. Everything was recorded in a take. - paraphrasing. It's not the raw album that many of the studio rehearsal mp3s may have implied.

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I've slated Prince for some of his lyrics over the past 10 years or so. But I don't think the lyrics here are especially bad. There are a few clunky lines but for the most part I think they're ok here. I think some of the songs are intentionally simplistic sounding to evoke some of the Revolution/Wendy and Lisa songs like the one you mentioned.

TwiliteKid said:

Adorecream said:

PRETZELBODYLOGIC - A definitely more polished version and clearer sound of this fairly good chant. The hooks are mesmerizing and instantly memorable lyrics. Not sure what the song is actually about, being on each others tongue or playing blistering guitar driven rock with some hot white girls. Anyway its fun!!! But I like the rawer version of that appeared on several leaks last year.

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Pardon? This is the exact same recording that was released back in February, and there were no leaks prior to that. What are you talking about?

[Edited 9/27/14 10:21am]

As in the past year - 2014. I have heard most of these songs long before the albums came out and a version I have is a lot rawer than this one.

Not a bad album at all. Whitecaps is my joint. Pretzel ain't that bad...like the 'limo on the tarmac, ready to ride' yell. Plectrum is good; you sure as heaven can tell when Prince gets on the track(his guitar is turned up all the way to 10)! Fixurlifeup...I already liked!

Another Love sounds nothing like the original Alice Smith tune, which is good.

I like AOA better, but I'm glad I got 2 Prince albums, at least.

NDRU said:

TrevorAyer said:

I wonder if it is even live like prince says .. I have a hard time believing hannah is singing while playing drums .. so many bad lyrics on this record .. its like an 8 year old girl wrote these songs ..

[Edited 9/27/14 7:20am]

There's no way the vocals are live, and there are clearly overdubs.

I agree the lyrics on this album are not as polished as AOA

I'd always assumed the references to being "live" meant that the band played the basic tracks together, rather than isolated, and then vocals (at the very least) and other overdubs followed. But that the core had come from a group recording as a group. Which is certainly unusual enough in Prince's history (or in the industry at all anymore, as far as my limited understanding goes). That doesn't mean that I necessarily believe that's how all these tracks came about, anyway--but obviously they aren't "all live all together."

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There's no way that Prince would ever have done more than a track or two (if any) without overdubbing. Or at least, I never expected it.

Adorecream said:

TwiliteKid said:

Adorecream said: Pardon? This is the exact same recording that was released back in February, and there were no leaks prior to that. What are you talking about?

[Edited 9/27/14 10:21am]

As in the past year - 2014. I have heard most of these songs long before the albums came out and a version I have is a lot rawer than this one.

I call bullshit. We *all* have heard most of these songs long before the albums came out, so you're not unique in that regard. Nevertheless, the version of PBL that was release back in February is exactly the same as the one on the album, without any differences whatsoever. There is a bootleg out there of a PBL remix played over the PA before a concert, and perhaps that's what you're talking about (?) although it would be bizarre to describe that remix as "raw."

Okay, got it today and listened to it once and I have to say that I am not impressed. It might get better after repeated listens, I am not sure.

Boytrouble is the worst song I have heard from Prince in a long time. There are a few nice moments on this cd like: Wow, Pretzelbodylogic, Plectrumelectrum, Anotherlove, but most of the songs are either boring or go nowhere. I am very happy that we have AOA as well otherwise this would be very dissapointing.

Now these are some great tracks, Carrie! Will be checking out Lizzos other works!

Thx 4 posting!

kindofblue

CarrieMpls said:

udo said:

Pardon my ignorance, but WHO are Lizzo and Eris?

Why would P work with these individuals?

They are Mpls local up-and-coming artists. Lizzo especially is ALL OVER the place here. Sophia Eris is one of her partners in crime, they work together a lot. Here's a coupke of fun links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFeSQJJQyjE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQaRQe86suA

theblueangel said:

Adorecream said:

As in the past year - 2014. I have heard most of these songs long before the albums came out and a version I have is a lot rawer than this one.

I call bullshit. We *all* have heard most of these songs long before the albums came out, so you're not unique in that regard. Nevertheless, the version of PBL that was release back in February is exactly the same as the one on the album, without any differences whatsoever. There is a bootleg out there of a PBL remix played over the PA before a concert, and perhaps that's what you're talking about (?) although it would be bizarre to describe that remix as "raw."

Bullshit or just confused -- either way, he's wrong!

MIRvmn said:

NouveauDance said:

This album is great. It's another Lotusflow3r/MPLSound situation for me. Two albums at the same time, one great one sucks. And again it's the rockier one that wins and the mid-tempo R&B ballad heavy one that falls flat on it's face.

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I immediately want to put it on repeat - Wow, White Caps, Anotherlove, Boy Trouble are all great. I missed a few tracks by doing stuff in another room, but just from what I've heard so far THIS is the new Prince album.

I'm feeling the comparison except I think the rock album is decent and not great. I like the first four tracks on the album and also "Fixurelifeup" but the entire album has too much of a "garage" rock type feel for my taste. I can at least sit through the songs on this one as opposed to the other album which I have to turn off after the first few seconds of each song when I start tasting vomit in my throat from hearing that shit hop vibe. I find myself trying to like the rock one so I won't be totally left empty handed but I'm just simply finding it decent.

I think "Pretzelbodylogic" works really well on the album right after "Wow". It's hardly his best song, but I like the flow from the first track to the second.

Nothing prepared me for Hannah's "I don't care" vocals on "Aintturninround" though.

a much BETTER album than Art Official CRAP

better production here (organic rock + electronic elements), this album sounds like a BAND album, the female voices are a plus, the album has less filler, is more energetic and it actually provides some FUN, unlike it's companion solo album...

it's certainly no masterpiece, and it's certainly worse than Musicology, 3121 and 20Ten, but it's (overall) funnier than Lotus and stronger than Planet Earth, and of course BETTER than Art Official Crap and MPLShit

The non-skippers:

"Wow"

"Plectrum Electrum"

"Boy Trouble"

"Funknroll"

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"Wow" should be the single!

Prost!

anyway, why does he KEEP scaring potential customers off with those hideous-amateurish front covers?

jeez, his last decent front cover was 3121...

EddieC said:

NDRU said:

There's no way the vocals are live, and there are clearly overdubs.

I agree the lyrics on this album are not as polished as AOA

I'd always assumed the references to being "live" meant that the band played the basic tracks together, rather than isolated, and then vocals (at the very least) and other overdubs followed. But that the core had come from a group recording as a group. Which is certainly unusual enough in Prince's history (or in the industry at all anymore, as far as my limited understanding goes). That doesn't mean that I necessarily believe that's how all these tracks came about, anyway--but obviously they aren't "all live all together."

.

There's no way that Prince would ever have done more than a track or two (if any) without overdubbing. Or at least, I never expected it.

Yes, I suspect you're right. That might be unusual for Prince, but I don't think it's too unusual for rock bands to record like that. It definitely helps give it a live feel, but no, they're not going to capture usable vocals that way