funksterr said:

paulludvig said:

You don't know that because you don't really know what Josh' contributions are.

We don't know precisely everything he did, but you can hear elements that are clearly Prince and you can hear things that are definitely not Prince. Especially some modern influences that there is no way in hell, Prince added. I think Josh makes tracks, Prince adds lyrics/bass/guitar and molds them into what he likes, Josh polishes and finishes them off, and Prince has final approval. Josh isn't playing anything close to a minor role on AOA. The tracks people are raving the most about, I suspect are either completely Josh or 80/20 Josh. I'm cool with it because those tracks sound great, I just wish the lyrics were better.

Speculation. And 80/20? How do you come up with does numbers? Take WBH, which many people believe Josh contributed to. There is a rythm track based on a sonogram. Prince has done this before. There a figure played on keyboard repeated throughout the song. This could have been added by anybody. A kick drum. Again it's hard to say who added that. Some schmaltzy keyboard chords here and there. Sounds like Josh to me. And then the vocals, lead and background. You don't think Prince wrote the actual song? Melody and words.

And then there is U Know. The backing track is a sample. The words and melody are probably by Prince, don't you think?

paulludvig said:

funksterr said:

We don't know precisely everything he did, but you can hear elements that are clearly Prince and you can hear things that are definitely not Prince. Especially some modern influences that there is no way in hell, Prince added. I think Josh makes tracks, Prince adds lyrics/bass/guitar and molds them into what he likes, Josh polishes and finishes them off, and Prince has final approval. Josh isn't playing anything close to a minor role on AOA. The tracks people are raving the most about, I suspect are either completely Josh or 80/20 Josh. I'm cool with it because those tracks sound great, I just wish the lyrics were better.

Speculation. And 80/20? How do you come up with does numbers? Take WBH, which many people believe Josh contributed to. There is a rythm track based on a sonogram. Prince has done this before. There a figure played on keyboard repeated throughout the song. This could have been added by anybody. A kick drum. Again it's hard to say who added that. Some schmaltzy keyboard chords here and there. Sounds like Josh to me. And then the vocals, lead and background. You don't think Prince wrote the actual song? Melody and words.

And then there is U Know. The backing track is a sample. The words and melody are probably by Prince, don't you think?

Probably so. Prince is at least co-writer of the lyrics. But I think Josh played a large role in that track, because the rhythm of the lead vocal is brand new for Prince. I think Josh made the basic track, Prince added some synth embellishments and they probably came up with the vocal parts together.

Anything on AOA that is keydoard-based programming or sampling is more than likely Josh. The thick harmonizing on lead vocals? Probably Josh. From a production standpoint there are a ton of things that Prince has never done in 30 years of recording, so more than likely Josh added it. And it sounds good too. Only thing, I hear is that they didn't quite finish the records' theme and that there are a lot of songs that I can't relate to or understand lyricaly.

novabrkr said:

Of course, there's no way to be sure about what Josh has done, but if you have some experience in music production yourself, and know your Prince records inside-out, you should be able to hear rather easily two very different approaches used alongside each other. I don't think they work together perfectly, although the end result could have been way worse too. Many things just stick out from the mixes and they have a very different quality to what's previously heard previously on Prince records (Prince has had his own mannerisms for using electronic instrumentation for ages). It's easier to make those distinctions also because there are quite a few earlier tracks on the album that most likely don't have Josh on them (or he's just done some additional mixing stuff and added a few FX type of sounds).

[Edited 11/6/14 23:58pm]

Did you see the video Hannah posted of Josh playing Piano (slash doing his best Prince impersonation?)

I do wonder if some of the things we the fans might view as typical Prince were Josh playing like Prince - it's unclear but a possibility imo.

Josh will most definitely be taking home a Grammy next year! For his outstanding producing contribution 4 the grammy 4 best RnB album A.O.A.

I honestly don't get why this is such an issue to some people. So what if Prince has a new band? They deserve to be credited if they are putting in the work.

Not like he is crediting bad people or people completely uninvolved with the project.

All the greats worked with other producers and such. All of them.

alandail said:

is it really any different than the credits for Purple Rain reading "produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince and the Revolution."

Possibly not (if we read "@3rdeyegirl @joshuaworld" to mean Prince and Joshua Welton)--but since exactly what that meant varied significantly from track to track (and over the course of the subsequent albums), one might say it didn't really mean much. The entire Revolution was present fairly rarely on those albums, and many "Prince and the Revolution" tracks were solo (or very nearly solo) performances. So the Prince and Josh album and the Prince and 3rdEyeGirl albums might be pretty much the same. People played roles--but the overall product is Prince's, with others given some latitude but within parameters usually laid down for them.

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Which is honestly what I think--I know people keep saying they can hear what's Prince and what's Josh, but I can't. I really don't hear much (if anything) on this album that sounds that different--several of the songs seem stronger than has been typical on the last few albums, but the sound of them doesn't strike me as markedly different from things he has done in the past or that he could crib quickly from fairly cursory listens to a little bit of recent music. The man's entire musical history has been based on synthesizing and amalgamating various trends--to different levels of success--does he really need a new producer to do the sort of borrowing from EDM that he's always done in the past with other genres? Is EDM so shockingly complicated that he couldn't do enough for his purposes mostly on his own? That doesn't mean Josh didn't contribute significantly to the album--perhaps he did--but how on earth could you tell that he did? What's so distinctive about Josh that people can really hear him on this record?

starguitar said:

I honestly don't get why this is such an issue to some people. So what if Prince has a new band? They deserve to be credited if they are putting in the work.

Not like he is crediting bad people or people completely uninvolved with the project.

All the greats worked with other producers and such. All of them.

It's not an issue for me--okay, I think the twitter accounts being credited as the artists on AOA is stupid--but I have no problem with the band and Josha getting credit for the albums. I'm pretty sure (even separate from the Hannah vocals) that something like the PlectrumElectrum album only happened because of the band--I don't think that Prince would have done that much of the dominant sound (or even quite got that sound) without 3rdEyeGirl's existence.

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I'm a bit put off by the feeling I get that some people think that AOA is as much or more a Joshua Welton album than a Prince one. But hey--whatever. I like it, either way.