Noodled24 said:

V10LETBLUES said:

If this album is supposed to be a statement about artificial culture/music/whatever it falls flat because it sounds so out of touch. Especially if he is mocking modern music. It's like an old lady's idea of what today's music sounds like

He's poking gentle fun more than "mocking", it's playful and astute as well. There are quite a few classic Prince vibes rendered digitally with great panache, he's not literally trying to sound like "today's music" but like Prince in the digital age.

Prince obviously enjoys making studio music but seems to be delegating much of the programming. Whatever Josh's contribution, you have every reason to believe Prince had everything done to his exact specifications, just like his shoes.

For the analog age, there is PLEL and that is where I was disappointed. This time he turned out to be better at his "art official" effort than his rock project, contrary to what happened wiht Lotus Flower/MPSound). Accidentally? PLEL has its share of weak songs, contrary to AOA, which is strong all the way.

Despite this, his love of analog does shine through with Wow, FULU, Marz, AnotherLove, FunkNRoll.

With him, there's always duality and contradiction.

i agree with the op

right from the first kick drum on art official cage... it lacks warmth and body

overall, the album sounds harsh to me

V10LETBLUES said:

Noodled24 said:

"Culture/Music/Whatever" - so you've clearly listened to the album, and decided it's about artificial whatever... great start, good to know you know your stuff or whatever

That's not me saying that about it, it's those defending why it sounds to bad,

Yeh you said it sounds "thin and tinny" which stopped anyone from taking you seriously because objectively speaking it doesn't. Unless you think thin and tinny means something else? It's fine not to like the album or a songs production, but this sounds like you're trying to make up a reason not to like it. Which is just a bit weird mate.

Then rather than articulate examples of parts of the album illustrate your point you went off on a rant about how Prince must be loosing his hearing - again with nothing to substantiate it. The dude is happy to jump in with a live Jazz band seemingly just for a laugh.

[Edited 1/24/15 13:15pm]

^^^ oh dear.. some of you sounds so ungrateful.

AOA is sounding just like it should.... and that is: "great"......



(but..... of course that is "imho").....


Maybe you critical ones can't appreciate Prince doing good "pop" music.....?


Imho a great album.

Aerogram said:

Aerogram said:

the popfunk of AOA is sounding just great,

I like Wow and Anotherlove. But. Otherwise.... I can't say anything positvie about the Plectrum album...

It's garbage rock, sounding so awful.

V10LETBLUES said:

Militant said:

Completely disagree. I don't find it thin and tinny at all. And I'm in my mid 20's and a professional musician. Definitely not losing my hearing.

If this were a fact, then as you say, it's likely at least one critic would have mentioned it.

I tried to find something as straight jacketed in to such a narrow tonal spectrum, I couldn't find anything. All recordings I listened to sounded rich and full compared to AOL. Can you think of an example of a professionally recoded track as flat and thin as anything on AOL? I certainly couldn't find it.

I think I see the problem. You appear to be listening to an internet service providers disc from the early 90's. These were data CD's and meant to be ran on your computer, not listened to on a hi-fi.

I'm not sure why this is in Prince Music and More, perhaps if the mods move it to GD you might get more people looking at it. You never know, someone might still have a Compuserve disc and you can get a track by track comparison. That's if they are lucky enough to have a tracked version, sometimes those discs were just one continuous track. I believe the Compuserve discs were less tinny. Also, many people believe that AOL lost it around 1994, so you might want to seek out one of the earlier discs as the production could be better.

This is a joke?

daddypig said:

This is a joke?

Probably.

It's hardly scientific.

My questions weren't really answered.

And those were only a simple start.

TheEnglishGent said:

TheEnglishGent said:

V10LETBLUES said:

Militant said: I tried to find something as straight jacketed in to such a narrow tonal spectrum, I couldn't find anything. All recordings I listened to sounded rich and full compared to AOL. Can you think of an example of a professionally recoded track as flat and thin as anything on AOL? I certainly couldn't find it.

I think I see the problem. You appear to be listening to an internet service providers disc from the early 90's. These were data CD's and meant to be ran on your computer, not listened to on a hi-fi.

I'm not sure why this is in Prince Music and More, perhaps if the mods move it to GD you might get more people looking at it. You never know, someone might still have a Compuserve disc and you can get a track by track comparison. That's if they are lucky enough to have a tracked version, sometimes those discs were just one continuous track. I believe the Compuserve discs were less tinny. Also, many people believe that AOL lost it around 1994, so you might want to seek out one of the earlier discs as the production could be better.

V10LETBLUES said:

ufoclub said:

Strange, I have music on a random playlist in the car, stuff from 60's to 70's and beyond and a random track will play from the two new Prince albums, and they sound full and thick. Even warm with rich bass.

It's all in such a narrow spectrum on the high side. Can you direct me to any professionally released Pop, rock, soul track as flat and thin as anything on AOL? I honestly think he is losing his hearing. Notice how high in the mix the freakin lasers are on that track? Holy cow! Only someone losing their hearing would do that. Notice how shrill and annoyingly high pitched the Camile voice sounds vs the original? The original sounded warm and charming compared to this.

You honestly think lots of stuff you have no idea about. That's like me saying you may have a hearing problem yourself because you hear only the "thin" stuff apparently.

V10LETBLUES said:

Aerogram said:

I'd really appreciate it if you guys could fill out my survey on Art Official Age, it's for my college work, thanks https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RVPW5MF

Benthom said:

V10LETBLUES said:

V10LETBLUES said:

SuperSoulFighter said:

V10LETBLUES said:

Finished listening to Blonde on Blonde and it sounds much warmer because of the inherent sound of traditional acoustic instruments and Bob's gravely voice. It sounds great.

Funny story: for the opening track Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, Bob decided to create a party atmosphere by getting all the band members (Nashville session musicians used to playing on country records) drunk.

V10LETBLUES said:

Aerogram said:

You honestly think lots of stuff you have no idea about. That's like me saying you may have a hearing problem yourself because you hear only the "thin" stuff apparently.

No actually I mention thin tinny music because it is rare. If I heard it all the time I wouldn't have said anything. Some here aparently can't tell the difference.

So how do you figure Prince does whole recordings (including PLEL) about which you have yet to say they are "thin"? Don't you see the same goes for him if it it's true for you.

It's called having a fixation. Sure, lots of people have a fixation on this site. I just wonder about those that have a negative one that's so important to them. Why?

[Edited 1/25/15 14:37pm]

Benthom said:

I'd really appreciate it if you guys could fill out my survey on Art Official Age, it's for my college work, thanks https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RVPW5MF

Survey completed.

Aerogram said:

V10LETBLUES said:

Thin and tinny isnt what I would level at AOA. I do think the Gold Standard lacks punch in the bass department, especially compared to the rich, deep bass in most of the other songs. The Breakdown has always been utter crap to my ears and I never listen to that song. Yes, it is badly produced and distorted, but mainly I just think it is a crap song. But What it Feels Like, FnR, Time, This Could Be Us, My Way Home, Affirmation III, Clouds and U Know are all very rich and full sounding. the bass is fantastic and on good headphones you can hear how deep it really goes.

There are probably many good reasons to level critisism at AOA but sounding thin and tinny aint one of them.