Synthetic R'n'B, songs written in his sleep, no great surprises.

The Gold Standard reminded Cindy C somehow, much slower thou, and more colourful sounds obv.
Really annoying MC on the opening track, and bland dance production.

And... i guess there was some other guy (!!!) singing on one of the tracks or maybe it was Prince heavily manipulated. (I was cooking at the same time, sorry ).
I think Time and Gold Standard are the best from the ones we havent heard before...

But yeah, it was first quick glimpse.
Will have another go when i get back to home. To Plectrumelectrum as well.
Did it feel better than any of the albums from last 10 years... Can't say, cuz i dont rate those records, recent output, really high anyway

[Edited 9/23/14 12:14pm]

thankyou for your first thoughts , looking forward to hearing Time and the rest

If Prince wants this to succeed he's really going to have to give quality longer term promotion

OldFriends4Sale said:

Personally TIME is my favorite track on the album and I'm betting to say many of the old school Prince fans wil enjoy this track the most...

Romeoblu said:

So what kind of song is Time?

for that matter:

what kind of songs are: Art Official Cage (an annoying MC? oh my...), The Gold Standard,

Way Back Home, Time and the final Affirmation III 'track'.

/

have you had a chance to give it a second listen yet feeluupp?

The Gold Standard - no, it's not Cindy C, it reminds many Black Albums tracks at the same time. Cindy C, Superfunkycalifragisexy and Bob George (slowed down rapping), Black Album like horns too

[Edited 9/23/14 14:16pm]

sounds good and what about the other tracks we haven't heard yet?

Art Official Age is his best ALBUM in the last 10 years since Musicology.

I'm on a second listen. Goin thru them all and write about them in one post.

siim said:

I'm on a second listen. Goin thru them all and write about them in one post.

cool. thanks ahead

"This Could Be Us" has been around, right?

siim said:

"This Could Be Us" has been around, right?

In snippet form....Not in long play....

Nikkie said:

Highresaudio.com is a german website where both AOA and PE are available for pre-order. More interesting, 30 sec snippets of all tracks are up there. Promising stuff!

yes, i got some reports people will be getting their cd's 2 days earlier than everyone else from the german site.

https://www.highresaudio.com/artist.php?abid=276308

Nikkie said:

Highresaudio.com is a german website where both AOA and PE are available for pre-order. More interesting, 30 sec snippets of all tracks are up there. Promising stuff!

Thanks for the link. I'm intrigued to hear the whole (AOA) album now, to see if the sci-fi concept sort-of works.

Ok, AOA sounds very, VERY promising...

Everyone's a critic, it's just more interesting to hear someone who is truly knowledgeable.

Critics are like you and I, they have their likes and dislikes, their musical ideals. One of my friends is a critic on tv and in a newspaper, he never cared for Prince not even when he listened to Small Club -- he said the band sounded like a cover band, kid you not.

The press so far has been absolutely positive, I'm pretty sure the music press as a whole roots for Prince. It has done so for quite some time, but there's something different now.

tatocorcu said:

love the way those snippets sound. colour me excited

MIRvmn said:

tatocorcu said:

Ok, AOA sounds very, VERY promising...

I agree, this will definitely be one of my favorite albums

I agree as well. I listened to the full version of AOA and not getting too much into detail about album rankings, this is without a doubt his best album since 2004.

This album is an excellent album. Why... Simple... It is a fresh new sound of Prince.

Many people will reject this statement and say it's not Prince or they don't like the sound. But they used to say that about the sound of Dirty Mind and 1999 when Prince was creating himself.

With this album Prince is NOT going back to the 80s sound so we shouldn't compare this at all. He has done something more, he has recreated a NEW fresh sounding sound for 2014. Yes we are in a moddern artofficial age indeed, and Prince has done what he's best at creating music that only Prince can define.

ART OFFICIAL CAGE- one of the most stupidest tracks he has ever done. Definetly it has Joshua written all over it - it's cheesy eurodance (maybe you call it EDM in states), a genre i've hated all of my life

It has football horns (!!!), it turns operatic at the end for a moment, really outdated dance music sounds, some woman at the start hypes it up in a language i cant recognize (Danish?), laughable "come on, let's go, bring the people"-hook (bhhh...), Prince sings from a artificial phone, and guitar drives all over the place above that ridiculous beat.

And I'm not sure anymore it's a guest MC rapping at the last half, it might be Prince himself, manipul

it made me laugh at first, but it makes me really sad now... There's this guy I've loved all of my life, now he is old and tries to sound up to date, but some Joshua leads him to... oh well...

THE GOLD STANDARD - at first two listen it had a Black Album feel, not anymore... Guitar lick reminds the one from U Got The Look extended versions beginning. Well, there's many many 80s tracks it reminds, cuz it has so many different elements which turn up just for once... Slowed down voice sings "New power!", and here's that MC again who might be Prince. Maybe like "Purple Medley" but all the citations are musical and cleverly hidden.

THIS COULD BE US - in falsetto, as you've already heard i believe. Standard ballad i really dont care about, i lazily compare it to "The Sun, The Moon and The Stars".

And if I hear right, there's a line - "sex with me aint enough, that's why we have to do it better physically"... hahahaa

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE- duet, (with Andy Allo, right?). Mid-tempo R'n'B, unimaginative chorus, best part is the womans voice - she sounds a bit sad

AFFIRMATION I & II - new age synths, and i guess Leanne Levas speaking something on it - "Before you have any interaction with members of the opposite sex, we goint to have to... " (Is he leaving JW now? For new age? I'd surely like that).. It segues to "Way Back Home"

WAY BACK HOME - Joshua sounds through, yep. It seems like a epic stadium track (like "Gold" for example), but its arranged produced as a tiny pop track which won't fly anywhere. Drums are like some kind of march, but not really military. (Greatly arranged female back vox, maybe like FKA twigs)

TIME - duet again. or maybe there's more than one woman singing on it, can't say. Prince sings through phone-box again. Hypnotic and (new age-)prayer-like. Think "Love Song" with a mellow groove; i like the background synths (I can hear ghosts of "Girl" and "God" in them). And it citates the other album tracks at the second half

Can't compare AOA to last ten years output, i just can't rank those albums. And this doesnt seem to stand out.

Some really nice elements, nice tracks - but i wanna be euphoric like I used to be

[Edited 9/23/14 16:06pm]

[Edited 9/23/14 16:07pm]

[Edited 9/23/14 16:09pm]

Uncut gave both 6/10.

[Always nice to read an non-org perspective which doesn't feel the need to state that the new album/song/tour is either the greatest / worst thing ever !]

(sorry for the bad english and spelling mistakes above; gonna listen to PE now)

hw3004 said:

Uncut gave both 6/10.

[Always nice to read an non-org perspective which doesn't feel the need to state that the new album/song/tour is either the greatest / worst thing ever !]

a belgium and a dutch review popped up in the last couple hours,

both gave both of the albums 3/5.

siim said:

(sorry for the bad english and spelling mistakes above; gonna listen to PE now)

hey, no worries. it's cool that you took the time to write all of that

AOA, after my first listen, i give it 5/10. It's funky in places, very modern, big beats, just lacks melodies. I actually prefer 20ten, which wasn't great but it had catchy melodies at least.

OH

There was one more track

AFFIRMATION III - more music, even rhythms, compared to I & II, Leanne speaking again, harps, pianos... well, you won't sing it or play it on guitar to anybody