Rebeljuice said:

JellyJam said:

Don't often post here but....

Early doors, but this may be the best Prince album, and the most "Prince" album, since "The Gold Experience". May even be better. Far exceeded my expectations. The hype about it being a "cohesive statement" is actually true - the tracks here hang together way better than most of his output for quite some time.

Only on first listen but there are more layers - of sound, meaning and production.

Breakfast Can Wait I've never loved and Breakdown IMHO was overrated but competent. They're probably the two weakest tracks.

Clouds and U Know I already liked, but they work even better in the context of the album as a whole.

I quite like the (admittedly silly) opening track. I can see the "Eye No" reference, but it's nowhere near as rich IMHO.

Gold Standard is pure Prince in the bets possible way. I get the orgers referencing the Black ALbum, only it's "warmer"

This Could Be Us is actually a great Prince slow jam.

What It Feels Like is much better than the snippet suggests. A strong track, will need to listen to it more though

Way Back Home is astoundingly good, but my only gripe is it could be longer.

FunkNRoll. I quite like this version but prefer the PE version.

The "affirmations" are not nearly as annoynig as you might expect. affoirmation III, if you clipped it onto Way Back Home, would be an awesome Prince maxi-single of the kind I loved from the late 80s.

Time is, again, much stronger than the preview clip suggests. The most "Revolution-y" track here IMHO. Could almost be a Dream Factory outtake.

Like I said, this is the most "Prince" album I've heard in ages. The added edge comes from a sense of innovation and just delight in the music. Love it. I'm an old timer, I've liked a lot of his stuff over the last couple of decades but this - on first listen - has really cheerd me up.

Enjoy. If you don't like it that's your prerogative. It made me happy.

Great summary. Very cool album.

Thank you - hope you're enjoying it as much as I am. Even better on 2nd listening...

SchlomoThaHomo said:

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".

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..

Thanks for translating! I figured it was Ida but wasn't totally sure.

Ok,

u're welcome Schlomo.

[Edited 9/25/14 7:50am]

JellyJam said:

Rebeljuice said:

Great summary. Very cool album.

Thank you - hope you're enjoying it as much as I am. Even better on 2nd listening...

I agree, great summary. And now I think I understand more why Prince wanted/forced us to listen to Lovesexy all the way through. Maybe it's just me, but with AOA also being a more conceptual album I find it more rewarding to listen to it front-to-back. (Which I think I did about 937 times last night.) So by the time affirmation III begins it has much more impact than if I had just skipped to it. Having said that, I hope he never pulls a Lovesexy one-track album again!

I have only listened to the snippets thus far but I have to be brutally honest - it sounds badass!!

What are people hearing for the second verse (Prince's one) of Time. Working on a cover and I just can't make it out with that 'radio distorion' on his voice.

I am new to the Org, I have always visited for years and not really posted much, just observed the news and discussions and I love this forum. I need to say tht this album is absolutely fantastic. That was my response at first listen. This morning I got in my car and put on WAY BACK HOME and I cried. Not because the music is so daring and complex but because the words and the ambience and the feeling Prince performed this song with was real and that place where he got those emotions to pour into this track touched me. Prince hasn't done that for me in a long time. It was at that point I realized this album was more than fantastic, it may be a classic for me. For some it won't be and I understand that certain listeners have a check list of requirements for what they consider to be great music or classic albums. Personally, no matter what format a musican uses, if the music gets me to feel something I give it it's due. I want to thank everyone here for their honest opinions and comments over the years because positive or negative everyone here are fans and that is what matters. IMO, Prince added to his canon of great albums with AOA.

djThunderfunk said:

Been reading all this while downloading, 4 minutes to go...

Gotta ask: WHY are so many saying Art Official Cage or AOC?!?

Am I missing the joke here?

Because the album title is Art Official Age, while the song title is Art Official Cage

[Edited 9/25/14 8:09am]

djThunderfunk said:

dadeepop said:

JellyJam said:

Thank you - hope you're enjoying it as much as I am. Even better on 2nd listening...

I agree, great summary. And now I think I understand more why Prince wanted/forced us to listen to Lovesexy all the way through. Maybe it's just me, but with AOA also being a more conceptual album I find it more rewarding to listen to it front-to-back. (Which I think I did about 937 times last night.) So by the time affirmation III begins it has much more impact than if I had just skipped to it. Having said that, I hope he never pulls a Lovesexy one-track album again!

I was actually thinking the exact same thing re: Lovesexy and being forced to listen to it in its entirety. I kind of share your feelings about one-track albums but at the same time I must admit I enjoy Lovesexy far more when I listen to it all the way through without the temptation/ability to skip around the tracks.

With AOA, I reckon I'll be on my 937th listen fairly soon!

I haven't heard the album yet .. but .. let's just say all u coolaid drinkers are right and this is a really great prince record .. are u gonna thank the haterz? .. I mean .. clearly all our bitching did something good in the end .. I should say .. clearly all our HONESTY .. kicked P's ass into gear .. I hope you all are right and this album does not suck balls after all .. cuz Ima come back and lay the smacketh down on all your candy asses if u done lied again and made pure shit album sound like this is a record worthy of the prince name .. oh .. and if this is good .. can u stop with the excuses like .. "it's pretty good for a 50 year old" .. "how can we expect him to be good anymore cuz he is so old?" .. some of us know when prince is dropping a load .. respect it cool aid drinkers respect it

[Edited 9/25/14 8:17am]

Prince.... I love you.

Seriously.

You just gave the "serial hater club" the biggest middle finger ever.

This album is, excuse my language, f**cking sick. Disturbed. Mental. Mad. Amazing. Genius. Dope.

Whenever anyone thinks you are out for the count, you come back with a heavyweight right hook that would make Tyson proud.

djThunderfunk said:

Gotta ask: WHY are so many saying Art Official Cage or AOC?!?

Thats the title of the song

Marco81 said:

djThunderfunk said:

Been reading all this while downloading, 4 minutes to go...

Gotta ask: WHY are so many saying Art Official Cage or AOC?!?

Am I missing the joke here?

Because the album title is Art Official Age, while the song title is Art Official Cage

[Edited 9/25/14 8:09am]

D'oh!

That does explain it. Thanks!

DL finished! Back in a bit...

UPS just delivered mine!! Putting it in now!!

I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT.

Listened around 5 times now.

If you rearrange the tracks you can make it even cooler though.

1: Affirmation III (Way Back Home)

2: U Know

3: Way Back Home

4: Clouds

5: Affirmation I & II

6: Funknroll

7: Time

8: This Could be Us

9: The Breakdown

10: The Gold Standard

try it!

[Edited 9/25/14 8:27am]

JellyJam said:

dadeepop said:

I agree, great summary. And now I think I understand more why Prince wanted/forced us to listen to Lovesexy all the way through. Maybe it's just me, but with AOA also being a more conceptual album I find it more rewarding to listen to it front-to-back. (Which I think I did about 937 times last night.) So by the time affirmation III begins it has much more impact than if I had just skipped to it. Having said that, I hope he never pulls a Lovesexy one-track album again!

I was actually thinking the exact same thing re: Lovesexy and being forced to listen to it in its entirety. I kind of share your feelings about one-track albums but at the same time I must admit I enjoy Lovesexy far more when I listen to it all the way through without the temptation/ability to skip around the tracks.

With AOA, I reckon I'll be on my 937th listen fairly soon!

At the very least the Lovesexy one track album was Prince thinking outside the box. I've gotta respect that.

Militant: Right on, brotha.

-

And now, back to AOA...

Militant said:

Prince.... I love you.

Seriously.

You just gave the "serial hater club" the biggest middle finger ever.

This album is, excuse my language, f**cking sick. Disturbed. Mental. Mad. Amazing. Genius. Dope.

Whenever anyone thinks you are out for the count, you come back with a heavyweight right hook that would make Tyson proud.

Why bring the "hater" thing in here right now? We are in the middle of an AOA lovefest? Embrace it.

"Affirmation III/Way Back Home" may well be one of my favourite Prince songs of all time.

Not only are the songs fantastic, the arrangements, production and mixing are too. Could this be Josh's influence? If so, we all owe him a massive shoutout.

I mean, regardless of the songs - that's a totally subjective position - listen to the arrangements. Listen to the mixing. Compared to Lotus and 20TEN, it's night and day. Not that those were bad, but these are on a different level.

Rorywan said:

"Affirmation III/Way Back Home" may well be one of my favourite Prince songs of all time.

Agreed - very emotional. All 3 made into one extended play would be epic. Whoops - I said I was going to leave it for now.

Militant said:

Not only are the songs fantastic, the arrangements, production and mixing are too. Could this be Josh's influence? If so, we all owe him a massive shoutout.

I mean, regardless of the songs - that's a totally subjective position - listen to the arrangements. Listen to the mixing. Compared to Lotus and 20TEN, it's night and day. Not that those were bad, but these are on a different level.

it's superb. After I grew to love U Know and Clouds I had my hopes for this.

The only thing I don't get is the cheesy 90's club opening. The rest of the album feels light, sharp and futuristic in a really cool R&B way.

calciumpaul said:

Thanks to the Orgers who helped. I don't want to sound ungrateful - I respect your opinions, I really do - but I don't see this as a classic. It has some superb tracks but some very embarrassing ones. I'll leave it at that for now.

Who is screaming classic though?

Why does it have to be classic (all) or nothing?

TrevorAyer said:

Militant said:

Prince.... I love you.

Seriously.

You just gave the "serial hater club" the biggest middle finger ever.

This album is, excuse my language, f**cking sick. Disturbed. Mental. Mad. Amazing. Genius. Dope.

Whenever anyone thinks you are out for the count, you come back with a heavyweight right hook that would make Tyson proud.

YES!!!!

This is up there with every single one of his classics. Not kidding.


It's everything we (well, most of us) wanted.

The songs are killer. The production is killer. The arrangements are killer. The tracklisting is killer. It's a cohesive album, not just a collection of songs. It's creative, and imaginative, and weird in that classic Prince way. It's emotional, it's self-reflective, it's grown and sexy and yet youthful at the same time.


I'm not a cynic - we all know that - but even I'm surprised at just HOW good this is. I felt the album would be good. I felt it might be better than good. I'm not sure I expected it to be stellar. And it is. It really is.

Listen to that bass thump and those horns at the end of "Time". Listen to the synths on "This Could Be Us". I'm in heaven.

Prince, what have you done? How have you done it? Please, please, keep doing it.

I wonder does it make any difference for P to feel a major label like Warner behind him?

It certainly sounds like it.

Militant said:

OK this album is amazing! An album only prince could make! and Joshua Welton I APPLAUD YOU for whatever input you gave to the album! ALBUM OF THE YEAR????

[Edited 9/25/14 8:50am]

BEST ALBUM IN A LONG TIME!!!!