KingSausage said:

I've been on the Org 15 years. This is the weirdest shit I've seen on here. It's hard to talk calmly and rationally about AOA with dudes fucking other dudes and wonzers slapping cheeks left and right. But maybe it's just me.

I stepped away to watch the football game and came back to that

Honestly it is sad... but its hilarious at the same time. People actually tried to talk to that dude but he didn't deserve the time. I had one exchange with him but saw he wasnt interested in having the conversation. Does this site not really have moderators? I know they can let stuff go a bit but I have never seen anyone get away with posting stuff like that.

[Edited 9/25/14 21:02pm]

kookooman73 said:

I've only heard the 30 second clips & am so excited 4 Monday when I can buy the physical copies of both albums from HMV. I have taken the day off work & will be listening all day with a smile on my face, the volume up high & a bottle or two of wine!! So does anyone who has heard AOA in full think that Ain't Gon Miss U or Groovy Potential should have been included & would they have fitted. I absolutely LOVE both those grooves???

Excellent way to spend a Monday, better than work anyway...

Yes. I think both song would fit and should have been included. GP's upbeat vibe and AGMU's funky swagger would help balance some of the slower more laid back sounds that dominate most of the LP. In my not-so-humble opinion, of course.

Alexandernvrmind said:

Does this site not really have moderators? I know they can let stuff go a bit but I have never seen anyone get away with posting stuff like that

There cant always be a mod on duty. Though Im sure one of the mods will be here soon

FragileUndertow said:

Alexandernvrmind said:

Does this site not really have moderators? I know they can let stuff go a bit but I have never seen anyone get away with posting stuff like that

There cant always be a mod on duty. Though Im sure one of the mods will be here soon

I am here now, problem dealt with ............. massive salvage job complete.

dadeepop said:

KingSausage said:

Others are easily impressed by piano, guitar, drums, etc. it's all preference and opinion.

Oh snap!

You really schooled me with that one.

The "it's all preference and opinion" counterargument , who could have seen that one coming?

luv4u said:

FragileUndertow said:

There cant always be a mod on duty. Though Im sure one of the mods will be here soon

I am here now, problem dealt with ............. massive salvage job complete.

Thanks!!!

luv4u said:

FragileUndertow said:

There cant always be a mod on duty. Though Im sure one of the mods will be here soon

I am here now, problem dealt with ............. massive salvage job complete.

You rock! Thanks!

Just listen to the album a few more days and you should realize it's mostly the same type of stuff that was on 3121 / 20ten, just sandwiched between some glossy production numbers at the beginning and the end of the album.

Not saying it's such a bad thing in the end, but so much of what's "new" on it is just sound effects stuff. I quite like the first track, but it's hilarious how there seems to be an explosion type of a sound used on it every 5-10 seconds.

IstenSzek said:

i won't write a review, everyone has pretty much said anything there is

to say about the album by now.

.

all i can say is that i love it and if it were up to me i would change only

one thing: add "Ain't Gonna Miss U When Ur Gone" to it. the wav file we

got is terrific sound quality and fits pretty much seamlessly on here.

.

i've tried putting it after "This Could B Us" and it works perfectly for me.

after the whole "you don't want me no more..." ending of TCBU, this is

the perfect song, thematically as well. and with all the weird vocal effects

it just sounds right amongst all those other vocoder/pitch shifts etc.

.

what's more, it lifts the album up a bit and breaks up the slow middle

part of the album. no idea why he didn't include it. it's a strong track.

perhaps to keep the album from becoming too long?

.

01. Art Official Cage

02. Clouds

03. Breakdown

04. The Gold Standard

05. U Know

06. Breakfast Can Wait

07. This Could B Us

08. Ain't Gonna Miss U (When Ur Gone)

09. What It Feels Like

10. Affirmation I & II
11. Way Back Home

12. Funk N Roll

13. Time

14. Affirmation III

Agreed!

I absolutely love "Time." The groove and the atmospherics make it hypnotic. Then that bass kicks in and takes it into another stratosphere. For me, that may go down as one of his baddest basslines ever! Oh, I almost forgot about the synths at the end. Even at almost 7 minutes, I wanted the track to keep going.

My first impressions (After 1 or 2 listens of each track).

.

Art Official Cage - Its alright, seems to be all over the place. The rap is bizarre sounds like Mya on the Madonna track - LUV. Great guitar solos though.

.

Clouds - Quite good, love the melody and the bits of Linn drum lurking there. The girl vocals are okay, but Prince sounds better, and lose the pommy chick - ugh!

.

The Breakdown - An exceptional ballad, I love the voices and Prince's yelping at the end. Its pretty good overall

.

The Gold Standard - Like wow, this is pure Camille meets Christopher Tracy, danceable and funky, vocals and beats are amazing.

.

U Know - Quite a sexy and funky looped out song, a bit silly overall though, not the best track, its just a song. Best parts are the falsetto.

.

Breakfast can wait - Another great track, this is pure Prince sex for the 2010s, I love the lyrics, memorable and instantly singsongy.

.

This could be us - I really like this too, its catchy

.

What it feels like - Very average, maybe I need to listen to it more?

.

Affirmations (All of them) - Yawn, talking and more zzzz!!!! Maybe I will get them with time.

.

Way Back home - Another great track - love the vocals and the feel, Prince's ballads set to some first rate synthesised backing. Backing voices are hot too.

.

Funknroll - A little over funk and roll, but this version is better than the Plectrum Electrum one, seems a bit disjointed and overproduced the fuck out of. My favourite version is a sparser bootleg version which outdoes both "official" versions.

.

Time - A classic track, the bass is popping and its a shame he does not mine this seam of funk more.

.

Affirmation III - Better than the others, but give it time.

.

Overall - I need to listen to it more, but so far I like what I hear on most tracks, he is mining the 80s here, with bass loops, rapping, linn drums and falsetto. The best bit is that he is at least having fun in the studio - so far 7.5/10

.

I will review a fuller review in a few days

luv4u said:

FragileUndertow said:

There cant always be a mod on duty. Though Im sure one of the mods will be here soon

I am here now, problem dealt with ............. massive salvage job complete.

Good work L4U

Thank you.

JellyJam said:

I'm taking militant's wise advice and ignoring the obvious troll.

Back on track and AOA...

I remember many years ago when I was at school, the day SOTT came out. I sneaked out at lunchtime and bought the cassette (?!?). I had a shitty Walkman and listened to brief segments of the album. It was by no means a comprehensive analysis, but it felt like a great album. Later, when I got home, I shut the curtains and turned the lights out and listened to the whole album; in sequence, in its entirety. It was genius - unpredicable, esoteric and eclectic. And I still believe it's my favorite album of all time.

Many years later. Today I was at work and AOA happened to land in my possession. Being at work, I sneaked out at lunchtime and during the day I caught brief segments of the album. It was by no means a comprehensive analysis, but it felt like a great album. Later, when I got home, when my wife and son were fast asleep I turned down the lights and put my earphoneson and listened again to the whole album; in sequence, in its entirety. It's not SOTT but it shows why Prince is a genius - unpredicatable, esoteric and eclectic. And I still believe he's my favourite artist of all time.

[Edited 9/25/14 16:41pm]

I love this post! I remember listening to SOTT on cassette for the first time back in the day. It was on a walkman too. That album hit me hard. As you said, AOA isn't SOTT, but it definitely has flashes of brilliance and has moved me to put several of the songs on repeat.

After letting the album sink in a little more I find that it is an album of two halves. The second half from This Could Be Us onwards is an almost ambient, atmospheric affair which is complete genius. Splitting up Way Back Home (I presume it was initially one song with the affirmations) really brings the second half of the album together. TCBU is a sublime ballad that has grown on me immensely and What it Feels Like is pure brilliance which then nicely makes way for the 2 affirmations followed by the incredibly awesome Way Back Home. That song is simply a work of art. FunkNRoll comes along and raises the temperature a bit without going full speed ahead, keeping the spaced out atmosphere somewhat. And then the best one-two on a Prince album for a very long time. the sublime Time folllowed by Affirmation III. What a brilliant second half of an album.

The first half, on the other hand, seems like more of a collection of songs thrown together that have a very different vibe to the second half. The production is different and there is less of a flow. Putting Clouds and U Know in the first half helps to tie it to the second half, but the Breakdown and Breakfast just do not seem to belong there. The Breakdown is horribly mastered and is sonically different to all the other songs on the album. And BCW just seems like an add on. The Gold Standard, whilst being a very funky track with so much awesomeness contained within it, it also feels a little out of place compared to the rest of the album.

Dont get me wrong. this is an excellent album and one of the best things Prince has done in a long time. But it isnt flawless in my opinion and could have done with a little more tweaking. Breakdown and BCW should have been ditched in favour of songs with more ambience and atmosphere and, perhaps, a little more uptempo.

Im still figuring out how I can tweak it in my playlist. Breakdown and Breakfast are already out and it makes the whole experience much better. But I would like to replace them with something, but cant figure out what yet.

Adorecream said:

My first impressions (After 1 or 2 listens of each track).

.

Art Official Cage - Its alright, seems to be all over the place. The rap is bizarre sounds like Mya on the Madonna track - LUV. Great guitar solos though.

.

Clouds - Quite good, love the melody and the bits of Linn drum lurking there. The girl vocals are okay, but Prince sounds better, and lose the pommy chick - ugh!

.

The Breakdown - An exceptional ballad, I love the voices and Prince's yelping at the end. Its pretty good overall

.

The Gold Standard - Like wow, this is pure Camille meets Christopher Tracy, danceable and funky, vocals and beats are amazing.

.

U Know - Quite a sexy and funky looped out song, a bit silly overall though, not the best track, its just a song. Best parts are the falsetto.

.

Breakfast can wait - Another great track, this is pure Prince sex for the 2010s, I love the lyrics, memorable and instantly singsongy.

.

This could be us - I really like this too, its catchy

.

What it feels like - Very average, maybe I need to listen to it more?

.

Affirmations (All of them) - Yawn, talking and more zzzz!!!! Maybe I will get them with time.

.

Way Back home - Another great track - love the vocals and the feel, Prince's ballads set to some first rate synthesised backing. Backing voices are hot too.

.

Funknroll - A little over funk and roll, but this version is better than the Plectrum Electrum one, seems a bit disjointed and overproduced the fuck out of. My favourite version is a sparser bootleg version which outdoes both "official" versions.

.

Time - A classic track, the bass is popping and its a shame he does not mine this seam of funk more.

.

Affirmation III - Better than the others, but give it time.

.

Overall - I need to listen to it more, but so far I like what I hear on most tracks, he is mining the 80s here, with bass loops, rapping, linn drums and falsetto. The best bit is that he is at least having fun in the studio - so far 7.5/10

.

I will review a fuller review in a few days

And the records on the cover appear to have Purple Rain era labels on them. i notice the flowers on these (Check ur PR era vinyls). Is this a cryptic clue about what is coming up in October?

On first listen i'm slightly disappointed that the quality of the songs isn't a big higher than the stuff he's been throwing out for the past few years, was kind of hoping he'd step up his game for a 'proper' release. Having said that, I enjoyed it and look forward to listening to it a lot more times. The whole thing could be a massive grower.

I doubt it's a grower, apart perhaps for the songs that are more typical Prince.

On successive listens it should just become more and more apparent how gimmicky the record is. It relies on the same repeated sound effects. Has anyone counted yet how many times that SWOOOOSH filtered sweep is used on the record?

Song starts

SWOOOOOSH

Prince sings something over a beat

SWOOOOOSH

Yeah, man. Prince really upped his game on this albu....

SWOOOOOSH

oh, shit here it comes again

SWOOOOOSH

The production on many of the songs is pure comedy.

What I like: Prince seems to really embrace contemporary sounds on this one (AOC, U know, Funknroll etc.). Of course he should have done that decades ago, but...better now than never! He has a lot to catch up though, lol!

Still: there are too many clichee ridden, somewhat subdued songs (Breakdown, Breakfast, This could be us, What it feels like etc.), which makes the listening experience again kind of a yawnfest after a while, especially during the 2nd half of the album.

So...it's ok.

[Edited 9/26/14 4:30am]

I went to sleep for 12 hours (jet lag) after my initial "don't feed the troll" post and apparently I missed something! Thanks luv4u

ok, wowsers.... what a great, GREAT album

PE is also fine, but can't keep up with AOA



a great weekend with lots of music ahead




PARTYTIME!!!!

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OK, Aussie here.

Waiting for the delayed Vinyl from Amazon, so have only been able to check out the Spotify release.

I am damn surprised by this album played as a whole. I thought given I'd heard most of it that it wouldn't impress. I was wrong. I think I might really like this album. This is the first time I played a Prince album twice in a row straight away since TGE.

A few duds, but even (most of the) classic 80s Prince LPS have a dud or two on each.

For me the Gold Standard is the best track out of the 2 albums

I hope he brings the NPG horns back on board as I love that plus the plucky guitar Controversy style

More of that I need

Pity Big City wasnt on there

The contemporary production on this album courtesy of Prince and Josh is as good as, if not better, than what the likes of Chris Brown and Ne-Yo are doing.

Dancelot said:

novabrkr said:

Militant said: