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Thread started 09/29/14 5:14pm

2freaky4church
1

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The reviews are coming in.

From Jonny Breem:

http://www.startribune.co...73101.html

LA Times digs it:

http://www.latimes.com/en...olumn.html

This bites:

"But the records also reveal his flaws: Prince errs on the side of bounty, is blind to the occasional clunker and still fancies himself a talent scout when he has his pick of could-be collaborators."

So true. He has to control people. He cannot work with equals.

And there is this:

http://entertainment.sunt...w-release/

All you others say Hell Yea!! woot!
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Reply #1 posted 09/29/14 5:26pm

CharismaDove

was surfing through Yahoo News this morning and saw 6 articles on Prince eek

Maybe eye do, just not like eye did before pimp2
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Reply #2 posted 09/29/14 5:31pm

Aerogram

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So far it's the best reaction he has received in years despite some reservations.

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Reply #3 posted 09/29/14 5:48pm

HatrinaHaterwi
tz

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Aerogram said:

So far it's the best reaction he has received in years despite some reservations.

The WB machine is doing their job. nod

Now bring on the remasters!

I knew from the start that I loved you with all my heart.
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Reply #4 posted 09/29/14 5:50pm

Aerogram

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Some of the main reviews so far...

here's the Chicago Tribune review:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/ct-prince-reviews-plectrum-art-official-age-20140929-column.html

AOA: 3.5/4

PLEL: 3/4

Qyote:

In an era when innovative artists such as Frank Ocean and The Weeknd are redefining the form and feel of R&B seduction ballads, Prince sounds not just relevant, but renewed. As Prince declared on his 1982 classic "D.M.S.R., "I … try my best to never get bored." He sounds like he's staying true to his word.

Jon Bream, positive with reservations.

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/277473101.html

Quote:

Prince is blurring plenty of lines between old and new on these two new albums. Neither matches his personal gold standard, but they are a welcome end to the longest recording drought of his career.

here's the New York Daily News liking PLEL more than AOA, which he considers more of the same old, same old.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/prince-back-times-2-article-1.1956949

The Guardian 6/10 -- lacks focus


http://www.theguardian.co...rum-review

4/5 from the Uk's Times newspaper ...

http://www.amusementarcad...icial-age/

http://funkatopia.com/funk-music-reviews/review-prince-art-official-age/

'In all, ART OFFICIAL AGE delivers on all fronts. We just can’t give this album any less than 5 out of 5 afros and not because it’s a funk classic bringing to the altar a wealth of funk music offerings, but because anything less would be a travesty for this fantastic album.

Vibe -- very positive

http://www.vibe.com/photo-gallery/review-15-thoughts-princes-gloriously-vital-and-refreshingly-weird-art-official-age?page=4

Le Point. Très positive but this article was clearly phoned in (SplectrumElectrum).

http://www.lepoint.fr/culture/un-album-electro-et-soul-un-autre-rock-prince-voit-double-26-09-2014-1867013_3.php

And some others German, French and Dutch reviews ranging from mildly to very positive.

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Reply #5 posted 09/29/14 5:58pm

Aerogram

avatar

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Aerogram said:

So far it's the best reaction he has received in years despite some reservations.

The WB machine is doing their job. nod

Now bring on the remasters!

We were trying to keep it a secret but we're all being paid by WB -- every single person that disagrees with you does it for cash nod

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Reply #6 posted 09/29/14 6:06pm

funksterr

I think those reiews are spot on. It's just the nature of the job, that they have to be more optimistic than pessimistic. To the extent that a reviwer is going to call out a major artist on a major label before a new reord drops they did, which tells me none of the reviewers actually liked the albums. No one disliked it so much that they were going to bite the hand that feeds them, which is a good sign, in a way. LA Times guy seemed to be writing from a press kit.

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Reply #7 posted 09/29/14 6:09pm

KingSausage

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funksterr said:

I think those reiews are spot on. It's just the nature of the job, that they have to be more optimistic than pessimistic. To the extent that a reviwer is going to call out a major artist on a major label before a new reord drops they did, which tells me none of the reviewers actually liked the albums. No one disliked it so much that they were going to bite the hand that feeds them, which is a good sign, in a way. LA Times guy seemed to be writing from a press kit.



Oh, please. Reviewers slam albums all the time. What a load of horseshit.
"Drop that stereo before I blow your Goddamn nuts off, asshole!"
-Eugene Tackleberry
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Reply #8 posted 09/29/14 6:37pm

delirious

From the LA Time review:

"at one point, during his rant against cloud computing "Clouds"..."

ROFL - does anyone believe Prince is ranting against cloud computing? In what universe would that make sense in and also in what universe would prince either know about or give a crap about cloud computing?

I confess I do not understand the exact meaning behind "we don't need no clouds" but my guess is that it is a drug reference. I guess this is open for debate....

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Reply #9 posted 09/29/14 6:42pm

HatrinaHaterwi
tz

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Aerogram said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

The WB machine is doing their job. nod

Now bring on the remasters!

We were trying to keep it a secret but we're all being paid by WB -- every single person that disagrees with you does it for cash nod

I was under the impression that this thread was about professional reviews. So why did you try to make your response personally about me? Did I strike a nerve...yet again? wink hmmm

I knew from the start that I loved you with all my heart.
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Reply #10 posted 09/29/14 7:06pm

V10LETBLUES

I may not like the new album, but i do like Prince getting good press. Mayb seem a bit patronizing to me because I expect more from the man, but good for him regardless.
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Reply #11 posted 09/30/14 3:01am

GottaLetitgo

So so review from USA Today:


http://www.usatoday.com/s.../16423091/

[Edited 9/30/14 3:02am]

All good things they say never last...
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Reply #12 posted 09/30/14 3:08am

Nikkie

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GottaLetitgo said:

So so review from USA Today:





http://www.usatoday.com/s.../16423091/




[Edited 9/30/14 3:02am]



"Also, Prince remains enamored with electronically altered vocals, including one on Breakfast Can Wait that makes him sound like a duck."

lol
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Reply #13 posted 09/30/14 3:35am

Aerogram

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HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Aerogram said:

We were trying to keep it a secret but we're all being paid by WB -- every single person that disagrees with you does it for cash nod

I was under the impression that this thread was about professional reviews. So why did you try to make your response personally about me? Did I strike a nerve...yet again? wink hmmm

Just because you mistake your cynicism for knowledge and taste doesn't make this thread about you. Post all the bad reviews you find here, that will be more like it.

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Reply #14 posted 09/30/14 3:53am

4Lace

This was ok. I want a live album.

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Reply #15 posted 09/30/14 4:33am

OperatingTheta
n

'A legitimately magical Prince album':

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/legitimately-magical-prince-album

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Reply #16 posted 09/30/14 4:52am

thebiscuit

OperatingThetan said:

'A legitimately magical Prince album':

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/legitimately-magical-prince-album

Great review.

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Reply #17 posted 09/30/14 5:18am

OperatingTheta
n

Well, Jon Bream thinks 'Way Back Home' could be considered 'romantic', so that means his opinion means less than two shits to me and is about as credible.

Breams review is so lazy and ill considered I won't even bother linking to it here. I'm not completely sure why anyone thinks this man matters or is at all influential. He appears utterly mediocre.

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Reply #18 posted 09/30/14 6:15am

2020

avatar

OperatingThetan said:

Well, Jon Bream thinks 'Way Back Home' could be considered 'romantic', so that means his opinion means less than two shits to me and is about as credible.



Breams review is so lazy and ill considered I won't even bother linking to it here. I'm not completely sure why anyone thinks this man matters or is at all influential. He appears utterly mediocre.


Totally agree.
The greatest live performer of our times was is and always will be Prince.

Remember there is only one destination and that place is U
All of it. Everything. Is U.
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Reply #19 posted 09/30/14 6:27am

lwr001

OperatingThetan said:

Well, Jon Bream thinks 'Way Back Home' could be considered 'romantic', so that means his opinion means less than two shits to me and is about as credible.

Breams review is so lazy and ill considered I won't even bother linking to it here. I'm not completely sure why anyone thinks this man matters or is at all influential. He appears utterly mediocre.

Prince needs to go ahead and ban him from PP again..guy blows

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Reply #20 posted 09/30/14 6:42am

renfield

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delirious said:

From the LA Time review:

"at one point, during his rant against cloud computing "Clouds"..."

ROFL - does anyone believe Prince is ranting against cloud computing? In what universe would that make sense in and also in what universe would prince either know about or give a crap about cloud computing?

I confess I do not understand the exact meaning behind "we don't need no clouds" but my guess is that it is a drug reference. I guess this is open for debate....

I assume he IS in fact referencing "the cloud"...the entire song is about appreciating real intimate human contact as opposed to electronic communication and our impersonal methods "in this brand new age". Saying "we don't need no clouds" is another way of saying "put your phone down" and live in the real world. It's the only logical reference in the context of the song.

Prince may shun smart phones but I'm pretty sure he has some awareness of what the cloud is. At least as much as any of the rest of us. I'm sure he thinks referencing it makes him seem hip and aware, while still above such things. He's once again lecturing to the young'ns.

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Reply #21 posted 09/30/14 6:50am

2020

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Pop Matters Loves It!

By releasing two albums on the same day, Prince plays to a pair of personality traits that have defined his career: his endearingly prolific creativity and his maddening inability to edit himself.

Art Official Age (**½ out of four), a vintage-styled set of funk and soul, and PlectrumElectrum (**½), an album with his female power trio 3rdEyeGirl, sound too different to have been packaged together. But they suffer from the same problems: The highlights are thrilling enough to raise expectations yet they make tracks that once might have languished in the vaults of Paisley Park sound even more exasperating.
"Welcome home, class," Prince intones professorially on Art Official Cage, "you've come a long way." He's soon singing over a four-on-the-floor EDM-disco groove that helps him set up a futuristic concept about falling into suspended animation for 45 years and re-awakening in a utopian society (think Rip Van Winkle in the digital-cloud age).
The storyline doesn't exactly provide a structure for Prince's metaphysical funk (the Housequake-style floor-shaker The Gold Standard) and falsetto soul (This Could B Us), but it's no weirder than imagining the boys vs. the girls in the World Series of love, as he did on 1987's U Got the Look.
Also, Prince remains enamored with electronically altered vocals, including one on Breakfast Can Wait that makes him sound like a duck.

NPG Records
Album sleeve for Prince's 'Plectrumelectrum,' out Sept. 30, 2014.
In some ways, PlectrumElectrum is the guitar-rock odyssey fans of tracks like Purple Rain and Sign "O" the Times' The Cross have always dreamed Prince would make. "You can call it the unexpected, or you can call it wow," he sings on the lead track. It's not completely unexpected — Prince has been posting 3rdEyeGirl videos, including a house-wrecking blues remake of Let's Get Crazy, for a while now — but PlectrumElectrum certainly has its "wow" moments.
The instrumental title track is a five-minute guitar workout that recalls early British hard rock, and Prince also lets loose at the end of Anotherlove. The women occasionally take the lead, as on AintTurninRound, but, as Prince sings on one song, "A girl with a guitar is 12 times better than another crazy band of boys."
Of the two albums, PlectrumElectrum has high points that are arguably better, at least for Prince's guitar fans, but it starts falling apart about halfway through. Art Official Age has an element of trainwreck wackiness that at least keeps it interesting. The albums share a song, FunkNRoll, that was recorded twice and ranks in the top half of material on each set.
Both Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum are exciting at times, baffling at others, and it's hard to believe either couldn't have been better.
Download:From Art Official Age: Clouds, This Could B Us, The Gold Standard
From PlectrumElectrum: Wow, PlectrumElectrum, Anotherlove
The greatest live performer of our times was is and always will be Prince.

Remember there is only one destination and that place is U
All of it. Everything. Is U.
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Reply #22 posted 09/30/14 7:01am

delirious

renfield said:

delirious said:

From the LA Time review:

"at one point, during his rant against cloud computing "Clouds"..."

ROFL - does anyone believe Prince is ranting against cloud computing? In what universe would that make sense in and also in what universe would prince either know about or give a crap about cloud computing?

I confess I do not understand the exact meaning behind "we don't need no clouds" but my guess is that it is a drug reference. I guess this is open for debate....

I assume he IS in fact referencing "the cloud"...the entire song is about appreciating real intimate human contact as opposed to electronic communication and our impersonal methods "in this brand new age". Saying "we don't need no clouds" is another way of saying "put your phone down" and live in the real world. It's the only logical reference in the context of the song.

Prince may shun smart phones but I'm pretty sure he has some awareness of what the cloud is. At least as much as any of the rest of us. I'm sure he thinks referencing it makes him seem hip and aware, while still above such things. He's once again lecturing to the young'ns.

Interesting now that I think of it this way and also after yet another reviewer has stated he thinks it is about cloud computing maybe I am wrong...am interesting discussion for sure. Cheers...

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Reply #23 posted 09/30/14 7:11am

OperatingTheta
n

Time Magazine: Prince is revitalized on Art Official Age and Plectrum Electrum

http://time.com/3445767/p...melectrum/

On a pair of new albums, the Purple One is more relevant than he has in decades

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Reply #24 posted 09/30/14 7:18am

Noodled24

CharismaDove said:

was surfing through Yahoo News this morning and saw 6 articles on Prince eek

Google Now - for those that use it - has been throwing Prince articles at me all week.

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Reply #25 posted 09/30/14 7:54am

myloveis4ever

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Swedish Review - http://www.svd.se/kultur/...965724.svd 4/6 - ART official age / 2/6 Plectrumelectrum
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Reply #26 posted 09/30/14 2:18pm

GottaLetitgo

All good things they say never last...
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Reply #27 posted 09/30/14 2:48pm

GottaLetitgo

75 on Metacritic based on 10 reviews, 6 positive, 4 mixed

http://www.metacritic.com...age/prince

All good things they say never last...
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Reply #28 posted 09/30/14 6:50pm

funksterr

KingSausage said:

funksterr said:

I think those reiews are spot on. It's just the nature of the job, that they have to be more optimistic than pessimistic. To the extent that a reviwer is going to call out a major artist on a major label before a new reord drops they did, which tells me none of the reviewers actually liked the albums. No one disliked it so much that they were going to bite the hand that feeds them, which is a good sign, in a way. LA Times guy seemed to be writing from a press kit.

Oh, please. Reviewers slam albums all the time. What a load of horseshit.

I said the fact that no one slammed the album was a good sign, but since they were careful to insert, what I feel was the harsh truth, at the end of those reviews, it tells me they wanted to play ball with Prince and WB, by parroting the press release, but really wasn't feeling the album, and wanted to make that known.

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Reply #29 posted 09/30/14 7:11pm

Mintchip

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delirious said:

From the LA Time review:

"at one point, during his rant against cloud computing "Clouds"..."

ROFL - does anyone believe Prince is ranting against cloud computing? In what universe would that make sense in and also in what universe would prince either know about or give a crap about cloud computing?

I confess I do not understand the exact meaning behind "we don't need no clouds" but my guess is that it is a drug reference. I guess this is open for debate....

ex speed freak here, and bingo, i thought the same. Not that Prince would know the lingo...although those aftershows do go pretty late hmmm

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