It speaks of rebirth.

It's cohesive, spiritual and not that much of a party album.

When I listen to it, I feel both a sense of loss and a sense of hope.

it's emotional and sensual, but is the opposite of an appeal to excess.

Its third song is a big ballad reminescent of Anna Stesia.

It has flowers.

Musically, ok AOA is more experimental for Prince than Lovesexy. There's not a trace of an Alphabet Street on it, and certainly no Dance On.

But stiil...

It's his best since Lovesexy.

KingSausage said:

I think it's his 21st century Art Official Age.

KingSausage said:

Aerogram said:

NO! Lovesexy is AWESOME and AOA is SHIT. This comparison is BLASPHEMY.

KingSausage said:

Aerogram said:

.........

Musically, ok AOA is more experimental for Prince than Lovesexy........

I was just about to shut off my laptop and go to bed when I saw this, and I couldn't go to sleep without responding. Let me preface this by saying that of course, as always, opinions about music are unique to the individual, and there are no facts, yada yada yada...

However, to say that AOA is even slightly as experimental as Lovesexy, let alone more experimental (and the way you say it so offhandedly, like it's an obvious fact) is, to me, really fucking absurd.

I like AOA, quite a bit - obviously nothing Prince is going to release now is going to ever compete with Lovesexy to me in terms of how much I like it though. But that's not even the point - we're talking about experimental. For it's time (and even now) Lovesexy is infinitely more experimental than AOA. The only song on Lovesexy that sounds like anything else on any other record EVER is "When 2 R in Love." Everything else is so unique to that record that it has it's own genre. Let's called it LoveSex, My Jam. When I first played Lovesexy after it came out, my ears didn't know how to comprehend what I was hearing, but I knew I wanted to listen to it more, and more, and more, to try to understand. And with each listen came further revelations.

AOA, on the other hand, is certainly more experimental than, say, 2010/Planet Earth/3121/Musicology. Having said that though, it's basically an R&B/pop record. My 2 favorite songs, "This Could Be Us" and "This is What it Feels Like" (yeah, I know, not the most popular on here, but whatever) are straight-up pop songs with an R&B tinge. Great tunes, but nothing even slightly experimental.

The more I think about this, the more confused I get - what exactly do you think is so experimental about AOA, Aerogram? The sped up/slowed down voices that he's been doing since SOTT (and to a greater extent, Lovesexy)? The lasers in "The Breakdown"? The foghorn or whatever the fuck it is on Art Official Cage that has been on umpteen Europop songs over the last decade? Again, don't get me wrong, I really dig this album, and I will agree that it's less safe than his output for the last decade, which is a step in the right direction for sure.... but to say that it's more experimental than Lovesexy just blows me away. I rank Lovesexy as his most experimental album, period.

You are gonna make it hard for me to sleep tonight with this kind of hyperbole, DAMN!

Also:

The Breakdown, while a great song, is in no way/shape/form reminiscent of Anna Stesia. I mean, WTF?!

KingSausage said:

I don't think so. I love both albums, but Lovesexy has far more consistent themes. If anything, TRC was the 21st century Lovesexy. Right down to the initial version he released to fans that was all one track.

KingSausage is on the right track...TRC is absolutely the 21st century Lovesexy. Coincidentally, he started playing Anna Stesia live again on this tour (although he inexplicable changed it to Anna Stasia and threw in a crass commercial for his website at the end of it, ugh). I just listened to TRC again in its entirety while carving pumpkins with my boyfriend yesterday and was reminded once again how fucking much that album came out of left field and demanded repeat listens, sucking me in further every time. AOA is, as I keep stating, a really good album, but there's nothing that deep in there.

To me its more like a 21st century 1999, think of it, experimental sounds and multitracked voices, weird drum machine effects, samples like 1999.

.

Epic songs and a lot of sexual references, it sounds adventurous like 1999, and has almost no spirituality beyond references to affirmation rather than GOD who is referred to ad nauseam in Lovesexy.

.

Still all are great albums.

No because Art Official Age is better than Lovesexy...

Aerogram said:

KingSausage said:

As much as I love AOA, I can't agree that it's more experimental than Lovesexy. Many songs on Lovesexy are impossible to even categorize. Their genre is PRINCE. No other label makes sense.

Besides more complicated arrangements in Eye No and the divine "trip" that is Alphabet Street, it doesn't bring that much innovation for his sound at the time.

I have to object to this comment too.

Prince changed his electronic instruments almost completely with this album (only "When 2 R In Love" is really from the old bunch). The synthesized textures and the soundscapes are nothing like what he used on the previous Prince albums also for the simple fact that the gear he used on Lovesexy didn't exist earlier. The record is filled with unusual arrangement choices and song structures - not to mention the lyrics and the overall theme are very unique for an album associated with pop, funk and soul music.

Many people on this site seem to think "experimentation" or "innovativeness" in Prince's music refers simply to the minimalist sound that reached its pinnacle on the SOTT album. It's almost as if anything that he's done after SOTT means it's "simply pop" if it doesn't have the same sound.

AOA is somewhat experimental, but to say that it's more experimental than Lovesexy just makes it seem you haven't listened to Lovesexy in ages, or have gotten way too used to it to appreciate its uniqueness as a listening experience.

[Edited 10/23/14 6:16am]

I don't hear anything experimental on AOA. I'm guessing Welton brought some stuff out from his of bag of tricks that were new to Prince, but a lot of the album could happily slide on to any of the many pop/R&B records since the late 90s and wouldn't sound out of place. What It Feels Like even sounds like an NPS out-take. I also don't think the 'rebirth' theme is anywhere near strong enough on this album to call it a concept. Some psychobabble about cryogenics doesn't really do it for me.

theblueangel said:

Also:

The Breakdown, while a great song, is in no way/shape/form reminiscent of Anna Stesia. I mean, WTF?!

It shares a similar theme of partying too much and having a realization, no? Anna Stasia is about having a breakdown although it does end with the fullfilling spiritual experience -- the Breakdown not so much.

I should have known there would be a low tolerance for comparing it to Its Holyness Lovesexy.

I think TRC lacks both the theme of rebirth and a sound you can call 21st Century and it's a far more explicit spiritual statement while Lovesexy was vague and non-specific.

not at all b/c lovesexy is a classic prince moment with some timeless classic shit on alphabet street still is funky as hell and dance on makes u just wanna dance on and the song lovesexy itself rocks and funk all at the same time. lovesexy is the kind of album that let u know prince is a musical mastermind aoa is a album tht shows prince is bored and just going day by day

I hear you. There's a sense of hopeful longing, a playful maturity to both.

Of course they sound nothing alike, etc - but the emotional undercurrent, while not being the same, does feel connected.

Thanks for this.

Lovesexy sounded like nothing in 1988, including Prince's past works (as said above), while AOA desperately tries to sound like everything in 2014. Nuff said for the experimental side I believe.

In mood I see little if any correspondance either. Lovesexy, by Prince's own words, was a gospel album, it was hysterical in mood, the feeling of a young man that had just been slammed in the face by God, and God that day was driving a huge truck.

AOA is just, well, much calmer? It's quite smooth and not hysterical at all, and it doesn't convey anything close to Lovesexy save maybe the intimacy and personal lyrics of Anna Stesia and Way Back Home, but that's just one song.

NouveauDance said:

I don't hear anything experimental on AOA. I'm guessing Welton brought some stuff out from his of bag of tricks that were new to Prince, but a lot of the album could happily slide on to any of the many pop/R&B records since the late 90s and wouldn't sound out of place. What It Feels Like even sounds like an NPS out-take. I also don't think the 'rebirth' theme is anywhere near strong enough on this album to call it a concept. Some psychobabble about cryogenics doesn't really do it for me.

I hear something that reminds me of experimentalism on a few tracks, sure. However, I think that's mostly because Prince's and Welton's styles don't really match eatch other and there's a discordance between the different elements they both have contributed. So, that's what in my mind most likely provides the "experimental" connection. There's a weaker sense of melodic resolution present on many of the tracks than what's typically found on Prince records, some sounds seem to be out of key or at least out of tune with what Prince sings(!), stuff like that.

There's no proof whatsoever that Joshua Welton has had some sort of "knack" for experimentalism prior to entering the Prince camp. Anyone that saw his youtube stuff before he took it all down should have been able to realize perfectly well that he has been all about straightforward contemporary R&B / pop (for that matter, of the kind that most people into experimental stuff usually detest).

Art Official Age is..... great, Lovesexy is..... brilliant.

AOA: is in my top-20 of best Prince-albums,

Lovesexy: is in my top-5.

theblueangel said:

march said:

Anna Stasia?

Yeah, it's the weirdest thing...the tracklist on the ONA Live CD still says "Anna Stesia," but he quite distinctly prnounces it "Anna Stasia." Don't ask me why.