To me the big elephant in the room has always been the production. There are a whole lot of other problems with it including the almost pedestrian percussion/drum/beats that are almost pedestrian enough, and would certainly not even meet Casio's minimum requirements as a preset in the 80's, much less on a PRINCE record! I mean really, the man who would amaze with his precusion and grooves delivered this level of lazy cheese?


But I digress, the sound. The thin tinny sound! Every track has that thin sound. Even his vocals are nasally. I haven’t heard anything quite so awful in ..ever on a major release. Sure, in bits and pieces as an artistic flourish, but the whole damn thing? It's painful to listen to.

And seriously no music critic has mentioned it? I doubt most of the reviewers even really listen to this album. Just gave it high marks like a courtesy to a legend, just a condesending pat on the head for his past works.

I mentioned previously that I believe Prince, as most men his age has lost at least a part of his hearing. The higher frequencies are the first to go, so I am almost certain he is over compensating the high rage because he can't hear it. The yes-men around him are certainly not going to question the legend on this. Like something out of a Hans Christian Anderson story. Case in point listen to Lotusflow3r where he hired a seasoned outside engineer in Richard Furch. What? Fuller deeper sounds? High, low and middle tones? A large part of my love for this record is it sounds so much better than the thin tinny records he had been peddling in previous years.

Don't believe me? Listen to any of the records recorded by the Prince with younger ears. Much, much richer fuller sounds. The man made electronic sound sound warm and exciting. Charming even.
I went out and put on music in every genre i could think of, and from different eras to see if something this tinny other than a parody ever sounded as bad. My conclusion, ..to never listen to this album again.

Why won't radio and consumers pick this record up? Geez, c'mon, the sound! It's "listener repellant". I wont go any on on the other problems with it, but as I said from day one, anyone at any record label with any kind of common sense would have known this record would flop as baddly as it did.

[Edited 1/23/15 14:04pm]

Completely disagree. I don't find it thin and tinny at all. And I'm in my mid 20's and a professional musician. Definitely not losing my hearing.

If this were a fact, then as you say, it's likely at least one critic would have mentioned it.

How many threads on AOA is terrible, AOA is great do we have...

Complete nonsense. Lock?

Let me clarify. What's nonsense is the pure invective that courses through the post, not necessarily the objection to the sound. It's just absurd.

Militant said:

Aw c'mon. Just play with your equalizer until you're satisfied.

KingSausage said:

What you call "thin and tinny" is his musical statement on the digital age.

Art Official Age is a great musical journey. If you don't get it, you don't.

Aerogram said:

Man you just cant stop talking about all the things wrong with this awesome album

Its great! Live with it.

Don't really agree with the OP either. Unless the entire album is being judged by the first half of the FnR remix. What in particular sounds thin or tinny? Personally I think there is a lushness to the production on AOA.
As for Prince loosing his hearing, I doubt he'd be jumping in to guest with other bands if he couldn't hear them.

Prince has always sang nasally. As does Stevie Wonder etc.

I disagree, I play this album off my iphone through my jbl monitors, your system needs tuning, not the album.

V10LETBLUES said:

The thin tinny sound!

When, where and how are you listening to sound generated by what?

I disagree with the OP, Violetblues:


Maybe you should try to listen to the AOA album on a LP vinyl - its even better than the Cd.

V10LETBLUES said:

Aerogram said:

What you call "thin and tinny" is his musical statement on the digital age.

Art Official Age is a great musical journey. If you don't get it, you don't.

...and some defend the title track cornyness as a "parody" of modern music too. People are bending over backwards to defend this mediocre album. To me it just sounds like someone so completely out of touch. [Edited 1/23/15 18:54pm]

So controversial.

At least you can't deny it's your favorite album to dislike, since you've felt it necessary to share your disdain repeatedly over dozens of posts for months now.

I don't think it sounds "thin and tinny", but sure, the way Prince arranges the different elements in his music and the way he's used to have his mixes sound is very different from what's favoured these days. If the music is not optimized for the type of consumer / laptop speakers that many have these days then it might sound "wrong" to many. It's really caused by your own speakers, however.

I myself really have to turn down the bass at home when playing back tracks like AOC because those explosion sounds on it would disturb my neighbours. I have big speakers and the track takes full advantage of the dynamic low end. My apartment literally shakes when I play back to that track. There's a difference between that track and, say, "The Gold Standard" though. So it varies a bit.

thedance said:

See... I thought it sounded artificial by design. It does have an irritating sound overall, to me. I haven't put much thought into what exactly the problem is. I just assumed it was part of the 'This Is An Artificial Prince record' motif.

funksterr said:

See... I thought it sounded artificial by design. It does have an irritating sound overall, to me. I haven't put much thought into what exactly the problem is. I just assumed it was part of the 'This Is An Artificial Prince record' motif.

Is there such a motif?

Why do you assume Josh Welton has a bigger hand in things than the likes of Hans Martin Buff, or Michael Koppleman?

Stop listening through computer speakers. Get a great pair of headphones/earbuds or a great stereo system and you will hear how good AOA really is.

joyinrepetition said:

Stop listening through computer speakers. Get a great pair of headphones/earbuds or a great stereo system and you will hear how good AOA really is.

Don't do that. Breakdown is still the most ludicrously (unintentionally) distorted piece of music you've ever heard, no matter how much you spend on your stereo and headphones. It's a joke that they sold this album in high resolution, so you can hear the horror as clearly as possible.

^ (the breakdown) it's hardly that bad, and it was obviously added like that deliberately - possibly being the first take.

[Edited 1/24/15 12:14pm]

ufoclub said:

V10LETBLUES said:

If this album is supposed to be a statement about artificial culture/music/whatever it falls flat because it sounds so out of touch. Especially if he is mocking modern music. It's like an old lady's idea of what today's music sounds like

"Culture/Music/Whatever" - so you've clearly listened to the album, and decided it's about artificial whatever... great start, good to know you know your stuff or whatever