I've listened to both non-stop over the last few months interspersing Prince or 3rdeyegirl and Prince with Bad Brains ("Into the Future" their latest and one of their best) alot of 24-7 Spyz cds, old Funkadelic (1971-1978) and other guitar driven bands. I have to say I like AoA, but love PlecElec the more I listen to it and the more I take note of the musicianship, delivery, and the constructions of the songs. In fact, I'm crazy about that joint...in a car or anywhere with a good set of speakers it really stands out and you can appreciate the nuances in the music. Prince really worked on this one and put his heart into it! AoA is good, but 5 months now I'm feeling like PlecElec is something extraordinary even with the lack of airplay on rock radio/satellite etc. I also saw most of the PlecElec stuff live here in Portland, OR in 2014 and it was incredible to hear. I've been using Pandora with 3rdeyegirl as the descriptor and have been really pleased with the selections. Anyway, my two cents....what are your two cents worth of opinions 5 months out?

I'm still the same, I like AOA more than PE.

Clouds, The Breakdown, Way Back Home, Time, are excellent. I can listen to those tracks over and over again.

I still find PE very weak. I loved seeing 3EG and Prince live last year but it just doesn't do it for me on disc. The one recorded song of their's I love is (wait for it cos this is regarded as one of the weakest) is Live Out Loud and that's not on the album. That one does give me a buzz and has that nice Princely uplift to it.

same here... PE is still not relevant... all tracks are ok but not more and i dont listen to it ..

90% of AOA are great and i listen to it maybe once a week

I stopped playing them about 2 weeks after they came out...
I played them last week while I was doing some work, but I realized why I stopped before.

Forgot all about them.

I've forgotten about them sadly. Really like AOA as well upon release. I can admit I was just swept up in the hype and excinment that you get with every new Prince album. They have little substance now the dust has settled.

I still listen to his 90s stuff all the time. It's strange because it's not nessecarily 'better' but it just has far, far greater lasting appeal for some reason.

I still like AOA alot, and some of PE. sadly though, I think these albums are about as strong as prince can now record. Which is still fine for me, I have excepted that Princes best fresh material are behind him.

I preferred PlecEl from the beginning (PE IS PLANET EARTH!!!) and still do, however I don't listen to either anymore at all, but I don't blame Prince for that, it's just me and the fact that there are loads of other things I wanna listen to instead.

dandan said:

I've forgotten about them sadly. Really like AOA as well upon release. I can admit I was just swept up in the hype and excinment that you get with every new Prince album. They have little substance now the dust has settled.

I still listen to his 90s stuff all the time. It's strange because it's not nessecarily 'better' but it just has far, far greater lasting appeal for some reason.

Oh for crying out loud. That some reason is called being 'BETTER'! It's okay to be honest and say it. Sheesh!

I have not listened to those since the week they were released. I moved on a long time ago from those.

I don't even still have my copy of AoA. It's just not a terribly memorable album. Not much to urge re-listening.

I feel the same like I did then:


Art Officail Age is great, about 8/10.

I detest PlectrumElectrum, 1 or 2/10 (Only Wow and Anotherlove are good, the rest is garbage)

same as before - AOA is "ok" by Prince standards ... plectrum I could nt get into ...

I like them both but like AOA better. I'd replace a few songs on PE with some of the 3rd Eye Girl website tracks that put Prince more out front on the vocals but I think they're both fine.

I have to be honest and say that I haven't played the albums much at all. AOA got some good tracks on it, but also a lot of somewhat boring, plodding midtempo joints. Plectrum Electrum has some good tracks as well, but both are not working for me as an album, AOA a bit better than PE though. But since Black Messiah came out I have been listening to that album all the time and I haven't felt the need to reach back to AOA and PE.

Something like Black Messiah is the type of album I would like Prince to make. Focussed, funky, soulful, good lyrics and great musicianship, well textured and produced and inviting to be played over and over again.

I might have to give the albums a second chance by combining the best songs of each album and make that into a nice configuration. They are definately not his worst albums, there is some good material to be found on each album. But the individual albums just don't really invite me much to play over and over again like I have done with Prince albums in the past and now with D'Angelo's latest album.

PE = PLANET EARTH!!!!

AOA has some very strong material on it. Most of the songs on there are slow jams however. The upbeat songs just sound a bit out of touch. Which makes it difficult to listen to frequently. The Yahoo Livestream also kind of damaged AOA by letting us hear the tracks he held back, which all sounded fantastic.

I tend to listen to PE more often. I think it's a decent album and still listen to it fairly often. Again it just suffers from a few too many slow songs. I wish the album had been more in the vein of their live sound.

I love AOA from start to finish, but PlectrumElectrum is more of a mixed bag, with a couple of songs clearly the bandmembers conribution as authorized by Prince as the Teacher. That still leaves a couple of ferocious tracks: Wow, Pretzel FixUrLifeUp, Mars, Anotherlove, and FunknRoll.

KeithyT said:

I'm still the same, I like AOA more than PE.

Clouds, The Breakdown, Way Back Home, Time, are excellent. I can listen to those tracks over and over again.

I still find PE very weak. I loved seeing 3EG and Prince live last year but it just doesn't do it for me on disc. The one recorded song of their's I love is (wait for it cos this is regarded as one of the weakest) is Live Out Loud and that's not on the album. That one does give me a buzz and has that nice Princely uplift to it.

I agree, AOA is in a different class than PE. I do love Wow on PE and the title song however.

yawn then... yawn now...

Both have never left the CD player. Although, I only play AOA.

I listen to PE constantly-- can't get enough of it. It holds up as one of Prince's strongest efforts of the past 20 years. AOA is a work of art, as well. While I don't listen to it as much as PE, it has grown on me. So many years without an album, and then he puts out these two gems. I love them both, but PE especially.