Both records are irritating to me to the point that I CAN'T tolerate listening to them very long. I seriously love Whitecaps as a song, and don't mind Hannah's vocals, even though I know she isn't a great singer. I could say a lot of good things about the albums in terms of musicianship, and updated sounds, but the overall attitude of Prince and 3EG on the projects, plus the way the records are mixed or tuned or something, idk, grates on my nerves and I can't bring myself to play either album much.

They're not great albums, but I perfer PlecElec. It's more of the diection I want Prince to be heading in, but it doesn't capture their live magic and being billed as a 'rock' album (what I wanted) it didn't rock hard enough. Lacks the heaviness/creativeness/edginess/songwriting of his best rocks songs, like Bambi, Darling Nikki, What's My Name, Boom, Dreamer... and so on.

There are some real keepers spread between the two albums though - Time, Anotherlove, Plectrumelectrum, Tictactoe. Love the ambience on Time and the Affirmations, would love to see Prince exploring that further too.

its just that he couldve included better tracks on both CDs ..that he had sitting in his studio

luvsexy4all said:

funksterr said:

deleted from Ipod. i was into some of the AOA tracks at first but my interest just waned.

PE is just rotten excpet for WOW and Anotherlove

I still love AOA and about ha

lf as much for Plec Eletrum. Time, What it feels like and all of the solid songs on AOA have it spinning here, often.

I like Plec Elec for the energetic, fun. Boy trouble gets bashed but I like it. Can U imagine working for Prince, under his constant work schedule and ethic. Then go to play somewhere and guys come out of the woodwork trying to hook up with 'the girls.' Besides at least two are married, Donna and Hannah, and they are there to play what Prince has taught them. It's fun watching the band play but in real life, that takes a lot of work. And I'm sure Prince would have none of it if guys were hanging around trying to get close to the girls while they are working. They are there to play and want the boys to go away. A fun tune imo. Another Love rocks and overall I enjoy this album too. I can't help it, I just love most everything Prince plays and or arranges.

Always way better than most songs being played today!!

I was excited fro thm because they were released on my birthday. Being a life long Prince fan, I felt I was destined to get them......and then I played the albums. Meh. In fact, I haven't touched those CDs since the one time I played them at launch. To say I found them disappointing is an understantement. They really lessened my interest in Prince. I still love his older music, but I'm.....less than excited about any of his new releases.

I still like both. Are they up there with his very best? No, of course not.

But I spend quite a lot of time trying to find new music that I like. In 99.99% of cases, any new music I hear makes me what to rip my ears off ... so within that context, these albums are near masterpieces.

Even mediocre Prince is better than most of the shit I hear.

V10LETBLUES said:

funksterr said:

Both records are irritating to me to the point that I CAN'T tolerate listening to them very long. I seriously love Whitecaps as a song, and don't mind Hannah's vocals, even though I know she isn't a great singer. I could say a lot of good things about the albums in terms of musicianship, and updated sounds, but the overall attitude of Prince and 3EG on the projects, plus the way the records are mixed or tuned or something, idk, grates on my nerves and I can't bring myself to play either album much.

As far as AOA I've talked about the grating sound as well. To say it's not a pleasant sounding album is an understatement. The complete lack of warmth is disturbing. Everything is in the high range and stays there. It sounds so thin and tinny that It's tiring to try and listen to track after track without any variation in tone. It's so monotonous it hurts. [Edited 2/28/15 18:03pm]

Not as tiring as reading you allude to the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Check your speakers or EQ.

I no longer play either. AOA was interesting for a while ( 3 ... 4 weeks?), but none of the songs really grabbed me all that much in the end. PE, I never heard all the way through, but have no interest to anyway.

Saddly, the 3 or 4 weeks I did listen to AOA is far more than his previous 3 releases, where I more or less, gave them a single spin, skipping tracks.

I'm still pretty happy with AOA, however he should've kept off the previously released songs like Breakdown & BCW, to me they turned out to be filler since we'd had them most of the year, but overall, a strong effort.

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PLEL is still an overwhelmingly disappointing album. It's like Disney rock, but worse. Hannah's voice just destroys the album. Even the strong songs AL & WOW are still missing something for me. I still like the song BT that almost eveyone hates. The rest is just awful. Considering these are four super talented individuals playing that have put on some superb performances, they really can't put an album together well quite yet, which is very surpising to me. The only song I really like is the title track, but if you bought Donna's debut album it's much better.

SuperSoulFighter said:

To be honest, I've sort of forgotten about them already.

Same here, I listened to them both for 3-4 weeks after release and haven't heard them since....

A couple songs off Plectrum are great - "Wow", "Another Love", "Plectrum Electrum"

Some are just okay, but I ain't tryna listen too often - "Whitecaps", "Tic Tac Toe"

The rest is junk.

AOA is just not a good record. Boring, tepid, ballad-heavy, and tryhard. "Way Back Home" felt like a standout, but it gets lost in his need for arbitrary storytelling. Feels like 20TEN 2.0 with the other songs. Shoulda called it 20FOURTEEN and it woulda made more sense. Prince is better than this record. I hope.

Not surprising, really. Only 2-3 songs per record are good anymore. Really loved LotusFlower, but wherever that Prince went is far from AOA.

AOA got 3 interesting tracks (the gold standard, u know, funknroll) to me the rest is just so boring...

PE is much better, very good effort from P, but 2 boring tracks (aintturninround, stopthistrain).

Does anyone remember the thread that was posted a few months before AOA was released in which a female musician ( I forget who ) did a radio interview about Prince's "forthcoming album," and she praised it saying that it was classic Purple Rain era Prince updated for the present. She had really amazing things to say about his album. I wonder if it was AOA she was speaking about, and how she could have drawn parallels to Purple Rain based on hearing it.

People who rate either of these records highly in comparison to Prince's earlier work are delusional. 8 out of 10? Please! They're happy with crumbs from their majesty's table & with rare exception, the tracks on these albums are indigestible swill.

LittlePurpleYoda said:

People who rate either of these records highly in comparison to Prince's earlier work [have their own opinions and you yours]

Fixed.

I listen to PLEC more than any album from the 00's (with the exception of Lotus). Some of the tracks from AOA I listen to just as much as PLEC (Breakdown, What it Feels Like, Time, WBH). Combined I like both of them better than anything since TGE. While I liked TRC I didn't really listen to it all that much.

Like other posters, I stopped listening to them both after 2-3 weeks. Can't say if my original preference for AOA still stands, but haven't had urge to listen and find out. Haven't been listening to much of Prince regardless or posting on here either since release... Kind of sad that new albums made me feel like I needed a break!

Plectrum electrum I barely listen to any more, it has too many bad songs and a very inconsistent sound. Its like many of Prince's recent proteges in sound and quality, very average although there are 3 or 4 good songs which I have on my Prince favourites playlist. They are Fixurlifeup, Pretzelbodylogic, Anotherlove and Funknroll. The rest I don't care if I never hear them again. Particularly Boytrouble, that song should be thrown off a high cliff into the deepest cave and fall back into the primeval ooze it emerged from.

.

Art Official Age on the other hand I still listen to a lot and it is a lot of fun. The musical quality is much better and unlike other post 2000 albums that I initially loved, this one shows staying power and is full of funky songs. Only the title track, which is riddled with silly samples and the hideous affirmations I avoid now. Although of the rest U know and What it feels like are the definite lesser tracks. The best song on it is still This could be us, a stone cold classic for Prince.

.

I just updated my Prince albums list and got a raw mark for each album, now outside the initiate hype of brouhaha over them has passed. The scores were 60 for PLEC and 80 for AOA. 74 is the average score for my Prince albums list. The highest is 99 for Sign o the times, all of the 80s except Batman. The lowest score is 42 for New Power Soul (Not including semi official albums and Kamasutra). After 2000, the lowest is TRC with 51 and the highest is AOA, next is 3121 with 77 and Lotusflow3r at 76, many of the albums score in the low 70s.

[Edited 3/2/15 19:37pm]

Plectrum would have been better had he included/replaced a few of the songs with some of the stronger stuff from the TEG downloads (Boyfriend, Screwdriver, Fix Your Life Up...maybe even the re-do's of SAIMH and Let's Go Crazy).

.

AOA is still strong, his best in years, I just wish it had one or two more funk/bangers/up tempo trax on it besides Funk N Roll and The Gold Standard. It always felt like a "warm weather, spring time, top-of-the-car-down" type of record to me so I look forward to breaking it out again once the weather warms up. "Way Back Home" and the Affirmations still give me goosebumps so I dunno.

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I'm not sure what anyone's real problem with either record is, from an overall standpoint at least, but a lot of this stuff boils down to peronal taste and the type(s) of music you look for from Prince. I got a decent rock album and and a quirky, spacey, experimental Prince album and I think they're both rather good.

Honestly, underwhelmed. But I really haven't taken the time to listen to either album carefully, and I've only heard each album a couple times total.

So my mind is still open.

RodeoSchro said:

Honestly, underwhelmed. But I really haven't taken the time to listen to either album carefully, and I've only heard each album a couple times total.

So my mind is still open.

Smoke a bowl, get some headphones and listen to AOA from end to end.

herb4 said:

RodeoSchro said:

Honestly, underwhelmed. But I really haven't taken the time to listen to either album carefully, and I've only heard each album a couple times total.

So my mind is still open.

Smoke a bowl, get some headphones and listen to AOA from end to end.

Smoke two bowls, get some headphones and carefully listen to Plectrum Electrum from beginning to end. For a new band they are TIIIIGGGGGHHHT! Donna and Prince already have so much musical kismet and Ida rocks that bass. Listen carefully and listen to it as a rock band not traditional Prince.

I still like them both. AOA is still better than PLEC but both are better than 20Ten, Lotus, PE and Musicology. AOA is the best thing this century, barring maybe TRC.

I would like to see a follow up of both albums and hear them evolve as opposed to being one-offs. Having said that, I would also like to have a new album heavy on bass and horns - its been a while.