I've had this weird thing happen 3 times now.

I hear a Prince track being played on the radio and it's totally hot so I call up the station and they tell me it's The Gold Standard, Funknroll and Time from AOA.

Well, that's weird because a few weeks ago I bought AOA at K-Mart, played it on the car CD player on the way home and was pretty disappointed in it.

As a matter of fact I didn't even recognize the songs on the radio as anything I'd even heard before.

So I play the CD again and still it's very ho hum to me.

What the hell is going on? Can anyone tell me if there's more than one version of this album that's been released?

I don't get it.

Hmmmm.... I don't think that's it.

They sound like different mixes to me, not just lower fidelity.

What sort of bullshit is this?

JoshuaWho said:

What sort of bullshit is this?

DakutiusMaximus said:

DakutiusMaximus said:

I've had this weird thing happen 3 times now.

I hear a Prince track being played on the radio and it's totally hot so I call up the station and they tell me it's The Gold Standard, Funknroll and Time from AOA.

Well, that's weird because a few weeks ago I bought AOA at K-Mart, played it on the car CD player on the way home and was pretty disappointed in it.

As a matter of fact I didn't even recognize the songs on the radio as anything I'd even heard before.

So I play the CD again and still it's very ho hum to me.

What the hell is going on? Can anyone tell me if there's more than one version of this album that's been released?

I don't get it.

If you heard Funknroll on the radio, it's possible you heard the version from the Plectrum Electrum album, which is different to the version on Art Official Age.

What station might this be? None of those tracks are getting airplay.

KKCR is our community radio station on the island of Kauai, which is, to be specific, in the middle of the Pacific, and streams live at http://kkcr.org/ .

Our DJs are free to play whatever the hell they want whenever the hell they want and we hear some awesome stuff coming out of our speakers.

I don't know what time zone you are in but one of the most best radio shows ever is on every Friday evening from 8-10 PM Hawaii time (we are 2 hours earlier than California right now but that will turn to 3 hours next weekend when the clocks move ahead an hour. We do not change ours here).

The show is called Beatbox Time Machine and the DJ, Tod Walker is extremely talented. He's not merely an announcer, he takes you on a crazy stream of consciousness ride between the tunes he plays which are all top shelf funk, soul, jazz, new school and old.

Anyone who checks him out will be happy they did. He's definitely not your average radio guy. In fact, he deserves to be syndicated, he is so entertaining.


As for my copy of AOA, there are whole guitar tracks missing on Funknroll. I know because I was home within an hour of hearing the cut on the radio and put it right on to see if it sounded like the track I heard on the radio.

I of course knew it was Prince and called the station to ask if it was from Plectrum Electrum which I don't have and was gobsmacked (again) to be told it was from AOA.

EDIT: I didn't see your post come in while I was composing, Miltant. So Funknroll appears on both the new discs? Whew, I thought I was going crazy there. Thanks.

But that still doesn't answer why Time and The Gold Standard hit me the same way. Could it be that P deliberately engineered them to sound hot coming out of the car radio?

When I play the CD in the car it's coming out of the same speakers but the source is different. Hmmm...

[Edited 3/3/15 3:08am]

DakutiusMaximus said:

What station might this be? None of those tracks are getting airplay.

KKCR is our community radio station on the island of Kauai, which is, to be specific, in the middle of the Pacific, and streams live at http://kkcr.org/ .

Our DJs are free to play whatever the hell they want whenever the hell they want and we hear some awesome stuff coming out of our speakers.

I don't know what time zone you are in but one of the most best radio shows ever is on every Friday evening from 8-10 PM Hawaii time (we are 2 hours earlier than California right now but that will turn to 3 hours next weekend when the clocks move ahead an hour. We do not change ours here).

The show is called Beatbox Time Machine and the DJ, Tod Walker is extremely talented. He's not merely an announcer, he takes you on a crazy stream of consciousness ride between the tunes he plays which are all top shelf funk, soul, jazz, new school and old.

Anyone who checks him out will be happy they did. He's definitely not your average radio guy. In fact, he deserves to be syndicated, he is so entertaining.


As for my copy of AOA, there are whole guitar tracks missing on Funknroll. I know because I was home within an hour of hearing the cut on the radio and put it right on to see if it sounded like the track I heard on the radio.

I of course knew it was Prince and called the station to ask if it was from Plectrum Electrum which I don't have and was gobsmacked (again) to be told it was from AOA.

EDIT: I didn't see your post come in while I was composing, Miltant. So Funknroll appears on both the new discs? Whew, I thought I was going crazy there. Thanks.

But that still doesn't answer why Time and The Gold Standard hit me the same way. Could it be that P deliberately engineered them to sound hot coming out of the car radio?

When I play the CD in the car it's coming out of the same speakers but the source is different. Hmmm...

[Edited 3/3/15 3:08am]

Yeah, the Funknroll version from Plectrum Electrum is likely the one you heard, that's the guitar based one. The AOA version is the minimal hip-hop remix version.

As for the other songs, music can definitely sound different on the radio. Some stations are known to speed up songs very slightly. Other radio stations use vintage equipment that affects the way you hear the source material. For example, BBC Radio is well known for the vintage compressors they use. I've had several of my songs played and playlisted on different BBC stations including BBC Radio 1 and we're always surprised when we hear them playing on the station when we're in the car, the gear they use adds a different colour to the recording. It's subtle, but noticeable.

DakutiusMaximus said:

But that still doesn't answer why Time and The Gold Standard hit me the same way. Could it be that P deliberately engineered them to sound hot coming out of the car radio?

When I play the CD in the car it's coming out of the same speakers but the source is different. Hmmm...

[Edited 3/3/15 3:08am]

Can't comment on Prince, but I know Slash does excatly that - The acomplimenting magazine to the most recent album had an interview with him mentioning how he drove arond for weeks in his car to get the sound right as "he knew that's where he knew his fans listened to his music".

Not sure if this is true of everone, but I listen to 90% of my music while comuting to and from work (so about 3 hours a day) and then also a bit of radio while cooking.

u mean u didnt realize music can sound a whole lot better on radio?

It's not going to sound THAT different.... come on! Unless it's an AM radio.

ufoclub said:

It's not going to sound THAT different.... come on! Unless it's an AM radio.

Agreed. The station may EQ things a little and, like Militant said, may alter the tempo slightly if it is being mixed with other songs. But essentially the songs will sound the same. You would be able to tell its the same song that you have on CD. Funk n Roll may of course be the PLEC version that was heard on the radio.

Of course, the station may have been playing fan remixes acquired from the internet. Although Im not aware of any Gold Standard fan remixes, I have heard a Time remix which was pretty good.

I have a "surround" option on my sound-system disc player, and on most of albums, it gives an interestingly new mix. it was almost shocking to hear LOTUS FLOWER that way the first time, it makes the album almost new to listen to.