SchlomoThaHomo said:

NorthC said:

SchlomoThaHomo said: No it isn't! You ruin the entire concept! The only problem I have with this album is that it has too many slow songs, so the last thing I'd want to do isremove one of the uptempo tracks.

The "concept" is a little flimsy anyway. And the bad disco of AOC kind of ruins the cool factor for me.

Agreed. Flimsy concept and the opener at this point makes me cringe. Most everything else is good to pretty fantastic.

antonb said:

Isnt it funny how different peoples taste are. I think the title track is great, wacky and screams Prince to me. In fact I dont think you are a true Prince fan UNLESS you like that track!

Art Official Cage is Prince saying "ok, I'm going to give you a musical wink that's kind of a sonic parody like Batdance and My Name Is Prince, just to start this thing with some poppy digital age song while they get me out of suspended animation, hope you're in on the joke."

Art Official Age is simply Prince at his best, we had no right to expect it would be this good but it is.

thanks2joniandu said:

FUNKYNESS said:

Time is becoming a classic for me. Like NewPOwerSoul, when you add up the standout tracks (Breakdown, Clouds, Gold Standard, Way Back Home, Breakfast) its a quietly brilliant Prince album

I would add Time to the list. This Could B Us has grown on me immensely

Time is the first song I mention

SchlomoThaHomo said:

KingSausage said:

Aside from the opening track, I still love every song on AOA. I think it's a great album.

Absolutely. The album is so much better when you start it with CLOUDS.

I have to agree - the segues are better than that first track

I don't tend to listen to the album a lot (tbh that's pretty much the case with a lot of latter day Prince albums so it doesn't necessarily reflect badly on the album in particular) but every time I do I find it to be a very enjoyable listen. There are definitely a few missteps here and there, especially in the lyrics department, but overall I think it's a really credible attempt to make a Prince recognisably "Prince" album while incorporating some more modern production styles (nothing groundbreaking but I don't really expect that from a 50+ year old now a days). I guess you could say that other recent albums by black artists like Black Messiah and To Pimp A Butterfly are more "progressive" in their conceptual reach but I don't think it necessarily has to be a competition, I can enjoy them all for their own individual merits.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

One or two more jams like The Gold Standard and Breakfast and kick out This Could Be Us for something like Boyfriend...gold.

paisleypark4 said:

One or two more jams like The Gold Standard and Breakfast and kick out This Could Be Us for something like Boyfriend...gold.

still playing it and still loving it

Still love this album, only a couple of skips...This could be us one of them. Excellent album.

Still love this album, only a couple of skips...This could be us one of them. Excellent album.

Brendan said:

KingSausage said:

Brendan said:

LOL. I see over the past several months that this title track is fast becoming the new "but for that godawful narrative spooky and some of those lyrics." It sounds to me like Prince has picked up yet another color used so readily today and tried to non-cynically draw in its key. It's my least favorite wink, but like with "3 Chains" or "My Name Is Prince" I can't help but dangle in them even as I awkwardly breakout in something red and bulbous, and probably totally untreatable. If it were the go-to track that set the glorious theme down darkened aisles rather than that rhythm many hoped would trip over itself in the mirror, we'd probably all be licking the squirrel meat off our fingers as the bucket got passed around.

I was gonna post that.

substitute PE except track 6 and 7 with the 7 tracks off AOA and u have the best stuff

Yep excellent CD! Still in rotation including the opener! Way Back Home is simply brilliant!

KingSausage said:

Brendan said:

LOL. I see over the past several months that this title track is fast becoming the new "but for that godawful narrative spooky and some of those lyrics." It sounds to me like Prince has picked up yet another color used so readily today and tried to non-cynically draw in its key. It's my least favorite wink, but like with "3 Chains" or "My Name Is Prince" I can't help but dangle in them even as I awkwardly breakout in something red and bulbous, and probably totally untreatable. If it were the go-to track that set the glorious theme down darkened aisles rather than that rhythm many hoped would trip over itself in the mirror, we'd probably all be licking the squirrel meat off our fingers as the bucket got passed around.

I was gonna post that.

LOL...stoppit.

U Know has a symbiotic relationship with Mila J's Blinded — and is simply amazing.

Breakfast Can Wait (HONEY MIX) is one of the most mouthwatingly luscious songs he's ever created.

FUNKYNESS said:

Time is becoming a classic for me. Like NewPOwerSoul, when you add up the standout tracks (Breakdown, Clouds, Gold Standard, Way Back Home, Breakfast) its a quietly brilliant Prince album

KingSausage said:

appleseed said:

U Know has a symbiotic relationship with Mila J's Blinded — and is simply amazing.

Breakfast Can Wait (HONEY MIX) is one of the most mouthwatingly luscious songs he's ever created.

Breakfast Can Wait is what R&B should be and I heartily agree ....

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

I don't tend to listen to the album a lot (tbh that's pretty much the case with a lot of latter day Prince albums so it doesn't necessarily reflect badly on the album in particular) but every time I do I find it to be a very enjoyable listen. There are definitely a few missteps here and there, especially in the lyrics department, but overall I think it's a really credible attempt to make a Prince recognisably "Prince" album while incorporating some more modern production styles (nothing groundbreaking but I don't really expect that from a 50+ year old now a days). I guess you could say that other recent albums by black artists like Black Messiah and To Pimp A Butterfly are more "progressive" in their conceptual reach but I don't think it necessarily has to be a competition, I can enjoy them all for their own individual merits.

How does age factor into the capacity of a genius? I submit that one has to live at least a half century to develop a truly remarkable level of insight and knowledge. And what is the "conceptual reach" on that Dangelo album? I must have missed it.

[Edited 6/15/15 12:32pm]

FUNKYNESS said:

Time is becoming a classic for me. Like NewPOwerSoul, when you add up the standout tracks (Breakdown, Clouds, Gold Standard, Way Back Home, Breakfast) its a quietly brilliant Prince album

Finally, someone who knows what they are talking about! I concur but would add Time and This Could Be Us. Prince forever!

I like all the songs but the sound quality on AOA is appalling.

I'm not sure whether it's the recording, engineering, or mastering, that are to blame, but distortion on several of tracks makes the album almost unlistenable for me.

To my ears, AOA is the most satisfying albums since Emancipation, if not Lovesexy. The 2nd half of that album is absolutely stunning, and P's bass playing is off the chain. Y'all are sleeping HARD on it.

AOC is great because it's a playful take on the sonic cage, that musical girdle that the pop world wears and that some would like Prince to wear -- it's a meta-musical experience and the reason it works is that no one wanted Prince to come back and try to pen that Important First Song of the Album. He's done so many albums, not sure how he's supposed to come out with 1999, SOTT, Controversy - type first songs forever and a day, so here he comments sonically and it's up to you to understand he's seriously NOT trying to have that Gigantic Opener.