Prince is a legend. Prince is known for his talent not only as a musician but his artistry as a composer and the artistry of crafting sonic recordings as a producer. In the begging of his career, he was treated like any new artist. Reviewed critically by the top music critics at the time. And back then, before everyone and anyone was able to post an opinion, and music was a lucrative industry, and newspapers and magazines paid for the top talent, top music reviewers were know by name. Sure there were a lot of bad ones too, but it was all more condensed so the bad ones were easily picked out by other critics and readers alike.

Fast forward today where sensationalism, lack of editorial moral grounds and the amounts of literal holes all pointing at you and shooting at you in the "everyone has one" when it comes to opinion. Some of the holes less A-holey than others, and some more serious and clinical to dissecting media, enough to call them anal, instead of A holes in the care they take in informing readers.

Which brings me to current music reviews. Yes we still have good ones, but we have far more of the ones who have no business reviewing music. And especially when it comes to reviewing Prince's current output, new music from a "legend", it seem like editors at music desks, look around the office to see who is a Prince fan, the gossip writer, anyone who likes them qualified or not and asks them to review the new Prince Album. Not, not the young guy, reviewing the latest music, but the girl or old dude who consider themselves knowledgeable about Prince and Shalamar and Peaches and Herb.

Take a look at some of these on Metacritic, these are REAL! The scores are based off of these crackhead reviews.

Observer Monthly Music- MPLSound
MPLSound could be a thank-you note to those Parade-era purists patient enough to have stuck around.


Do you think this person even listened to the record, much less Parade?

Billboard

Mplsound is sometimes stronger still [than "Lotusflow3r"], with the party whoop of '(There'll Never B) Another Like Me,' the delicious dirty mind of 'Chocolate Box' and 'Ol' Skool Company,' which will have you partying like its 1985.

Holy cow. And let's remember that the Metacritic average for worst Prince album ever made MPLSound, is higher than LotusFlow3r. An Album the gossip lady who is a music critic because she loves Peaches and Herb could not get into because it's not funky-fresh like No Parking On The Dance Floor by The Dazz Band.

This brings me back to his current failure. Art Official Age, an album that no one but a hack with absolutely no critical criteria could possibly recommend but as torture. So badly put together that anyone would hang their head in shame in recommending it. Breakfast Can Wait.

Take this one for example. While the Reviewer only gave it a grade of 60, there is this whopper.

The New York Times-AOA

While the production details of each track are full of lessons in musicianly ingenuity



Enough said. And what the fuck is “musicianly” . This here is both the why AND the result of today's sad state of the music industry.

[Edited 8/11/15 14:29pm]

V10LETBLUES said:

Observer Monthly Music- MPLSound
MPLSound could be a thank-you note to those Parade-era purists patient enough to have stuck around.

Fuck me.

Did they just pick an album title from thin air?

Thank you for this long intro to your usual AOA is Crap statement.

The history of reviewing is littered with critics who got it wrong, you can find clueless reviews about Elvis, the Beatles, the Stones, Citizen Kane, etc. in the archives of countless newspapers -- some of these reviews are in fact terribly funny today.

The Metacritic quotes pale in comparison, so much for your theory that the art of reviewing has gone downhill. Taste arbitring is by definition done by people who think they are more refined, but unfortunately "good taste" can also mean "ultra-conventional things none of my friends will dare challenge unless they want to be called tacky".

a turkey is a turkey.....MPLSound...NPS....AOA...

AOA is not a bad album, it's not great, it's a solid AVERAGE album...

Stop always making AOA sound like it's horrible... If you want a horrible boring Prince album, PLANET EARTH is the one.

KingSausage said:

I thought AOA got a 95% score on Metacritic. Oh, wait. That was Black Messiah, the album Prince wishes he could make. My mistake!

I agree that Black Messiah is amazing.

But (an I am a huge fan) you can hear Prince in everything D does. I kinda love that....but Black Messiah is not better than any Prince album at Princes peak.

V10LETBLUES said:

thedoorkeeper said:

V10LETBLUES said:

thedoorkeeper said:

Musicianly is an adjective.

I know what the nitwit was trying to say, but what the fuck else would a mucicians work sound like? Priince sounds musiciany, Too fucking funny.

Let's you're right and a good chunk of reviewers are mindlessly incompetent, at least you'll think the other chunk is perhaps better, even good at their job.

Excluding that chunk who raved about AOA, your opinion on the record is still twice as negative as some of the less favorable reviews from major outlets.

So you're going against more than people who raved, even those who share your displeasure didn't pan it as completely as you did. In other words, you're in the minority of the minority and it sounds like you think 95 % of critics are horribly below you in terms of taste.

But let's continue the hatefest, I guess it's a way to blow steam.

Record reviews are (sometimes) really funny to me alot of times,I'm amazed at the stuff that a critic focuses on.I'm also surprised by some of the stuff that they overlook.

In the digital age where almost every piece of information on any given subject is available, why would anybody use music critics as a gauge on how good or bad a piece of music is? When somone like Prince reaches longevity and certain amount of cultural equity in pop culture, most reviewers are going to write about the current music based on biases they have to their prime or can't understand that what inspired that artist' most acclaimed work way back when has changed. Sometimes for better and sometimes worse. Its to the point where any artist that comes after him releasing music based on Prince's older ideas are only scratching the surface of what he did in the '80s, he can afford to be "patronized".

bashraka said:

terrig said:

V10LETBLUES said:

Observer Monthly Music- MPLSound

MPLSound could be a thank-you note to those Parade-era purists patient enough to have stuck around.

V10LETBLUES said:

Prince is a legend. Prince is known for his talent not only as a musician but his artistry as a composer and the artistry of crafting sonic recordings as a producer. In the begging of his career, he was treated like any new artist. Reviewed critically by the top music critics at the time. And back then, before everyone and anyone was able to post an opinion, and music was a lucrative industry, and newspapers and magazines paid for the top talent, top music reviewers were know by name. Sure there were a lot of bad ones too, but it was all more condensed so the bad ones were easily picked out by other critics and readers alike.

Fast forward today where sensationalism, lack of editorial moral grounds and the amounts of literal holes all pointing at you and shooting at you in the "everyone has one" when it comes to opinion. Some of the holes less A-holey than others, and some more serious and clinical to dissecting media, enough to call them anal, instead of A holes in the care they take in informing readers.

Which brings me to current music reviews. Yes we still have good ones, but we have far more of the ones who have no business reviewing music. And especially when it comes to reviewing Prince's current output, new music from a "legend", it seem like editors at music desks, look around the office to see who is a Prince fan, the gossip writer, anyone who likes them qualified or not and asks them to review the new Prince Album. Not, not the young guy, reviewing the latest music, but the girl or old dude who consider themselves knowledgeable about Prince and Shalamar and Peaches and Herb.

Take a look at some of these on Metacritic, these are REAL! The scores are based off of these crackhead reviews.

Observer Monthly Music- MPLSound
MPLSound could be a thank-you note to those Parade-era purists patient enough to have stuck around.


Do you think this person even listened to the record, much less Parade?

Billboard

Mplsound is sometimes stronger still [than "Lotusflow3r"], with the party whoop of '(There'll Never B) Another Like Me,' the delicious dirty mind of 'Chocolate Box' and 'Ol' Skool Company,' which will have you partying like its 1985.

Holy cow. And let's remember that the Metacritic average for worst Prince album ever made MPLSound, is higher than LotusFlow3r. An Album the gossip lady who is a music critic because she loves Peaches and Herb could not get into because it's not funky-fresh like No Parking On The Dance Floor by The Dazz Band.

This brings me back to his current failure. Art Official Age, an album that no one but a hack with absolutely no critical criteria could possibly recommend but as torture. So badly put together that anyone would hang their head in shame in recommending it. Breakfast Can Wait.

Take this one for example. While the Reviewer only gave it a grade of 60, there is this whopper.

The New York Times-AOA

While the production details of each track are full of lessons in musicianly ingenuity



Enough said. And what the fuck is “musicianly” . This here is both the why AND the result of today's sad state of the music industry.

[Edited 8/11/15 14:29pm]

For some reason you seem to think your opinion is the only valid one. You basically just insulted all your fellow prince fans who got any enjoyment from AOA. You seem to be unable to grasp the reality that different people like different things. I certainly don't see AOA (or any Prince album as a failure). That is completely over the top and is not objectively true.

There seem to be certain prerequisites in album reviews that I wish we could get away from:

.

1. Mentioning the name change. He's Prince now, has been for 15 years.

2. Mentioning the battle with WB/record industry, unless it directly is relevant to the new project

3. Mentioning past failures - such as the GB movie or defunct websites.

4. Mentioning his height (it's more common than you think). "The diminutive rocker releases his new album..."

5. Mentioning purple.

6. Saying that a new project is a "return to form"

.

Whenever I read some of these things in an interview, I wonder if the author just ran out of things to say and is padding his review to fill a character quota.

There was one good review of AOA definitely every prince watcher should read.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/legitimately-magical-prince-album

Funkyalien said:

There was one good review of AOA definitely every prince watcher should read.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/legitimately-magical-prince-album

That's a good review alright. I'm liking AOA more over time, although it still irks me that the concept all but disappears for the middle third of the album.

jaawwnn said:

Funkyalien said:

There was one good review of AOA definitely every prince watcher should read.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/legitimately-magical-prince-album

That's a good review alright. I'm liking AOA more over time, although it still irks me that the concept all but disappears for the middle third of the album.

yeah...I guess it has its moments...I like the way this was written...

jaawwnn said:

khemseraph said:

Because you think AOA is a musical failure doesn't make it so to everyone. It doesn't make the reviewer incompetent or a hack for enjoying the album and reporting it.

Se7en said:

There seem to be certain prerequisites in album reviews that I wish we could get away from:

.

1. Mentioning the name change. He's Prince now, has been for 15 years.

2. Mentioning the battle with WB/record industry, unless it directly is relevant to the new project

3. Mentioning past failures - such as the GB movie or defunct websites.

4. Mentioning his height (it's more common than you think). "The diminutive rocker releases his new album..."

5. Mentioning purple.

6. Saying that a new project is a "return to form"

.

Whenever I read some of these things in an interview, I wonder if the author just ran out of things to say and is padding his review to fill a character quota.

I think many people on the org mention everything on your list (almost daily) - much more than any album reviewer could.