I should note that I still do not own the Hit'n'Run albums so everything i'm about to say might be undone upon hearing those albums.
I've just finished listening to this album and, at least to me, this album is to Prince what Black Star is to David Bowie. That is, a thematic and tonal foreshadowing that the work is indeed his swansong. Even the coverart seems to have the relevant overtones. But lyrically, tracks like Clouds, This Could Be Us, Way Back Home, and Time along with the Affirmation interludes seem to serve as a farewell of sorts. It's almost as though Prince, though i'm sure he wasn't, to close the book on his legacy in the same way Bowie did back in January with Blackstar. Not to mention the way it brings together a lot of the sounds he worked with over his career.

his next album would've been his 40th album

Oh wow! I wonder if that was in the pipeline.

It doesn't really matter whether or not AOA is more deserving, it will never be his final album.

Hitnrun Phase II ends with Prince saying, "that's it", and as sad as it is, that's a hell of a way to end it.

MattyJam said:

It doesn't really matter whether or not AOA is more deserving, it will never be his final album.

Yes if you think of the HNR releases as some kind of anthology serie.

Think about it.... tracks already released, remixes, old unreleased tunes remade....
I look at HNR like I can look at 1998 Crystal Ball or at "Oldfriends 4 Sale... The Vault".

So as I said in another thread, I also think AOA is really P's final and swansong album.

The last proper album, thematically and musically.

BoraBora said:

MattyJam said:

It doesn't really matter whether or not AOA is more deserving, it will never be his final album.

Yes if you think of the HNR releases as some kind of anthology serie.

Think about it.... tracks already released, remixes, old unreleased tunes remade....
I look at HNR like I can look at 1998 Crystal Ball or at "Oldfriends 4 Sale... The Vault".

So as I said in another thread, I also think AOA is really P's final and swansong album.

The last proper album, thematically and musically.

Agreed. I like the HNRs a lot, but I dont see them as proper albums. They're collections of the odds and ends he's thrown out over the last few years. I would like to see more in the series. It'd be a great way to release the outtakes. AOA was the last true album.

AOA was a ghastly album. HitNRun1 was ghastly as well. I like HNR2, but unfortunately it was evidently too late.

The lack of material from 2010-2014 was deafening and to be welcomed back with 2 horrible albums was distressing. Glad HNR2 serves as a bit of a hail mary.

Yes; for my money it's the final masterpiece album.

With that said I have to agree that the line "That's it" is quite an ending to HNRP2 in hindsight.

DiscoBallz said:

AOA was a ghastly album. HitNRun1 was ghastly as well. I like HNR2, but unfortunately it was evidently too late.

The lack of material from 2010-2014 was deafening and to be welcomed back with 2 horrible albums was distressing. Glad HNR2 serves as a bit of a hail mary.

All three albums are pretty bad and ultimately forgettable. That's ok though and P was doing the best he could at the time. He has more incredible songs over his career than any other artist and probably by a factor of 5 or 10, when you include the unreleased ones.

FunkiestOne said:

All three albums are pretty bad and ultimately forgettable.

Well, as ever it's a matter of taste.

While I agree that Hnr1 is a weak collection of tracks (I still save only 4 of them), I find HnR2 more consistent and all in all really good (not a masterpiece, but really good).

Regarding AOA, I honestly think it is the best P album of the entire 2010-2016.

Yes, it has its faults (the unnecessary and intrubsive inclusion of FunknRoll, to say one) but it stands up as the more complex and inspired of this late era of P releases.

Just my opinion.

AhPook said:

I prefer AOA be the swan song. I posed a similar question about Hit n Run being the last thing remebered from him and was roundly attacked here for even mentioning it. AOA was a Prince album. HitnRun 1 will sound like an aging Prince and some unqualified and too young "producer" trying to get back on charts and in the clubs.

GirlBrother said:

I don't think that AOA flows as well as HNRP1. Even if AOA was recorded as a specific set of songs for a specific album release, it just doesn't gel as a whole.

The only thing out of place in AOA is "FunkNRoll".

This apart, I think it flows really well, musically and thematically.

AOA is, deservedly so, his final mainstream release.

The HnR releases are, as someone else said, no different than The Vault release it would appear.

However, I seem to recall comments attributed to Prince that you're only as good as your last release. It's sad that Phase Two was it.