ArtOfficialAge is ten times better than Musicology.

Musicology was extremely overated by the media.

In my opinion half of it sucked. Only a few songs were any good on Musicology.

Like Redemption was good. The second half of the cd got better.

At least it ended good.

I even like Chaos and Dissorder better than Musicology....I think? About the same I guess.

I always thought it was weird timing that Musicology got all the media hype and praise while another crossover artist was being persicuted to death!

and

When the previous decade prior he was struggling to get attention with slave on his face.

WTF !?!?!?

The whole Musicology praise and tour era was very fake and phony as least when it comes to the the Media and Press!

I was happy for Prince but it was all so fake and phony it made me ill!

[Edited 5/31/16 13:56pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 13:58pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:02pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:03pm]

AOA all the way through.

.

When I re-did my top 40 Prince albums listing a week or so ago AOA was my #11 of 40. Musicology only made it to #30.

panpac777 said:

ArtOfficialAge is ten times better than Musicology.

Musicology was extremely overated by the media.

In my opinion half of it sucked. Only a few songs were any good on Musicology.

Like Redemption was good. The second half of the cd got better.

At least it ended good.

I even like Chaos and Dissorder better than Musicology....I think? About the same I guess.

I always thought it was weird timing that Musicology got all the media hype and praise while another crossover artist was being persicuted to death!

and

When the previous decade prior he was struggling to get attention with slave on his face.

WTF !?!?!?

The whole Musicology praise and tour era was very fake and phony as least when it comes to the the Media and Press!

I was happy for Prince but it was all so fake and phony it made me ill!

I actually like the album (more than you anyway), but I know what you mean about the media fakeness. It was just a great marketing ploy and it worked really well, but the way they hailed Musicology as this massive return to form etc, when in reality, his so-called "dark years" in the mid-late 90's produced much stronger albums. I even think Rave was a stronger commercial album than Musicology. I think the reason why Musicology succeeded while the former failed is because, by 2004, Prince was far enough removed from those Slave days for the media to "forgive" his anti-industry ways, they were wiling to embrace him again and for once, Prince was happy to play the game. It had nothing to do with any "return to form."

[Edited 6/1/16 0:47am]

IMHO: AOA and PlectrumElectrum help Prince to exit the "look at me, I'm Prince!" era, from Musicology to 20ten. AOA and PE are fresh works.

Oh, damn.

fabriziovenerandi said:

IMHO: AOA and PlectrumElectrum help Prince to exit the "look at me, I'm Prince!" era

What do you mean by that?

Rebeljuice said:

There's no comparison for me. They are both poor albums, but at least Musicology has a couple of tracks that are listenable (and one good one, the title track). AOA has absolutely no redeeming characteristics whatsoever.

MattyJam said:

fabriziovenerandi said:

IMHO: AOA and PlectrumElectrum help Prince to exit the "look at me, I'm Prince!" era

What do you mean by that?

After the "indie" era (The Rainbow Children, NEWS, ONA, Xpetation) Prince "comes back" as Prince.

The albums after NEWS, from a certain point of view , are not "new" Prince albums , I mean where Prince makes new things than in the past, but those appear as albums where Prince tries to remind a wider audience who he was, and the "mark " of his music. They are less innovative albums where Prince repeats itself in different keys. IMHO with AOA and PE returns curiosity, courage and also the freshness of new and unexpected works.

Oblivious this is a personal point of view.

CalhounSq said:

Rebeljuice said:

The Org's planets just will not align will they. That is probably my favourite song on AOA.

Time is my SHIT!!!!!! Omg, I can't imagine someone into P yet not diggin' that one. When that BASS comes in?????!!!!!!

Yes, same for me - the bass and those synth horns get me every time. I love Andy's voice especially on this

In the end, I think AoA is Top Ten albums of all time. Musicology is one of the biggest disappointments IMO..

My choices are bolded, ties Italicised

.

1. Musicology vs Art Official Cage - Musicology here easily, a funky and catchy song, AOC is filler and bad filler at that and the only clunker on AOA besides the Affirmations.

2. ICPC vs Clouds - Illusion is a very average funk jam, Clouds is incredible, funky and distorted with catchy vocals, not even close.

3. A Million Days vs The Breakdown, A million days is painful, The Breakdown is a great emotional ballad with a cool crescendo. Again a landslide victory here.

4. Life o the party vs The Gold standard, Gold standard is an 80s style funk bomb and a 1st rate dance floor filler, Life of the party is embarrassing.

5. Call my name vs U Know, Call my name is decent, so is U know, but U know is better overall.

6. Cinnamon Girl vs Breakfast can wait, Both are good songs, Cinnamon girl is too syrupy and preachy by half (Cool video though), Breakfast can wait is a bit silly too. So I would say a tie, both are good but flawed in some way, so its a Pyrrhic victory.

7. What do u want me to do vs This could be us, two sexy ballads, again What is weak and This could be us is beautiful and poetic, it wins, even if it was ruined by the abortive remix on Phase 1.

8. The Marrying Kind/Man in yo life vs What it feels like. What it feels like is okay, but Andys sex kitten vocals ruin it. Marrying kind man in yo life, is great funky and great falsetto, it wins.

9. On the couch vs Affs 1, 2 and Way back home, no contest here, the affs are silly but Way back home is incredible, On the couch is a forgettable shadaufing of a dirge like chant.

10. Dear Mr Man vs Funknroll, Both are pretty bad, but Funknroll is decent, Dear Mr Man is just naive and daft.

11. Reflection vs Time and Af3, Again Reflection is very forgettable and just horrible, even if he is talking about whose afro was the roundest, Time is a prize winning gem and just incredible and a good reason why AOA was a killer album and Reflection is why Musicology was a filler album.

.

Score is 8½ to Art Official Age and 2½ to Musicology, AOA is a great album and his best of the 2010s after the superior Hitnrun Phase 2, but Musicology was dreadful and way overrated. In my 100 point scoring system, Musicology got 66 and 29/40, whereas Art Official Age got 81 and 11/40. I am of the opinion Musicology was overrated and was only acclaimed as it was his sanest album after 10 years of bizarre releases, instrumentals, live and jazz bigotry albums. Whereas AOA was a welcome visitor after 4 years absence.

[Edited 6/1/16 4:13am]

fabriziovenerandi said:

MattyJam said:

What do you mean by that?

After the "indie" era (The Rainbow Children, NEWS, ONA, Xpetation) Prince "comes back" as Prince.

The albums after NEWS, from a certain point of view , are not "new" Prince albums , I mean where Prince makes new things than in the past, but those appear as albums where Prince tries to remind a wider audience who he was, and the "mark " of his music. They are less innovative albums where Prince repeats itself in different keys. IMHO with AOA and PE returns curiosity, courage and also the freshness of new and unexpected works.

Oblivious this is a personal point of view.

Musicology was Prince returning to the masses after he changed his name back. Even though he did it a few years ealier, up until that point what he released as Prince flew way under the radar. But youre right, it was pretty much Prince by numbers for about a decade before AOA came along and brought back that edge which seemed to missing. And before anyone jumps on me, Prince by numbers doesnt neccessarily mean all bad. Im just saying that I felt he could have done a lot of it in his sleep and wasnt really pushing many boundaries until AOA came along.