Prince: Art Official Age/Plectrum Electrum, The Dream Factory of now. But will the (not so) little girls still understand?

It has been a while since Dirty Mind had critics wondering if the record buying public would take to Prince, given the stage show and costume of bikini briefs and leg warmers, high heeled boots, and tonguing your keyboard player as part of the act. Rolling Stone titled a Prince Dirty Mind era articled “..but will the little girls understand?” Prince later dressed it all up for more mass appeal and acceptance in later releases but still had his lead guitarist replicate fellatio on him during Computer Blue, from Purple Rain. Oh, how the little girls(and boys) understood. It took collaborating with his band to get him from that rock myth to the afterglow of Around The World In A Day, the avante garde timeless music of Parade, and to wrap it all up in a ultimate statement of The Dream Factory...that he never released. Personnel in The Revolution had quit or was fired, depending on who’s story is told. The Dream Factory collaboration lead to what is determined by fans as his greatest release, Sign Of The Times. Almost 30 years later he does it again with the Dream Factory of now, Art Official Age–Plectrum Electrum. But will the (not so) little girls STILL understand?

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By now our connection with Prince is so complete that we can become overbearingly critical or sympathetic. We comb over every guitar solo, grunt and moan with extreme prejudiced for a glimpse of the heralded 80’s-90’s greatness. For the most part, he’s played it smart. He kept going forward, letting others pine for past glories, while he continues to create current quieter ones.

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The new music by Prince are released as two separate entities but they are one release in a sense. The full on collaborations from others on AOA/PE in his recent stead make these releases The Dream Factory of now. With the 1986 Dream Factory, he gave Wendy and Lisa the carte’ blanche to take leads, produce, and include their own ideas in a truly a collaborative effort with Prince. He does the same thing here, with satisfying results. Hell, it’s easy to lump the goodwill and accolades on the releases due to the four year drought of a purple music presence, but it is also the strength of many of the songs are some of the strongest in his catalogue since the early 90’s.

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He gels with (“hotdamn I got n all girl band”-Salt n Peppa) 3rdeyegirl, other producers and singers, including cough lozenge needing Andy Allo rather than power vocalist Shelby, in particular, on several intimate and rock based songs from Art Official Age and Plectrum Electrum. Though filled with collaborations, it’s still wrapped in Princes bow, with refreshing material and an update to his sound. The added players and collaboration has worked for him and in his favor as this truly seems like a rebirth even though keeping in time with his affectations used in the past decades. The trademark screech is here and the opening chicken scratch rhythm guitar harkens back to Chic, Controversy and the 80’s, with the production pristine Paisley Park studio wizardry.

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Given the usual bites of the purple rock, there is a specific melancholy that runs throughout the releases presented in not only the melodies in many of the songs but in Prince’s voice (which remains strong and expressive) and lyrics. Many songs appear as answers to his critics, fans, as well as revelations to where he is now and how he is coping with being Prince in this world that seemingly still does not understand him. This is what many have asked for in his output of late: substance and feeling. Of course dealing with Prince, amidst the substantive, you’re bound to find the off-kilter that makes a Prince release, well..a Prince release. And it’s abundant in the opening track of Art Official cage the exuberance end of the world party finality in Funk and Roll, the running conceptual theme of alienation, awakening from a deep sleep into an unfamiliar world in Affirmation I-III, the robotic Boy Trouble, and the schizophrenic past and current production values.

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He welcomes ‘us’ back on the kitchen sink EDM tinged opener of Art Official Age as if it is the audience who’s been gone. And that’s a sign of what has happened with the cut from Warner Bros…the general public was gone, but Prince, like sexy, never actually left. He was still right there in his private Xanadu of Paisley Park creating and destructing music with roughly ten to fifteen releases. But with AOA and PE, it’s as if those releases never happened and we were asleep with him since the md-nineties, as if 1997-2010 didn’t happen. But it did, which is why we are bombarded with reminders of his past works amidst the new. Artificial age is Daft Punk with Nile Rogers in his own version of Get Lucky with guitar snatches of The Digital Garden, EDM (which is patched throughout the releases), and chicken scratch Controversy rhythm guitar. This leads us into the journey.

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Clouds is a bouncy layered vocal with some Pink Cashmere acoustic guitar buried in the mix with ending keyboards reminiscent of If I Was The Man In Your Life from Musicology with and interlude setting the pace and concept of him awakening from suspended animation on the space station from Elysium. It appears that our Prince is now Ripley from Aliens, having been lost in space for 50 years or so and now awakened. But not content with being Ripley, he takes future android inspiration awakening alongide eclectic singer, Janelle Monet.

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The true opener is WOW, from Plectrum Electrum, where after a blast of drums and guitar he reduces it all and greets us with a “Hello, how are you” and begins to tell us ‘You aint seen nothing yet’ and what he has up his sleeve in a pop rock rave up. And never had he stated feeling so unsure of himself on the lyrics of ‘I have to get myself together…I don’t know what’s come over me.”

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The title instrumental track, Plectrum Electrum, cops the melody from Led Zeppelins’ The Ocean, and provides the centerpiece to the project, giving it the gravitas needed for rock legitimacy.

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The burst of EDM energy from Funk n Roll on both albums are the urgent double time rock and soul that recalls Baby I’m A Star on the rock tinged Plectrum Electrum version that blends the bands live push, while the Art Official Age version provides an Atari Space Invaders backdrop with the aliens heard via the walkie talkies from Signs and a traditional RnB tinge. Clsoing the Plectrum Electrum side gives it a finality that release needs as Plectrum Electrum opens with the pensive rock of Wow and ends with the swing of Funk N Roll. It’s a party in the future, in space..up there..where it counts.

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He reaches deep for the thoughtfulness and melancholy of Breakdown, Time, Way Back Home, Whitecaps, Affirmation (I, II, III). The Breakdown has him reminiscing in a falsetto ending in a Beautiful Ones (and 3121’s The Dance) scream of torture, but finally coming to the calmness of the heart repeating “the closer to the break down, the closer we get” as if being torn apart in a relationship ends up bringing two together…. but not before stating “there’s a door that u can walk through where there used to be a wall” allowing a once big tall wall torn down for a loved one to leave on their own will while he turns away, showing the growth of allowing one to leave a relationship sans the power and control trip of manipulating for one to stay. But not before the the cold-blooded statement “Give me back the time back the time, you can keep the memories.” Nobody does a kiss off like Prince.

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He seems to answer his critics and fans in the form of speaking to a love in his lyrics from Anotherlove. In previous songs such as Old Friends 4 Sale, he wrote about the criticism, here he acknowledges the past relationship or criticism that included the connection of “Our clothes, our hair” (an ode to his Dirty Mind manifesto Uptown, his version of utopia) and states “I’ve tried to be what you wanted, I’m tired” and finally tells them “If you don’t like it, find another love” with keyboards that recalls Cinnamon Girl, speaking to a lover or his critics, that with all the shit talking, he screams before kicking you out that though you think of him in any which way. He screams out that he remains “Still the best soul you’ve ever known!” ending in a blistering guitar solo expelling his anger and frustration in a guitar spit that seems like a catharsis of several years of frustration. Again, nobody does a kiss off like Prince.

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Way Back Home finds him being out of place in the future and maybe the future is the current state of the world in the music scene and he feels alienated in it. His introspection in the song sends out a Neil Young open heart vibe recalling Powderfinger. The thoughtful Art Official Age side ending with Affirmation III, is almost a eulogy and rebirth given to him by alien technology from the Spielberg ending of AI, Laurie Andersons’ “O Superman” and lush Clare Fischer strings. At this point in Princes career, such a poignant ending is appropriate. Way Back Home shows his heart and vulnerability that rarely pops through these days but recalls tender moments from The Truth, Sometimes It Snows In April from Parade, and Reflection from Musicology. It’s a reflective, inspired personal song that gives a centerpiece given the plethora of the many sensual lust pieces and rock fervor from the PE moments.

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Ainturninaround ends with feedback that recalls the final guitar whines of Computer Blue while the song Time starts off fatigued after Funk and Rolls party, and builds, becoming a throbbing funk bass lead song that is reminiscent of If The Kid Cant Make You Come and the ethereal 8 from Madhouse in the backdrop. It builds to a funk crescendo that’s akin to Ravel’s Bolero where he and cosinger Allo appear to reach orgasm, then recover with a horn outro likened to When 2 R In Love from Lovesexy. Telling is the lyric in which he states “chasing an animal half his age” with a wink. Is he commenting on this in self frustration or bragging to us about it, in response to comments about his conquests made over the years. Either way, it is him recognizing his funk roots with Do Me Baby rawness.

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Fix Your Life Up recalls Chaos And Disorder telling us that “we get the dream that we deserve”

The Gold Standard recalls The Rainbow Children’s 1+1+1+1=, and even the gloomy narrator from The Rainbow Children gets down. With Tic-Tac-Toe, Stop This Train, and other contributions from 3rd Eye Girl, there is a dreaminess to some of the songs in tribute or imitation of Wendy and Lisa’s Dream Factory contributions. Prince is also dirty again, damn near filthy, on Breakfast Can Wait and with Andy Allo mentioning that Prince has no business writing on her walls on This Is What It Feels Like, evoking the lasciviousness of past songs even though on the Lets Work tribute, The Gold Standard, he says you don’t have to be dirty or wild to party as he did on 1999’s Dance Music Sex Romance. There are touches of the Beautiful Ones piano riffs in This Could Be Us that also recalls When Doves Cry in its subject matter and lyrics and there’s a RnB vibe that recalls disc two from his three cd set, Emancipation. Added to the past meets 3rdeyegirl is Mars, a forward moving sloppy metal punk akin to Sister from Dirty Mind that acknowledges his own past of standing outside of McDonalds, smelling the food he could not afford, leaving hungry and angry. How he came up with all these Dissociative Identity Disorder pastiches, bits and pieces of his whole career (and makes it work) is madness. Be prepared for the roller coaster, up and down ride of music as there are two endings. One poignant and another a rousing boom.

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The religious preaching is non-existent, though he still has something to say regarding the state of the music world today:

“Girl with a guitar is twelve times better than another crazy band of boys

Trying to be a star when your just another brick in the misogynistic noise”

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..and though the comes on’s and lover man shtick remains, he opens himself up with several songs and personal lyrics, a return to funk, sex, rock straight up no chaser that fans wanted as well as collaborations to refresh his sounds. And it’s all wrapped up in a purple bow of weirdness of being in hibernation and released to the world of today. This isn’t a total throwback to the eighties (thank goodness) but a continuation of where one is at now. Letting others contribute and take a full part of the show has proven to be invigorating. Where once was a cry for the solo diy system of creating his music, this openness to others and their contributions has added an extra wallop to the music representing his giving a damn..again. At the very least, it seems like music he earnestly believes in.

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But is it enough to satisfy the zeitgeist of today? Surely he has his minds on the charts or at least the youth of today with his comments made about hanging around old people. Is it enough to keep the (not so little, not just knee deep) girls understanding the once rock god? He isn’t giving his guitar head or pulling on the back of his boot (or as of late, his orthopedics) in mock euphoria, he is dressing like their granny (or Hendrix, depending on who ask) instead of adding a granny lace to a pimp hat ala When Doves Cry, (though he does refer back to his greatest hit, When Doves Cry alluding to his dove being now caged in This Is What It Feels Like) so its still up in the air if this is going to turn any heads with them or even the fellas regarding the musicianship.

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This is Prince acknowledging his past, and his present. He is bringing you up to date while giving a personal statement as well as opening himself up, as he did with Dream Factory. It was beneficial to the music then as it is now. It of course will not have the same impact as an artist in his prime, but the impact it has on an artist after 30 years in the business, is a feat, as well as a pleasure. U2 once again has a release almost in tandem with the new Prince release and it has them expanding their sound and recording techniques and structure, distancing themselves from the somber Joshua, Tree that was released alongside the more dynamic Sign Of The Times. Though an earnest try, U2 loses out to Prince’s more exuberant and eclectic release while still remaining aware of his past music. Prince has driven off the rails here creating his Zooropa and with other songs from different band incarnations and other related artists (WOW being called Unexpected and recorded in a more RnB flavor from Liv Warfield his background singer) and Boy Trouble, Tic Tac Toe, creates a consistency recalls the melancholy Dream Factory and his 80s and early 90’s material, in a thoughtful concept album.

Though he is sure to display his thoughts on musicianship and the vulgar, left the religious preaching at the pulpit and appears inspired by the new members he has surrounded himself with. And this time they stayed in the fold, so it remains lively, not lonely. This is not Prince from 20 or 30 years ago, this is a Prince of now. New collaborators to reach a younger audience? I really don't think this will do that even with younger collaborators at this point. He has a gilded faithful, or “class” as he calls us, but with this new music collaboration after so many years, will the (not so) little girls STILL understand? He screams out ‘I don’t really care what y’all be doin!” in Funk and Roll so overall, I really don't think he gives a damn.

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Art Offical Age/Plectrum Electrum=A

RDHull