I still think AOA and Phase 2 are brilliant.

Phase 1 and PE; not great but a couple of gems on both.

.

AOA - even though the concept might be flimsy it's not over-bearing like on other albums. Clouds, Time and Way Back Home/affirmation III the highlights for me.

.

PE - disappointing after the build-up and live performances. As pretty as Hannah is I'm not a fan of her singing. I love Wow and Anotherlove.

.

Phase 1 - not a fan but like 1000 X's & O's and June.

.

Phase 2 - only gripe at the time was we already had half the album but not really a bad song on it. I love Look At Me and his last masterpiece Revelation showed he still had it.

No. Stilll think of them as by the numbers releases that do not rival his best work.

They sounds the same to me. PE sucks just as hard as it always has. Completely lifeless. On paper that seems odd because it's a Prince guitar/rock record, but the reality bores me to tears. I'd go so far as to call it utter shit. I'd rather listen to HNR 1 than PE. Although I can recognize HNR 2 as a superior album artistically, I'd rather listen to HNR 1. Even with all its cringe-worthy moments. I thought was good when I first heard it and I still think it's good. It's the only album that even seems like a real Prince record from the choices in this thread.

steakfinger said:

They sounds the same to me. PE sucks just as hard as it always has. Completely lifeless. On paper that seems odd because it's a Prince guitar/rock record, but the reality bores me to tears. I'd go so far as to call it utter shit. I'd rather listen to HNR 1 than PE. Although I can recognize HNR 2 as a superior album artistically, I'd rather listen to HNR 1. Even with all its cringe-worthy moments. I thought was good when I first heard it and I still think it's good. It's the only album that even seems like a real Prince record from the choices in this thread.

i never listened to pe past what i heard, it sounded like derivative riffs and hooks so i stopped there. a seattle critic called pe a "lark" and called aoa "the real deal" he was right.

Absolutely.

AOA was already heartbreaking. And then it became even more heartbreaking...by far.

there's 2 1/2 great albums of songs out of the 4 albums

MattyJam said:

For me, my appreciation for AOA has increased, which probably has little to do with his passing, as new albums by my favourite artists often take a little while for me to warm to. Back in 2014/15 I found Plectrum and Hit N Run Phase Two to be so-so efforts, it didn't really feel like Prince's heart was in them. Not much has changed in my overall ambivalence towards them, they seem like perfunctory releases, a bunch of random tracks cobbled together, with not much to get excited about. I hated HNR Phase One when it first dropped, but it quickly grew on me and my opinion has remained pretty much the same since his passing; it was an interesting project and I appreciated him stepping outside of his comfort zone. There were some flashes of brilliance on the record and he sounded inspired by Josh's contributions. But AOA feels like an album Prince really cared about, perhaps more so than any record he'd put out since The Rainbow Children in 2001. And I think songs like Way Back Home and Breakdown resonate on a deeper level since his death, for obvious reasons. One song in particular that I've fallen in love with which I never particularly rated highly when he was alive is Time. What a great, funky, trippy song that one is. [Edited 12/8/18 11:35am]

I completely disagree; PE and HnR 2 are fantastic albums and you can clearly see his heart is in both releases, especially HnR 2.

It is HnR 1 which is the quite the weak compilation, one of his weaker albums.

langebleu said:

I don't think my feelings about a Prince album have ever changed very much after my first listen upon release.

I continue to enjoy a fair bit of the musical content on 'Art Official Age'; the 'Mr Nelson' story line remains unnecessary pseudoscientific dross.

Apart from a couple of highlights, Plectrumelectrum, fails to deliver.

Hitnrun Phase One was a huge disappointment on first play, and remains one of his weakest releases in my view, despite repeaed listens.

Hitnrun Phase Two thankfully followed within around 3 months and delivered much to commend it.

Prince's death has not changed my feelings about the musical content, but his death provides an additional context in which to consider his catalogue of releases.

There is evidence that Prince cared about response to his album releases in the context of his life and I have wondered whether the relatively short space of time between the release of Hitnrun Phase One and Hitnrun Phase Two was prompted by reaction to the first release.

Agree with most. I do love PE thou.

KAB said:

I think that AOA is now an heartbreaking album. There's so much in it with vocals, musicality and concept that I can't see it as anything other than a forethought from Prince as to what he knew would happen. The Affirmations have such context now.
Whilst it makes me sad, I regrettably appreciate how such a private person put the signs out.

orderd29 said:

I think that AOA is now an heartbreaking album. There's so much in it with vocals, musicality and concept that I can't see it as anything other than a forethought from Prince as to what he knew would happen. The Affirmations have such context now.
Whilst it makes me sad, I regrettably appreciate how such a private person put the signs out.

Yup. Only y'all need to stop with this private and secretive stuff. He really wasn't. It's just he was lowkey. And often times, on difficult subjects he crosses up his words so that he told ya, just you didn't catch his drift, or understand ,when he means exactly what he said, versus the inverse of what he said.

funksterr said:

orderd29 said:

I think that AOA is now an heartbreaking album. There's so much in it with vocals, musicality and concept that I can't see it as anything other than a forethought from Prince as to what he knew would happen. The Affirmations have such context now.
Whilst it makes me sad, I regrettably appreciate how such a private person put the signs out.

Yup. Only y'all need to stop with this private and secretive stuff. He really wasn't. It's just he was lowkey. And often times, on difficult subjects he crosses up his words so that he told ya, just you didn't catch his drift, or understand ,when he means exactly what he said, versus the inverse of what he said.

It does seem that he was aware of something or was starting to realize that he was growing older...same with "June."

langebleu said:

I don't think my feelings about a Prince album have ever changed very much after my first listen upon release.

Really? I've had massive changes of opinion on both songs and albums vs what I had on the first listen. Some I didn't like initially became favorites, others that I loved at first didn't hold up as well.

Even early on I learned to give myself a few weeks with a new prince album to absorb it all before I knew what I thought of it, because they were almost never what I expected. And even then, that wasn't always enough. Some albums I'll pull out years later and like them much better then I did when they were first released. Once I heard a prince song I'd had for years in a different context and I was so unimpressed with it the first time I didnt' even know I had it, but knew I had to find it because it was fantastic. Another time I knew I had the song, but usuaally skipped it and it wasn't until years later that I realized how fantastic it was.

For example, I found Chaos and Disorder to be really, really dissapointing when it was released, now I love it. Especially the title track. I liked Gold much better than Come when they were released, now that's flipped.

The one time that hasn't worked out for me is the song Solo. I gave it many chances to grow on me because I know Prince killed the vocals, but I really never, ever liked that song.

Now that I typed all of this, maybe I'll even give that one more chance.

alandail said:

langebleu said:

I don't think my feelings about a Prince album have ever changed very much after my first listen upon release.

Really? I've had massive changes of opinion on both songs and albums vs what I had on the first listen. Some I didn't like initially became favorites, others that I loved at first didn't hold up as well.

Even early on I learned to give myself a few weeks with a new prince album to absorb it all before I knew what I thought of it, because they were almost never what I expected. And even then, that wasn't always enough. Some albums I'll pull out years later and like them much better then I did when they were first released. Once I heard a prince song I'd had for years in a different context and I was so unimpressed with it the first time I didnt' even know I had it, but knew I had to find it because it was fantastic. Another time I knew I had the song, but usuaally skipped it and it wasn't until years later that I realized how fantastic it was.

For example, I found Chaos and Disorder to be really, really dissapointing when it was released, now I love it. Especially the title track. I liked Gold much better than Come when they were released, now that's flipped.

The one time that hasn't worked out for me is the song Solo. I gave it many chances to grow on me because I know Prince killed the vocals, but I really never, ever liked that song.

Now that I typed all of this, maybe I'll even give that one more chance.

I agree. I have discovered months - even years later - many Prince albums/songs that have become EPIC to me over time that I initially thought were only so-so or I flat out didn't vibe with at all.