New Music: Prince and 3rdEyeGirl (Official Release Date: Sept. 30th)

To my ears it totally rips off the riff from "Cochese" by Audioslave.

 

First of all, "Sign O the times" wasn't that great. Yes, sure, it's good, but not so great as you think.

Secondly, the answer to your question is simple: you have memories of your youth all mixed up and associated with "Sign O the times", and you have no such emotions attached to the current albums. Believe me, if these two albums would have come out in 1987, you'd be saying they were timeless today, too.

 

Well, if these two albums had come out in 1987, then yes, production wise, instrumentation wise, they would have been game changers, because the fact is, nothing in 1987 sounded anything like this. We're talking 27 years of musical evolution, de-evolutions, convolution and regurgitation that stands in the way of now and 1987. I'm saying it would have been impossible for Prince to come out with these albums in 1987, because even the great ones have been influenced by time, and the changes in culture, politics, the economy and even the foods we eat, which all ties into how people create music today - it's all influential. Prince would have to have invented several sub-genres of music, whole cloth, right after Parade, in order to come out with AOA. Nobody makes that large of a leap. Nobody.

I see what you're saying. For many artists - not just Prince - who has this amount of longevity, we pine for the "glory days," always making comparisons to what was versus what is. While it's debatable - depending on taste - as to what's a "classic" and what's not, it's not debatable that Prince is copping other styles, incorporating them into the Minneapolis Sound, which sounds a bit off putting to some people, including me, who thinks that Prince is not doing what he does best, i.e. writing strong melodies in song. Instead, he appears to be going for a vibe - trying to appeal to a more modern audience, shouting his relevance - that, "Look, I'm cool too - I can do it better than all you young cats!"

Okay, fine; I can understand this. Just four years ago Prince put out 20Ten, which aped every bit of his '80s sound, using all vintage instruments, including the same '80s production value (only a little louder), and it didn't do him one bit of good as far as how the world views him. You can take almost any one of those 20Ten songs and plug them into some "classic" albums and they wouldn't skip a beat. I would crack up if he came out and said, "Yeah, I wrote all of those songs back in 1985-87." Pretend for a second they were - and an artist like Prince, I wouldn't put it past him with the size of his vault. Everyone and their dog would begin seeking out copies of 20Ten!

The point is, for someone who's been around as long as Prince, it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. (There's a song in there somewhere)

 

Agree! Though I will have to give 20ten another listen after what you said. I don't remember being very impressed with it upon the listen I gave it?

 

Yeah, to be honest I hadn't been very fair listening to Prince's music after Rainbow Children. Really, I don't think I was in the right headspace.

I have no idea if you'll have the same experience, but listening to 20Ten now, I can't remember why I was so dismissive at the time, when really 90% of it sounds like a lost 80s album, down to the instruments, the melodies, the song structures...everything! Some of it even goes back to circa 1982. I feel a bit foolish and out of touch, especially since he's one of my all-time faves.

Perhaps in four years time I'll find out I was wrong about these two new albums, as well. *shrug*

 

Also the releases of albums from both Flying Lotus and SBTRK within a few days of Princes efforts expose both albums as sounding horribly dated and lacking imagination which is a shame as I had high expectations, especially for 3rdeyegirl .

 

Listened to both albums, back to back, for the first time, this morning.

Art Official Age is the more consistent of the two, but also the more generic-sounding. The plummy English woman, who turns up between songs, raised a smile, but the whole time travel concept seems a little forced, like a halfhearted idea copped from Janelle Monae.

The best songs, as well as the worst, appear on PlectrumElectrum. Maybe it's because I was wowed by hearing some of this material live back in February, but those tracks already have strong sentimental connections, for me. On the other hand, "BoyTrouble" sounds like an Apollonia 6 B-side, so go figure.

 

I haven't stopped listening to AOA since I bought it on Tuesday...this is one brilliant piece of work!!!
Breakdown and Way Back Home may be my 2 new favorite P songs of all time

 

Neither album really got its hooks into me, though definitely prefer Plectrum. Need to give them both some more time...

 

Well yes Sign o the Times was that great. Haven't heard these new ones yet.

 

It was GREAT! AOA, not so...

 

i am still soaking these in before i make any comments

 

Well I was born way after SOTT came out and I have no real memories of my youth associated with the album and yet I think Sign' O The Times is definitely that great!

 

I played AOA twice in a row, then have followed it up with Plectrum 3 times now. I wasn't blown away by either release, but prefer AOA so far. I can't imagine either going down in history as classics. Maybe I'll feel different when I get over my jet lag from attending the Kate Bush shows in London...

 

Well both charted in the top 10 on the charts , that said not Huge sales of each ....

http://www.billboard.com/articles/c...helton-scores-second-no-1-album-billboard-200

Next up, Prince arrives with the first of his two debuts in the top 10: Art Official Age, which bows at No. 5 with 51,000. He also enters at No. 8 with Plectrumelectrum (with the band 3rdEyeGirl; 26,000). Prince is the first act to achieve two simultaneous top 10 debuts in a little more than 10 years. The last act to do so was Nelly, on the chart dated Oct. 2, 2004, when his Suit and Sweat albums started at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively.

 

Prince also reached the top of the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart at #1 for Art Official Age and the Rock Albums Chart at #1 for Plectrumelectrum.

 

So I guess all bets are off on the release of the Purple Rain 30th anniversary reissue this year?

 

Prince is playing on SNL tonight.

 

Quote from his former manager
"Alan Leeds: Sometimes less is more.
Prince on SNL - I fully realize I'm opening up a can of worms here, will probably regret saying this tomorrow, but I'm so disappointed by someone who has so much more to offer than mixed agendas that get in the way of his usually brilliant music.
I love his lifelong devotion to promoting women in rock but the appearance on SNL proved only that a girl band can play clichés, the talented Lianne La Havas can be under-utilized and Prince is no Alice Smith. In trivializing Smith's song has Prince embraced Alice's right to cover one of HIS songs? File this appearance under trying to do too much and ending up not doing much at all. Many, many years ago Prince asked me why he wasn't taken more seriously as a musician and I suggested he leave the bells and whistles home and tour in jeans and turtleneck, placing all the focus on the music. He sarcastically replied, "what? And look like you?". Back then he was probably right and I was naïve. BUT two decades later and two decades older, I would suggest the same thing. Leave the costumes and cartoon logos to the kids and give the music the mature respect it deserves. A shame..........a master lowering the bar is never fun to watch."

I thought his performance last night was good. I kinda wish he would move on from these girls, Blackwell would have been a better choice as drummer for a song
like Clouds.

 

They put on one of the top 3 concerts I've ever experienced when I saw him playing with 3rdEyeGirl a year ago in Portland. I'll have to watch the SNL performance, but he wouldn't be the first to come off poorly because of that show's sound and format.

 

I bought both albums in LP format. I think Plectrumelectrun is better than Art Officia Age. I think AOF sounds quite plastic. I like the organic live sound of Plectrumelelectrum. Actually both pressings are quite good.

 

I really like the musical content of these albums, but just listening to Art Official Age through the speakers and I had to check all of the connections to make sure everything was OK. Breakdown is so distorted it sounds broken. It's not as bad on headphones, but still crushed to the point of overloaded distortion.

HitNRun Phase 2 sounds the same - painfully distorted. I put on the new Ryan Adams Heartbreaker Deluxe Remaster to compare and it sounds great. I've been listening to the Prince exclusively on headphones so far and not noticed the quality - in fact I thought they sounded good - but through the amp and speakers, terrible.

It's not just me is it?

 

Wow, usually it's the other way around, where speakers have more air around them, like car speakers, so it masks some inherent flaws in the recording, while with headphones it's more of a microscopic view where ear fatiguing compression and distortion are amplified.

No matter, though. See my system in my profile, I find that yes, "The Breakdown" gets terribly distorted. Not all songs on AOA are like this, so I was able to do a "remaster" to breathe more life into AOA, but HnRP2 I was not.

In fact, I don't think I've ever heard an album "produced" quite like HnRP2. Regardless of the overt compression and dabs of distortion, the production is so lifeless, so dull and muted, I wonder if they rubbed some saltine crackers on the master before they sent it out to whatever passes as a mastering engineer these days. In short, I've never heard such a lack of energy on an album in my life.

It's really a shame because HnRP2 as some great songs. Take the same mix of "Rock n Roll Love Affair" from 2012 (and it is the same mix) and the released version from 2012 sparkles and shines. Not so in 2015.

I don't know if we'll ever know, but I suspect they rushed out the HitNRun series too fast.

 

It is not the same mix on the 2012 single and HITnRUN Phase Two (the latter for example has horn overdubs not on the former).

 

Yeah, you're right. I meant the same backing track. My bad. Regardless, there are muddy bootlegs of unreleased Prince songs that have more life than HnRP2.

Well, anyway, it does no good to harp on it. To me Prince's last album will always be AOA, unless he already had another album, totally completed that they release... as in, not a compilation.