Prince - Art Official Age & Plectrum Electrum

So, Prince has a couple new albums out this week.  One of them, Plectrum Electrum, has been talked about for quite some time.  It features Prince's all-girl band 3rd Eye Girl and was announced almost a year ago.  Based on the single "Screwdriver" they put out last year, I was really excited for this record.  Then it got delayed and delayed.

Art Official Age

Then a couple months back Prince announced his return to Warner Music and that a new solo album, Art Official Age, would be coming at the same time as Plectrum Electrum.  While it's not uncommon for Prince to release multiple albums on the same day, I was really hoping one wouldn't overshadow the other.

Let's not forget that since Prince is accustomed to giving us almost too much new music all at once, some of it easily gets overlooked.  Yeah, I'm looking at you Emancipation.

When I first read the title "Art Official Age" I thought it was pretty stupid.  It wasn't until I actually listened to the album and realized he's really saying, artificial age... ha ha Prince, you got me again!  You smooth, bad, mother fucker.

The two albums are very different from each other.  While Plectrum Electrum was recorded in analog with a full band, Art Official Age is the soulful R&B-inspired Prince with layered vocals, dubs, sound samples, and synths.   Both, naturally, have a strong funky element to them.  It's Prince, so you can get up and dance if you want to.

Mind you, with that said, I fully expected Art Official Age to have more upbeat dancier songs.  It's definitely not an album full of ballads, but it's not a party album either.  Neither of these new records are Purple Rain, so if you're looking for that sound again... sorry, it's lost in the past and I think Prince is pretty content with that.

The meme that actually inspired a pretty wicked Prince song.  Go figure.

I've always said that Prince's vocals seem to be their best when he's pissed off about something.  He really cuts loose and lets it all out.  We get more of that on Plectrum Electrum, possibly because of the rawer, heavier sound of the music.  I have felt that Prince's vocals on his last few albums (20Ten, Lotusflower, and Planet Earth) were phoned in and almost lazy.  This isn't so on either new album, and it's a breath of fresh air. 

So is it really fair to compare Prince's new music to his hit-peppered past?  Prince does fall into that category of musician who could release the greatest album of his career right now and radio wouldn't even notice because he's too old for the top forty.  But again, I'm not too sure he cares about such things anymore anyway.  With the vocal duties being shared amongst 3rd Eye Girl and some of his proteges, these albums comes across as something of an updated Graffiti Bridge - but without the six or seven bland songs that wound up on that soundtrack.  A couple times, on songs like "Whitecaps" and "Clouds" for instance, the lead vocals are not performed by Prince - and I think those good songs would be great songs with his stylized voice.

I was a little disappointed to see that a song, "Mutiny", wasn't on either album after seeing him play it live on the Arsenio Hall show earlier this year.  I really dug the funky song and fully expected to see it on the new record.  Also, tracks "Breakfast Can Wait" and "Breakdown" were both released earlier in the year as singles.  So if you're a Prince enthusiast, you really only got ten new songs yesterday on this album. 

Plectrum Electrum

As for Art Official Age, the standout tracks are "U Know", "This Could Be Us", the two previously released singles, and "Clouds" (which I secretly hoped he had sampled my Improexophonophelia of the same title ).  The album starts strong, lags a bit with too many slow grooves in the middle, picks it back up with "Funknroll", then slowly drags on again with "Time" (except for the funky horns in the last minute or so of that song) making you wish the album had climaxed with "Funknroll".  There's some really good stuff on this record, it's just too long.  I can also live without the spoken word interludes that seem to appear on Prince albums and always make me cringe.  Keep those spoken word pieces short Prince... ("Wendy? Yes Lisa?  Is the water warm enough? Yes Lisa.  Shall we begin?  Yes Lisa!"..."Welcome 2 The Dawn.  U've just accessed the wild experience.")

Plectrum Electrum simply kicks you in the face and doesn't stop because you aren't asking for any mercy.  At one point, on the title track, I thought we were getting a Zeppelin cover - an obvious borrow/homage to a guitar influence, which continues in Prince's Hendixy/Santana-esque guitar playing.  Standout tracks are: "Whitecaps", "Anotherlove", "Tictactoe", "Marz", and the rocking title track.  I really hope Prince continues working with this group and records more music with them.  He hasn't really sounded this good since the days of the Revolution.  Prince is awesome on his own, but when fronting a band he's unstoppable.

Overall, when we look back on Prince's classic albums - and I'm not going to name them because you already know them - they always were a mishmash  of different styles and themes that all seemed to come together as one collective unit.  On these new outings, it's clear Prince is trying to keep those styles separate from each other.  And what that does, is take away from the je ne sais pas of it all... the whole wonderment of What Is Prince Going To Show Us Next?  I hate to drag out his past, but when you'd flow through the track listing of Purple Rain, most of those songs shouldn't be side by side on the record.  But they are.  And that's why it works.  For a period of five to ten years, Prince did anything and everything he wanted.  And we ate it up. One new song, "Funknroll", appears on both albums in different versions.  Is one better than the other? That's really up to you to decide, as 'better' is just a matter of taste.  And either way, it tastes like purple.

- ryan
 
PS - Just for the record, when listening to Plectrum Electrum this morning for the first time, I was cooking up some pancakes for my wife.  High five, if you catch that reference.

PPS - Prince's drummer, Hannah Ford, is a total babe.