Prince is back with a new album, Art Official Age,
jam-packed with Prince’s unique personality and music. If you don’t particularly like Prince, this
album won’t win you over. If you kind of
like Prince, you’ll kind of like this album.
If you are one of the fortunate who recognize and celebrate Prince’s
genius in both music and style, then this is an album to enjoy
whole-heartedly.
I’m a fan. That said,
he has released albums that even I cannot listen to. Silly, self-indulgent, unlistenable
crap. But when Prince is on his game, he
brings rhythm, funk and enjoyment, and he is definitely on his game in Art
Official Age.
The album is full of his royal silliness. It starts off with “Art Official Cage”, which
includes Danish lines over Prince’s sparkling guitar work. The message – break out of the cages of the
modern world – is borne out by the song’s use of disparate voices (including
operatic), sonic references to waterboarding and electronic play. They’ve never made a cage that encompasses
Prince’s creativity, and he shows off from the start.
The next song is yet another sexual romp, broken up by the first
example of the occasional concept pieces he includes. It features a woman’s voice advising Mr.
Nelson that he is being awakened from a 45 year suspended animation. She reappears later in “affirmations”, and
it’s part of the weirdness that makes Prince great. No, they don’t really make a whole lot of
sense, and they don’t really lead you to any great enlightenment, but they are
Prince, and, if you’re like me, they’re part of the Prince experience.
The next song is a sweet love song – Breakdown – in which he
expresses his disillusionment with the party-life he once led, and thanks the
woman who makes him give up his black book of phone numbers. Solid work, and entirely conventional.
There’s just a ton of fun on this album. “The Gold Standard” is classic Prince dance
music with the best bass sound around, and Prince’s crisp guitar blending with
some great horn work. It’s pure enjoyment.
And so is “U Know”, which follows it on the album, and, for that matter,
so is every other song on the album.
Prince is back to being his lewd self in many of these
songs, and you can just appreciate how much fun he is having with the music,
with the off-the-wall concept pieces, the sexual innuendo and word play. I understand if Prince is not your cup of
tea, but if you’re a fan, this is an album to celebrate. If I were forced to complain, I would ask that he give us more of his guitar work.
Over at Deliberate Obfuscation, Robin
agrees that this album is Prince being Prince, though she complains a bit
about the length of some of the songs. I
disagree, but it’s a matter of taste.
Personally, I enjoy all the Prince he chooses to share.
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