I've not bothered listening to any of his albums since 3121 was released, eight years ago. Might have to give these a go.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/11124601/Prince-Art-Official-Age-review.htmlPrince, Art Official Age, first review: 'delightfully nuts'
Prince's new solo record is slick, seductive and thrilling, says Neil McCormick
4 out of 5 stars
Following the hysterical response to his hit-and-run shows with female rock trio 3rdEyeGirl, Prince has reunited with his classic record label Warners to release two new albums on the same day. Art Official Age is a slick, seductive electro funk sci-fi concept album with a synthetic ambience evoking classic Eighties Prince pop, while Plectrumelectrum sees the Minneapolis wonder strap on an electric guitar to dive headlong into the heavy rock territory he has flirted with since Purple Rain. They are both genuinely thrilling.
The solo-credited Art Official Age sounds like the work of a super-syncopated one man band, built up from the lean snap of drum machine programming and rubbery bass, overlaid with sprinkles of synth. Hooks are concocted from cleverly warped sound effects and there’s plenty of space for Prince’s sharp rhythm guitar chinks to push and pull as his spine-tingling self-harmonised vocals clamber from slowed down low notes to that startling superhuman falsetto.
The album alternates between intense slow jams and funky workouts but there is a concept of sorts, featuring Prince awakening from suspended animation into a future where enlightenment is achieved by divesting redundant notions of ego and sexism.
It gives him an excuse to dispense plenty of dubious lyrical wisdom about how other people should live their lives. Prince’s admonition to the present generation of pop stars that “you don’t need to be rude, you don’t need to be wild” may sound a bit rich coming from a man who has certainly been a bit of both in his time, but the taut inventive drive of Gold Standard more than demonstrates that for Prince music always comes first.
The Gold Standard, for Prince, is music that offers “spiritual healing for the body and soul and mind”, and he takes this nonsense so seriously he compels the listener to do so too. It may be an R’n’B genre problem that too many songs can seem flimsy excuses for a groove but epic future soul ballad Breakdown is stunning, and London songstress Lianne La Havas provides a sensuous vocal foil on clever, quasi-philosophical duets Clouds and What It Feels Like. It is all quite delightfully nuts.
