PRINCE
Composed, Produced, Arranged and Performed by Prince
Released September 30, 2014
Welcome home, indeed!!
"ART OFFICIAL AGE," Prince's 34th album, is one of the best albums of 2014 and furthermore, it is the best full length album he has released in nearly 20 years! The work not only finds Prince with his most fully realized artistic vision in quite some time, he has never sounded so committed as well as completely rejuvenated, reinvigorated and revitalized creatively. It sounds as if he is comfortable within his own skin again as well as his tremendous legacy which has at times threatened to dwarf any new material he chose to release to the world.
Face it, Prince couldn't release an unlistenable album if he tried and frankly, even his weakest material is better than most artists' best material. That being said, there has just been this sadly persistent question lurking at the seams, the question if Prince's best days as a recording artist were behind him. And it would not be a stretch if Prince quite possibly feared that very possibility for himself. But, now, we have "ART OFFICIAL AGE," the first Prince album in ages that I have played front to back over and over and over again in anticipation, wonderment and excitement, feeling awed at every single sound that flows through the speakers into my ears and even deeper into my soul. For Prince fanatics like myself, this is the album we have been waiting for. For those of you out there who have long departed Paisley Park, this is the album to woo you back.
"Welcome home, class!" Prince announces at the start of the album with the track "ART OFFICIAL CAGE," a whirlwind of an opening statement that somehow packs EDM/hip-hop beats, mock operatic vocals, Middle Eastern touches, a multitude of rapidly spoken foreign languages, angular rock guitar, references to water boarding and the presentation of spiritual desires to transcend the "Ghettos 2 the left of me, malls 2 the right" to reach "A place in Heaven somewhere in the future." And all of this is heard and experienced in a mere three and a half minutes, thus beginning the album long odyssey, which finds our hero caught groggy and awakening in the future after a 45 year sleep in suspended hibernation and with a lovely female British computerized voice as his guide and eventually telepathic companion.
Yes, I do realize how baffling the album is already beginning to sound but bear with me when I express to you just how accessible "ART OFFICIAL AGE" actually is, and therefore extremely easy to follow and that is entirely due to the immediacy of the actual songs. The frenzied opening track seamlessly segues into the summertime soul of "CLOUDS," which not only further explains the album's plot but most importantly serves to show that Prince has not lost even one solitary step in crafting expertly produced and performed pop songs, especially when he instructs us to rub a flower on our lover's back whenever we hear them singing in the shower.
Unlike the live based sound from the simultaneously released "PLECTRUM ELECTRUM," his debut album with the female power trio 3rdEyeGirl, "ART OFFICIAL AGE" find Prince in his classic one-man-band mode where the studio itself is his greatest instrument. With "CLOUDS," every single instrument and sound is perfectly in place and every sound is essential to its brilliant delivery. Just listen to how the harmony vocals coo over the supple guitars, the nimble crispness of the acoustic guitars, the bounce of the bass and the neck snap that happens after every drum beat. Lyrically, Prince showcases laser like precision as he just nails our cultural decay where "Everybody stars/reality so boring."
Singer Lianne Le Havas joins the track to express the following lament:
"When life's a stage, in this brand new age
How do we engage?
Bullying just 4 fun
No wonder there's so many guns
Maybe we're better off in space"
The album continues with "THE BREAKDOWN," a powerhouse ballad in the vein of "The Beautiful Ones" and "Condition Of The Heart" where Prince is able to show off his vocal athleticism, which remains as towering as it has ever been. Addressing our current sense of obtaining a wealth of material riches at the expense of spiritual fulfillment, Prince informs us that we're about to hear "the saddest story ever been told," a story filled with pain, loss and regret at the realization that the gift of life has been wasted on nothingness. The line "give me back the time, U can keep the memories" really packs a punch and does indeed make me wonder if we are glimpsing a rare peek at the wizard behind the curtain.
Over the following three tracks, Prince weaves a sonic playground that actually had me laughing out loud out from the sheer delight of having the ears toyed with the obvious pleasure and creative abandon that was evident during each song's creation. "THE GOLD STANDARD," almost feels like the lost track from the infamous "The Black Album" (from 1987 yet officially released in 1994) with its tight chicken scratch guitar, skeletal beats and the return of that amazing growl of the electronically altered voice Princes used for his most infamous track "Bob George."
Again, Prince leaves us no room to breathe before segueing into the electro-psychedelic "U KNOW," whose groove is propelled by swirling keyboards, a head bobbing beat and percussive female moans and a repetitive "Uh-huh, Uh-huh." Sticking closely with the album sci-fi setting and themes, Prince's voice sounds nearly robotic as he delivers a rapid fire set of lyrics that philosophizes, "If U really wanna find the answer 2 this cancer then U must rewind," and then brilliantly, the song does indeed rewind and returns to the exact beat right on point. DAMN! Then, he offers the following:
"2 run this game requires fame, your soul and name
And nothing gained unless it's sacrificed my dear
Its only plan 4 this dominion
And any question of the deal is met with another demand
2 kneel, reprimand concealed allegations of your sinning
That's why eye'm
Feminine rising, not surprising
Recognizing that the power of the breasts is just a test
That U'll be winning"
THAT'S Prince, y'all!!! THAT'S Prince!!!!
Song after song throughout "ART OFFICIAL AGE" are backboard shattering slam dunks. "THIS COULD BE US," supposedly inspired by an on-line meme featuring a "Purple Rain" era film still of Prince and Apollonia Kotero, is a finger snapping slow jam that already sounds like a soul classic.
The so odd yet so perfect "WHAT IT FEELS LIKE," the first of two duets with musician Andy Allo and featuring a delicately plucked acoustic guitar figure that sounds like a throwback to 1979's "When We're Dancing Close And Slow," features a melody that will instantly stick to your brain. The nearly seven minute finale "TIME," also with Allo, contains those classic, dreamy warm synths that flow like ocean waves plus Prince's unbelievable and downright MEAN bass playing.
The titanic "FUNKNROLL" (which also appears in a different form on "PLECTRUM ELECTRUM") contains the return of Prince's "Camille" voice set to a track that offers nothing less than salvation through music, that is, if we can only put our phones down long enough to just become one with the music. And the previously released "BREAKFAST CAN WAIT" is a splendidly arranged ode to early morning love that boasts the hysterical line that begs, "U can't leave a Black man in this state." Sho' U right!!!
Through all of the songs, which are augmented by the futuristic storyline that exists in a world without time and a some well placed "affirmations," the core, meaning, full intent and emotional centerpiece of "ART OFFICIAL AGE" arrives with the track "WAY BACK HOME."
In the entirety of Prince's career, he has performed a masterful job with inventing his own enigmatic persona so thoroughly that it is never fully clear when he is indeed revealing aspects of his true self or not. With "WAY BACK HOME," the songs feels like a confessional to the point of being naked and the effect is disarming due to its uncharacteristic openness.
"Never wanted a typical life
Scripted role,Trophy wife
All Eye ever wanted was 2 B left alone
See my bed's made up at night
'Cause in my dreams Eye roam
Just tryin' 2 find my way back home
So many reasons why
Eye don't belong here
But now that Eye am
Eye'm gonna conquer with no fear
Until Eye find my way back home"
And that is the heart of this album and frankly, of our existence itself. What is "home"? What does it mean and what is our purpose in trying to discover or better yet, re-discover what home actually is. By the album's conclusion, "home" is defined and it is something that could be applied to Prince's comfort within himself and his art and how that relates to any sense of his higher self. Therefore, we are also obliged to dig deeply and attempt to discover or own concept of "home" so we all may ascend to our potential higher selves. In doing so, Prince's "ART OFFICIAL AGE" is music designed to speak to the soul, much needed when music is currently treated as disposable trash.
"ART OFFICIAL AGE" is weird and wonderful, dazzling and dizzying, bizarre and beautiful, artistically esoteric and commercially accessible, a work that utilizes the album format with purpose and is yet filled with singles that radio should openly embrace. Never in our lifetimes ha there ever been an artist like Prince and to celebrate his presence, let us not just wallow in his past glories.
Let's live here in the NOW as he has given us two new albums to pour over again and again...
...until the next albums!!!
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