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- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Classic Rock MagazineDec 16, 2014Tunes and sound both stay below the Gold Standard. [Dec 2014, p.104]
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MojoNov 7, 2014[A] confusing, sprawling grab-bag. [Nov 2014, p.90]
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Oct 15, 2014Prince's genius remains intact, and as confusing as ever.
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Oct 13, 2014Neither Art Official Age nor PLECTRUMELECTRUM aims to be a legendary Prince record, but both hit their marks anyway.
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Oct 6, 2014This is a far better album than you’d dare hope from the latterday Prince; Breakdown is a heavy, plangent ballad, while The Gold Standard just sounds like he’s partying like it’s 1999 all over again.
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Q MagazineOct 3, 2014Art Official Age, regrettably, is something we have heard before: an overlong, pan-generic concept album. [Nov 2014, p.107]
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Oct 3, 2014Art Official Age is not a return to form by any means, but a modestly exciting Prince album.
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Oct 3, 2014Art Official Age's main takeaway is that His Royal Badness has started to make peace with being past his prime.
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Oct 2, 2014Once you get past the air-horn headache that is opener Art Official Cage, the album settles into a pleasant rhythm that plays up His Purpleness’s knack for whispery weightlessness and deep grooves.
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Oct 1, 2014Even the purest pop songs get derailed by the sheer volume of ideas he attempts to cram into every sonic cranny, including a confusing sci-fi narrative thread that periodically breaks in.
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Oct 1, 2014A stellar album that functions more as an ellipsis than a period. This album is an indicator that Prince is still pulling levers and asking questions.
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Oct 1, 2014Let’s call ART OFFICIAL AGE a beautiful renewal of vows.
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Oct 1, 2014There are sections of this album where the excessively excessive for excessiveness’ sake draw attention away from the parts that are genuinely fantastic. Not that Prince cares what anyone thinks. He proves with this album that he will experiment and make the music he wants to make.
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Sep 30, 2014While the production details of each track are full of lessons in musicianly ingenuity, only “Breakdown” has a melody that lingers. The others are overshadowed by Prince’s back catalog.
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Sep 30, 2014Art Official Age isn't just the stronger of the two--it's among his most imaginative albums since the '90s.
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Sep 30, 2014As an original whole, Art Official Age is Prince's most complete, most consistent and most contemporary album in a minute.
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Sep 30, 2014A s Art Official Age plays out, it winds up being less of an introduction to a new generation as much as it is the treat for loyal fans that MPLSound tried so hard to be but end up felling short of.
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UncutSep 29, 2014Too many average slow jams.... They just remind you he's still around; short of a tune, but the unique inhabitant of a purple planet all his own. [Nov 2014, p.80]
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Sep 29, 2014In an era when innovative artists such as Frank Ocean and The Weeknd are redefining the form and feel of R&B seduction ballads, Prince sounds not just relevant, but renewed.
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Sep 29, 2014Nostalgic fans will no doubt lap up Prince’s old-school falsetto preens and funk beats. But such a sustained recoil from the current world has a consequence. It can seem regressive or overfamiliar.
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Sep 29, 2014If the album doesn't offer any startling surprises along the lines of the furious "Black Sweat"--there's not much abandon here--there's joy in hearing Prince embrace his lyrical eccentricities as he accessorizes his smooth jams and coiled, clean funk with such oddities as laser blasts and spoken introductions from what appear to be British nurses.
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Sep 29, 2014It is all quite delightfully nuts.
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Sep 29, 2014If you're looking for a freaky good time, Art Official is your ticket.... An exquisite Prince R&B album.
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Sep 29, 2014What follows are flashes of brilliance interspersed with stuff that just wouldn’t have made the cut 30 years ago.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 45 out of 58
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Mixed: 4 out of 58
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Negative: 9 out of 58
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Oct 1, 2014
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Aug 1, 2021Criminally underrated, there are no weak tracks on Art Official Age. Prince was exciting til the end.
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Oct 14, 2014