Maps of Music

Art Official Age (2014)

Where the lyrics of Art Official Age take you, and where it was really made.

Prince released this album at the same time as another album, Plectrumelectrum, recorded with his touring band 3rdeyegirl.

Key places

Recorded at Paisley Park (2014)

Recording site Paisley Park Studios — The album was recorded at the Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The studio is listed as the recording site for this album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Art Official Age: the thirty-seventh studio album by American recording artist Prince
• Released 26 September 2014 by NPG Records
• Released under a renewed license to Warner Bros. Records
• Second collaboration between NPG Records and Warner Bros. Records, after 1999's The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
• Released alongside Plectrumelectrum, recorded with the touring band 3rdeyegirl

Background

• Prince's album Plectrumelectrum was released at the same time as this album
• The two releases were recorded under different band settings

Recording

• Recorded at Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota

Cover

• Cover art details are not covered in the available source

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Prince Rogers Nelson, born June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; died April 21, 2016 at Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
• Signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1977 at age 18; first album For You released April 7, 1978.
• Career spanned funk, rock, R&B and pop, with estimated sales over 100 million records.

Career

• Breakthrough with Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).
• Purple Rain (1984) made him the first singer to hold the number-one film, album and single in the US at the same time.
• Sign o' the Times (1987) is widely considered his greatest work.
• Changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, becoming known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince; reverted to Prince in 2000.
• Won seven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Art Official Age received generally positive reviews from music critics.
• Metacritic average score: 70, based on 24 reviews
• Greg Kot (Chicago Tribune): called it a more substantial and stranger album than Plectrumelectrum
• Randall Roberts (Los Angeles Times): called it an exquisite Prince R&B album
• Neil McCormick (The Daily Telegraph): called it a slick, seductive electro funk sci-fi concept album
• Kitty Empire (The Observer): called it a far better album than expected from the latterday Prince
• Kenneth Partridge (Billboard): said Prince is funnier, sexier, and more self-aware than in ages, and that it is his most creative album since the 1990s
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMusic): less enthusiastic, calling it a full-fledged R&B album, with some modernization feeling ham-fisted
• Q magazine: dismissed it as an overlong, pan-generic concept album
• Jon Pareles (The New York Times): said the songs lack memorable melodies despite the musicianly ingenuity of the production
• Robert Christgau (Cuepoint): cited Breakfast Can Wait and FunknRoll as highlights

Reappraisal

• No later reappraisal is given in the available source

Records

• Debuted at number five on the Billboard 200
• Sold 51,000 copies in its first week
• Dropped to number 22 in its second week, selling 15,000 copies
• Total of 66,000 copies after two weeks

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was released at the same time as Plectrumelectrum, which was recorded with Prince's touring band 3rdeyegirl.
• The release followed a renewed license to Warner Bros. Records, marking the second collaboration between NPG Records and Warner Bros. Records since 1999.
• Pareles noted that the album drops the concept set up by its first few songs and interludes, which have Prince waking up from suspended animation 45 years from now.
• Christgau facetiously remarked that the greatest composer-performer of romantic nu-funk erotica wakes up 40 years later wishing he was Janelle Monáe.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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