Back in April, Prince mended a long and bitter rift with his former label Warner Bros. The whole saga was like watching your parents split up and your mum (Warner Bros.) dating a whole bunch of kinda-alright-but-ultimately-not-quite-your-dad boyfriends while your dad (Prince) did a whole bunch of weird shit like write “slave” on his face and change his name to an unpronounceable symbol.
Now those dark and confusing years are behind us and the relationship seems to have been going great guns: Prince reissued his stone-cold classic Purple Rain and went on the road with a new backing band to rave reviews. You could say the relationship has hit a bit of a purple patch (boom tish).
What news could spin us out even more than seeing old mum and dad getting on like a house on fire again? How about them announcing that they’re having a baby (i.e. an album)? Whoa! Well, that’s happening. Not only that… it’s twins!
In case you haven’t followed the through line of that analogy, Prince is going to be releasing two brand new albums with Warner Bros. on September 30. Art Official Age is being described as a classic Prince album with Prince writing, producing, arranging, and performing the entire album himself (with a little help from Joshua Welton). This one will be your old-school soul and rhythm and blues-type Prince record.
PlectrumElectrum, on the other hand, was recorded with Prince’s new backing band 3rd Eye Girl live to analog tape and is more of your funk-rock boogie jam record. Oh man, will it be possible to love these two albums equally?
More tour dates and an exciting “series of very special events taking place globally” will be confirmed shortly. In the meantime, you can pre-order the albums now to get access to some of the tracks — like an ultrasound sneak peek into your new twin siblings who are still chilling in utero.
Art Official Age tracklist:
01. Art Official Cage
02. Clouds
03. Breakdown
04. The Gold Standard
05. U Know
06. Breakfast Can Wait
07. This Could Be Us
08. What It Feels Like
09. affirmation I & II
10. Way Back Home
11. FunkNRoll
12. Time
13. affirmation III
PlectrumElectrum tracklist:
01. Wow
02. PretzelBodyLogic
03. AintTurninRound
04. PlectrumElectrum
05. WhiteCaps
06. FixUrLifeUp
07. BoyTrouble
08. StopThisTrain
09. AnotherLove
10. TicTacToe
11. Marz
12. FunkNRoll
• Prince: http://artofficialage.com