Released simultaneously with PlectrumElectrum, the rockier offering put out by Prince’s 3rdeyegirl band, Art Official Age finds Prince solo, embracing the artificial age with glee. Half-a-dozen modern digital music tropes are chucked about merrily on the first song alone (Art Official Cage), while a vintage Prince good-time track percolates along beneath, as though the veteran studio wizard is offering all comers outside for a funk-off. This 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.
