Ever the wellspring of surplus material, Prince wasn’t quite content to release Art Official Age and let it stand alone as his umpteenth comeback record; the same day, he released Plectrumelectrum, a full-scale guitar-rock record with new backing band 3rdeyegirl that stands in stark contrast to AOA, both through its sound (analog recording techniques, chunky riff-rock instrumentals) and its relative lack of diversity. Where Art Official Age found Prince checking in with modern-pop filtered through his unique artistic perspective — complete with all the genre-hopping that description implies — Plectrumelectrum is comparatively black-and-white. It’s certainly not bad; it’s just not nearly as colorful as its companion record.
That being said, it’s a nice milieu to see Prince work in. I’ve waxed plenty about enjoying Prince in guitar-rock mode — even giving Chaos and Disorder a positive notice despite it literally existing just to tell Warner Brothers to suck it — so it’s been interesting to see him take so many strides towards re-establishing his guitar-hero bonafides in the aughts and 2010s. Of course, his inability to stay in one lane for too long often causes his guitar albums to veer off of the highway; Plectrumelectrum doesn’t hit quite as nicely or as frequently as Lotusflow3r from a few years prior, but it consistently buckles down and works within its established stylistic blueprint, which itself is a fascinating descriptor to lob at a Prince record.
Perhaps that’s the influence of his prefab all-female rock trio, a triptych of ringers in drummer Hannah Welton-Ford, bassist Ida Nielsen, and former NPG guitarist Donna Grantis; as with all Prince records, Plectrumelectrum is recognizably the product of its creator, but there’s an awful lot of sonic influence from his collaborators present here, which is so infrequently the case, historically speaking. They form the bones of Plectrumelectrum, the foundation on which Prince constructs his full-length rock spectacle.
This is a double-edged sword. Prince committing to rock music for an album should probably sound a little more idiosyncratic than this; loads of the material here sounds like Led Zep and Hendrix fetishization (blues-rock gone heavy), elsewhere it kinda sounds like Audioslave or something. Still, Prince’s knack for an off-kilter melody remains intact, and the chunky barre chords and Bonham drums of “Pretzelbodylogic”, for example, service one of P’s most serpentine, sassy hooks. Ditto opener “Wow”, which seems like a trial run of “Pretzelbodylogic” — early on, it’s easy to get concerned that this record is gonna be way too samey for Prince’s standards — and “Fixurlifeup”, which sounds kinda like Collective Soul fronted by Lenny Kravitz.
Also appealing is Prince’s willingness to play well with others here; this is his most collaborative, band-like record since perhaps Love Symbol. A lot of that has to do with his willingness to turn lead vocal duties over to others, a perfectly understandable decision if you’re playing in a rock band with the level of six-string chops Prince boasts. Welton-Ford assumes lead duties for a handful of agreeable ringers, including the fierce “Aintturninaround” and the breezy r&b-flecked “Stopthistrain”. Elsewhere, P invites Minneapolis femcees to front “Boytrouble”, which only tangentially sounds like Prince was in the room but is agreeably silly enough to not matter.
By the time the album climaxes, it’s been a fun enough ride; far from a stone-cold classic, to be sure, but there are gems to be harvested. Late in the record we get an alternate take of AOA‘s “Funknroll”, which predictably errs more heavily on the rock side of the equation, and a scintillating barn-burner in “Anotherlove” (particularly energetic background vocals from 3rdeyegirl here, who excel in this area throughout the record). And then there’s “Marz”, so weird and short and pogo-fast that it feels like an offshoot of Dirty Mind‘s immortally disturbing “Sister”; the conceit, “a brother might move to Mars”, is a little more chaste this time around, but it feels similar.
Plectrumelectrum isn’t half as big or weird as it should have been. But it’s loose and raw enough to feel like Prince is really enjoying himself again — listen to how exuberant he sounds on this version of “Funknroll” — and that’s kind of enough, isn’t it? If it’s not as grand of a statement as Art Official Age, it’s a worthwhile companion piece with jams to spare.
Grade: B
Drew's Album of the Day 