Skip to footer

Prince will debut two new albums in September

Prince's new solo album, 'Art Official Age,' and the album 'PlectrumElectrum,' which he worked on with the band 3RDEYEGIRL, will both be released on Sept. 30. Prince was behind such albums as 'Purple Rain' and '1999.' 

|
Peter Kramer/AP
Prince appears at The Apollo Theater in New York.
  • By Mesfin Fekadu Associated Press

Prince is releasing a new album on Sept. 30.

The pop icon announced Monday that he would release "Art Official Age" on Warner Bros. Records, the label Prince was signed to from 1978 to the mid-1990s, but later battled for the rights to his music.

He reached a deal with Warner in April, earning the rights to the music he recorded on the label.

Prince will also release the album "PlectrumElectrum" with his all-female band 3RDEYEGIRL on Sept. 30. Both albums are available for pre-order.

"Art Official Age" was described in a news release as a mix "of soul, R&B and funk." It's his first album since 2010's "20Ten."

Prince released key projects like "Purple Rain," ''1999," ''Diamonds and Pearls," and "Around the World in a Day" on Warner. The agreement with the label comes years after his relationship with Warner soured as he failed to gain possession of the music he recorded for the label. Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and wrote the word "slave" on his cheek. He also vowed to rerecord the 17 albums he released on the label and sell them on his own.

After Warner, Prince began releasing music in 1996 over the Internet and struck deals with Arista Records and Columbia Records, where he saw a comeback with the Grammy-winning "Musicology" in 2004.

His second upcoming album, "PlectrumElectrum," will feature 3RDEYEGIRL, the band that includes guitarist Donna Grantis, drummer Hannah Ford Welton, and bassist Ida Nielsen.

Prince and the trio performed in Europe this year during their "Hit & Run" tour.

He also recently guest-starred on the Fox sitcom “New Girl” in the show’s post-Super Bowl episode. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of his film and album “Rain,” with the album version having been released in June and the movie following in July of that year.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Prince will debut two new albums in September
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2014/0825/Prince-will-debut-two-new-albums-in-September
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe