The reviews are coming in from the Hamburg, Germany listening party...

http://www.housequake.com...genumber=3

From "Juize":

Here we go:

McGee,my girl & I were waiting at 7 PM sharp at the door. It was pouring like judgement day. At the door we saw a few people altogether less than 10 on point. Quite a few members of Prince-web.de that site I found through a tip of a fellow quaker the flyer announcement. McGee got 8 people on the guest list...which was almost 25% of the attendees alltogether that evening without the staff.
Door opened 7:10 and we got in. Everybody got a nice lamiated pass(maybe McGee will post a scan).

A representative from SonyBMG welcomed us and we went in. We saw a very nice buffett, italian and vegetarian(very delicious). Soft drinks were free and they had a special cocktail called Planet Earth(Rum, limette, grenadine, orange juize ) which was free also.

We settled and got some food. Btw the Prinzenbar is a nice place. Before the record was played. Someone held a little speech, introduced Prince sort of and told the crowd about the sold out London shows and that unfortunately we won't see Prince in mainland europe this year. He was happy to tell us that old friends are on board this time as all of you know by now.

The he said that only in Munich the same time would be the listening experience.

That guy got himself a little applause.
Everybody was in a friendly mode even the bouncers, very kind staff.

As told earlier only 40-60 people the most were listening.

Now my first impressions after the record was played twice:

01. Planet Earth

Great opener, starting with piano and catches up. Fury guitar effect at the end.
Reminded me of Joni Mitchell

02. Guitar

You know the rest

03. Somewhere Here On Earth

It is mellow...nice tune, sound like it is of Parade, sometimes I thought I
heard Miles or Atlanta Bliss

04. The One U Wanna C

sounds like folk to me...english tune

05. Future Baby Mama

bored me a bit...

06. Mr. Goodnight

Why is this on there, the rap reminded me of TRC...

07. All The Midnights In The World

Not too moving...

08. Chelsea Rodgers

Disco baby, nice horns(slim as I like it)

09. Lion Of Judah

Errr...missed the lyrics...

10. Resolution

alright and now?

To me at first glance this is a nice mellow sunday afternoon record with some highs...productionwise I like it...not too many layers and a lot of beats I recognized from the past...Linn drums...ATWIAD references...Gold references...guitar playing is mostly the habbi I guess...Resolution starts like it's PR...

I have the impression it is coherant...One song either reminds me of TRC the rap sounds exactly the same....so there might be leftovers on the album...

I like it...and even my girl who is far from being a Prince fan got into it, it seems accessible...and it starts well has a little too mellow part and glides away...

Just my first take.

SonyBMG invited us to a very nice evening all around. Thank you



All hail McGee who made it possible.
[Edited 6/26/07 13:31pm]

Wow, that was a horrible review.

FruitToAttractBears said:

A bunch of non-descriptive one-line bits. He says the record was played twice... this is the only he could come up with?

09. Lion Of Judah

Err... missed the lyrics...

07. All The Midnights In The World

Not too moving

05. Future Baby Mama

Bored me a bit

etc etc.



[Edited 6/26/07 13:37pm]

FuNkeNsteiN said:

It's like...why did he even bother?

FruitToAttractBears said:

Beats me
[Edited 6/26/07 13:37pm]

FuNkeNsteiN said:

I know.

This one was disappointing, especially after 2 listens, he/she coulda come up with more...

Giovanni777 said:

Ndeed. Guess the brotha wasn't payin' much attention

Giovanni777 said:

i like this bit of the review. Does 'horrible' mean a bad review style or a bad album? The word 'Parade' gets me mildly warm...

so this is the type of people the listening parties are made for? wow, glad they could hype us up for the album. i really hope prince's people are reading these "reviews." then they can start to invite people who are interested in actually listening and providing educated comments about the album. can't wait for the next terrific batches of reviews in the u.k.

that was USELESS

I like Murphs review

mrsquirrel said:

We R all saying that it was a horrible review. Not enough detail about the music.

He gives more info about the food than the cd !

Keep in mind that these reviews R just starting 2 come in. Watch that thread over at Housequake (the link I posted above).

This is the worst review in the history of.....er, well reviewing!

Methinks he was

"I am bored with Prince, now is the time on Sprockets when we dance" cue Kraftwerk music and fade....

They make better cars than they do reviews.

"WE ARE THE RO-BOTs!" bing, bing bing bing. F**k it, i'm gonna get me a Planet Earth cocktail...

that's what I don't like about housequake. You can't say a thing there, (eg something bad about this review, while it's obviously very bad) or everybody will be like 'relax people' ,'don't be rude'
IMO peace and love is good but people have the right to give their own opinion (unless it's racist)

Giovanni777 said:

Hi,-

"we" got Members in Hamburg and Munich - I think tomorrow we got nice reviews over here @ www.prince-web.de - in german.

Greetz
BestMusic4meandU

BestMusic4meandU said:

Hi. Thanks.

I think one must be a member of this site 2 see the forum, no?

Giovanni777 said:

Yes you have to a be a member, and currently you cant even sign in for some odd reasons...

OzlemUcucu said:

damn, where's Cartman when u need him...

MarcelJ said:

I mean you can try to sign in, it didnt work out for me...

Was that a press conference today, or how come ppl were invited?

I wonder why i missed it?!

Dude's review is really interesting...But what really jumped out was his folk comment of "The One U Wanna Cee" and his "err" of "Lion Of Judah" one of the best songs on that album...Interesting...That tells me dude wasn't really listening to that joint...And who could with just a a few listens? But he's dead on about "Mr. Good Night"...That song is just there...

As for the rest of the album, if you don't dig Prince's rock shit (and at times moddy, weird melodies) and was expecting the funk, then you will be dissapointed...I happen to like his funk and rock shit...And I happen to dig this little album beyond being a fan...

murph said:

Agree that it is obvious he really wasnt listening - always amazes me when people write such quite frankly horribly written reviews.

So Murph - is Mr Good Night somewaht like Strange But True?
[Edited 6/26/07 15:00pm]

wat a bland review. there's no details abt the music.

wasn't this reviewer supposed to be one of Graycaps cohorts and have all that 'inside information'? [nudge, nudge , wink , wink bollocks!] Dude thanks for the time n'all BUT you really should not have bothered.
Come on G , enough of the second hand stuff, give us your thoughts!
[Edited 6/26/07 15:14pm]

Murph wrote a great review, partly because Murph is very professional, but mostly because Murph owns the friggin' CD!

This person correctly states that these are only "my first impressions".

There's a big difference between a review and a first impression.

We'll probably be flooded for awhile with impressions, but not many in-depth reviews.

And there had better be a lot of negativity flowing about impressions, else this record is probably too easy upon first listen (see "Musicology" and "3121" for examples).

Well, what with this guy/gal's clear lack of interest in the album, his/her opinion clearly means jack shit.

Can't wait until the next proper album dissection.