NME aka. New Musical Express, is giving 20Ten: 4 out of 10,

Question has this magazine EVER written anything POSITIVE when it comes to Prince ?????

Proove me right - or wrong.

I remember in the 1980's & 1990's I was reading reviews and artickles in my local library, those were extremely difficult to find back then, about Prince's music.

Rolling Stone,

Melody Maker,

and....

New Musical Express

those were the magazines I was reading back then,

But the english press were always negative, especially NME.

Even in Prince's "prime" - the 1980s.

Am I right, NME is/ was always negative about Prince music ?

Or - do I remember wrong.....

Papers like Melody Maker, Sounds, and NME used to gush over Prince, i mean proper wet their knickers.

But now that the NME is written by a bunch of 18 year olds who shufffle around with their trousers hanging off their arse like they shit themselves........Prince is no longer cool.

Here's NME's review of PARADE,

yes the fine album by Prince & The Revolution (a 10/10 masterpiece imo.):

New Musical Express
April 12, 1986

Sometimes it pisses down in April

I TOOK 'Kiss' as a signal that we were being ushered back into the compressed, airtight funkworld of 'Dirty Mind'. Didn't flip over the song itself - slick metronome sexgospel - but what a relief to hear that funky, flecked, flicking guitar again.

It turns out we're not going back to that springy, spunky sound after all - 'Kiss' is on its own as a throwback to 'Head' and 'Party Up' and 'Do It All Night'. Not that Prince doesn't still have a filthy little mind, of course, just that these days he doesn't speak it quite so economically. It's all mixed he doesn't really know how to express, and that's become a drag.

A few things have changed since 'Around The World In A Day', it's true. For starters, there are no printed lyrics, so i don't have to pretend to have given his twee and icky poems my most careful consideration. Then for seconds there's no purple or paisley stuff on the sleeve - just plain ol' black and white narcissim (another throwback to 'Dirty Mind'). Most important, Prince isn't being such a sourpuss primadonna anymore. There I was thinking the little mulatto Amadeus was on the edge of a breakdown and suddenly he's all happy and relaxed and flirty in the 'Kiss' video.

Trouble is, i actually think 'Around The World In A Day' was the better record. For all its neo-psychedelic silliness it had three great songs, which is about three more than 'Parade' has - nothing here as witty as 'Pop Life', as mournful as 'America', or as anguished as 'Condition Of The Heart'. The worst thing about Prince's "maturity', if we can call it that, is that he has given up writing great songs - songs like 'When You Were Mine' - as a matter of course. I mean, if he can find time to bestow a morsel like 'Manic Monday' on four desperate California chicks who will probably never have another hit record in their lives, surely he could craft the odd decent tune for himself.

Prince, instead of writing simple, succinct, sexy songs, is always trying to save the world, which means that he is never content with anything but grandiose 'Sgt Pepper' albums where all the songs run into each onther and vast orchestras make a lot of superfluous noise. He is a master architect of sound but he will show off and spoil it all. His Rundgren-esque technosoup of Sly and Stevie Wonder is beginning to get very predictable.

The LP opens with 'Christopher Tracy's Parade', a typical fanfare for his highness 'Disneyland soundscape and pretty much a follow-through from the ambience of 'Paisley Park'. Who this tracy fellow is I don't know, though going by the closing elegy of 'Sometimes It Snows In April', I would guess that he is a deceased pal of the Minneapolitan midget's.

'New Position' follows with steel drums, a hard pop-funk beat, and yer basic lewd double entendre. Guitarist Wendy picks up for the strange, brief interlude of 'I Wonder U' (performances seem more democratically delegated this time around: P. isn't being such a spoilt-brat autocrat in his studio playpen) which slides swiftly into 'Under The Cherry Moon', title track of the unpromising-sounding flick for which this LP purports to be a soundtrack. I have seen many moons in my time, but never a cherry moon - how about you ? The song is a kind of kurt Weill lullaby co-authored by (Prince Sr ?) John L. Nelson.

Next up, 'Girls And Boys' is an adolescent 'Lady Marmalade' replete with "sauce" French bits and set to the beat of 'Take Me With U'. 'Life Can Be So Nice' bypasses me completely - a highspirited mess - before 'Venus De Milo' trails away at Side One's end as a slight sliver of mood-muzak, grand piano plus sweeping strings and reeds.

Flip the disc and we're straight back into Prince's booming sytnh beat on 'Mountains', which is a pounding Stevie Wonder/ Earth Wind And Fire epic. The Jazzy, smoochy 'Do U Lie ?' is a pleasant and slinky respite from such pomp.

'Kiss' then takes its isolated place in the remorseless parade of overdone semi-ideas, followed by the melodically beguiling 'Anotherloverholenyohead' (yes, it is a stupid title, isn't it). Finally, the showpiece ballad, 'Sometimes It Snows In April' (an even worse title) ends the record on a folksy acoustic noteand mourns the aforesaid departed Tracy. I feel that Prince is, on the whole, best at this most sentimental and foppishly despolate, but this is appalling kitsch and doesn't work at all.

I dunno. Is it possible, or even advisable, to take Prince seriously ? Do I have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude ? I find this record laboured and trite and self-satisfied and won't be listening to it again.

-- Barney Hoskyns

Credits: taken from http://princetext.tripod....e.html#nme

[Edited 7/14/10 12:19pm]

[Edited 7/14/10 12:19pm]

Do you especially need their validation?

thedance said:

NME aka. New Musical Express, is giving 20Ten: 4 out of 10,

Question has this magazine EVER written anything POSITIVE when it comes to Prince ?????

Proove me right - or wrong.

I remember in the 1980's & 1990's I was reading reviews and artickles in my local library, those were extremely difficult to find back then, about Prince's music.

Rolling Stone,

Melody Maker,

and....

New Musical Express

those were the magazines I was reading back then,

But the english press were always negative, especially NME.

Even in Prince's "prime" - the 1980s.

Am I right, NME is/ was always negative about Prince music ?

Or - do I remember wrong.....

MikeyB71 said:

thedance said:

NME aka. New Musical Express, is giving 20Ten: 4 out of 10,

Question has this magazine EVER written anything POSITIVE when it comes to Prince ?????

Proove me right - or wrong.

I remember in the 1980's & 1990's I was reading reviews and artickles in my local library, those were extremely difficult to find back then, about Prince's music.

Rolling Stone,

Melody Maker,

and....

New Musical Express

those were the magazines I was reading back then,

But the english press were always negative, especially NME.

Even in Prince's "prime" - the 1980s.

Am I right, NME is/ was always negative about Prince music ?

Or - do I remember wrong.....

You are not totally wrong. NME was always more about the "alternative" music. So when they had this pristine, purple little pimp, dressed in polka dots and heels, they decided to take the piss, jumping on the UK tabloid bandwagon.

The early 90's saw a shift, with NME declaring Prince a "mad" genius, interviewing him and spunking over his concert tickets.

The Melody Maker, which sadly folded, always loved Prince, positive reviews, full colour pictures, big articles and all the hooha. They would have Napalm Death on one page and Prince on the next, and they did not give a fuck.

Those were the days indeed, when the music press actually meant something and you could learn a thing or two.

NME these days is the Hello magazine of music.

Fuck knows what happened there (double post thing) this new posting method thing is up its own arse.

and Now: NME's review of the SIGN "O" THE TIMES album:

to read this is kind of funny and sad at the same time....

New Musical Express
June 4, 1987

U won't believe this

Prince isn't a star, he's an event. And so is the release of his new double LP. Paolo Hewitt is let to the subterranean bunker at WEA records, and gets first listen. Prior to the release of the new Prince LP 'Sign O' The Times', WEA Records decided to place a worldwide embargo on this new offering from the Minneapolis Maverick. This meant, in effect, that advance copies were witheld from both radio and press until its worldwide release (Monday morning), with WEA London informing all enquires that tapes of the LP were safely stashed away in a safe, with a round-the-clock bodyguard standing by.

This decision can be interpreted in two ways. A genuine concern by WEA not to offend anyone by granting an exclusive to any one paper or radio station and thereby placing future WEA releases by other artists in jeopardy. Or a clever way of gaining maximum worldwide exposure to a duff LP, culminating in a massive hype.

In the end, NME were summoned to WEA and placed in a room with the tape of the LP and granted a hearing. Given the ability of Prince's music to grow in stature on each hearing, what follows must only be a cursory reading of what is easily his most off-beat statement to date.

'Sign O' The Times' contains 16 new songs and, quality aside, once again pays testimony to the man's musical unpredictabilty and insatiable appetite for new styles and moods.

Three of the songs, 'Starfish And Coffee', 'Slow love' and 'It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night' are co-written, the latter by Dr Fink and Eric Leeds, the man behind Madhouse, whose LP was recently released on Paisley park to critical acclaim.

Sheena Easton and a new singer by the name of Camille (who sounds suspiciously like Prince) also make guest appearances. Otherwise, the whole project has been written, composed, arranged and produced by Prince.

The first thing that has to be said is that this would be a stunning single LP. And if anyone knows that, it's Prince himself, the clue being the way he has arranged the running order of the LP.

Apart from the title track, and two other songs, sides one and two contains some of the weakest material Prince ever committed to vinyl. Most of the songs here sound like demos, and are vapid and totally underdeveloped. As a reaction to the 80's emphasis on over-production, it's a brilliant statement. In reality, it simply doesn't work.

Sides three and four act in total contrast to this selfindulgence. Songs such as 'U Got The Look', 'Strange Relationship', 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' and 'Adore' all compare favourably with the best of his work and remind us in no uncertain terms of his unique talent.

One can only assume that by balancing the LP between songs of such varying and extreme quality. Prince is not only asserting his total artistic control but publicly displaying his inability to resist throwing a very heavy spanner into his works.

On 'Sign O' The Times' Prince arrogantly flaunts his talent for writing unsurpassable contemporary music, the title track for one, and the laying himself wide open, warts and all. As with any artist of his calibre, his success rests not only with the music but the way in which that music is presented, the way in which it takes chances to further cement his self-made image as unique individual, answerable to no-one. For any other artist to put out an LP which contains demos would mean end of a career. For prince, it only enhances a career he has so far brilliantly stage-managed.

The music itself runs something like this:

'Sign O' The Times' Already the year's best single. A totally inventive and different musical collage bringing in elements of rap and funk over a harsh lyrical catalogue of modern ills. It also signals a change in Prince's stance. On '1999', Prince said, sod it, let's dance all night. Now he wants to settle down and have a child. A recurring the througout.

'Play in the sunshine' A throwback to the 50's, days of innocence (another recurring theme) with an early rough rock 'n' roll feel spiced with a heavy lead guitar.

'Housequake' Prince does his James Brown routine. "Shut up already, damn !" he barks as an opener before launching into a classic JB-meets-Clinton-meets-Prince dancefloor-style funk. One of the only songs from this side worth keeping.

'Ballad of Dorothy Parker' Weak Steely Dannish (really) soft funk that goes absolutely nowhere. One has to wonder about a mind that would want anyone to hear this.

'It' Another rough sounding song, more-Prince-like with a relentless beat, that keeps threatening to take off but never does. A homage to someone's sexual charms, this is dark and threatening stuff but somewhat off the mark.

'Starfish and Coffee' Memorable to NME readers for its assessment of our very own contributor, one Cynthia Rose. 'All of us were ordinary compared to Cynthia Rose" Prince croons over this straight 60's pop pastiche. Lyrics cowritten with Susannah, ex-of the Revolution, even The Bangles would have second thoughts about this one.

'Slow Love' A relaxed blues with lush orchestration interspersed with a big-band, '40s style arrangement. Prince goes to Frankie Sinatra and loses hands down.

'Hot Thing' The title alone will tell you that this is the kind of sassy funk that Prince is so adept at. Similair in places to the monstrous 'Sign O' The Times' but without the exhiliarating twists, this is still one of the few tunes that derserved to avoid the chop.

'Forever in my Life' A plea for fidelity and love forever reveals the changing face of Prince but the minimal music neither keeps the place or lodges in the memory. End of demos. Now for the LP.

'U Got the Look' Classic Prince with this strident mixture of rock and funk. Here he duets with Sheena Easton and the mysterious Camille with the kind of contagious song that just screams, 'Single!' Archetypal Prince and just one of the things he does best.

'If I Was Your Girlfriend' Opens up with an orchestra tuning up, the wedding march theme, and a strange voice that shouts, "look at the bargains on offer here, ladies". Adapting to his falsetto voice over an hypnotic, brooding groove, Prince switches genders to detail his romantic notions ending with the immortal line, "we'll try to imagine what silence looks like". A total charmer.

'Strange relationship' Harks back in tiny ways to his earlier sexual obsessions, yet this is to do with mental cruelty and classic love/ hate relatioinships. Prince seems genuinely bewildered that he "can't stand to see U happy, more than that I hate to see U sad". Another up tempo tune, bolstered by a thumping back beat and simple yet contagious melody.

'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man' One of the few weak links over these two sides. Prince takes on The Cars and the sound of current American MTV pop and beats them. But then there's not much competitions to begin with - this song shows that.

'The Cross' Prince as a Catholic priest. Over a gentle guitar melody, he forsees the coming of God and urges us that despite all our problems, not to cry because, "He is coming, don't die without knowing the cross..." Just as he's about to take confessions, a horrendous army of rock guitars flood in and wash away all our sins. He's not parodying The Mission for nothing, you know.

'It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night' Recorded live in front of "6.000 adoring Parisians", this is an unfussy display of the kind of music similair to Kid Creole four years ago. Immaculately right, this is partytime Prince at its flashiest.

'Adore' Two years ago, Prince gave Mel'isa Morgan a song entitled 'Do Me Baby', a slow burning ballad that proved to be one of the highlights of her career. 'Adore' is in a similair vein, a sugar ballad that harks back to the Stylistics but is indelibly Prince's, a lush yet remarkable piece of music, and a fitting climax to the story so far.

-- Paolo Hewitt

Credits: http://princetext.tripod....t.html#nme

[Edited 7/14/10 16:32pm]

Parade was their Album of the Year iirc. So, yes they have.

Record reviews are only a very small part of the story though, that is the point i am trying to make.

There was all the interviews, gig reviews, and articles just for the sake of having an article, and in particular, the MM was very positive about Prince.

As was NME, eventually. Melody Maker and NME merged at one point (not sure of the date) and imo this is when UK music journalism died.

^ thanks Mikey for your comments on NME, I enjoyed reading them.

NouveauDance said:

Do you especially need their validation?

not particular,

but still the press and what they write have an effect on people.

Don't you think....

I am always reading those reviews, even when they write stuff I don't agree with.

(I do enjoy the albums PARADE and Sign O' The Times, despite what was written in the press, back then..)

thedance said:

^ thanks Mikey for your comments on NME, I enjoyed reading them.

Yes, they have been positive about him in the past, but not too often and not really in his heyday. That said, they obviously hold him on a high pedastle and, well, they just used to do what is still done around these parts every day - that is to say, hold him aloft to expectations so high and personal, that he couldn't ever really meet them! Its his fault, for being so damn good in the first place that, when your interest in him sparked, it became an inferno! Just look at the obsession he has mustered in people!

I've seen mant great albums receive bad reviews at the time of their release, only to be looked at in a different light years on. Maybe that says something about "music journalists"? Maybe it says something about that music? That it was so special or so far ahead of its time that some people just don't get it.

For me, the reviewer of SOTT qualifies this to some extent, where he inserts the caveat right at the beginning of the aritlce, "Given the ability of Prince's music to grow in stature on each hearing, what follows must only be a cursory reading of what is easily his most off-beat statement to date.". And, there we have it - and isn't that also many people's experience here? I've seen many posters say how they have to listen to his work many times before they "get it" (not that Bart would agree with that!). But, even this hack admits that its entirely possible that SOTT will only get better with repeated listens. Well, after 23 years of listening, its still up there with the best albums of all time.

Come on!

Do you ALWAYS need to make huge dramas out of ridiculous unimportant things?

I don't get it.

they're only positive about bands that have only been around 5 minutes that nobody but them has heard of. and they've only heard of them because the band sent an in-house promo to an NME intern. by the time the album is pressed and shipped to a record store, NME is over them.

vitriol said:

Come on!

Do you ALWAYS need to make huge dramas out of ridiculous unimportant things?

I don't get it.

answer: I can't make any better threads than this, sorry if this can't please you... and make you in any better mood.

May I ask what you are contributing with here, on the Org Vitriol... besides sour, sometimes harsh remarks,

which threads have you made recently?

I don't wanna argue with you Vitriol, just.... you should't just critisize all the time, try being "contructive".

Maybe it's better to ignore a guy like you, sometimes.... OK back on topic.

Just furthers my view that art criticism, and art journalism, is a bunch of nonsense. music, movies, games, whatever...

thedance said:

Here's NME's review of PARADE,

yes the fine album by Prince & The Revolution (a 10/10 masterpiece imo.):

New Musical Express
April 12, 1986

Sometimes it pisses down in April

I TOOK 'Kiss' as a signal that we were being ushered back into the compressed, airtight funkworld of 'Dirty Mind'. Didn't flip over the song itself - slick metronome sexgospel - but what a relief to hear that funky, flecked, flicking guitar again.

It turns out we're not going back to that springy, spunky sound after all - 'Kiss' is on its own as a throwback to 'Head' and 'Party Up' and 'Do It All Night'. Not that Prince doesn't still have a filthy little mind, of course, just that these days he doesn't speak it quite so economically. It's all mixed he doesn't really know how to express, and that's become a drag.

A few things have changed since 'Around The World In A Day', it's true. For starters, there are no printed lyrics, so i don't have to pretend to have given his twee and icky poems my most careful consideration. Then for seconds there's no purple or paisley stuff on the sleeve - just plain ol' black and white narcissim (another throwback to 'Dirty Mind'). Most important, Prince isn't being such a sourpuss primadonna anymore. There I was thinking the little mulatto Amadeus was on the edge of a breakdown and suddenly he's all happy and relaxed and flirty in the 'Kiss' video.

Trouble is, i actually think 'Around The World In A Day' was the better record. For all its neo-psychedelic silliness it had three great songs, which is about three more than 'Parade' has - nothing here as witty as 'Pop Life', as mournful as 'America', or as anguished as 'Condition Of The Heart'. The worst thing about Prince's "maturity', if we can call it that, is that he has given up writing great songs - songs like 'When You Were Mine' - as a matter of course. I mean, if he can find time to bestow a morsel like 'Manic Monday' on four desperate California chicks who will probably never have another hit record in their lives, surely he could craft the odd decent tune for himself.

Prince, instead of writing simple, succinct, sexy songs, is always trying to save the world, which means that he is never content with anything but grandiose 'Sgt Pepper' albums where all the songs run into each onther and vast orchestras make a lot of superfluous noise. He is a master architect of sound but he will show off and spoil it all. His Rundgren-esque technosoup of Sly and Stevie Wonder is beginning to get very predictable.

The LP opens with 'Christopher Tracy's Parade', a typical fanfare for his highness 'Disneyland soundscape and pretty much a follow-through from the ambience of 'Paisley Park'. Who this tracy fellow is I don't know, though going by the closing elegy of 'Sometimes It Snows In April', I would guess that he is a deceased pal of the Minneapolitan midget's.

'New Position' follows with steel drums, a hard pop-funk beat, and yer basic lewd double entendre. Guitarist Wendy picks up for the strange, brief interlude of 'I Wonder U' (performances seem more democratically delegated this time around: P. isn't being such a spoilt-brat autocrat in his studio playpen) which slides swiftly into 'Under The Cherry Moon', title track of the unpromising-sounding flick for which this LP purports to be a soundtrack. I have seen many moons in my time, but never a cherry moon - how about you ? The song is a kind of kurt Weill lullaby co-authored by (Prince Sr ?) John L. Nelson.

Next up, 'Girls And Boys' is an adolescent 'Lady Marmalade' replete with "sauce" French bits and set to the beat of 'Take Me With U'. 'Life Can Be So Nice' bypasses me completely - a highspirited mess - before 'Venus De Milo' trails away at Side One's end as a slight sliver of mood-muzak, grand piano plus sweeping strings and reeds.

Flip the disc and we're straight back into Prince's booming sytnh beat on 'Mountains', which is a pounding Stevie Wonder/ Earth Wind And Fire epic. The Jazzy, smoochy 'Do U Lie ?' is a pleasant and slinky respite from such pomp.

'Kiss' then takes its isolated place in the remorseless parade of overdone semi-ideas, followed by the melodically beguiling 'Anotherloverholenyohead' (yes, it is a stupid title, isn't it). Finally, the showpiece ballad, 'Sometimes It Snows In April' (an even worse title) ends the record on a folksy acoustic noteand mourns the aforesaid departed Tracy. I feel that Prince is, on the whole, best at this most sentimental and foppishly despolate, but this is appalling kitsch and doesn't work at all.

I dunno. Is it possible, or even advisable, to take Prince seriously ? Do I have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude ? I find this record laboured and trite and self-satisfied and won't be listening to it again.

-- Barney Hoskyns

[img:$uid]http://www.guide2prince.org/pics/isbn086369-540.jpg[/img:$uid]

The irony truly astounds me.

Xibalba said:

thedance said:

Here's NME's review of PARADE,

yes the fine album by Prince & The Revolution (a 10/10 masterpiece imo.):

New Musical Express
April 12, 1986

Sometimes it pisses down in April

I TOOK 'Kiss' as a signal that we were being ushered back into the compressed, airtight funkworld of 'Dirty Mind'. Didn't flip over the song itself - slick metronome sexgospel - but what a relief to hear that funky, flecked, flicking guitar again.

It turns out we're not going back to that springy, spunky sound after all - 'Kiss' is on its own as a throwback to 'Head' and 'Party Up' and 'Do It All Night'. Not that Prince doesn't still have a filthy little mind, of course, just that these days he doesn't speak it quite so economically. It's all mixed he doesn't really know how to express, and that's become a drag.

A few things have changed since 'Around The World In A Day', it's true. For starters, there are no printed lyrics, so i don't have to pretend to have given his twee and icky poems my most careful consideration. Then for seconds there's no purple or paisley stuff on the sleeve - just plain ol' black and white narcissim (another throwback to 'Dirty Mind'). Most important, Prince isn't being such a sourpuss primadonna anymore. There I was thinking the little mulatto Amadeus was on the edge of a breakdown and suddenly he's all happy and relaxed and flirty in the 'Kiss' video.

Trouble is, i actually think 'Around The World In A Day' was the better record. For all its neo-psychedelic silliness it had three great songs, which is about three more than 'Parade' has - nothing here as witty as 'Pop Life', as mournful as 'America', or as anguished as 'Condition Of The Heart'. The worst thing about Prince's "maturity', if we can call it that, is that he has given up writing great songs - songs like 'When You Were Mine' - as a matter of course. I mean, if he can find time to bestow a morsel like 'Manic Monday' on four desperate California chicks who will probably never have another hit record in their lives, surely he could craft the odd decent tune for himself.

Prince, instead of writing simple, succinct, sexy songs, is always trying to save the world, which means that he is never content with anything but grandiose 'Sgt Pepper' albums where all the songs run into each onther and vast orchestras make a lot of superfluous noise. He is a master architect of sound but he will show off and spoil it all. His Rundgren-esque technosoup of Sly and Stevie Wonder is beginning to get very predictable.

The LP opens with 'Christopher Tracy's Parade', a typical fanfare for his highness 'Disneyland soundscape and pretty much a follow-through from the ambience of 'Paisley Park'. Who this tracy fellow is I don't know, though going by the closing elegy of 'Sometimes It Snows In April', I would guess that he is a deceased pal of the Minneapolitan midget's.

'New Position' follows with steel drums, a hard pop-funk beat, and yer basic lewd double entendre. Guitarist Wendy picks up for the strange, brief interlude of 'I Wonder U' (performances seem more democratically delegated this time around: P. isn't being such a spoilt-brat autocrat in his studio playpen) which slides swiftly into 'Under The Cherry Moon', title track of the unpromising-sounding flick for which this LP purports to be a soundtrack. I have seen many moons in my time, but never a cherry moon - how about you ? The song is a kind of kurt Weill lullaby co-authored by (Prince Sr ?) John L. Nelson.

Next up, 'Girls And Boys' is an adolescent 'Lady Marmalade' replete with "sauce" French bits and set to the beat of 'Take Me With U'. 'Life Can Be So Nice' bypasses me completely - a highspirited mess - before 'Venus De Milo' trails away at Side One's end as a slight sliver of mood-muzak, grand piano plus sweeping strings and reeds.

Flip the disc and we're straight back into Prince's booming sytnh beat on 'Mountains', which is a pounding Stevie Wonder/ Earth Wind And Fire epic. The Jazzy, smoochy 'Do U Lie ?' is a pleasant and slinky respite from such pomp.

'Kiss' then takes its isolated place in the remorseless parade of overdone semi-ideas, followed by the melodically beguiling 'Anotherloverholenyohead' (yes, it is a stupid title, isn't it). Finally, the showpiece ballad, 'Sometimes It Snows In April' (an even worse title) ends the record on a folksy acoustic noteand mourns the aforesaid departed Tracy. I feel that Prince is, on the whole, best at this most sentimental and foppishly despolate, but this is appalling kitsch and doesn't work at all.

I dunno. Is it possible, or even advisable, to take Prince seriously ? Do I have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude ? I find this record laboured and trite and self-satisfied and won't be listening to it again.

-- Barney Hoskyns

[img:$uid]http://www.guide2prince.org/pics/isbn086369-540.jpg[/img:$uid]

The irony truly astounds me.

That dude should be taken out back and dealt with.

I love these classic reviews... keep them coming. Just goes to show you people's memories of a time period outweigh what was actually happening, and that reviews from any publication should be taken with a grain of salt. They're all BS, especially when they're written by today's weak generation. What do they know about good music at all? Nothing. That's why Tony Parsons' review of 20ten is the one that matters. Prince should aim for the relevant, intelligent people with his music, not brain dead people.

They called him Mulatto in the Parade review, that alone would have been my last time reading the magazine.

thedance said:

Here's NME's review of PARADE,

Parade was voted by NME's writers as the best record of the year, FYI.

Xibalba said:

thedance said:

Here's NME's review of PARADE,

yes the fine album by Prince & The Revolution (a 10/10 masterpiece imo.):

New Musical Express
April 12, 1986

Sometimes it pisses down in April

I TOOK 'Kiss' as a signal that we were being ushered back into the compressed, airtight funkworld of 'Dirty Mind'. Didn't flip over the song itself - slick metronome sexgospel - but what a relief to hear that funky, flecked, flicking guitar again.

It turns out we're not going back to that springy, spunky sound after all - 'Kiss' is on its own as a throwback to 'Head' and 'Party Up' and 'Do It All Night'. Not that Prince doesn't still have a filthy little mind, of course, just that these days he doesn't speak it quite so economically. It's all mixed he doesn't really know how to express, and that's become a drag.

A few things have changed since 'Around The World In A Day', it's true. For starters, there are no printed lyrics, so i don't have to pretend to have given his twee and icky poems my most careful consideration. Then for seconds there's no purple or paisley stuff on the sleeve - just plain ol' black and white narcissim (another throwback to 'Dirty Mind'). Most important, Prince isn't being such a sourpuss primadonna anymore. There I was thinking the little mulatto Amadeus was on the edge of a breakdown and suddenly he's all happy and relaxed and flirty in the 'Kiss' video.

Trouble is, i actually think 'Around The World In A Day' was the better record. For all its neo-psychedelic silliness it had three great songs, which is about three more than 'Parade' has - nothing here as witty as 'Pop Life', as mournful as 'America', or as anguished as 'Condition Of The Heart'. The worst thing about Prince's "maturity', if we can call it that, is that he has given up writing great songs - songs like 'When You Were Mine' - as a matter of course. I mean, if he can find time to bestow a morsel like 'Manic Monday' on four desperate California chicks who will probably never have another hit record in their lives, surely he could craft the odd decent tune for himself.

Prince, instead of writing simple, succinct, sexy songs, is always trying to save the world, which means that he is never content with anything but grandiose 'Sgt Pepper' albums where all the songs run into each onther and vast orchestras make a lot of superfluous noise. He is a master architect of sound but he will show off and spoil it all. His Rundgren-esque technosoup of Sly and Stevie Wonder is beginning to get very predictable.

The LP opens with 'Christopher Tracy's Parade', a typical fanfare for his highness 'Disneyland soundscape and pretty much a follow-through from the ambience of 'Paisley Park'. Who this tracy fellow is I don't know, though going by the closing elegy of 'Sometimes It Snows In April', I would guess that he is a deceased pal of the Minneapolitan midget's.

'New Position' follows with steel drums, a hard pop-funk beat, and yer basic lewd double entendre. Guitarist Wendy picks up for the strange, brief interlude of 'I Wonder U' (performances seem more democratically delegated this time around: P. isn't being such a spoilt-brat autocrat in his studio playpen) which slides swiftly into 'Under The Cherry Moon', title track of the unpromising-sounding flick for which this LP purports to be a soundtrack. I have seen many moons in my time, but never a cherry moon - how about you ? The song is a kind of kurt Weill lullaby co-authored by (Prince Sr ?) John L. Nelson.

Next up, 'Girls And Boys' is an adolescent 'Lady Marmalade' replete with "sauce" French bits and set to the beat of 'Take Me With U'. 'Life Can Be So Nice' bypasses me completely - a highspirited mess - before 'Venus De Milo' trails away at Side One's end as a slight sliver of mood-muzak, grand piano plus sweeping strings and reeds.

Flip the disc and we're straight back into Prince's booming sytnh beat on 'Mountains', which is a pounding Stevie Wonder/ Earth Wind And Fire epic. The Jazzy, smoochy 'Do U Lie ?' is a pleasant and slinky respite from such pomp.

'Kiss' then takes its isolated place in the remorseless parade of overdone semi-ideas, followed by the melodically beguiling 'Anotherloverholenyohead' (yes, it is a stupid title, isn't it). Finally, the showpiece ballad, 'Sometimes It Snows In April' (an even worse title) ends the record on a folksy acoustic noteand mourns the aforesaid departed Tracy. I feel that Prince is, on the whole, best at this most sentimental and foppishly despolate, but this is appalling kitsch and doesn't work at all.

I dunno. Is it possible, or even advisable, to take Prince seriously ? Do I have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude ? I find this record laboured and trite and self-satisfied and won't be listening to it again.

-- Barney Hoskyns

[img:$uid]http://www.guide2prince.org/pics/isbn086369-540.jpg[/img:$uid]

The irony truly astounds me.

What irony? That someone who didn't like Parade could write a book about Prince? He is a Prince fan, but doesn't like everything he's ever done. No irony there

NeoGeo24bit said:

I love these classic reviews... keep them coming. Just goes to show you people's memories of a time period outweigh what was actually happening, and that reviews from any publication should be taken with a grain of salt. They're all BS, especially when they're written by today's weak generation. What do they know about good music at all? Nothing. That's why Tony Parsons' review of 20ten is the one that matters. Prince should aim for the relevant, intelligent people with his music, not brain dead people.

And the fact that it was commsioned and published by the newspaper that was distributing the album should not in any way entail any question of bias.

BartVanHemelen said:

thedance said:

Here's NME's review of PARADE,

Parade was voted by NME's writers as the best record of the year, FYI.

Writers? did you type wrong?

do you mean the NME journalists were voting for Parade?

(a bit strange after that negative review in NME)

or - do you mean NME's readers?

Maybe, and their 1990s headlines are worse, Such as "The history of the sex dwarf" and "My name is and I am completely bonkers".

But if you look at their sister publication "Melody Maker" it does the opposite and praises everything he does, the same magazine in which Sign o the Times was called "Seriously godlike, this man is a genius" and Parade was referred to "This eclipses anything you will hear this year"

The British music press (Away from the Sun CHAV level media) has always been supportive, heck even Q magazine gave Prince 3 stars for Newpowersoul and Rave un2 the Joy fantastic.

i was an avid reader of the nme in it's 80s and early 90s heyday. before the internet i used to buy loads of magazines and read them cover to cover. i even read articles in nme and Q about bands i didn't like, just because i liked the writing style

the nme was almost more about the writers than the music, in the same way that hunter s thompson was more important than the events rolling stone paid him to cover

my memories of nme was they pretty much called things as they were, just like we do on the org. unless you wore a hearing aid, the bias was very much against the artist, but if you had flowers in your back pocket, the sun shone brightly out of your arse

both nme and Q were pretty fair about prince, it was clear that he was the musical genius of the time, even if he would turn out the odd track that wasn't up to perfection by the gold plated standards they expected of prince, which were vastly higher standards than anyone else

nme had some great articles about prince, so did Q. you wouldn't get many publications let bill oddie from the goodies write an article about his favourite prince albums would you? you would really need to know who he is, and have lived and experienced british tv and life to understand how fucking bizzare something like that would be (he is a big fan and i've seen him at a couple of different tours)

the nme used to be like a paper version of the org, but about different artists, mostly indie, they didn't turn pop and more commercial until the mid to late 90s. some people like kylie were acceptable as she had a cult underground following alongside her mainstream following, but you wouldn't get take that until much later when there was more competition by magazines and then the internet took over and shut down a lot of publications

Not since '94, no.

They even panned 'The Gold Experience' tour (despite carrying an interview of that period).

NME have given him a few positive concert reviews.

Besides, NME is considered a very UK-centric, indie magazine. They fellate shitty-sounding UK rock bands basically. That's what is funny about their review stating '20TEN' was a 'xerox of a xerox'. Nearly all the bands NME praises are blatant copies of Bowie, Stones etc, with no or little originality.

I live in the Uk, and I can't imagine anyone except indie and UK rock fans buying NME.