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Thread started 06/18/14 10:03am

Replica

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Madhouse 8... your opinions: good and bad

What do you guys think of this album?

Personally I am very impressed by the album when it comes to Prince abilities, however I think it as a whole sounds a bit boring compared to other fusion albums from bands like Weather Report.

He shows us that he is more than able to groove and staying in the pocket with the drums. It is said that Morris Day played the drums on The Time albums. It can't be because of Prince lack of skills on drums though. To me, Prince could easily do the job for most funk bands.

What amazes me more though is his bass playing. That's on some elite level session musician stuff right there.

He is great on keys also.

But in the end, it never sounds avant garde like alot of his other 80s stuff.

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Reply #1 posted 06/18/14 10:13am

thedance

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Great instrumental. Jazz pop funk... I love it.

The dialogue from the Godfather movie is cool as well.

This instrumental is edgy, much better than Xpectation, News (or Kamasutra).

Prince 4Ever. heart
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Reply #2 posted 06/18/14 10:23am

duggalolly

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I love this album. If I had to pick my favorite Prince "side projects," I'd pick this one and the next Madhouse album, "16". I slightly prefer the "16" album, which is a bit funkier. But "8" has some peaceful moments, some funky moments, some quirky moments. And I love the collaborations between Prince & Eric Leeds. To me, these albums represent the time period of '86-'87... they just capture the colorful (err, peach and black) vibe of that era for me.

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Reply #3 posted 06/18/14 12:37pm

jazzz

Best instrumental album ever from the Prince camp. Nice melodic playing, funky but also sensitive at times. Eric in top form, GREAT drumming by Prince and everything sounds so in place, like one big arranged piece of music. And beautifully recorded. My favourite track: 8, starting with that sampled "whom..whomwhom" and building up from that. Although reportedly recorded by Prince and Eric only, there seems to be lots of interplay between bass, drums, sax and keyboards. Sound like a "real" band playing and interacting. Also, I like whole presentation and concept of Madhouse. A sign of crazy genius.

I was lucky to find the original cd as a cut-out(with longbox) in a recordstore in the early 90's. I think I payed 25 guilders for it (around 10 euro). Wish I had bought the whole stock then (-:

Overall, I like this album much better than 16, which I find very difficult to listen to...

[Edited 6/21/14 14:30pm]

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Reply #4 posted 06/18/14 12:46pm

funksterr

Awesome album. It's one of the top 5 Prince projects, imo.
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Reply #5 posted 06/18/14 4:23pm

SanDiegoFunkDa
ddy

I liked 6, the rest was meh. Eric said he didn't like the writing on 8. Prince should have got Sheila and others to collaberate. 16 was great as well as Times Squared.

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Reply #6 posted 06/18/14 4:26pm

wally19

I listen to the Madhouse album all the time and that would be the record that really displays Prince's drumming ability.........Song number #2, 4, 7 shows how good he really is especially 7 which has great keyboard playing as well

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Reply #7 posted 06/18/14 7:50pm

EddieC

jazzz said:

Best instrumental album ever from the Prince camp. Nice melodic playing, funky but also sensitive at times. Eric in top form, GREAT drumming by Prince and everything sounds so in place, like one big arranged piece of music. And beautifully recorded. My favourite track: 8, starting with that sampled "whom..whomwhom" and building up from that. Although reportedly recorded by Prince and Eric only, there seems to be lots of interplay between bass, drums, sax and keyboards. Sound like a "real" band playing and interacting. Also, I like whole presentation and concept of Madhouse. A sign of crazy genius.

I was lucky to find the original cd as a cut-out(with longbox) in a recordstore in the early 90's. I think I payed 25 guilders for it (around 10 euro). Wish I had bought the whole stock then (-:

Overall, I like this album much better than 16, which I find very difficult to listen too...

I went to sleep to Eight almost every night for several months in college. I had a drummer dormmate with whom I had almost nothing in common, but we agreed on that track.

He was an idiot who dropped out of the marching band because they had a gay guy walking behind him in several formations... and that just made him freak out. But, he liked Madhouse, so... there was that, at least. I much preferred the skater I had the first part of that year, but he smashed his head wide open in a pool and had to go home.

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Reply #8 posted 06/18/14 8:14pm

Aerogram

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It's jazzistic poppy funk, I find too many of the tracks more enthusiastic than inspired, like a simplistic, youthful stab at a genre.

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Reply #9 posted 06/18/14 11:38pm

Replica

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SanDiegoFunkDaddy said:

I liked 6, the rest was meh. Eric said he didn't like the writing on 8. Prince should have got Sheila and others to collaberate. 16 was great as well as Times Squared.

Eric saying he didn't like the writing on 8 is probably because he doesn't like that way of composing music. He is more of a jamming type of sax player. He loves to make up stuff on the spot, atleast more or less improvising along with the band. Prince laying down track after track with different instruments is the opposite of how Eric loves it. That's probably why he thought it was alot more fun to work with the whole Madhouse band. The group dynamic adds to the fun. Madhouse 8 is probably his most show off album as they were impressive from a technical viewpoint. He does more than a good job on all instruments, but 16 and 24 was more entertaining and fun.

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Reply #10 posted 06/19/14 12:36am

databank

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It's a classic album, perfect from begining to end. Much better than most jazz fusion of the 80's because it's ageless, it still doesn't feel dated to this day. There's a very intimate, intriguing sound to it. 16 was more challenging, more experimental and much more agressive, it's good that prince did something different with the second album, but 8 is totally sweet.

I don't think it's never been hinted by anyone that prince didn't play the drums on some Time material because he wasn't skilled enough, we don't need Madhouse 2 know prince is a skilled drummer, after all he plays most of the drums on most of his own album from the very begining.

I hope one day we get a deluxe remastered Madhouse boxset with 8, 16, the b-sides/remixes/edits, a few outtakes and both versions of 24 (88 and 93). That or rerelease/release each album independently.

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #11 posted 06/19/14 5:03am

jdcxc

Love Madhouse 8. I think of this album as more a continuation of SOTT era Princely instrumental stew than a "jazz" album. Leeds also makes this mistake. The sound is so immediate and intuitive- nothing forced. P was in such a creative groove during this period. And I love the album's little touches of humor and cool musical ideas.

Very underrated and it has developed a cool cult audience. Prince's "devil-may-care" attitude was in peak form. Can u imagine a major pop artist today doing what P has done?
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Reply #12 posted 06/19/14 5:17am

udo

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Where's the remaster??

Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill... If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.
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Reply #13 posted 06/20/14 7:23am

novabrkr

I've listened to it quite a lot lately, actually.

It's his best instrumental album, but it's something he definitely could have put some more work into. Just like with the early-00s jazz-funk material. I like the drumming and the bass parts, but the keyboard solos don't really seem to be going anywhere. The first piano solo on One sounds like the first jazz piano solo he's ever recorded. His fingers might be moving fast, but he's not really aiming anywhere with his piano playing on that record.

I'd say Madhouse 8 and N.E.W.S. are still better records in overall than anything Weather Report put out after Heavy Weather. 8 is still quite tasty and in your face in the same way SOTT is, although like Replica stated Prince's 80s pop and funk stuff was more "avant garde" than anything he's done with his jazz-fusion projects (say, "Sexual Suicide" is in entirely different category in that sense). It's sort of weird if you think about it. Maybe "playing jazz" just offered him a break from his usual stuff.

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Reply #14 posted 06/20/14 9:47am

funkomatic

Great effort! Definitely his best instrumental album.
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Reply #15 posted 06/20/14 10:02am

timmie

always liked it - such memories - what a summer that was - it was out of the blue and cool - still is

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Reply #16 posted 06/20/14 11:07am

Replica

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Nice to hear that so many people appreciate the album. It's definitely a nice study if we want to learn about his skills as a musician outside of his more minimalistic pop compositions. He for sure knows how to groove, and makes his first albums sound like a piece of cake compared when it comes to technical difficulty.
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Reply #17 posted 06/21/14 7:04am

eyewishuheaven

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databank said:

I don't think it's never been hinted by anyone that prince didn't play the drums on some Time material because he wasn't skilled enough

Attention math geniuses: can one of you guys work out this quadruple-negative and tell me what we're left with? lol

PRINCE: the only man who could wear high heels and makeup and STILL steal your woman!
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Reply #18 posted 06/21/14 7:06am

EddieC

eyewishuheaven said:

databank said:

I don't think it's never been hinted by anyone that prince didn't play the drums on some Time material because he wasn't skilled enough

Attention math geniuses: can one of you guys work out this quadruple-negative and tell me what we're left with? lol

I just decided to assume databank meant what I would say, and didn't worry about parsing it out. That's my general approach--if I don't understand you, you agree with me.

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