Songs you feel are oversung, in which there are some sequences that deal with many instruments that it makes it unbearable for another listen. Or funk songs that share a bad mix of audio effects.... where you feel like :

Seriously..

Whole Emancipation album.

Lots of songs with horns .

Whole LoveSexy album.

Studio version of Adore was too glossy for my taste i like voice and piano only versions better.

Now days his live shows with 20 horns players kill the music with non stop horn soloing fiesta ,more people

on stage less music you get.

TGE

Any studio version of "Soulpsychodelicide". There's at least 2 versions where Prince threw everything but the kitchen sink into the track. Then the track was passed off to George Clinton for additional over production. There's just way too much going on. And the one sample that sounds like a straw moving up and down in a soda cup is so annoying .Cool title and concept but the execution of the song never lived up to the idea.

Big Chick

"Security Ensuring Thee"

saviour

and god creates woman

Somewhere Here On Earth could have done with a more normal vocal ending...

I like the way Lovesexy and The Gold Experience is produced.

Those 2 albums are some of my fave Prince-albums and they're in my top 10, both,

Prince is such a great producer, I see nothing wrong with Lovesexy & Gold Experience..

Emancipation is not produced that good I agree on that one.. too sweet and sacharrine.

I actually think Prince is so fast sometimes, that even songs that he's been using a couple of hours making can sound over produced to us "normal" people. Production is not only the engineering and creative part that is done after the recording. It's also the recording itself. If Prince has a vision that it's supposed to sound sterile, clean and "perfect", I'm pretty sure that's not a big deal for him actually. I wouldn't be suprised if alot of his so called over produced songs were done pretty damn fast. Often we think of over produced songs like if they've been working too long with the product, making it sound dead and auto pilot in the end. That's often the result of a singer singing the song for the millionth time trying to nail that one note without punching in digitally. You'll get technically better after a while, but alot less inspired. All the emotion is gone.

thedance said:

BigChick said:

Any studio version of "Soulpsychodelicide". There's at least 2 versions where Prince threw everything but the kitchen sink into the track. Then the track was passed off to George Clinton for additional over production. There's just way too much going on. And the one sample that sounds like a straw moving up and down in a soda cup is so annoying .Cool title and concept but the execution of the song never lived up to the idea.

Big Chick

"Security Ensuring Thee"

Usually I love "overproduction", the only case I'm really annoyed with are the horns and some keys on Chaos & Disorder, great job by MBN as usual but those songs should have been barebone like The Undertaker.

[Edited 7/7/14 5:56am]

EyeHatechu said:

I cant stand the horns especially at his live performances. The only exception is the Come album. The horns on that album ate flawless.

Eric Leeds?

The Hornheads?

Candy Dulfer?

Maceo Parker?

Wow!

OK.

databank said:

BigChick said:

Any studio version of "Soulpsychodelicide". There's at least 2 versions where Prince threw everything but the kitchen sink into the track. Then the track was passed off to George Clinton for additional over production. There's just way too much going on. And the one sample that sounds like a straw moving up and down in a soda cup is so annoying. Cool title and concept but the execution of the song never lived up to the idea.

Big Chick

"Security Ensuring Thee"

That "sample" is actually not a sample. It's a Brazilian percussion instrument called a "Cuica" (played famously by musicians like Airto Moreira on Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew"). P-Funk's former percussionist, Larry Fratangelo, was also known for playing one on many classic P-Funk recordings (a fact which probably inspired Prince to include it on this one). In all likelyhood, Sheila E. performed the cuica part on "Soul Psychodelicide" as she also played it on a few other Prince recordings (notably "Alphabet Street" and "Glam Slam").

hopefularranger said:

BigChick said:

Any studio version of "Soulpsychodelicide". There's at least 2 versions where Prince threw everything but the kitchen sink into the track. Then the track was passed off to George Clinton for additional over production. There's just way too much going on. And the one sample that sounds like a straw moving up and down in a soda cup is so annoying. Cool title and concept but the execution of the song never lived up to the idea.

Big Chick

"Security Ensuring Thee"

That "sample" is actually not a sample. It's a Brazilian percussion instrument called a "Cuica" (played famously by musicians like Airto Moreira on Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew"). P-Funk's former percussionist, Larry Fratangelo, was also known for playing one on many classic P-Funk recordings (a fact which probably inspired Prince to include it on this one). In all likelyhood, Sheila E. performed the cuica part on "Soul Psychodelicide" as she also played it on a few other Prince recordings (notably "Alphabet Street" and "Glam Slam").

Thanks for the info on that. I wasn't sure what the instrument was called or if it was played live on the track or from a sample. It didn't annoy me on "Alphabet St" or "Glam Slam" but on one version of "Soulpsy" it was just way overused and becaming irritating.

You got it! Friendly neighborhood music nerd at your service!

EyeHatechu said:

databank said:

Eric Leeds?

The Hornheads?

Candy Dulfer?

Maceo Parker?

Wow!

OK.

I was reffering to the NPG Hornz they have now at his live shows. Everyone you listed was actually really good and I liked their contributions to his vibe at those times.

Ah OK, well I don't have an opinion yet about this horn section, so far I've found them technically excellent (of course) but quite unimaginative by comparison to the Hornheads but I'd have 2 c what they're able to do in the studio and in terms of arrangement and composition to really know, + I literally worship the work of MBN so well, you know...

I think overall this is part of a very retro "soul" sound has when playing with the whole NPG with the girls and horns and all. I'm not very sensitive to that overall, i'm a funk addict not a soul addict, I've never been into vocal soul, Aretha Franklin, The Commitments, The Blues Brothers, that kinda stuff. But I know many people who are (the success of the 3 artists/soundtrack I've mentioned is proof in itself) so while it's unsuprisingly unappealing to us (after all originally many of us are barebone electrofunk fans and that's why we love in the first place I guess) this band configuration may be appealing to the casual listener, the same way playing mostly old hits is boring to us and cool to them. In the studio I find that remained close to his roots all along (I know many don't share my opinion but nonetheless minimalist electrofunk is a constant genre comes back to regularly) but his live show have been sounding more and more "generic" ever since the Musicology tour if not earlier. The 3EG configuration brought some raw freshness back in the mix, thanks God for that, let's see how this evolves but I guess at least a good half of the show may still have this soul/broadway feeling in the future

The question is whether can go though a new music phase once more or not. If you cut down his career in phases there's been the Mpls sound years (78-85), the expansion of his musical vocabulary (85-91), a certain return to his R&B roots (91-96), the so-called plastic years (96-01), his short jazz interlude (01-03) and ever since 04 we've been in some sort of a neo-classicist era where he's been reexploring his own past. It's been 11 years and it's by far the longest phase in his career, one that I'm starting to think may last forever. I thought 3EG may be the beginning of something else, but the recent studio recordings (while being very much to my taste) don't show any real evolution in his sound save maybe the garage feel of a very few studio tracks (but a few tracks aren't enough to show anything, has always been going in many directions at once through a few isolated songs here and there without it becoming a direction in itself).

In the end I think he needs to go somewhere radically different from what he's done b4. It may be garage rock or it may be (God forbids) radio-friendly dance music with Josh becoming the new Kirky J, IDK, or it may be something totally unexpected. Back in the days, with records such as The Undertaker, Kamasutra, The War, Xpectation or N.E.W.S. led me to think he could suddenly embrace a true new direction in his music but the past 10 years have consistantly contradicted me. Not that I'm complaining: I've loved the studio music as consistantly, but I like an artist to surprise me and while could keep doing the same thing for the next 40 years and keep me happy doing so, I'd love him to just go wild and try something radically new.

I think Paisley Park is in large part to blame for the overproduced sound. I hate to say it, but it's not a good studio for Prince's work. Ever hear Myspace demos from a teenager or some upstart artist singing into a Macbook in their empty bedroom? Same problem. The room is dead, vocals are too up front, or suffer from too much or not enough life. They're missing an organic quality. Instrumentation sounds like it's recorded at a session, rather than a band playing. Then he's overlayering and adding in all kinds of dated effects to make songs sound bigger. He's got great songs he butchered in the recording.

.

Lovesexy makes my skin crawl.

The horns? He's abused them. Even when they're good, they're too heavy handed. It makes me think he didn't understand the Family Stone at all. I think they expose one of his biggest musical weaknesses, but he keeps dipping into that well.

Eye No

We Can Funk (GB version)

the entire MPLSound album

SuperSoulFighter said:

^Do U mean that as a positive or a negative thing? Marvin Gaye's What's Going on has a Wild Bill Moore sax solo all over it. But I get what Databank is saying. I used to be into the funk big time as well, but these days it/s more soul and blues that I like.

I mean it as a negative thing.i mean Eric Leeds is a great sax player,the best for Princes sound,but listening 7,8 songs with non stop sax soloing os a bit too much

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

The term overproduced is the wrong word to use. But BADLY produced is everything from the 90's to now with a few exceptiong here and there,

Prince could use a Rick Rubin... someone to offer constructive feedback. It's damn frustrating to see an artist of his caliber mostly treading water in the studio for years.

.

In a recent article for the Purple Rain 30th anniversary, Dr. Fink mentioned how the band came up with the groove that became Computer Blue. Dr. Fink played a keyboard line that inspired Prince to do the classic "wooh, wooh" vocals on the end of Purple Rain. Etc. Prince doesn't have that type of dynamic around him now.

fbueller said:

Prince could use a Rick Rubin... someone to offer constructive feedback. It's damn frustrating to see an artist of his caliber mostly treading water in the studio for years.

.

In a recent article for the Purple Rain 30th anniversary, Dr. Fink mentioned how the band came up with the groove that became Computer Blue. Dr. Fink played a keyboard line that inspired Prince to do the classic "wooh, wooh" vocals on the end of Purple Rain. Etc. Prince doesn't have that type of dynamic around him now.

true, however we can't prove that they would have the same creative energy together if they tried to do the same now. Just like everyone else they're all stuck in the past, and if they're trying something new, it often sounds forced. It's pretty normal for people that are past their most curious age. Why is it that parents always look for old recordings while the young ones atleast are curious enough to keep themselves updated and checking out new stuff? Musicians are the same as everyone else. Grandparents are bitter and hate everything new, while alot of young people think everything that is old is out dated. Their golden era was curious musicians that both tried something new, as well as using their knowledge of past music to create something entirly different. I don't really think it matters that much if he started working with his old bandmates again.

fbueller said: