How come Taja Seville's debut ain't gettin no love? That's definitely worth owning, mainly for "How Could You Treat Me So Bad?".

MuthaFunka said:

see, i don't generally count albums like that as associated artists, where Prince was only involved with a couple of tracks. when i think of ones that count, it's usually the ones that for all intents and purposes are Prince albums with someone else doing the vocals and the photoshoot.

Exactly. Mazarati's album was funky. "Parade" was a damn embarassment and the type of album you would never play with a group of friends. They would laugh your ass right out of there as soon as they heard those damn orchestras and shit.

funkpill said:

I would only recommend the first two Time albums.I rarely ever listen to 'Ice Cream Castles' and 'Pandemonium'.

GoActive said:

Indeed!

Efan said:

I completely agree Sheila's third album is her best work.It's her masterpiece.This is the album that should have made her a superstar.I was disappointed that it didn't become a big hit.By the time it was released,Sheila had put her solo career on hold to play drums for Prince Imagine if she had really "worked" this album,toured with it and remained focused on it.I also think that Warners/Paisley Park screwed up the promotion.Catchy,infectious songs like "Faded Photographs" and "The Pride and the Passion" were just begging to be released as singles.Another missed opportunity.

MuthaFunka said:

I have mixed feeling about this album.I like the song "Popular" and a few others,but something prevents me from truly embracing this album.Taja is an interesting,yet quirky,artist

vainandy said:

oh please, just cause your backwards arse friends wouldn't dig it, it doesn't mean that others wouldn't.

Jill Jones
The Family

Aside said:

Interesting. I see her as an associated artist because without her associating with P, she wouldn't even be on the radar.

SoulAlive said:

Taja probably had the best voice of all the female protos, sans maybe Jill.

MuthaFunka said:

Yeah, I see her as an associated artist as well, but I don't really count her album as an associated artist album, because there's what, 2 Prince songs on there?

Aside said:

MuthaFunka said:

I know Such a weird distinction.

Aside said:

SoulAlive said:

We had this arguement before

Ok, my friend who's been feeding me all these albums just gave me a CD of his self-remastered Apollonia vinyl rip. Her singing is a bit, um, weird in some tracks, but I like a lot of the music on this. Why on earth wasn't "Mr Christian" released as a single?

MendesCity said:

by the time the album came out, she'd made it clear that she wasn't interested in sticking around, so there wasn't much promotion for it.

she doesn't sing on all the tracks, btw.

vainandy said:

i guess i'm lucky i have a few friends who live ABOVE bridges and they can tolerate it when i play "parade".

"The Family: Too Prince-y, just makes you wish you could hear Prince singing all of these songs. "

ummm..what? I had a conversation with the lead singer from Fishone when this album dropped. I said it was probably Prince who wrote most of it. And he laughed and laughed. He basically said no way in hell. So I think you have a perspective beyond what it actually sounded like when it cam out. That did NOT sound like a Prince record. Prince then incorporated it back into his schtick. Also - I've heard Prince sing a lot of this record- and I think Paul's voice is much better for the songs. Clearly that is who they are written for.
I think most of his side stuff had something worth listening to. Tony Lemans cd was really strong - tho I think it was not because of Prince, but in spite of at that point. By then Prince was way more dicey on material and basically was all about control with little to no input. At least on an album that a guy was recording...lol.

MuthaFunka said:

Oh please,Taja was NO singer Her album had some fun moments,but her vocals weren't very impressive.
[Edited 12/1/07 14:21pm]

SoulAlive said:

I agree. I like Jill's album but never understood why everyone says she's such an amazing singer.

MendesCity said:

I love that song. The only problem is that Prince, megalomaniac that he is, had her imitate his vocal style, including his shrieks. Bad, bad idea. If he'd let her just do it her way, the singing would've been better, but still, it doesn't stop me from loving that song and several other tracks on the album as well, particularly "Violet Blue" and "For Love".

vainandy said:

The whole album wasn't filled with "orchestras and shit". Are you telling me your friends are so rigid that you'd be emabarassed to play "Anotherloverholeinyohead", "Girls and Boys" or "Kiss" in front of them? I'd be way more embarassed to play "Automatic" than any of those songs because it hasn't dated half as well as they have.

Efan said:

Because people were comparing her to other Prince girls like Vanity and Appolonia. Anyone would sound great after them.

Efan said:

I was actually referring to Taja I had to go back and edit my comment,lol

SoulAlive said:

I know what you mean. It didn't make my top list, but it was near. I love "Baby's got a lover" and "If I could get your attention", and the "popular" paisley remix was good, but it was no "Time".

Taja was parrallel to Tony LeMans.

Even one song with orchestras is one too many. I wouldn't get embarassed though. They would simply say that was the period in which Prince had lost his damn mind and I would agree with them and we would all laugh at songs like "Venus De Milo" and "Do U Lie" together. The DJs in the clubs used to make fun of those songs back in the day so it would just be business as usual.
.
.
[Edited 12/1/07 18:06pm]

lol...as if djs always know "good music". I'm sure Sgt. Pepper was ridiculed when it dropped too.


anyway- i left out all the W&L cds- all very good. But my opinion was that they were not protegees. They were band members who went on to be great artist/producers in their own right.

vainandy said:

What do you think of those funkier songs though? You give the impression that Prince should burn in hell for not sticking with his earlier style, but tunes from his '86 -'88 period have dated way better than the earlier stuff IMO. For instance 1999 is one of my favourite P albums, but the sound is nowhere near as fresh sounding today as Lovesexy.