Tom Moon (the Philadelpia Inquirer) reviews The Vault:



Don't believe the disclaimer on the inside of Prince's latest vault project, which reads, "The enclosed material was written during the period beginning 1/23/85 and ending 6/18/94 and was originally intented 4 private use only." Nothing this prolific genious does is exactly private: For more than 2 decades, he has used the studio as diary and sketchbook, sometimes releasing the results and just as often keeping them to himself, folding ideas into other songs.



The Vault's not-quite-finished gems include a salacious tribute to an attention-grabbing woman, "it's About That Walk," and the tightly harmonized "She Spoke 2 Me," embellished by a gorgeous guiter solo and a swinging coda. Ut's striking how smart these compositions are: Even when he's just messing around with a blues, as on "5 Woman'" Prince stumbles onto ideas far more original and adventurou than just about everything else out there.