The Guardian newspaper in the UK reviews The Vault:



http://www.newsunlimited....01,00.html



Just in case you can't access it, here's a cut and paste job:



Pop CD of the week



Lost in music



What became of the talent formerly known as Prince? Adam Sweeting recalls his former glories



Friday August 20, 1999

The Guardian




Prince The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale Warner Bros



Remember when a Prince album was still an event? You'll have to cast your mind back a few years, to a time before he started changing his name and
becoming preoccupied with the corporate machinations of the record industry than with making music. The material gathered on The Vault is at least partially
from the Marvellous Midget's heyday, since it begins at the start of 1985 (after Purple Rain) and runs through to the dodgier dateline of mid-1995, when Prince
had turned into a funny symbol and was releasing the Beautiful Experience EP.



But dates notwithstanding, the 10 tracks here present a different side of Prince from the one he chose to expose to public view. The album was, apparently,
"originally intended for private use only" and often the mood is more like the atmosphere of one of his celebrated post-concert jam sessions than of whatever
image-makeover he happened to be promoting at the time. Here, Prince avoids the frequently distressing forays into hip-hop and rap which disfigured many of
his later discs, opting instead to stick to the musical roots you sense he always felt happier with - soul, funk, R&B and some brief flirtations with modern jazz,
notably in the intricate extended guitar soloing of She Spoke 2 Me.



The music was recorded in studios as far-flung as Paris, Tokyo and Los Angeles, with Prince leading a shifting cast of musicians rather than a fixed band,
though familiar names like Sheila E and Levi Seacer crop up. The recording quality is strikingly clean and resonant, leaving bags of space for a barrage of
superior contributions on almost any instrument that can be blown, plucked or thwacked. When The Lights Go Down is a slinky, languid exercise in
small-hours funk, coloured with splashes of cocktail-jazz piano, tablas and slithery guitar. In Old Friends For Sale, Prince drags a coarse rasp from his voice to
fit the luxurious bluesiness of the Gil Evansesque orchestral arrangement. He's back in bluesland on 5 Women, featuring some stinging guitar which might
have been nicked from B B King's The Thrill Is Gone.



Prince sounds delighted to be singing about his favourite subject: sex, and loads of it. He has another stab at it in Sarah, a whippy slice of funkiness dripping
with rampant libido, and the closest thing to vintage prime-time Prince on offer. These are terrific performances of several powerful tracks, but collectively The
Vault sounds like a bunch of oddments. Mostly, it's a reminder of a huge talent which mysteriously went awol.