My friend doesn't like this one and I've never heard it, so I want to see what everyone else's opinion of this album is. Out of all Prince's albums, this one is the least talked about. Is it really that bad?

The 3 gems:

When the Lights Go Down
Extraordinary
There Is Lonely

It's good to have for those alone...

I really like "The Vault".
Even if too short it's a great collection of songs, and it has a great jazzy-bluesy feeling.
IMO "She Spoke 2 Me", "Five Women", "When The Lights Go Down", "Oldfriends For Sale" and "Extraordinary" are the best, but the others are also good (barring "My Little Pill" that I don't consider a proper song but only a segue longer than normal...).
On a side note I would like that P also included in the tracklist the song "I'll Do Anything" that came from the same session of many of these released songs....

BoraBora said:

Oh yea, this one is cool too. I never pay attention to She Spoke to Me b/c I'm so used to hearing it on the Girl 6 soundtrack...

As long as you think of it as a compilation and not a cohesive album-it's great.

Nice glimpse behind the curtain really. I like all the tracks on this, and just wish the album was longer!

Definitely worth a listen.

FUCK YEAH!

One of my TOP TEN Prince albums of all time!

EVERY TRACK except for My Little Pill is a late nite laid back and funky GEM!

CalhounSq said:

I understand what you mean.
Years ago when I've seen the tracklist for "The Vault" before its release I was thinking "Why a re-release of SSTM????"
Listening to the CD for the first time I was really surprised for how good was the additional portion of the song; I was expecting something like a drum loops over and over with some samples here and there (you know what I mean), but this wasn't the case... this was a musical trip.
I have to say that I strongly prefer the "Vault" version because IMO it adds a lot to the overall quality of the song, musically talking....
I can't listen now to the "Girl 6" version because I know what I'm missing...

BoraBora said:

I hear ya. I always thought the same thing. If only he'd given
up "I'll Do Anything" and "Make Believe" as well for this album
it would have been even better.

I mean, if you consider "My Little Pill" worthy of release on one
of your albums, than I can't think of any reason why those two
other songs would have to remain in the vault. Especially since
they're both much much better songs.

it's not a WAW piece but it's digestable but an utter shame he released a reworked version of "Old friends" with mediocre lyrics. The personal version was really strong!

zobilamouche said:

What I'd give to have a clean version of that one

CalhounSq said:

The versions that appear on The Work are pretty good though. I like them both a lot.
Never heard the "sparse" version without the Clare Fisher strings before, but that is a
nice one as well.

The re-worked version is just nowhere near the original.

estelle1981 said:

In the middle. Yaynay?!?

Luv & Peace,
Alex
Clubbin' in Mpls/A Night w. Prince

Hate to say this, but I really hated it. I remember buying it, expecting it to be an utter classic, and absolutely nothing caught my attention. In the end I actually threw it away in disgust. A contractual obligation album in every single way.

"The Vault" is really great, especailly back to back with "The Truth". I used to loop them for hours while playing video games.

Wow, I'd have to say that it's definitely in my Top 5 post-Lovesexy albums.

I think that part of why I was so turned off by the cheesy plastic glitziness of Rave was because just a few months earlier I fell in love with the raw, whiskey-soaked sound of Old Friends.

But yeah, he should have included I'll Do Anything and Make Believe, and he should have left Old Friends 4 Sale with the old lyrics.

Nasalhair said:

I did exactly the same thing... after puttin some of the tracks on cassette I took it back to the shop as a protest to Warners! Oh how young and silly I was. Must remember to buy it again.>!

zobilamouche said:

Old Friends is my favorite track on the cd. I didn't know about another version. Where is it? How do I get it?

Nasalhair said:

You either wrote the following or were influenced by this:

"The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale... is very obviously contractual obligation filler, much like Chaos And Disorder. It is evident that Prince chose to give the record company mostly leftovers and discarded tracks that he didn't care too much about. The record clocks in at 39 minutes and features sloppy artwork."

THE VAULT, page 411.

Partyman76 said:

It's only available on bootlegs, but it's heartbreaking. He sings about his old bodyguard and friend Chick Huntsberry betraying him due to a cocaine habit, and people talking shit that Prince's "kingdom was falling" because of Wendy's addition to the band. Definitely worth tracking down.

I LOVE this CD!!

I would buy it just to hear "5 Women",,,,very catchy,,& bluesy~

YAY!

It gets worse, I'm afraid:

"Many critics complained about the lack of first-rate material. Some even felt the record ought to come with a warning sticker, describing it as a throaway, containing songs that Prince never thought worthy of release"

THE VAULT, page 241.


What a damn cheek, I say


.

It's a goodie. "When the Lights Go Down" and "There is Lonely" are top-notch Prince tunes!!


edit: Oops, and "Old Friends 4 Sale" -- love it no matter the version.
[This message was edited Fri Jul 30 12:30:54 2004 by Snap]

I didn't like it at First,But after not listening to it for a couple of years,I fell in love with it totally.
(Now if I could ever find that damned Chaos and disorder cd !!!!!)

giotto said:

What crap. This album is worth every penny.



Get it. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll definitely have to pick this one up....or I can just take my friend's copy since she doesn't like it.

i get in my moods for it, but those moods don't strike very often. i think it's worth owning, but if i were you i'd scour the used bins at your local wrecka stow - i bet you can find it as cheap as 1.99 if ya really look hard enough.

giotto said:

No, I was influenced by the fact that it was crap, and also bear in mind that I threw it away the week it was released and not when I started reading "The Vault."

Nay. just nay. but afterall it was just a contractfiller anyway...