I never really got a chance to sit down and digest this album all the way through til now. God though, it's gorgeous. It's so stripped down and hauntingly beautiful.

One Nite Alone-Great opener. Beautiful and melodic.

U're Gonna C Me-Such a somber and haunting tune. A fantastic sad love song.

Here On Earth-Solid, but doesn't impress me too much. Pretty basic storytelling. My least fave song here.

A Case of U-Beautiful cover. Very well done.

Have a Heart-This one's a short little gem. Such emotion in those quick piano notes.

Objects in the Mirror-I love this one. It's so simple and romantic. Musically, the last minute and a half of it is just heaven to me. So elegant.

Avalanche-One word-classic. It's so powerful, so haunting, and the piano sounds like vintage melancholy Chopin. Just a wonderful song; the highlight of the album for me.

Pearls B4 the Swine-I enjoy this one. It flows really well, and it's relaxing. Reminds me of 7, which I love.

Young and Beautiful-This one's catchy. Reminds me of Little Richard.

Arboretum-What a nice closer. This is one of my favorite Prince instrumentals. It's short, but romantic.

This is another great Prince album to me. It's a little short, but there's no real weak songs on here, and plenty of good-great ones. Very cohesive.

It doesn't get nearly enough recognition.

Is Prince playing the piano for all of those songs?

Yes , he is
I love the album , especially "U're Gonna C Me"
and "A Case Of U"

I guess it's not underrated , but unknown
since it was an NPGMC release only , too bad !
It should be available in stores !

The songs are beautiful but the the passion in the voice is missing. It's tone is quite clean.

I enjoy the raw pianorehearsals that I heard in the past more.

PurpleKnight said:

There are a lot of people that consider themselves huge fans, myself included, who just did not buy into the whole NPGMC. And because of that, have not heard this album. It's weird to read these posts about it and not have any idea what this stuff sounds like, with the exception of Avalanche, which I heard on ONA Live. It's just weird, I tell ya. If it's as good as most of you say, he's done a major disservice by not making it readily available to anyone who just wants to...I dunno...just maybe buy the damn thing.

TheBigBang said:

Amen to that. Prince makes it WAY too hard to track down all his music.

nevermind , wanted to link to DC++ but it's down
(the main site that is)
(that's were i got it )
[Edited 1/12/05 22:29pm]

I really like it and I like Here on Earth. Nice Piano, something to relax to.

TheBigBang said:

It's a very good album, in a way it's a kind of sister disc to The Truth.
Unfortunately it was the usual combination of poor planning and lack of
information, coupled with the inevitable fan backlash that ensured that this
album would not get a wider release.

If he had released it, it would have sold milions !
I know for I've had many requests for it when I play it in the restaurant !

BorisFishpaw said:

Funny you should say that. I made a CD for the car called One Nite Of Truth, and mixed the two albums up (and threw in I love U but i don't trust U anymore). It worked great.

TheBigBang said:

The live version of Avalanche is very different from the studio version - the live version has much more of a jazz feel, which although I dig musically, doesn't really work with the lyrics. The studio version has that sense of foreboding and melancholy that runs through much of ONA (imo making it one of his most cohesive albums for many a while).

ONA is a personal favourite that I don't get tired of. I think a lot of the less-than-enthusiastic reception to the CD stemmed from the fact that the first 4 tracks were available to download at the end of Year 1 of NPGMC in Jan 02. When the CD was sent out in May, people were disappointed that they had already heard about half of the album "it's only 30 mins, we already have half the songs and the last minute is just silence?".

Certainly part of me reacted in that way, but now some time has passed, I see it as an absolute unknown classic (I kinda like the idea that so few people actually have a copy of it - although I play it to as many people as I possibly can). I think it's far superior to its sister CD, The Truth (I think P would make a much better acoustic album today than he did 7 years ago - not that The Truth doesn't have its fair share of quality).

'tis kick ass

i don't know...he kinda lost me when he started singing about "bagels with cream cheese"...
just kinda made me say to myself-"damn,this really sucks!".

Why sure.

Young & Beautiful is crap, though. Really.

I want to grab him and shake him and scream at him why he added those cheap keyboard sounds at the end of Objects, when the melody of Have a Heart is picked up again.

I like it better the TRC.

BorisFishpaw said:

That is the way I have always considered it. And, yes, it's Prince's most underrated album ever.


.

Dewrede said:

okay, what is "DC"?

Dewrede said:

yeah and why is this so? why can't npgmc have it available on their downloadable albums section so that we can buy it???? I've heard so many good things about this album but yet I haven't heard it and it isn't available for me to purchase...and P wonders why we have bootlegs of his music...

I've had this CD since release, but I've never actually listened to it whole. I think I skipped through it once, converted it to mp3 and then filed it away.

I dunno, I guess you have to be in the right mood, but it just seems like "Oh, what do I have to do that I haven't done? Done an 'acoustic' album, done a rock album, done a blues album, done a jazz album - OK haven't done a piano album, yo cue the recording equipment, we gotta do a piano album."

OR maybe it's just that I've never actually listened to it all the way through without skipping - I can't even name the tracklist which I can always do on Prince records.
[Edited 1/13/05 15:40pm]

My favorite Prince album since Gold X, hands down.

NouveauDance said:

Blasphemy !

calldapplwondery83 said:

There we can agree.