I bloody love it.
Can't take it of the CD player.
Especially East and West. Just too funky.
Why on earth did I overlook this album before?
There's just so much to hear... it deserves so many listens.

It's a good substitute for a sleeping pill.

What follows is a hybrid of sorts; part review, part listing of my favorite musical moments, part general observations, part thinking out loud as to the possible story locked inside this musical work. And it seems somewhat logical to do it this way, as this album sounds like a hybrid of live improvisational jamming on loosely sketched-out blueprints and after-the-event studio wizardry that brought it all into a cohesive, deliberate, mostly premeditated whole.

“North” Highlights and Musings:

1) I like its overall unforced, serious-but-laid-back, organic charm.

2) So smooth and chilled out that it makes for the perfect antithetical complement to the album’s feverish closer.

3) It feels spot on at nearly 14 minutes. Not like a 4-minute track stretched out beyond purpose, or even 3 or 4 pieces molded together like we’ll hear later.

4) The near flawless nature of the composition that seamlessly melds the worlds of jazz, ambient, funk and rock. This is a very original piece that beautifully preps the vibe for what’s to follow. There are certainly traces of “North” in past Prince music, but he’s never been this successful or natural in pulling it all off.

5) The little quirks that are added here and there, like being able to hear the clacking of Eric Leeds’ sax keys at one point.

6) The train-whistle synths at 1:00 that signal the oncoming sax.

7) The way the conflictive sounds of the mystical strings and the gravel-throated guitar intertwine at 3:10.

8 ) The anguished guitar that peeks and pokes about before becoming “North’s” stunning centerpiece at 6:19.

9) The calming piano at 8:58 that caresses us back to health after the onslaught of melancholy.

10) Leeds’ sweetly coaxed butterfly sax notes at 11:38 that appear to give rise to the north wind.

11) The barren north winds that blow us out of the experience. A cry from a whale or a wolf can be heard in the distance at 12:43 and again at 13:14. It feels cold and lonely here. Snow blowing, causing a whiteout. Waves crashing against the icy shore. We long for some warmth, energy, neighbors, kinship.

“East” Highlights and Musings:

1) The musical changes and transitions, the challenge, the complexity and the experimental vibe of the entire piece. Nothing Prince had done previously -- outside of perhaps the avant-garde “Cutz” from “Kamasutra” -- could have prepared you properly for this.

2) The “steel-drum” sound that eventually persuades the snake-charming flute out of its comfort zone. Are the natives being seduced out of their homeland?

3) The drum breakdown that foretells of building strife.

4) The angered metal guitar thrusts like that of a powerful army surging forward to stomp out rebellion, matched by oriental key figures that build in fervency and incite anxious, circling, hornet’s-nest guitar, and a sax that answers in kind. The pieces most troubling, most hostile, most intense moment. Colonialism pushing eastward? Communism forcing its hand in China and southeast Asia? Perhaps just the general and constant unrest in the region?

5) The nice transition from the powerful entangled sounds of west-meets-east-without-an-invite through the use of funk guitar that leads us straight into a wall of modern jazz, and later fusion with intensified sax that’s matched by gurgling organ and more funky guitar.

6) The irresistible combination of chicken-scratch guitar at 10:03 and the deeply funky baritone sax that it conjures.

7) Perhaps the sounds of the last gasps of a once great army’s influence slowly being deflated at 11:07. Listen in particular to the sounds at 12:02, that’s the same aggressive rock surges heard earlier. But this time they come across as weakened and in retreat. Is this the resistance giving out or the occupying force?

8 ) The standup electric double bass solo that stirs memories of the middle-marker breakdown in John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”. The aftermath of war? Digging out from under foreign rule?

9) Bringing the piece to a sober place of mourning with only the sad, lonely strings of the sitar. Perhaps grieving the current war-torn nations of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine, to name but a few?

“West” Highlights and Musings:

1) The opening 3:30 that nearly packs the aching, bittersweet beauty of “Purple Rain” or “Just My Imagination”. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to hear this turn up on a future project as a fully structured gospel/blues/rock/soul anthem.

2) After the harsh complexity of “East”, starting the “West” off in a more soulful and accessible direction seems just what the doctor ordered.

3) At 3:58 is that Columbus and his boys that can be heard sailing west in search of riches or the slave ships bringing over the human riches that will build much of the west?

4) The striding and soulful neo-Madhouse groove that is the “West’s” mid-section, delivering a strong sense of purposeful adventure. It feels as if we’re on a journey into the unknown, yet still confident and hopeful of what lies ahead.

5) Eric stepping proudly forward at 7:36 and delivering a statement funky enough to inspire a hip-hopper who has never even cracked a jazz album.

6) The way in which at 8:31 the groove immediately turns deadly serious with the introduction of Prince’s shrieking guitar that later gets squeezed out urgently in energetic licks of stinging pain until the whole piece slows down and settles in a dark place of utter depravity. Is this the slavery era in America and some of its aftermath? This section just shreds the soul. It’s like you’re being chained and whipped. One of the most starkly poignant passages in Prince history.

7) You almost get lost in each piece but there is always something at the end to snap you back to reality. On “West” it’s the drum rolls and sitar strings that signify the passing of another time and space. It feels as though we’ve mined everything we can out of this experience and so we knowingly shift our attitudes towards one of parting. But you can’t help but feel a great weight and regret for that which has passed as we roll onward to the pieces final movement.

“South” Highlights and Musings:

1) Is that the Mothership landing on the “South” (or perhaps Prince’s version of Parliament’s Mothership, a whale with it’s soothing, discerning, cognitively omnipotent sounding cries, howls, whistles and songs), sent to deliver the enslaved from pain through the healing and understanding power of music? This could perhaps signify the staggering contribution to 20th century music of Black Americans that came directly out of the pain of hundreds of years of slavery. Music that has been and will be helping people of all races, cultures and creeds in good times and in bad for hundreds of years to come. Perhaps there’ll never be another artistic period so astonishing as the one which saw the creation of jazz, blues, R&B, soul, funk, disco/dance and rap, with huge contributions in gospel, rock & roll and eventually a majority holding on that which becomes pop.

2) It’s almost as if the Mothership is sending a perceptive beam of inspirational energy directly to Rhonda’s bass, moving her fingers to the fore with a bass line that sets the tone for perhaps the funkiest moment of our entire journey.

3) The section of long lament that is encouraged by the still fluttering Mothership. Could this signify the brutally prolonged struggle from 2/3rds human status to equality? And this too shall pass.

4) About 8:44 when the piano enters and the slow, mournful dirge starts to deliberately build into modern jazz ecstasy, eventually made climactic with the inclusion of dueling other-worldly guitar and sax exhalations at 10:00 that reach Charlie Parker-like spirituality. This just might be the album’s watermark. Upon first listen I was disappointed that Prince did not go completely interstellar on guitar. But upon further reflection of the piece as a whole, the explosion is perhaps tempered properly at just beneath boil until complete freedom and equality is a reality for all (North, East, West, and South).

5) The moody and bittersweet strings encountered at 12:00 that softly move us toward closure on waves of breathtaking emotion.

6) The piano that offers a solemn serenade to the purring Mothership poised for liftoff (or decent back into the hidden depths of the ocean). We’ve come a long way. We have a long way to go. Can we all come together or will we continue to fight and hate? Is this the end or merely the beginning of a whole new era?

General Highlights and Musings:

1) The most amazing overall impression I get from listening to this album is that Prince has finally found his natural instrumental voice. And the result is a wonderful fusion of all that he was and all that was before him. It’s no longer like, “Oh, listen to the amazing ability of the rock/pop/soul man trying his hand at new things. Isn’t that nice and different and good for a rock/pop/soul man?” Now it’s like, “Oh, this makes complete sense.”

2) Perhaps this project was inspired in part by Prince jamming with his band on his last tour (see: “Tokyo”, “Copenhagen”, “Nagoya” and “Osaka”.)

3) There are many wonderfully toned keyboard synths scattered throughout this work. Think 70’s soul with a 21st century freshness.

4) The production is so right on that even the sound effects come across as purposeful. None of that plastic quality that has at times tainted Prince’s sound.

5) I like the silence at the end of each track that acts as a palette cleanser before each new taste.

6) A couple of the transitions – especially the first one out “West” -- are not as wonderfully inspired as the pieces they connect. But that flaw diminishes somewhat with familiarity.

7) A very visual/cinematic work. I can see a interpretive dance piece being produced for this music. And of course it would include Prince, his band and a string section laying low and playing live in the orchestra pit.

8 ) Defies categorization. To call “N*E*W*S” jazz is no more accurate than calling “SOTT” funk. There is truth in both labels. But there is also great disservice.

9) No doubt a terrifically talented quintet of world-class musicians. Everyone of the five players gets their time to stretch and shine. But Prince and Eric are most definitely the show. If Eric’s part was mostly his own voice -- and I suspect that it was -- this is a strong candidate for the greatest contribution/collaboration to a Prince project ever.

10) There are many small details scattered throughout that keep the experience richly rewarding. And the journey is a diverse one, allowing for plenty of time to think, plenty of time to relax, plenty of time to fret, plenty of time to groove, plenty of time to regret, plenty of time to expect, plenty of time to feel, plenty of time to hurt, and plenty of time to heal. And as is true almost always with Prince, no matter how angered, troubled, depressed or stressed the music gets, he always finds a way to end it with some level of hope and resolution.

Summation:

“N*E*W*S.” is a mature, nuanced, progressive, exhilarating work of art. Many years from now it perhaps gets viewed as the stunning achievement that it is relative to Prince’s oeuvre; or at the very least, the path that led Prince into territory that kept him an important voice in music well into his seventies.

Brendan

funkyfine said:

I love this cd 2:my favorite is North -it's so sensual,it makes me wanna do u know...There's so much,everytime u find something new

thanks for posting that again Anji. I'd been looking for
that a while back but couldn't trace it anymore.

great read!

It took a while but yep, this CD is as interesting and intricate as any of his albums with vocals.

The only thing I hate about it is when some people pompously tell you that you don't initially like it because of your Xpectations.

Before I heard it and bought it, I Xpected it to be an instrumental album, it was an instrumental album when I first listened to it and it's still an instrumental album. It was exactly what I Xpected it to be.

riiiiight.

S.N.O.O.Z.E still S.U.C.K.S.

Great post, Anji. Very insightful. Personally, I really enjoy Eric's playing on this disc, and you did a great job of summing up many of my thoughts on the matter.

Shapeshifter said:

Y.O.U. still S.U.C.K.
I bet you've never really listened to NEWS.
Not really.....