When a new Prince album is announced with a release date, what's your routine?

Do you listen to all his albums from For You to the most recent, ending the day before the new album is released?

Do you starve yourself from Prince completely?

Do you (shock, horror) visit NPGMC religiously on a daily basis hoping for more information?

Do you take the release date off work, and listen to the new album repeatedly?

Do you do nothing special at all?

By now, this is the routine:

1) Download it all from the net as soon as it leaks

2) Buy the album on release week (order it off the net, don't bother with getting it from a store on first day any more - haven't done that since Rave)

3) mp3 the album and then stick on a shelf with the rest of 'em to gather dust.

4) Gush over, with a review, giving it lots of 7's and 8's

5) A week later do a revisionist review, giving it lots of 1's and 2's.

6) Dig it out every 6 months, and remember why I didn't listen to it for the previous 5 months and 29 days.

NouveauDance said:

back in the WB days, i had a routine...i'd take my discman with me, go to the wrecka stow as soon as it opened (or as soon as i could get there), get my copy, then go to a park or a cafe and listen to the whole thing on my headphones and devour the liner note booklet. even if i wasn't crazy about the album, the ritual was always great fun.

that whole routine has been diluted since TRC, which is kind of a bummer. i like new prince albums to be an "occasion" on first listen, instead of some kind of a process (as in downloading an album). also, it's not the same when you don't have an item you can hold and look at.

i had great fun with hearing musicology for the first time, though - after the tour simulcast, stymie and i listened to it driving around in her car. that was good times...i think it was the first time i'd ever heard a prince album for the first time with another prince fan. it was a hoot.

Anxiety said:

very true. i like the idea of tangibility in an album (no wonder i'm such a vinyl geek), so that's why i really don't fret over the newer releases. there's no fun/surprise in it all anymore.

i go 2 npgmc then wait 4 the release after that i pick it up the 1st day its on sale

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

yeah, plus back in the day everyone heard it for the same time on the same day. now, if you wanna have that experience of having a new prince album IN YOUR HANDS, you gotta discipline yourself not to hear the streaming preview, not to buy the advance download, blah blah blah....meanwhile ya gotta sit through everyone else saying "didja hear the new album?" and ya gotta shield yerself from people spoiling it for ya.

it's hard being an old skool fammy fam! i'm gonna go eat some purple worms!

I cant really answer this cause i only became a fan last year! But i know when the next album is released i will go and get as soon as i can. And i wont be downloading it before it's in shops, cause that just ruins it.

No downloading here either.....

I wait till it hits stores, and buy it ASAP. Than listen to it every second I can,(the songs I like,skip over the ones I don't) till I'm sick of it. This is w/his last couple albums anyway. (I didn't need to skip songs, once upon a time!)

Then when I'm ready to revisit the album, I try to let the songs I didn't like grow on me, till eventually I'm able to listen to the album as a whole, nonstop, till I'm sick of it again, and so on, and so on.

Guess..So..I will play all his MUSIC and Movies. Guess what I do is play his most Recent work. Countin The DAYS... I'm Totally Into Basically his Last Work. Then , I get all Juiced waiting for his NEW STUFF.

I basically wait for the delivery truck to come to the record store the night before to deliver it, hijack the truck, and get to hear it a whole day early.

Well, at least that is what I used to do before the stupid Internet.

I've never downloaded a new album of his before but I wouldn't mind doing it this year. Even with that, nothing beats the rush of going to a record store and getting that new CD in your hand and then analyzing the album on the first listen. That's what I typically do with a new CD, let alone a Prince CD. When a new Prince album is about to drop, I tend to listen to his music a lot, whatever hits me. The next album won't be any different.

purplecam said:

i love walking in a wrecka stow and checking the new releases, and there it is.

I find out when it's coming, scour ad's for the cheapest price, then I get to the store as soon as they open, and i listen to the Cd for the rest of the day. My ritual is to listen to the whole Cd without skipping any tracks, which is very hard for me to do.

ya know, if the DL version were a cheep 7.77 for NPGMC members and was just the basic songs on the album, i would do the download if i knew that the CD was gonna have extras that would have me excited to buy the music a second time. a second disc of remixes and/or bonus tracks would be cool, or a bonus DVD with videos and/or live footage would be awesome. if that were the case and i knew ahead of time that the retail version would have even more goodies, then sure. i'd buy both versions.

also, i love the idea of selling a "demo" version online and selling the final mixes in retail. you get a preview of the tracks while you wait for it to hit shops, then when it does you have two versions of the album - demo and "official".

Anxiety said:

yep! that's what i don't like about the internet. it takes away that whole element of surprise. plus, i like the interaction with people with CD's. even if they aren't buying the CD i'm getting, it's still cool just to be around them cause we all have that same goal of getting music. the internet doesn't have that in the same way. luckily we have the org but that's a different topic. but it's all good. i'm just ready for what Prince has in store.

Anxiety said:

Now that's an interesting idea that I haven't considered before. Wouldn't that be a trip?!? Alas, our boy i waaay to eccentric and proud to let anything like that happen.

and let the ripping of my post begin...

Anxiety said:

I'm with you. A while back I posted the idea of a download album called 3120 (A Prelude 2 3121), available a few weeks before the 3121 album, and containing demo mixes and outtakes from the album. I would love it if he did something like this (not because I suggested it, but because it would be a fun way to hype the album, and gives us all a reason to essentially buy the whole thing twice).

booyah said:

i look at it this way - before beck's 'guero' album came out, demos were leaked via the internet. they were stripped down versions without all the samples and dust brothers craziness added to the mix. the leaked tracks were great! then beck announced on his web site that those tracks were nothing like what would be released in stores, and when the cd came out, sure enough...the tracks were way different. i like both versions of guero - but why not control the what happens to the demos and make some money off the fans? it seems like very simple common sense. it's a way to sell the fans your scraps and a way to get 'em to buy the same thing twice. if prince did this, i'd be his slobbering little purple pavlovian dog two times.

Anxiety said:

If he's intending a new album to be 'commercial', this may also be a way to have his cake and eat it - releasing versions he's happy with and that the old-timers will appreciate, and releasing the more commercial counterparts in stores (similar to the more fan-friendly "Rave In2" and the more commercial "Rave Un2").

booyah said:

plus, hey, you know - we prince fans love our outtakes and studio rarities. why not exploit our fiending over bootlegs to his advantage?

Anxiety said:

Anx, now that we've got Prince's career all figured out, we can just sit back, relax, and laugh at how poorly this next album release is handled... "if only you'd followed our suggestions, Prince..."

booyah said:

lather. rinse. repeat.

Do you listen to all his albums from For You to the most recent, ending the day before the new album is released?

Never done that but sounds like a good idea.
I might try listening to 5 songs of each cd instead of the whole cd.
That way I get really hyped up by only listening to my personal favs.

Do you starve yourself from Prince completely?

I've done that.
It doesn't really do anything for me.

Do you (shock, horror) visit NPGMC religiously on a daily basis hoping for more information?

NPGMC - no.
Prince.org - yes.

Do you take the release date off work, and listen to the new album repeatedly?

No - but I do try & listen to it totally secluded.

Do you do nothing special at all?

Thats a good way to put it.
Yeah I get special while I listen.
I like to be alone & special with my new Prince CD..

Anxiety said:

AMEN!!!!

I have no routine. I do however, after getting the albume, and this might be days or weeks after the date, clear my mind to listen what the music is saying in association with the lyrics.

For musicology: I bought a promo copy a week before the hit date.

When I was younger I used to wait in line at midnight at tower records. They would close and then reopen again at about 12:15 am after they opened their shipments. I think the last album I did that with was Come. I would have with Chaos and Disorder, but there was no line. These days I just get it within a week or so after it comes out.

This is sad, but I usually get a bottle of whiskey, unwrap the new cd, put
on the headphones, crack open the bottle, hit play and by the end of the album,
I'm drunk and loving it. Then I go through the songs again. I don't think Prince would condone this, but what da hell.

Um... Nothing specail.