Understandably people may not like some of the lyrics on this album but I just gave it a spin and you cannot even say the musicianship on this album isn't the freakin bomb. I know there are some out there that say this is musically a piece of crap and for you..... Hope that cleared you're head a bit

Thanks for the heads up...

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

You're dead right Mr Organgrinder

Ah-men, Mister.

well, in my case, i didn't like certain lyrics to start out with,
like the too overtly biblical rants in LastDecember and such, but
the absolutely stellar musicianship and sublime performances from
Prince and his band quickly made me forget any gripe I had with a
few of the lyrics.

this album, concerning musicianship, is probably his best work in
all the years since LoveSexy.

it's in my top 5 of best Prince albums any day of the week



[Edited 11/28/05 12:06pm]

IstenSzek said:

Try and compare the musicianship on "Everywhere" with just about any other piece of Prince music and you're probably going to almost always come up short. Absolutely amazing

The production is top-notch, as well! I cannot really see how he went fom TRC to Musicology, production-wise.... lack of real motivation maybe? The Fender Rhodes, vocals and drums of 'Muse', the guitar in the title track, the hard rock ending of 'Family Name'....

I don't know who said/wrote this, but I remember someone mentioning the bass drum in 'Muse' sounds like someone's tapping on your shoulder! Very well put, IMO!

I think I'm gonna put it on now!

Musically it´s absolutuely one of my favorite Prince albums of all time and certain proof that Prince still has "it" in him, no doubt about that.I mean this album´s music and the Celebration 2002 plus the ONA tour made me much, mcuh less skeptical about Prince´s musical future and made me curious again, just like in the old days, you know, when you wondered what the next step would be like.

Sure, lyrically it´s much less "universal" in its approach, but it´s a great album nevertheless.

Then again, I didn´t dig a lot of his "Jesus is God´s son " etc. references during the Purple Rain and Lovesexy tours and still enjoyed them, so there you go, that´s why TRC didn´t really bother me that much. I just felt it was a bit "excluding" , but that´s it.

The title song is some sort of nice little story about his relationship with Mayte and Mani, the JWs, getting married again, starting again and so on, the irritating voice reminded me of rapper Jeru The Damaja´s album Heroes For Hire(The SupaHumanKlik), it has a very similar sounding voiceover telling a story and came out a couple of years before TRC.

Mellow and Muse 2 The Pharaoh are nice, but the namedropping makes the first one date badly and the second one is not really a song a lot of people can relate to lyrically, whereas his older songs were also highly personal yet accesible by the average Joe who could, for instance, relate to songs like The Beautiful Ones or Computer Blue, then again, this one , TRC, is about Prince and him getting all this stuff out of his system , it probably wasn´t even made for the average Joe.

Digital Garden is musically fascinating, the music and the singing make you realize Prince is back with a vengeance.

The Sensual Everafter is cool with me, but some of my friends ( non Prince fans) think it sounds a bit like porn music...they don´t feel that way about Venus De Milo or Alexa De Paris.

Family Name is superb, lyrically and musically, but it´s a shame that it comes off as a bit ignorant and offensive when it comes to "beautiful" sounding Jewish names compared to "ugly" black names, you catch my drift...I mean those Jewish names were forced upon the Jews, so you can´t really compare it. A bit of history research could have prevented this.

That being said, I still think it´s a masterpiece.

calldapplwondery83 said:

I've done so too

And yes, it is indeed a true mysterie how he could go from producing
The Rainbow Children to producing Musicology.

I was so glad when he released it, and most of the jazzy outings the
following months/years. All showed a new longing to create something
different again.

Finally he had got out of the rut he got into circa 1998 with most of
the songs from NPS, Rave and the NPGMC being predictable and bland if
not just boring (although some are very good).

The Rainbow Children sounded so great when I listened to it for the
very first time. Finally these were once again songs that you were
listening to and once they finished, you were amazed by them but you
couldn't sing them! They moved from one thing to another, filled to
the brim with ideas floating in and out of them.

Instead of much of the song from the prior years, which started out
and remained pretty much the same until the end with little variety
apart from verse, chorus, verse, rap, chorus and the same beat over
and over and over again.

TRC sounds alive, inspired, raw and real without any of the hang ups
of previous lackluster material.

If it weren't for the over the top "in the name of the father in the
name of the son we need 2 come 2gether as 1" chorus in LastDecember,
it would have no flaws.

Even Weddingfeast is just a segue in an album as full and vibrant as
this one. it's merely a pallet cleanser for the next portion of the
album.



I think I'm hooked again now, it's gonna be TRC all week, I can feel it

excellent posts

Snap said:

Agreed!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I couldn't agree more Supa. I've always felt the same way about TRC. I'm an atheist, so all the religious babble never turned me on whatsoever, but the musicianship is untouchable. I like all songs and I try not to pay too much attention to the other shit. Musically, TRC is a 10!!!

IstenSzek said:[quote]

calldapplwondery83 said:

I agree with most of what you said and, as I said above, the Jesus as God´s son theme isn´t really my thing, but the positive and uplifting message behind these lines are what counts to me.

Same with Everywhere...I may not dig the religious imagery he´s using because it´s not part of my religious background and therefor a tad bit "excluding" certain listeners, but it´s probably one of the most uplifting and positive songs he´s ever done, and musically it´s a stroke of genius, especially when you consider how fast it was put together.

I thought most people would much rather have problems with lyrics like " fly upon the wings of the New Translation " or the mocking of Jewish names like Rosenbloom or Goldstruck when in reality those names, much like a lot of African-American names, were forced upon the Jews in Poland/Eastern parts of Germany...

KoolEaze said:

how do you know it was put together fast?

kisscamille said:

This was the last time I actually discussed Prince music so zealously. I just remember when TRC was released through the club and everyone was just buzzing about the music. I remember having stellar conversations with Aerogram and Byron about the musicianship. We just disected and disected and disected. We had threads worth of discussions about various aspects of the musicianship on the album. That certainly did not happen with Musicology.

The reason I consider Musicology to be such a fraud is because he was hyping "real musicianship" and real musicianship is all but missing on that album. On the heels of TRC, you knew he could really showcase musicianship in an album so it was really shocking that he would produce Musicology so shabbily. I mean, he had a band to pull it off so why didn't he? Especially during the year he was inducted to the R&R Hall of Fame

I thought this was common knowledge among most fans.

The story goes that Prince heard John Blackwell playing the drum parts, he liked what he heard, and came up with the song in a matter of 24 hours.

Musically it may have been great, but not really a memorable album in the long run IMHO.

There are a lot of great musicians out there, like Rush, but that doesn't mean I seek them out. The lyrics on TRC didn't say anything interesting to me. Overall, A for effort (much better than anything I could do, but I am not selling CDs! lol), but C- overall.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I know what you mean, and I guess that´s one of the reasons for the anticipation for his next release...will it be musically as surprising as TRC or will it be another Musicology style release ?

Prince himself has said a couple of times that Musicology was just a little fun, lightweight album and that it wasn´t intended as a big artistic statement. In fact, it has been hinted that some songs aren´t even new, which makes me wonder which ones are from the vault ? I mean a lot of fans want him to use old stuff from the vault, and I that´s why I wonder how much of it actually was vault material.

Guess the next one will be a big surprise again.

KoolEaze said:

cool!

Friggin' LOVE this album. Musically, it really restored my faith in Prince. The musicianship is just flawless.

sure musically its great...too bad it lacks any energy.

sosgemini said:

What do you mean by this? This album is like a freight train compared to Musuckology

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

i loved the songs when he performed them live..but on wax they just like excitement...its too mellow and devoid of emotional weight for me.


yes, the album at least attempts artistic credibility and vision and for that i have respect for it but what he did to Everlasting Now live is how Everlasting Now should have sounded on the album. IMHO.

Check this article out:

A BILLBOARD SALUTE: ARISTA 25 - Executive VP/GM Charles Goldstruck: Accelerating The Momentum (Billboard May 13, 2000)
BY JEFF SILBERMAN

Charles Goldstruck had already spent a decade in the music business, starting with Warner-Chappell Music in 1989, then going to Capitol Records in 1993, when he joined Arista Records as executive VP/GM in early 1998. Yet he knew almost immediately that Arista did business in a considerably different way.

"There were two primary distinctions," he says. "Firstly, Arista's roster was a more broad-based roster, covering a variety of genres," he says. "On top of Arista's mainstream successes, it had a country-music division in Nashville and two very successful joint ventures with LaFace and Bad Boy. Arista also had a vibrant urban division itself, so this was a full-service, integrated label. Secondly, Arista, was virtually an independent company. Clive's entrepreneurial spirit results in his team treating this company as they would if it were their own business. There is an enormous sense of pride in how employees view Arista."

ANNUAL TOP 30

Goldstruck cites Davis' unswerving attention to detail as the significant reason Arista has been so consistently successful for so long. "Arista and its joint-venture labels all possess a very strong belief in only signing quality artists," he says. "We have a very small roster in comparison to the other major labels, even when you add in the rosters of LaFace and Bad Boy. Our release schedule over the last three years very rarely exceeded 30 releases a year.

"It all starts at the top with Clive," Goldstruck continues. "Every single release, be it on Arista or an associated label, is important to him, and to every executive and employee here. We pay full attention to getting the most out of every project. We make sure that no stone is left unturned in the process of an artist's development, and that is key. This has been Clive's philosophy, which has permeated this organization for 25 years. That kind of consistent leadership creates an environment that's a key ingredient to long-term success."

This kind of non-stop artist support doesn't come cheaply, but it's a price Arista has been willing to pay-and a mindset that has paid off handsomely. "When you look at the process of artist development and launching costs in marketing and promotion at the highest level, there's not a label in this business that can take any of the the existing channels for granted,"

Goldstruck says. "Look at the sales environment. The cost of cooperative programs has virtually doubled in the past five years. It costs twice as much to get records well-positioned in front of the consumer. Video and other costs have also escalated. Labels have to find new ways to more effectively market and promote, or it'll be difficult to be efficient.

"At Arista, we look at each project and determine the most effective album launch, and then how to continue working the project to stay in the game for a lengthy period of time," he adds.

FOCUS ON STRENGTHS

"Nurturing resources can work when you focus very carefully on the strengths of each project," Goldstruck continues. "The Internet has become an important new avenue in giving us the ability to communicate directly with consumers and have them experience music directly as opposed to exposure in the blanket fashion of TV and print advertising, radio and MTV. We've worked very hard to be more effective in this arena from a marketing standpoint. This allows us to reach consumers in a more cost-effective and direct way."

The result of their efforts: "Arista has always been a very successful company; however sales have really exploded over the last two years," Goldstruck states. "This company is developing gold, platinum and multi-platinum sales rates that far surpass the typical standards. Our artist-development process is very healthy and really paid off in helping develop a powerful roster. There is Santana, who's heading toward 25 million in sales worldwide; Whitney Houston's "My Love Is Your Love' is at 10 million worldwide; Sarah McLachlan has sold over 10 million albums in the last two years; and Kenny G has done 5 million in the last two years.

"We've also broken a lot of new artists; Deborah Cox has gone platinum, Monica has sold double-platinum, both Next and LFO have reached platinum, and Angie Stone is heading there. That makes for a very strong roster of established stars and promising new artists."

SANTANA: RADIO LISTENED

When asked to cite his favorite success stories of recent times, Goldstruck immediately responds, "How can I not mention Carlos Santana? When Clive signed Carlos and executive-produced the album, we all thought it was spectacular and would be successful, but no one dreamed that it could do 20 million worldwide and counting. The magnitude of his success has been the most pleasant surprise.

"To be honest, radio didn't fully understand what we had here, either, but the more they played "Smooth' and the more reactive the single became, the barriers quickly fell down."

RECONNECTING WHITNEY

The other major success of late is Whitney Houston, who had to reclaim her unparalleled stature after a long layoff. "This was Whitney's first studio album in almost eight years," Goldstruck says. "We weren't sure who her audience was going to be. So Clive worked with Whitney and various producers, very much in the manner of his work with Carlos. We felt it was a groundbreaking album, but we had to convince the consumer. It was a challenge to reconnect to her audience. "Heartbreak Hotel' put Whitney back on the map in terms of her performing from a studio-album perspective as opposed to a soundtrack perspective. Now, 18 months later, the album is still scanning very strongly, and we're at 3 million in the U.S., on top of the 7 million internationally."

Charles Goldstruck is one of a handful of key executives who have accelerated the phenomenal momentum of Arista records. The bottom line to this 25-year phenomenon goes back to the man who started it all: "Clive Davis creates an environment where serious executives flourish," he says. "There's such a richness in terms of the creative process here, while the commercial process is not sacrificed."

http://www.classicwhitney...struck.htm


I don't know if he's Jewish, Black, White or whatever....but I think Prince's point was the name, not the race.
[Edited 11/29/05 11:34am]

sosgemini said:

What you're saying, IMO, applies much more to Musicology than to TRC. I think TRC, as an album holds up to the interpretation of the concert very very well whereas Musicology the concert blows the damn head off the album.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

dont even start me on Musicology... Great lead-off single and closing song. Nuff said!!

damn right....TRC is a masterpiece for sure...

ain't it funny how Prince called it a controversial album and look at what is happening..... four years later, we are still debating it.


btw, i love this album....top 5 for me.
[Edited 11/28/05 18:50pm]

Milty said:

Hey Milty!

Milty said:

but are we? most folks have gotten over the religious message and have grown to appreciate the musicianship. in fact, everyone on this thread has said that with me being the sole exception who didnt care much for the tone of the album (but have admitted the musicanship is top form.)