One of his best. My fourth favorite Prince Album.

I won't say it's classic Prince because classic Prince is, well, classic, a body of work upto the late 80s that was pure magic.

I'll say it's definately on par with the second strata of work of 1989-1995, and is definately one of the best releases of post-88, and definately the best since 1995 IMO.

Took me a while to get into it, it wasn't until I saw it performed live that I really took a shine to it - and it wasn't the lyrics, if anything I found the lyrics one of the most interesting things about it, that and that it didn't have that horrid plastic, dated R&B sound of Emancipation - High, it was a real breath of fresh air.

I always play it preceeded by the War, I think you can hear the genesis of TRC in that song - lyrically and musically, it flows very well.
[Edited 1/1/06 15:48pm]

setyrmindphree said:

I'm inclined to agree. It made the whole enterprise rather depressing. I did, however, like the song: "Willing To Do The Work." Funky jam.

NouveauDance said:

- Wow...never thought about it...it really makes sense. Gonna try it next time
Thanks!

I'm going to go to sleep to MELLOW and DREAM of GIANT CLOUDS AFLOAT/////SEX....Big FLUFFY CLOUDS/////

I will have a BRAIN EMPLOSION Dreamin of MELLOW...GONNA GET LOST In THe MELLOW....Float...Float On.....

Actually the more I listen to it the more evident it is as to why alot of fans like this album. I wonder if Prince is going to get into more Jazz music later on.

It sux
If anyone had only heard this album as their first Prince music album, they would never listen to him again, it sux on ice.

tane1976 said:

If what u said was true, no one would've bought One Nite Alone, One Nite Alone Live! box set, N.E.W.S., or Musicology. Sorry, that doesn't hold up, whether it was a casual listener's intro to Prince, or a hardcore fan. Saying it sux doesn't give that argument any credibility. It's your strongly defined opinion. Which is was TRC has evoked from everybody.

Musically u cant fault it - the music is great. but the lyrics? i just cant get into it to. i wish there was an instrumental version of it!

tane1976 said:

- I think it depends on the person...musicians and people who are fans of arrangements and live instruments will probably appreciate it (or at least give props to Prince for arranging and playing most of it)

On the other hand, I showed ´Around the world in a day´ to a friend of mine, who happens to be a Beatles fan, and he hated it. I chose a most psychedelic album to please him, but he hated.

This thread made me revisit TRC this weekend, I actually listened to the entire CD no breaks and again the music is great! gave a special ear to the arrangement and I love it. I am going to try and listen to this one more. Maybe i can get over the preaching.



thanks for the incentive to listen again.

This thread made me wanna revisit TRC too, but unfortunately I found out that I lost my copy. Does anyone know if this record is still available in The Netherlands?

Always interesting to see the polarization in the fans that this album creates.

To me, I understand many of the misgivings about it, but I don't really agree. Sure, it's obviously an album about his JW beliefs, and if you have a major issue with that it will certainly taint your listening of it. Still, the lyrics are pretty out there, and if you didn't know he was a JW you probably would come to some different conclusions as to what the story is about. Is it racist? Some of the lyrics could be taken that way, but nothing is clear-cut. I personally chose to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Ultimately, you can choose to get upset and offended, but that is really you CHOOSING to interpret the lyrics that way. The whole thing is so psychedelic and hippy-dippy that I don't think one interp is any more valid than another. Thematically, the lyrics really aren't all that different from many of his past works. There are all sorts of spiritual utopian ideas here that mirror those on other albums going all the way back to his Dirty Mind era

The narration voice does get tedious, mainly because it is over-used (and, for the record, it sounds NOTHING like Darth Vader. If that was James Earl Jones it would be cool as a penguin's balls). This is the same voice he used on "In All My Dreams" and it sounded pretty cool back then. If Prince hadn't KEPT using this all throughout the album, and only used it on the title track, then I think most people would think it was a cool piece of Prince weirdness.

Musically, the album is incredible. The mix of the jazz, rock, funk, r&b and world is a classic Prince blending of styles. The whole disc is tightly focused, and the playing is spot-on, with a live feel throughout. It is, hands-down, one of Prince's most cohesive albums. The songs flow one into the other seemlessly, yet so many different styles are represented. Often Prince albums seem like they are just a collection of songs thrown together from various sessions (in my opinion, it is his greatest weakness as an artist). This is SO not the case with TRC. The album, even with a goofy segue like "The Wedding Feast" thrown in, seems like a whole work, not just a compilation of outtakes.

The production is just amazing. It isn't overblown like much of his nineties work, yet it still is slick as snot on a doorknob. In many ways, I feel like Prince really found the perfect balance with this album of making the production glitter and gleam, yet not going too far over the top.

GustavoRibas said:

Well, back in the day, ATWIAD got a lot of crap for being blatantly inspired by The Beatles. You might have tried Parade instead.

It is crap, garbage!

I want to say one more thing. I know some folks who post on here regularly that love the TRC album and I know they've seen this thread but they will not step up to the plate and defend this album, like they like to defend everything else. That's foul..REAL foul... (and if you're reading this...you know who you are...)
[Edited 1/3/06 17:07pm]

jtfolden said:

- Yeah...but he hated it mostly because of the synths and electronic drumming. He felt the album was ´dated´...(I personally agree and don´t agree...the production indeed sounds ´dated´, very 80s, but the Linn Drums had an unique charm, it´s ´dated´ in a good way - opposite of some 96-2000 recordings). He doesn´t like Prince voice also...so, Parade wouldn´t do much for him also. On the other hand, he liked ´Glass Cutter´ a lot...hehehe...I think I will show him his ´live band´ stuff mostly...
[Edited 1/3/06 17:37pm]

While I wouldn't call the whole of TRC "classic", I will gladly say that it is his best album since "C & D", and better than Musicology IMO.
"C&D", though despised by many here, was the last Prince album which made me say "wow, Prince can still pull one out of the sleeve, can't he?"
That's how I felt listeneing to TRC.
Yes, the spoken voice is annoying, the track he doesn't sing I can't stand, the religous context means nothing to me personally, and I could nitpick about the racial stuff.

Just goes to show how much I love the actual music to be able to withstand all that crap. Oh, and a fast forward button really helps.

I finally bought this album about a month ago and finally sat down an listened to it about a week ago, I must say that it's his best album since Lovesexy. I love the sound of it. It's different. That's what attracted me to Prince in the first place. That's one of the unique things about him is that just about all of his albums has a different sound a different mood. I love to listen to this record when I'm relaxing or laying in the bed. The music is beautiful. The Darth Vader voice dosen't even bother me at all. Lyrically it's not his best, but musicially it's one of his best ever. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it comes damn close.

PurpleKnight said:

that shit is cold.

classic prince is from 80-84

AsianBomb777 said:

couldn't agree more