The one thing that I really long for him to do, is a compose a song with the bass. You know, like Let's Work, Le Grind. These seem to start with the bass. It just seems so long since he's done this. There might be 2 or 3 real "basslines" on 3121, others just seem to have a deep keyboard bass sound to give some bottom.

metalorange said:

The One never interested me until I paid attention to how he dramatized his vocals into the keyboard(harp) solo. It's like he is over come by emotion and the solo goes and then it bends. Now I feel the song, and also I noticed the layered cool atmospheric sound effect that is looped slowly through each measure.



I won't argue that Rainbow Children is not a good album! I like it. But it definitely is conservative in arrangement and instruments and mixing. Title track, Digital Garden and Family Name are superb and certainly different for Prince to release. I truly enjoy them, but they are retro to my ears. They ARE tracks I would play to impress people about Prince.




I thinkk that SOTT was very unconventional and is an influence on all the popular R&B based music we hear now. But.... what I'm saying is that at the time,many people could not get into it, hence it was not as popular, although SOTT and Housequake were both embraced upon first listens. It's almost like he took his prince sound over the edge and it was too bitter for people to get. The most bitter of all is Lovesexy's production. I know people who stopped listening after that one. Yet it is his most original conceptual album, and the most challenging to grow accustomed to and "get" musically.

Diamonds and Pearls for the most part was a complete turn around on that, almost like Rainbow children arrangements, but still mixed in the Prince volume levels.

since then it has been a mix. I really like the NPG club releases for their variety and such. A song like "hypnoparadiso" was so interesting, because it comes from outerspace in relation to what was hot in pop.

I guess I'm never really dissappointed by Prince's production techniques, I'm always intrigued by guessing his intentions.

Case and point for me, I love the studio version of Days of Wild. Its sound's intention is original. Wheras the live one is a more conventional shouting funk type groove jam. (Though I still think the premeire of that song live was a high point, it seemed to have an epic flavor that none of the other performances I have ever heard reached)

ufoclub said:

Clearly you and I have very different tastes! I really can't stand Hypnoparadise, it's got a clubby house sound in a very bland way, the drum beat is as simplistic and flat as anything and the high-pitched vocals are too discordant. Although I like most of the other npgmc releases, I think they still have a computerised, plastic quality I don't prefer. I do think when Prince produces songs with real instruments and drums he is playing to his strengths, because he is a great musician. He is not some DJ who has to produce songs solely on a computer using borrowed samples.



Again, I much prefer the live version, I just think it works better as a band groove, a far more epic sound is created with the crowd sounds, it becomes a proclamation of intent rather than just a song. Ah well, each to their own.

I tend to think that you should put the best version on record, Prince should do a version of candidate songs as an acoustic solo performance, as a studio production, and as a live band version, listen to which sounds best, then put it on record. Fury is the classic example, most people prefer the live version to the studio one, if Prince had sat back a bit and compared the two perhaps he would have come to the same conclusion.

metalorange said:

metalorange said:

im into realness as well!!!!

Doozer said:

That kinda looks good to me, dunno why...

HamsterHuey said:

The production sounds cheesy these days not to mention the music is dated. He sounds like an old artist not knowing what to do next. 3121 was horrible. It's about the live show now, like every other artist from the old school.

i hate that someone like cashmere (green velvet) is doing prince better then prince these days.


IMHO...

The only thing I dont like about Prince's albums are they over-produced! His live stuff is allot better, plus since he has his own huge studio, I think he gets bored and over produces his studio albums.

now if you hear the same songs live, they are amazing. Look for example his last album with "Fury"! Compare that to the SNL performance.

Music comes to easy for him and I think if he did Live Albums where he does a few takes and polish them up like he did with "Purple Rain".. he would probably have TRIPLE the unreleased music that he does now.

ElectricBlue said:

good points..I also would like to add like Jacobpb said...He needs to drop the motifs..tritons..stock samples and make PRINCE sounds again..I feel like he thinks:
"If I can sonicallly get in the Zone of where things are at ..Radio wise..then My obviously superior musical abilities will shine through and I will have a hit that none of the new jacks could produce..that kinda thinking IMO only dates his music like all the other crap on the radio sounds dated within a few months these days..+ if you are following instead of leading you are starting off behind from the beginning !!! ..I can still listen to 80's Prince and feel like THIS IS PRINCE MUSIC !!!!! not oh..this is prince biting 85% of the neptunes vibe to get a hit today..thats what 3121 does to me !!
[Edited 10/2/06 7:53am]

No, it's the songs for me. Prince has always been an erratic producer which I actually consider a plus as it makes him less predictable
I just think his songwriting is well past its peak. Like any artist with an extensive catalogue (Bowie, Zappa...) eventually you're gonna get short of top drawer material. He still has his moments but his writing is no way near as consistently good as it once was.