What about Scooby Doo?

What a time to be a Prince fan back then... he had absolutely zero fans, Newpower Soul came out, truly wack Larry Graham and NPG band, chaos on his official website, no music station except BET would touch any of Prince's music, wack performance and interview with Sinbad on "Vibe," a show nobody watched. I remember Larry and Tina Graham came out, Mayte, then Prince. Man, how crazy! A truly pathetic, wretched time. Stauros anyone?! Talk about irrelevance!

Man it's like night and day compared to "Now"

lspear76 said:

i dig

I love NPS.Great album.

Each to their own obviously, but I sometimes truly think that people don't give things a fair go. I listened to NPS many many times; and then suddenly it clicked what Prince was trying to do. NPS was quite radical from what had gone before so I think that people (like me) just thought WTF and just never bothered to take time to really listen to it.

The beats aren't good; but then it's not about the beats on the whole. It's about the 'swing'

HismajestysSecondComing said:

A jazzy kind of swing?

straight up...all y'all need to fess up...SewPower Soul sux ASS...listening to it is akin to Having Rosie(O'Donnel) bend over, SPREAD her ass cheeks, and SPRAY farts in your face. Yeah...i stole this DeGrade from someone on this site, but I forget their handle...so whatever...it worked.

gyro34 said:

Yeah, the first song is a kind of intro to the new brand of Music. It is no coincidence that he went on to more deeply jazzy exploits like Xpectation, NEWS, Cnote etc. IMO this album shows his conversion towards more jazz based music.

BobGeorge909 said:

Better than having Larry Graham doing this at least which IMO most of Gold is like!

HismajestysSecondComing said:

BLASPHEMY! Gold is just that...GOLD!

BobGeorge909 said:

Pussy Control is poor rap... March, marches right to the sewer of joyless funk TMBGTW is saccharine sweettosh, Now is noisy gumph, Gold is a rip of Purple Rain and IMO fools gold!

HismajestysSecondComing said:

That's interesting. I am gonna listen to NPS again today.

If you want to like something enough and you're willing to subject yourself to it long enough I'm sure you'll eventually find a way to convince yourself it's good, but sometimes a turd really is just a turd, no matter how much you might like the horn parts.
[Edited 6/30/07 11:27am]

midnightmover said:

I'm sorry that just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. If I saw some shit on the floor and thought to myself, 'lets test public opinion, that shit might in fact taste rather nice' and I ate a lot of shit, day after day. I still think that no matter how much shit I'd eat I would consider it tastng pretty bad

No what I'm talking about is taking time to appreciate something which is a bit different from the norm. People on the org complain that Prince doesn't challenge their tastes these days and then at the same time deplore NEWS, Xpectation, NPS without making an effort to 'get' these albums

HismajestysSecondComing said:

I think you've taken my analogy a bit too literally, lol. But seriously, the problem with NPS isn't that it's "different from the norm" (not unless by "the norm" you mean "good"). The problem is how uninspired it is. As you yourself have pointed out the beats are lame. Also many of the "songs" are really just mindless chants. This is the sound of a man with nowhere left to go artistically, just marking time until he figures out what his next move should be. Remember, for Prince recording was always an addiction. Sadly, that sometimes means recording even when he has nothing to say
[Edited 6/30/07 12:15pm]

What is he saying on SOT?, what does he have to say on Parade?, or on say 1999? Prince is not generally someone who gives us a great deal of social or political analysis; rather he is someone who composes and produces cracking tunes and funky workouts. This is true of NPS. If you genuinely don't like it then fair enough, but my main point is that most people don't give this a fair chance. At the time this came out, many people where worried and disillusioned with Prince and this album was seized on as his nadir.

I'm just pressing for a bit of revisionist Prince listening, and for people to give this another chance. More may like it than they realise!

I like the album, but it certainly isnt great.
It hasn't aged well but i have such a fondness for 'The One'.

HismajestysSecondComing said:

Actually, he had a hell of a lot to say on all of those albums. When we talk about "having something to say", it doesn't mean giving us a cogent analysis of Marxist economic theory or an interesting take on the globalisation debate. Once again you're taking it too literally. Milles Davis had something to say and he was an instrumentalist
[Edited 6/30/07 12:51pm]

midnightmover said:

May you are missing what Prince was trying to say? I think that many people who dislike NPS also may dislike NEWS or Xpectation. But that doesn't mean that these albums where necessarily uninspired. I remember listening to NPS the first time and thinking WTF! But there are riches to be had here, but as if in anticipation of his future projects it is in the horn instruments. It is in the way the songs 'swing' rather than in the way they pop. All in all it is a jazz approach to funk which is different than anything he has done before. So you see he has something to say in this album- and it foreshadows what is to come.

HismajestysSecondComing said:

The problem with NPS is that it ISN'T quite radical from what had gone before. It's like warmed over Emancipation leftovers/remixes, for the most part.

Ok, I have just finished listening to NPS. There are horns in almost every track, and it does have a jazzy styling to it. Reminds me of Lina's debut album.

Horns and jazz stylings imo opinion just mean a distinct lack of ideas!!.

This record is the one Prince record i NEVER go back to. Still horses for courses!

This album nearly made me pack in my Prince obsession and relegate it to the garbage heap. It was his absolute nadir in my opinion asnd considering i absolutely loved the sprawling mess that was Emancipation i hadn't a clue wtf he was up to.

Anyway Wasted kisses and to a much lesser extent, Come on and If you love Somebody made me not want to jump....

HismajestysSecondComing said:

Well, that's one way of looking at it. Maybe if I completely ignore the generic songs, the lame beats and the overall cheesy sound and just focus on those horn parts I'll finally be able to stomach the album. The horns are on there for only one reason, to cover for the piss poor songs.

P.S. The jazzy horns are not "different than anything he had done before". He did a little album called Lovesexy a decade earlier. Had some pretty jazzy horns on there too.
[Edited 7/1/07 4:53am]
[Edited 7/1/07 5:20am]
[Edited 7/1/07 9:33am]

[Edited 7/1/07 9:37am]

P.S. The jazzy horns are not "different than anything he had done before". He did a little album called Lovesexy a decade earlier. Had some pretty jazzy horns on there too.
[/quote]

Of course he had dabbled with horns before, but I'm not claiming that he hadn't. Instead, on NPS they assumed centre stage; still more they acquired a jazzy inflection and indulgence which they'd never been allowed before (except on some songs on Emancipation disc one eg Jam Of The Year, Get Your Groove On, We Gets Up which for me is really the beginning of the NPS era)

As I've said before I quite understand why people don't like these, but it is NOT because they are poor: more because they take a more horn approach to funk than a drum led one. The horn approach is one which people these days don't particulary like because (ironically) of P.

I think that people dismiss NPS too easily because it simply offends their taste.

Great album? No
Great songs on it? A lot!
Many of his 80's and more recent work got the same "problem" though
He constantly creates beautiful music but he often releases it as compilation albums... And his best cds have a certain story and flow i think
Maybe that's what people mean with 'a story'

I make my own Prince compilations btw, sometimes if u put them in the right order, some of his songs come 2 life so much more...

Just enjoy the music, there's a bunch of great tracks on NPS !!!

Amen 2 that

HismajestysSecondComing said:

I wouldn't say struggle (the only album I've struggled with is Dirty Mind...still struggling with that one). I liked NPS at first, but thought it was average at best. Then the songs grew on me and now I love it from beginning to end! I love the horns especially, and I also love the fat, warm sound production and beats. The only thing I don't like about it is the album cover.


( Like) Funky Music

.....

I don't mind the album.. granted, I skip through 85% of the album.. but The One, Wasted Kisses and maybe one ore two more is good enough

i've come to not expect much out of his new music.. (90's to present).. im happy to get maybe 1 or 2 good tracks..