let me say this first: this is a QUESTION. It's by no means a statement..

Listening to PE I can not help but having a feeling sometimes that some of the songs were pulled from the Vault and (partly) re-recorded. The One U Wanna C and the Lion of Judah (which sounds TO ME a lot like a song from Chaos and Disorder, itself being a collection of Vault songs) come to mind . There are also quite a few musicians from the past (Michael Bland ???, Wendy...) on the album.

I don't know what is is but this album just gives me a feeling of being a collection of vault songs. Not that there's anything wrong with that. A Lot of the songs still in the OFFICIAL vault are probably by far superior to his recent output anyway..

there are probably a few people on this board with some more inide info on this?

I mentioned this a few times too.

I totally agree that a lot of these are Vault tracks - especially The One U Wanna C.

I hope that Prince starts releasing more volumes of The Vault in "themes" (jazz, rap, pop, rock, funk). I think a full disc of one genre would be more appealing at this point.

I think that the scrathy, vintage LP sound in the beginning of 'Somewhere here on Earth' makes it sound like it could have been a classic from an album or the vault. That song is like and oldie but goodie!

wlcm2thdwn said:

Omg, I thought the same thing the other day. The scratching sound is very prominent at the beginning and end and I thought maybe that was symbolism for "this is old". I also think Future Baby Mama could have easily fit on Emancipation.

Se7en said:

I agree but he probably won't do it. It'd be like admitting he's lost it... (TO HIM!!! I really don't care, I think he's earned his place in music histroy already )

I don't think it's a vault release. I think it, along with the previous 2 albums, is just Prince consciously trying to create "Prince albums"

wlcm2thdwn said:

Somewhere Here On Earth sounds like it could've been on One Nite Alone (which, coincidentally, already has a song called Here On Earth). The scratchy "LP" sound is all One Nite Alone.

Future Baby Mama does sound like it could be from Emancipation, but it feels more organic than most of Emancipation.

Raze said:

I agree.

This isn't a dig at the thread-starter by any means as I appreciate it was just a question, but I am bewildered why these days there are some fans who think Prince has suddenly lost his ability to make music and put together albums so is forced to grab stuff from the vault. It's true that throughout his career he's used the odd song intended for a previous project on some of his albums, but I don't see why he'd suddenly be doing it on 'en masse' now.
Maybe some or all of the songs are re-worked recordings from earlier on in his career, but it just might be that Prince can actually still write and create new music and the whole thing has been written and recorded since 3121?

After the plastic production of much of his 90s work and the jazzy, organic stuff he was doing between then and Musicology, I think he's just gone back to creating 'Prince' albums.
And maybe it's a tribute to the songs that some fans are convinced that they must be older recordings, suggesting that he surely can't still be creating music that good these days, could he?

I also agree and even wonder if any of the "Planet Earth" songs are related to the era of "Come." I've played both CDs back to back the last couple of days and they have a similar style about them, although it is doubtful. Maybe it's just the vibe, like comparing Shelby and Rosie's featured backing on tracks, and some of the "longing" sentiments P seems to be expressing.

Haystack said:

Well, no dig taken In now way, by the way, did I mean to imply that Prince is incapble of writing great songs anymore. I agree that there was some great songwriting on 3121 (less on Musicolgy) and TRUE , even more on TRC. I was merely expressing a feeling....

Post on the sticky to discuss http://prince.org/msg/7/236159