To be honest, I don't give a shit anymore

I still care - and yes, I would love another TRC - or SOTT. Something new and consistent throughout.

I like PE, most of it anyway (lose the religion). Musicology is good too. But others like TRC & SOTT are fantastic.

PurpleKnight said:

have u lost yo mind?

Maybe so, although I think all the pieces of Prince's greatness are still there; they're just not being assembled with the same care as before. Somewhere in the '90s it seemed as though each album Prince put together had the party song, the "I got a brand new dance" song, the adjectival love song, and the religious song, plus other things mixed in. Sometimes it's great, sometimes not.

If there is another TRC on the horizon--hmmm, maybe that's great. It's definitely the most talked about album in the history of the org, but that's for positive and negative reasons. But I for one am ready for him to again release an album that elicits that kind of passion from his fans.

I totally agree with you on a couple of points, the dumbing down of his music, and that "somewhere here on earth" is a point in the right direction,
BUT
I would also lump "The Rainbow Children" into the dumbing down of his music because it is so dumb its cringe-worthy on so many levels.

I know where this is coming from... and going... its nothing new.

When I first started on Prince, 3121 and Musicology were 2 of my first albums, along with TGE and Purple Rain.
And I've pretty much gotten a little bit of eveything that he's done and took it in all at once.

So I have no problem with the pop cuz I take it in with everything else.
And I enjoy Planet Earth. I can imagine him taking that kind of material and taking it to the next level for the next album, which will be a smash hit

It won't have the explicit stuff he used to do, so it still won't please everyone.

The pop tracks on his recent albums have been my favourite songs , 1 U wanna C , Lolita . What Do U Want Me 2 Do , its not the style of music he needs to be backing away from as its what hes still excelling at for me . Its when he does laboured funk ( get on the boat ) , chorusless ballads ( satisfied ) and plodding rock ( Fury ) that I worry . Thankfully PE had much improved balladry and energetic rock , hes on his way to convincing me that hes back in form again and things are gonna get better and better

PurpleKnight said:

"Love Jones" takes place 'down south'. get it?

I'm just surprised that P hasn't gone "contemporary gospel" with his music yet since he is a Christian....with songs like FBM and all.....P is straddling that fence HARD.

i would love for him to listen to meshell and radiohead's latest and tell the world, " i can do better then that".

instead he seems to be singing, "my only competition is me in the past". and that ain't true.

I'd like him to do the whole enchilada again. I mean, SOTT, and LoveSexy, were both great concept albums, experimental in certain areas, totally good song writing all around, and had hit singles.

There's nothing preventing Prince from doing a high concept, artsy, album with hit singles again. He doesn't have to do Rainbow Children pt2. to make it interesting.



But really--no matter what Prince does, someone will hate it as much as others love it.
I mean, there's folks who think his stellar performance at the Superbowl was sub-par.

Imago said:

dude, you didn't eat meat this weekend...you aren't qualified to engage in this discussion.

sosgemini said:

no. For the first time ever, I think my mind is truly clear.


I'm going to listen to New Power Soul again, and give it another chance. It's going down yall.... like the wall of Berlin!

When I read the title I thought of Soda Pop!


I don't know what pop songs you mean but maybe you can give me a couple of examples. I'm thinking of Future Baby Mama is what you are referring to and personally I liked it. And the mature songs are awesome.

The only pop sounding songs I've heard on his last two albums are "Mr. Goodnight" and "Incense and Candles" because they have a shit hop feel to them and shit hop is the new pop these days.

As for the uptempo tracks, my complaint about the new album is that there were no more songs like "Chelsae Rodgers" on the album. That was the only hint of funk on the album and today's pop listeners would hate that song. It's too fast for them. The same with "Love" (the original version, not the hillbilly sounding acoustical one). Also, "Lolita". Yeah, it sounds like an old song from The Time but that's the kind of stuff I love and the kind of stuff that Prince should have never strayed away from in the first place. I don't consider any of these songs pop songs because they are too fast and uptempo for the slow ass pop crowd these days.

I agree that he needs to stay away from pop, which is shit hop, but he NEVER needs to stray away from the uptempo jams.

PurpleKnight said:

OH PLEASEE - DO NOT RECORD ANOTHER RAINBOW CHILDREN!!! One was more than enough!!

everytime i see this thread the underline i read it as "time to back away from the poo"

in which case i would say, yes, prince. back away from the poo.

3121 was a great album. if he recorded that in the 80s it would have been better than parade but as is not new anymore some people think it sucks.

agree. he needs to release music away from pop cuz pop sucks
[Edited 10/29/07 3:31am]

I think that this thread just proves that 'you can't please all of the people all of the time'.

The thing about Prince is that he is so diverse - he never sticks to one type of music and that's what I like about him. There isn't a single person in here who can hand on heart say that they like every track that he's ever recorded - I know I can't, there's plenty that don't get past the first 3 seconds without me hitting the 'skip' button (I feel that way about a lot of the tracks on PE) Having said that there are tracks that I used to dislike but absolutely loved when I listened to them again years later.


I don't think he should stay away from pop - if Prince wakes up and feels all pop then he should go with it. Asking him to stay away from a particular genre would be like cutting off one of his limbs. It's well known that Prince takes his inspiration from everywhere.

Personally I'm grateful for any music that Prince makes and releases and if I don't like a track then I skip it - simple. I might not like it but it may be someone elses jam of the year

theghostoftonym said:

Friend of mine always says that when going with a fat lady you need to roll back the layers. If you smell poo go back two.

Sorry, don't know what's come over me today. Thirty-something-angst I guess.

iloveannie said:

Ewwww!

good question. if u look at some of the threads around, for example those asking questions like "is PE any good" or such broad categorisations, then it is clear to see that no matter what Prince does, even if the output includes more than one genre as PE, then you will still get moaners who will complain all they want.

personally, PE is one of the greatest collections Prince has released and I enjoy the musicality of it (musicianship).

as for backing away from pop, i think that PE (his latest release) is damn adventurous. Prince breaks the stereotype of what a "black" musician should be releasing (don't slap me ya'll we know he's beyond colour) and drops crazy ass solos, folk music ... lawd, it's all there.

bottom line is most people wish it was still the era where Prince as showin' off his ass on TV...they need to get over it, the man has moved on. Personally, I would like some mo' FUNK with less horns and more synth...keeping the live drums.

ZFunc said:

i don't think that's the case...if you look at threads about meshell ndegeocello and radiohead's new works you will see almost universal acclaim...you will see folks orgasmic about their works...the music has pop elements but there is a cohesive quality within these works that prince has yet to recapture. heck, even chaka khan's latest is earning her raves.

prince can do it...he's just in a musical funk...and IMHO it's not the fault of the listeners.

sosgemini said:

It depends on whether a person values an album more as a 'cohesive whole' or as a collection of tracks. My opinion, and it's the right one, is that if an album is to work it has to be more than just a collection of randomly placed songs. Just look at the thought that goes into any Greatest Hits playing order for example. I prefer an album to have a concept or theme as to me that is what takes a 'great collection of songs' and turns it into a 'classic album'. Sign 'O' the Times in this instance, Dark Side of the Moon for Floyd, A Night at the Opera for Queen, U2's Joshua Tree, the list goes on and is eminently arguable but you get the gist of it.

Personally I'm not sure that Prince can or will have another 'classic' album. I feel that his talent has now exceeded that form of media and he is now the 'consummate performer' as Webber recently put it. To hear Prince at his utmost greatest is to witness an aftershow. That's where you'll see the next Sign 'O' the Times.

MrsGoodnight said:

I agree with everything you said, well done

It reminded me of one of my beliefs that I developed a little ways before I came here.
I'll let the man make the music however he wants and if he's happy with what he put out, I should be happy that he did so.

In honesty, I prayed that PE wouldn't be like 3121 and Prince did that perfectly. This album flows and isn't necessarily one genre moving onto the next like 3121 does. If there's any change in genre, it's a very subtle change (until we get to Chelsea Rodgers of course).

Heh, when I got my first albums, I thought Musicology was going to be a pop album because he said it was. That's the kind of "pop" he grew up with, so I didnt like it cuz I felt I couldn't relate. I think secretly, I wanted to get 3121 more (so I came across it the next day). And I enjoyed Prince doing pop (hello, my u/n! )

He's not always pop, I realize that. But you figure, the first couple of songs I heard him do were 1999, I Would Die 4 U, Baby I'm a Star and Little Red Corvette. Those were radio hits and they were called pop music. Therefore I believe he's PopRoyalty and he's Dreamy on top of that.

So dreamy that I let him do whatever he pleases 99% of the time.
I'd support another PE taken to the next level 100%, but he goes and does something different (I heard there's talk about him doing something with flutes in his next album), then I'll support that too.

I came here very late in his career and I'm in it for the long run, baby.

So Prince, you go ahead and make your music however you want. And I'll buy and listen to it. I'm sure your next album will be even more awesome, but next time, if its not too much trouble, could you come up with a better ending w/o the politics?

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Are you one of the voices in his head? I'm not sure you let him do anything.

Why do we have to classify his music into a certain category?

Why is it pop, he does all kinds of different styles and fuses them together all on one album.

I thought he had already gotten rid of the synths and programmed beats anyway and had gone back to 'real music by real musicians?'

thebumpsquad said:

Well, while we're on the subject, I usually say "I'd let him get away with pretty much anything, still doesn't change how I feel him or his music."