Everybody always knocks the quality of the recordings, etc. etc.


But the songs are actually pretty crafty aren't they?
The singing is just as nice as it ever was.

The musical skill , execution, arrangements are just as well done I guess (I wouldn't know--I'm not smart like that).


But the music just doesn't speak to me. It's....erm.... throwaway 'prince' music. B-side fodder.

3121 Has been my favorite Prince album in ages (at least 10 years), but even 3121, when you go through it song by song, is incidental pop music.

Planet Earth, which could have been rendered the new SOTT if Prince played his cards right, ended up being a 'miss' in all departments except pop. That is, it's not much of a concept album, it's doesn't have much feeling to it, and it doesn't actually make any real statements that last beyond the initial listening of the album. It sounds like Prince by the numbers.

I like Planet Earth actually. I don't understand all the hate for it. But it's just a pop album--nothing more, nothing less.

And even though Prince can put out an album that is technical fine, songs are all pretty good--we're so spoiled we just expecte so much more.


That's why I think I don't like his new material--it just doesn't speak to me. That and he hasn't talked about eating pussy in at least 10 years.

If it was B-Side fodder it would be brilliant. Go back to the B-sides and look at the kind of killer albums you could make with them. I wish he'd focus his inspiration somewhere other than websherrif.

And why are you lauhging before you even said anything?

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

oh sorry, I meant it in general as b-side fodder and not the 80's b-sides that he had.

The 80's b-sides were no less brilliant than the actual album tracks---my hunch is that they were released as b-sides just cause he didn't have space for them or that they didn't fit the albums he had released--but they were just as good.

Yeah, so?

I mean, Prince just does what he wants anyway. Thing is, he has become so fragmented that he would not know how to update his music because he has been locked up inside his own universe for way too long.

The word you are looking for is uninspired. The last inspired thing he did was The Rainbow Children, but the flipside of that was that it is so inaccesible, it is painful to listen to.

I think it is sad he wastes the talent he has to focus on bland musical muzak or disco-rehashing.

Wait, lemme play Ren Woods' I Don't Wanna Stop...

interesting take, Imago

I think I can understand a lot of what you're saying about his recent output.

Planet Earth could have been better, I think, if he had stuck with a concept. What starts out as "taking care of each other and the planet" more/less becomes a personal ad, saying all the things he'd like in his future soulmate. And actually, the album should have been called "Somewhere here on Earth"... at least he wouldnt have to have the cover redesigned

I think I like his recent output because, as my u/n implies, Pop music is one of my favorite types of music. So of course that's the kind of stuff I like.

The music might not be as powerful as it was in the 80's and some of the 90's, so that's why its having trouble reacting the old-school people and why they don't like his recent material much.

great post. I hope there are more like it to follow on this thread
[Edited 4/11/08 12:17pm]

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Cuase I was imagining some of the 'Fams' coming out of the woodwork to lambaste me for not liking eveyr fucking thing he ever released.

You know, those folks who lick his ass before praying to him to give them the strenght to carve his name into their arms with razors. Those crazy fuckers.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Herman plays Sheila E.'s KooKoo Extended Remix.

HamsterHuey said:

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

co-sign 17 days, erotic city, how come you don't call my anymore, she's always in my hair

Imago said:

Herman took it out of folder number nine...

I'm just happy to get something new coming from Prince or anyone that isn't shit hop, whether it's up to par with classic Prince or not.

Well I'm just glad it wasn't Musuckology

HamsterHuey said:

Wow, you're organised!! I must get organised like that!

TRC is the last great prince album thus far.

i think he lost his ability to make an album sound like an album,
like all the songs were specifically written for the project with
a certain vision or topic in mind. cohesiveness is lacking imo.

musicology/3121/planet earth, they all fail to make me feel like
they were intended as albums this way and that none of the song
could have been replaced with any other track in his vault. they
feel like mix tapes.

most of the tracks range from bland to ok to very good but still
they feel like a sampling of what prince can do. a bit of this,
a bit of that, and a great guitar solo. now the obligatory funk
work out. tada - a new album.

whereas it used to be a more complete package than that and the
albums from the 80's like 1999, purple rain, parade, lovesexy,
they all have a unique sound within his catalogue. at once they
instantly say "prince" but they also feel slightly different n
unique.

and even the albums from the 80's that were actually mixed tapes
themselves, like Sign O The Times, still rise beyond greatness
simply because each and every ingredient is so special that the
sum of the parts comes up and presents itself as probably his
best album.

these days, the parts are just ok, and since the enveloping magic
of the projects is gone, the parts hardly ever seem to amount to
anything more than just the parts.

sadly

HamsterHuey said:

I agree.

Imago said:

Serious...

Serious...

ZING!!

Imago said:

You're trying to analyse it?

I don't like PE, well, Guitar is great and I like future baby mama. A few others are nice and then it stops. We may be spoiled but if something isn't catchy or inspired, as Herman stated, it just isn't.
As you said, the songs are technically perfect, so is his voice but they aren't catchy at all. They don't stick to the brain.
We know that he can do a 100 times better, that's why "we" are complaining.

If I listen to other artists, pfew, who is good nowadays, who has good cd's from the first until the last track? I only think Confessions on a dancefloor was good from the beginning to the end.

I'm just going to wait patiently for his next cd.

CJanssen said:

and the next and the next and the next.... Isty's right. Sad

Imago said:

You are just disappointed that he does not discuss the vagina quite as often.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Oh please, I wanted to give it a positive twist
I'm afraid you're right but I would still like to wait for his next cd.
Maybe he got so pissed off with us the last year that he got this feeling again, the one he had when he was younger and making all these fabulous recordings of which the ideas and visions came leaking out of his head like a tap of water.

Right? right?

IstenSzek wrote:

Sorry, I'm into my Bruce Springsteen mode right now.

CJanssen said:

Well I was just trying to keep you on planet earth and spare you the gas money to mars