It's absolutely baffling. Prince does one of the most successful stands at a venue. Historic, even, and the music he releases in commemoration of the event is the jamming from after the show. What does he have against a proper live album with the songs people want to hear?

I'd understand if it had been a world tour & everyone had seen it, but this was only in London. Why not share the show with those who haven't seen it? Could he be scared of losing the hype surrounding his shows? Does he think that if he released a hit-laden cd that people wouldn't feel the need to actually buy a ticket?

So odd, onstage, Prince seems to know exactly what people want, but on record is a completely different story.

^ Oh no, I fully support an aftershow CD opposed to a main concert one. The sound quality is better that way, and the more informal atmosphere is a lot more fun. It's just filling half of it up with instrumental cover jams and guest vocalists, and separating one long medley into 4 tracks - it's disappointing when you're only using one CD. If it was a 3-Disc set then I wouldn't object so much.

prime said:

indeed Prime, indeed, you're very intelligent. Like piranhas they'll start with the finger and eat your whole arm. Sad thing is that humans aren't even like animals because animals eat because they're hungry. Humans act hungry but spit it all out because they're bored to death and don't seem to be able to appreciate anything these days

I'm looking forward to that FREE Prince cd.

Ellie said:

I'm cool with an aftershow cd in theory, but I really can't believe there's no proper live cd. Even One Night Alone comes with strings attached.

And for aftershow material, ONA It Aint Over wasn't a great choice of tunes, and I worry that this will be the same.

CJanssen said:

I call em as I see em... this is a poor CD and an embarrassment. I was hungry for a quality music cd and instead got a watered down, fake, lifeless, and sad compilation. We're supposed to "appreciate" every CD Prince releases?

CJanssen said:

You know as well as I do it's not free. Prince KNOWS that this book wouldn't sell a fraction of what it will in the end without a CD.

HamsterHuey said:

i think that's it right there.

isn´t adding a cd to a book not just one more of P´s ways to publish
his music?

i prefer the original aftershows, but i still love to listen to the new cd.
so many people will miss so much from the shows they have heard, but what
can we do?
take it as it is: a nice giveaway in a book you normally wouldn ´t buy.

that's my reaction after three complete spins

i suppose you have to look at it kind of like madonna's
sex book coming with the erotica song, to be played as
you're flicking through the pages.

for viewing the book and the pictures, this music is a
nice backdrop, agreed.

but as a stand alone disc it is once again hard to make
out exactly why such inclusions were chosen over other,
absolutely breathtaking performances.

it's like he said in the usa today interview about that
new song "the divine": 'it's mindblowing, i don't know
if i'll ever release it'.

what kind of stance is that? it seems like he prefers to
release safe, middle of the road, non challenging music
to releasing something that hits u like a ton of bricks,
and leaves you saying "oh.my.god.that's.in.cre.di.ble."
-which is what at least 2 dozen performances from the O2
did to me.

different folks, different strokes, i know. but if you'd
poll people on the choice between this disc or a disc of
the 28-08 NPG trio show, i think you'd get a landslide
vote in favour of the rock show.

it's a nice curiosa but i'll be filing it away soon and
just wait and hope he decides to release something that
will challenge us musically on his new album. what is
the point in creating something you label "mindblowing"
and decide to hold it back in favour of tracks like the
middle of the road retread "turn me loose?"

fcuz he can release what he wants when he wants is but
i fail to understand that state of mind. i really do.

IstenSzek said:

That quote is a stance that maintains the mystery of Prince. Might not even be true.

Meanwhile, the original poster is taking lumps (being called disrespectful, even?) for posting his opinion...

ThreadBare said:

And rightfully so; we do not like people having an opinion. I mean, how dare they?

Chasing said:

Yeah, well said! I would have thought this was the sort of thing most fans would kill to get their hands on! There's a lot of personal, candid stuff on there, I found some of it quite poignant, and it's a lot of fun! Beggin' Woman is worth having the cd for alone! Strange....
[Edited 9/28/08 9:23am]

IstenSzek said:

Never heard of that song. When did he give that interview ?

So how do we find out the dates of the songs? Was I there?
This three-handed woman who is crosseyed-that is hilarious. She's asking for the pepper and looking at the salt love it! Bless him!

KoolEaze said:

It's just been posted recently KoolEaze - http://prince.org/msg/7/283629
[Edited 9/28/08 11:11am]

The album is a but underwhelming, not as good as ONA box set.

This cd sucks..... boring old people music.....

Sorry, but from reading this thread I am not looking forward to this cd and that is sad. Prehaps I need to do myself a favor and not log in to prince.org until I receive my book and hear the cd for myself. These are such negative reviews.

If anything, this CD is meant to be something for his fans only. It's a collector's item--it manages to capture a live feel that the One Night Alone 3-CD set seemed to lack.

But it won't win over any new fans, and certainly won't impress anybody. Nor will it give you any idea of Prince's true talent. The song selection is awkward, but again, I would attribute this to the fact that it's a collector's item--not something meant for the masses. None of the songs are songs I particularly want to hear live or thought sounded great live in the incarnations presented here except "The One", which was pretty good.

Prince's voice never sounded more raspy and less harmonic than on this thing. It just sounds so... meh. There aren't even any really 'wow' band moments, and Prince's instrumental solo moments are few and far between.

It's as if Prince's heart isn't in it at all. But then again, as I've said twice before, we have to look at it for what it is--a collector's item to help die-hard fans complete their catalog--not a proper release that attempts to impress on any level. And for that, he succeeded.

.
[Edited 9/28/08 18:07pm]

technically, this IS Prince's new album, innit.

4bjb said:

There will be all kinds of opinions, good and bad. That's life.

I'll get the cd next week...I can't wait.

Chasing said:

So what if the reviewer thought it was underwhelming? For many here, that's par for the course in Prince's recent work. From your reaction, it seems like you'd be happy with only a glowing review. Forget about showing Prince respect & have some for yourself. Shitty music is still shitty music, whatever the source.

I just can't believe all the negativity here. I have been a fan for 26 years now. I have seen he man dozens of times in regular concerts and aftershows but I have never seen a community of fans as dellusioned as Prince's one right now.

To all these comments about the band not being goog enough, not playing well enough, "no "wow" moments... For fuck's sake, what the fuck do you know about music cuz if you did, if you were musicians, you would hear the amazing tighness of this band, you would hear the great musicianship displauyed by every single member of this band.

And regarding the sound... What do you prefer some live recording totally reaaranged in a studio, with every single defect erased or a the real thing coming straight from the soundboard ? I prefer when there is no cheating.

Of course this cd is not the best Prince aftershow ever but it represents very well what the aftershows were all about last year.

Many of you need to move away from Prince music. You guys have listened to his music so much, you collect so many bootlegs that you cannot appreciate anyhting coming from him anymore.
I personnally very rarely listen to Prince's music throughout the year and when something like this live cd comes up it makes me appreciate his music a hell a lot more than if I had scrutinised every single aftershow on bootlegs.

I even read above that this cd had "shitty music" on it. That's really scary to be so dumb.

sarkozyiszeman said:

i don't think people mean the band isn't good. they're very good in fact.
but the main complaint seems to be that the individual bandmembers don't
get enough room on this release to realy let go and do their thing with
some tripped out solo's. a lot of songs are just a wall of sound.

IstenSzek said:

Sorry but it must be a joke then.
There are plenty of solos all over this cd : Mike Philipps, Maceo Parker, Renato Neto, great interaction bass + drums + guitar only, great guitar work.

What is up with people going off on other people because they write a less than favourable review on something Prince does? Everybody here is entitled to their own opinion.

If somebody writes something you do not like, try to respect that opinion, instead of retaliating by calling them names. In the review thread I have read words like ridiculous, disrespectful, nonsense, whack, lazy ass, dumb and references that you better get the hell out of 'the Prince community' if you cannot blow Prince's horn.

And that's not the reviews of the album, that's people calling other people names. I am glad there are people reacting with words with 'I will make up my own mind', which is something the namecallers seem to forget; in calling reviewers disresepctful, they forget to look in the mirror and see those posts are just that.

These are reviews, as Anxiety posted in the BOOK review thread, good or bad. The title of the thread is not "Only favourable reviews of the CD HERE".

HamsterHuey said:

It's exactly what I'm talking about !

First of all I have not insulted anyone and I don't call people names. Before accusing me of doing so, you should read more carefully what I wrote.

Secondly I reproach the excessiveness of the critics towards Prince's music :
i.e TML is so bad he should retire
i.e whack, lazy
i.e boring music for old people
i.e shitty music
And I could carry on and on.

If you read some poeple out there, you wonder whther Prince and his band can barely play music and know anything about it in the first place.

So yes I insist : there are people here who are too obsessive with Prince music and who should move away from anything he does. They would have a fresh ear in a few months time and would not see things the same way at all.

And btw I wrote whatever I want here as long as I do no harass anyone or insult anyone here.

sarkozyiszeman said:

And that's a good attitude. I just do not think that if you do not like certain aspects of Prince's present day music, you should be told off as a Prince fan. It just makes a person a different kind of fan than the other, which is not a bad case.

Anyways, we're probably preaching against walls, cuz some people are just out to rile others up, cuz they thrive on that. It just puzzles me, that's all.

this is par for the course when prince puts out something new.

you have one extreme group who will defend anything prince does and takes criticism of his work as a personal offense.

you have another extreme group who will razz anything prince does and condemn it for not sounding like glory-days WB material.

then you have that struggling squeak in the middle - those people who actually do try to keep their famdom in check and who try their best to listen with an objective ear. you can usually identify these people, because they often temper their comments with a positive AND a negative, as they're not out from the get-go to worship or condemn the music just because prince created it.

i think criticism is fine, even if you find you don't like the album very much at all. like huey said earlier, there are different types of fans. some like earlier work. some like more recent work. some like the stuff in the middle. some like prince's rock sounds. some like his soul sounds. some just want funk. i could go on and on about "specialized" prince fans, cuz there are dozens of varieties out there...and hey, if they get what they want from what they appreciate in prince, then god bless 'em.

my general view of criticism is that other people's opinions - even "professional" critics - should be taken with a grain of salt. the only person's opinion that matters in the end is your own. everyone's different. just because someone takes something in differently than you do doesn't make them wrong or you right. you're just different people. maybe in some of these comments you'll find some kindred sensibilities. maybe not. it's interesting to read other people's reflections, and it shouldn't be taken as anything more crucial than that. there are bigger things in the world to stress over, y'know?