This is one of my first posts here at the Org. I'm a long-time visitor,
but until now I had been happy just reading people's posts as I think I have nothing special to contribute. I still think this post is nothing new around here, as I'm sure a lot of people have expressed similar things in the past.

Yesterday I listened to Prince's new songs on the radio. On fourth listen, they came accross to me as bland, unchallenging songs. My mental notes: Listenable, fluffy stuff with standard 70's licks and flair. No hooks at all. The better song was the cover. The lyrics dealt for the umpteenth time with record deals, the music industry, and the most bone-headed, jockish and elitist comments
about religion. 'Regular Prince', I thought. Turned it off, went off to work.

Sometime during the day the question arose in my mind: when did that music become 'Regular Prince'? and more importantly, why have I been considering that stuff passable when I would have dismissed any other act with such attributes in no time? Maybe I thought Prince had enough credit in my mind to enter a losing streak of albums, you know, it had happened before and he had always recovered.

Anyway, those new songs made me reflect on what made me feel attracted to Prince's music in the first place. It wasn't hard for me to do: it was the incredible alien-ness of it all. The strange arrangements. Dorothy Parker, the weird, tense ballad that seemed to go nowhere. The otherwordly funk jam that was able to blow your mind with little, and that little was pure genius ('Erotic City'). The thoughtful and unexpected turns that were sometimes minimalistic, as in the 'Girl' b-side, sometimes lush as in the 'Mountains' single. Strange songs, but they made sense in the end, they only asked you to readjust your view. Then you discovered not a note was wasted. He lived in the golden middle: creativity to the max, and catchy too!. Music filled with artistic decisions that took balls and intelligence altogether.

Strangely enough, I don't really remember when it was that the guy's music started to fade to grey. But it sure has been a long long time, that's for sure. Like 10 years of non-stop mediocrity. Most fans from the golden period are gone, so the hardcore remain, and the hardcore have patience and unlimited faith in his dimished talents.In fact, I think such a long period of time has set the bar so low for us that every little thing is seen like a triumph. Look! a guitar solo!; Behold! An eighties power ballad! Hey, don't miss his latest funk workout in which he sounds like a million other James Brown tribute bands across the globe! And what's with this 'old school' vibe he is
trying to put accross? Why is he trying to be a 70's reactionary? Wasn't he the guy that made people forget the 70's in the first place? He was an original musician if there ever was one, always into the next big thing, with everyone running behind trying to figure out the next move, and now he seems content to work the nostalgia circuits, to be another washed up act dreaming about old times, complaining endlessly about record contracts and the staleness of
today's music, when in fact the only thing he is giving us is retro revival all over again. Philly soul again. Semi-Hendrix again. But, interestingly enough, no 'Prince the quirky genius' again. He has willingly singled out himself as irrelevant. And that's what he does now: irrelevant, velvet-coated music on autopilot for us old fans expecting the great comeback album that never comes.

I have mentioned his lyrics earlier in the post. To me Prince's lyrics were always instrumental on creating his highly idiosincratic persona. I remember them as being weird as fuck, not necessarily intellectual per se, but twisted and misterious enough to shake your mind out of the lethargy of common pop music. Even when he wasn't into weird excursions a la 'If I was your girlfriend' or 'Joy in Repetition', or just into hard party mode you got the sense of a unique personality. And most importantly, it was all about being free, everybody could go uptown and blah blah blah. It was music in technicolor to me. As I jump from those days of discovery to today's latest album advance, the exasperating, ugly attributes of this new batch of lyrics shine through...
with a vengeance. And it's been that way for years. It's not that his lyrics have become morose, or sad in the singer-songwriter way. It's just that they are the manifestation of a creative mind sinking into the deepest. The result of a transmutation from the weirdest, most open minded artist in the mainstream, to a crude, standard bible freak with a list of enemies, slogans
and contempt for everything and everyone but his own creed. I bet it's been an unlikely metamorphosis to most old-time fans... to say the least. One of the most tragic turns of events in the music world, in my view.

Just from the top of my mind: here comes a list of things Prince endorses now: homophobia, elitism, race wars, stone-age gender roles, thelogical idiocracy. Primitive, dismal shit... and what the fuck is he saying now? is he saying people shouldn't vote until the world is ruled by high priests and zealots using the bible as some kind of constitution? Seems that 'Paisley Park', that colorful, imaginary land he envisioned in that song from 'Around the World...' now would be placed in the Middle Ages, or maybe the Taliban state of Afghanistan resembles better his idea of heaven, as their basic core of principles and beliefs lately resemble his. I, for one, am wondering what
was I thinking when that shit-storm exploded in my ears year after year and was given a free pass.

Prince has lost all interest to me. Those four songs just opened my eyes finally. I am quite sure that the miserable nosedive his music has taken is beyond repair as the man who creates it is radically different to the one who got the 'credit' in my mind. I'm sure some of you will award this post with the standard 'then what are you doing here if you hate the guy?' kind of answer. You don't have to tell me that. I have just realized I don't like this new guy Prince at all. I will always cherish his great albums, but, like in that Modern Lovers song, "bye bye old world, gotta help the new world".
[Edited 12/20/08 9:16am]

This is one of my first posts here at the Org. I'm a long-time visitor,
but until now I had been happy just reading people's posts as I think I have nothing special to contribute. I still think this post is nothing new around here, as I'm sure a lot of people have expressed similar things in the past.

Yesterday I listened to Prince's new songs on the radio. On fourth listen, they came accross to me as bland, unchallenging songs. My mental notes: Listenable, fluffy stuff with standard 70's licks and flair. No hooks at all. The better song was the cover. The lyrics dealt for the umpteenth time with record deals, the music industry, and the most bone-headed, jockish and elitist comments
about religion. 'Regular Prince', I thought. Turned it off, went off to work.

Sometime during the day the question arose in my mind: when did that music become 'Regular Prince'? and more importantly, why have I been considering that stuff passable when I would have dismissed any other act with such attributes in no time? Maybe I thought Prince had enough credit in my mind to enter a losing streak of albums, you know, it had happened before and he had always recovered.

Anyway, those new songs made me reflect on what made me feel attracted to Prince's music in the first place. It wasn't hard for me to do: it was the incredible alien-ness of it all. The strange arrangements. Dorothy Parker, the weird, tense ballad that seemed to go nowhere. The otherwordly funk jam that was able to blow your mind with little, and that little was pure genius ('Erotic City'). The thoughtful and unexpected turns that were sometimes minimalistic, as in the 'Girl' b-side, sometimes lush as in the 'Mountains' single. Strange songs, but they made sense in the end, they only asked you to readjust your view. Then you discovered not a note was wasted. He lived in the golden middle: creativity to the max, and catchy too!. Music filled with artistic decisions that took balls and intelligence altogether.

Strangely enough, I don't really remember when it was that the guy's music started to fade to grey. But it sure has been a long long time, that's for sure. Like 10 years of non-stop mediocrity. Most fans from the golden period are gone, so the hardcore remain, and the hardcore have patience and unlimited faith in his dimished talents.In fact, I think such a long period of time has set the bar so low for us that every little thing is seen like a triumph. Look! a guitar solo!; Behold! An eighties power ballad! Hey, don't miss his latest funk workout in which he sounds like a million other James Brown tribute bands across the globe! And what's with this 'old school' vibe he is
trying to put accross? Why is he trying to be a 70's reactionary? Wasn't he the guy that made people forget the 70's in the first place? He was an original musician if there ever was one, always into the next big thing, with everyone running behind trying to figure out the next move, and now he seems content to work the nostalgia circuits, to be another washed up act dreaming about old times, complaining endlessly about record contracts and the staleness of
today's music, when in fact the only thing he is giving us is retro revival all over again. Philly soul again. Semi-Hendrix again. But, interestingly enough, no 'Prince the quirky genius' again. He has willingly singled out himself as irrelevant. And that's what he does now: irrelevant, velvet-coated music on autopilot for us old fans expecting the great comeback album that never comes.

I have mentioned his lyrics earlier in the post. To me Prince's lyrics were always instrumental on creating his highly idiosincratic persona. I remember them as being weird as fuck, not necessarily intellectual per se, but twisted and misterious enough to shake your mind out of the lethargy of common pop music. Even when he wasn't into weird excursions a la 'If I was your girlfriend' or 'Joy in Repetition', or just into hard party mode you got the sense of a unique personality. And most importantly, it was all about being free, everybody could go uptown and blah blah blah. It was music in technicolor to me. As I jump from those days of discovery to today's latest album advance, the exasperating, ugly attributes of this new batch of lyrics shine through...
with a vengeance. And it's been that way for years. It's not that his lyrics have become morose, or sad in the singer-songwriter way. It's just that they are the manifestation of a creative mind sinking into the deepest. The result of a transmutation from the weirdest, most open minded artist in the mainstream, to a crude, standard bible freak with a list of enemies, slogans
and contempt for everything and everyone but his own creed. I bet it's been an unlikely metamorphosis to most old-time fans... to say the least. One of the most tragic turns of events in the music world, in my view.

Just from the top of my mind: here comes a list of things Prince endorses now: homophobia, elitism, race wars, stone-age gender roles, thelogical idiocracy. Primitive, dismal shit... and what the fuck is he saying now? is he saying people shouldn't vote until the world is ruled by high priests and zealots using the bible as some kind of constitution? Seems that 'Paisley Park', that colorful, imaginary land he envisioned in that song from 'Around the World...' now would be placed in the Middle Ages, or maybe the Taliban state of Afghanistan resembles better his idea of heaven, as their basic core of principles and beliefs lately resemble his. I, for one, am wondering what
was I thinking when that shit-storm exploded in my ears year after year and was given a free pass.

Prince has lost all interest to me. Those four songs just opened my eyes finally. I am quite sure that the miserable nosedive his music has taken is beyond repair as the man who creates it is radically different to the one who got the 'credit' in my mind. I'm sure some of you will award this post with the standard 'then what are you doing here if you hate the guy?' kind of answer. You don't have to tell me that. I have just realized I don't like this new guy Prince at all. I will always cherish his great albums, but, like in that Modern Lovers song, "bye bye old world, gotta help the new world".
[Edited 12/20/08 9:16am]

I just wish he would leave the conservative religious dogma alone and start writing introspective lyrics again.

jdcxc said:

I approve of this message. Dude's been through 2 divorces, the death of child, lost friends, death of parents, you'd think they'd be some real feelings in there somewhere as opposed to constant bragging about his skills as a lover and musician and whining about being rich.