http://laist.com/2009/03/...mplsou.php

For over a decade now, Prince has been straddling the line between the mainstream and the underground. He’s a major star capable of rocking the Super Bowl, who still acts like a 19-year old jamming in the garage and posting the tapes on his MySpace page.

He moves back and forth between quietly producing work sold only to hardcore fans on his old web site, orchestrating mass media blitzes like the one we saw for his gi-normous Musicology tour in 2004 where he earned one of the biggest-selling albums of the year by adding a copy to the price of every ticket, and giving his stuff away for free with the Sunday paper. When he performs live, he may be playing multiple nights at the biggest hall in town (that 2004 trip included six sold-out nights at Staples Center), or might be entertaining a couple of hundred lucky folks at a hotel bar. Since leaving Warner Bros in the mid-1990s, he’s operated without a long-term record label commitment although his last few records have at least had major distribution.

For the release of his current project, he’s avoided the major label system completely: fans will have to get the music directly from him, at his new website www.lotusflow3r.com starting March 24, or make a trip to Target (or their web site) for a physical copy of the set, priced at a recession-friendly $11.98 for three complete albums. You have to hand it to the guy, with thirty years in the biz behind him, he’s still doing stuff no other artist of his magnitude would even try.
LAist attended a listening party, hosted by Prince’s new web designer, Scott Addison Clay, where we checked out a semi-functional demo of the new site and checked out all three albums. The site itself looks awfully cool, and the rarity-collector in me can’t help but raise an eyebrow when Clay says they’re in the process of uploading “hours and hours and hours of video from Prince’s private collection, some of which goes back to the 70s” along with tons of photos and of course the three new albums. It’s not yet clear exactly what will be available, but from what we saw, it looks like it’s going to be a good amount of content, in addition to the usual preferred access to concert tickets, something his old NPG Music Club did extremely well.

This is not the first time Prince has dropped multiple hours of music in one package. But instead of one long, sprawling work like Emancipation and Crystal Ball, this set is split into three digestible chunks, each with its own title and personality. Two are new Prince albums, and the third he wrote and produced for his latest protégé, Bria Valente (Tamar’s fifteen minutes having sadly expired half an hour ago.) And I’m happy to report the news is mostly good this time. Not flawless, mind, it’s been a while since he gave us of those. But a lack of self-editing is part of the deal now, and at twelve bucks for the whole thing, it’s hard to complain about having too much stuff.

Fans of Prince the guitar hero can officially start drooling in anticipation of Lotusflow3r, the first set previewed. It's got the feel of a Funkadelic record from around the time of Let's Take It To The Stage, not geared towards big hits and club heaters but offerring up a nice mix of moods and sounds of the old school, from space-rock expansiveness to John Lennon-ish piano romping, to overt Hendrix references and even to (funky) Broadway. It’s all faintly psychedelic with big gobs of distorted guitar thrown around liberally. Although the tunes are kind of minimal, it’s the first Prince album in years that sounds and feels like a band playing in a room together, really working the dynamics. This is a good feeling, and one he doesn’t always capture on his studio records. It helps that he’s got a number of his A-list collaborators on board, including Renato Neto, Michael Bland, Greg Boyer and Maceo Parker, giving the performances a loose, live quality. "Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful" recalls the Prince of "Sexy MF", all strutting and horn-stabbing over a tight James Brown beat. "Love Like Jazz" sounds like one of War’s extended jams with its lilting Brazillian chords, leading into a punchy, syncopated chorus. Other names I jotted down during the length of the LP:Herbie Hancock, Albert King (for the slow-burning riff that underscores "Colonized Mind") and the Allman Bros (for some wailing twin-guitar harmonics in "4Ever"). If that sounds like a good time to you, it probably will be. I certainly recommend it.

On to the bad news: the Bria Valente album Elixer is, to be kind, no great shakes. There's nothing particularly wrong with it. She sings …well enough, I suppose, a breathy, attractive but indistinct voice. What's missing is material; apparently Prince isn't as generous with the good tunes as he used to be. There’s not one killer track, and compared to the live feel on LF, it sounds like one giant overdub. A quick glance at the credits confirms this to be true; except for two tracks with his live rhythm section, everything from the drum programming to the engineering to the cover photography was done by the man himself. By now we all know he CAN do everything under the sun, but …does have HAVE to? The Producer of this album needed to inform the Arranger and the Musicians that something wasn’t working, but there was a failure to communicate. What we’re left with sounds like bottom of the barrel demos, underproduced and half-baked. As they used to remind us in those Hebrew National commercials, non-meat fillers are not kosher.

MPLSoUND is another one-man affair, but one that actually works, most of the time anyway. It's a return to the old school, dance-club Prince, a familiar, comfortable sound built around those 80s-vintage synth voices, an approach that’s not yet run out of gas. "Chocolate Box" is the best track here, a hyperactive banger that sounds like "Dirty Mind" on speed, and actually caused some of the assembled reporter-heads to bop back and forth in a rhythmic manner for the first time all night. The opening "There’ll Never Be Another Like Me" brought the album Sign Of The Times immediately to mind, which can hardly be a bad thing. Although the album can’t maintain the brilliance of its first few songs, there certainly is a nasty good time to be had in there somewhere, maybe through savvy CD programming.

So to sum up: MPLSoUND is the one you dance to in the club, LotusFlow3r is the one you pop on when you're home from the club and ready to kick it, and Elixer is the one you put on when the stragglers won't go home and you want to go to bed. But $11.98 ain't a bad deal for just one really, truly good album, which LF certainly is, and most of the best stuff is all in one place.

Prince is doing three LA shows on March 28 - click here for our coverage.

LOtUSFLOW3r / MPLSoUND / Elixer will be available on lotusflow3r.com on March 24, and available at Target stores on March 29. Visitors to the site can listen to streaming audio of the songs Colonized Mind, Disco Jellyfish and Another Boy by clicking on the cassettes at the bottom right of the screen.

Papaj said:

sweet review!

Sounds like a realistic review to me. I'd wager that alot of folk will agree with this when all's said and done.

.....he didn't say that did he.....

Just found a picture from the Lotusflow3r listening party:

Papaj said:

That is certainly not true.. I know of a few that take even bigger risks than prince.. and they have paid off very well.

I feel sorry for Bria ....Here I come is not bad ....for a modern pop tune...look at the sh*t that's in the charts at the moment....

Britney
Beyonce
Rihanna
etc....

It's better than that stuff....

Sdldawn said:

who ?....

LondonStyle said:

Radiohead did the pay as much as you want, and left the option to not even pay.
they received huge recognition for taking such a bold risk, without a label.

NIN has given away free music for the past two years. Their last album was completely free, no strings attached. Their project Ghosts was a 2cd set, in which one part of the album was given free, and only 5 bucks to get the rest.
Not to mention trent giving his fans two complete live shows free, including the video.

Josh Rouse has created his own fan site. $30 gets you a years worth of mp3's every month. Live audio shows just about every month (Full shows). His new album was included in that price. free subscription to paste, in addition to over 200 mp3's.


Not to mention the insanely good deals on the box sets these artists gave, some even included autographs.

Those options are insanely gracious and wonderful deals... and leaps in the right direction.


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[Edited 3/21/09 15:00pm]

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[Edited 3/21/09 15:04pm]

Sdldawn said:

Hang on none of these guys are in Prince's league ....and all of them have followed him....if you read the interviews with NIN and Radiohead they both mention Prince or at least the reports have because he did it first.....

Sorry Prince is the man....

This album must be good as the report did not even mention....Crimson and Clover....by name.....that's good news....

LondonStyle said:

regarding their "following".. that says what? Since prince was an inspiration, that means they can't take bigger leaps? That's a pretty bias view you got there, and to think his 77 dollar club is a bigger leap in the music industry than those deals.. is simply ridiculous.
[Edited 3/21/09 15:09pm]

Sdldawn said:

Well we know what he's done in terms of being an indie music artist ...as for his business skill well they are hit and miss but he's always trying .... and the test for Radiohead and NIN is about 20 years away...

LondonStyle said:

test? Radiohead said they made more than all of their albums combined off of In Rainbows.. What's more to test? it was a successful project for them.

And regarding NIN, they are very successful, without a record label..

The fact is, these guys aren't "trying" to create big leaps.. it just happens that their business methods are successful and gained noticeable recognition.

Sdldawn said:

Yeah but after Prince's career any leap looks kind of small ....you got to see it in context here in modern pop since the 80's there has only been three global superstars is MJ, Prince and Madge....and only two could really sing and dance ...so that leaves just Prince and MJ ... it's not just about record sells its about icon status...global worldwide...status...

That's why it's kind of silly talking about Radiohead and NIN because they are nobodys in scale...or even finance...

LondonStyle said:

In terms of what? I'm trying to figure out where you are coming from.. saying prince is a bigger artist is only stating the obvious.. The argument was about the overall business model and artistic approach to selling music today.

by your rational you have simply implied that since prince is a bigger name, anything he does will be the next step..

Sdldawn said:

While I wholeheartedly agree with you that there are other artists who have made bolder moves than Prince recently, to be fair, the line you quoted and disagreed with orignally said "artists of his magnitude".

I think that's what folks are taking issue with here: Radiohead and NIN are not on the same scale as Prince. Until this last post of yours, it seemed as though you were arguing that point, and I think that's why you're seeing some resistence here.
[Edited 3/21/09 16:40pm]

he CAN do everything under the sun, but …does have HAVE to?

Haven't we been saying that for a while now?????
Get a producer Prince!

Sounds promising. The reviewer seems to actually know a little bit about Prince and his music, which wasn't the case in the other previews posted.

I'm excited nonetheless. Rainbow Children averaged 56/100 in the press and a lot of fams (myself included) view it as a well-rounded album. I like every song I've heard so far, bar Wall of Berlin, but then again, a lot of people here enjoy that too!
[Edited 3/21/09 20:07pm]

Niiiiice! Very good objective review.

It's sounding very very promising...can't hardly wait!
I'm really surprised most of the reviews for MPLSOUND are very positive which I was not expecting at all. Too cool. Odd that no reviewer has mentioned Q-Tips contribution yet??? Maybe they think it's Prince?

Tuesday cannot get here soon enough!

Poor Bria...

really looking forward to LF. this is the review, based on the songs we've heard so far, that is most in line with my expectations.

Genesia said:

Poor Bria indeed...I for one like the new song and video on the site. I really never expected that much from this one anyway...come to think of it I haven't really expected much in the protege category since ...The Carmen Incident

A funky broadway type song sounds interesting, also I like the description of Feel Better.

Love like Jazz sounds like it's got the latin vibe, didn't someone mention a solo on this similar to Santana.

I'mm guessing 77 beverly place must be the broadway type song.

No words about "The Dreamer" & "Boom" in this review...STRANGE

Revolution said:

Your friends have been saying this for a while now ???
Move on to other artists, man !!!!!

Papaj said: