I just bought a CD at Tower Records entitled If I Was
Prince which contains covers of Prince songs by
various singers.I am not familiar with any of the
artists on the CD,but I have listened to their versions
and will give my review.

The CD also came in a nice little booklet not that different from The Rainbow Children.


Sexy Dancer- 7 Hurts with Peaches and Bitch Lap Lap


Pretty funky,the girls sound like the Spice Girls to me.


Annie Christian- Fort Lauderdale

Hypnotic


If I Was Your Girlfriend- OP:1 Bastards

Um,it's different.They put some video game sounds in their,
but to me it's not that good of an effort.They don't sing
the whole song.Weird.


Dance On- Capitol K

Psychadelic, it's okay, the groove is still there.


Under The Cherry Moon- Simian

The singer on this one sounds drunk.He kind of sounds like
Mick Jagger


The Ballad of Dorothy Parker- Broadway Project with
Jeb Loy Nichols

Oh God these guys messed this one up.There's no soul in this
song.Geez.Wassup wit dat?!


Controversy- Hefner

Finally,a plausible sounding cover.The singer is female and
the song is turned into a slow groove.It's very smooth,kind
of like if Sade did a cover of a Prince song.I like this one.


The Most Beautiful Girl In The World- Bronze Age Fox

This one is okay, it's promising. It just doesn't pick up
that much, but all in all a pretty good effort.


Alphabet Street- Blue States

Cool sounding,almost like the Beatles in a way.


The Beautiful Ones- Misty Dixon

Ah, no one can go wrong with this song.The lady on this song has a voice like Dido. It's very good and to me it's
the best one on the CD. No screaming though, very mellow.


Distributed by RexRecords

almarood.co.uk

yeh i saw this about a year ago but didnt know if it was a covers cd or remix cd.

i like it,its different,which is cool.
beautiful ones is my fave of course.i bought it about 2 months ago

Biscuit said:

I'm surprised you didn't think much of this one... Although I haven't heard this song redone by Simian they are one of the most original new British bands around at the moment. They also have mentioned how much they love Prince saying something similar to "His influence is everywhere... 20 years later and all the electronic bands are trying to do what he did with Controversy."

Also has anyone heard their album Vhemistry is what they are? Not sure why but I always thought it in a similar spirit to Parade... Which is why I would expect this song to be better than how you described it!
Mark

Simian is a great band! I discovered them after buying If I Was Prince. I love their version of Under The Cherry Moon. They describe it as a funeral march.

And I think that the cover of Ballad of Dorothy Parker is one of the best on the CD. It's not a soul/funk version, it's something completely different. It's a little bit Tom Waits. But not everyone likes Tom Waits...

The cover version of "Controversy" is the only good song on the CD.

I'm sorry people but I think the fact that these underground artists have tried to put their own spin on all of the songs rather than trying to stay too true to the originals.

Admittedly they are very dark, experimental and somewhat hit and miss but it is nice to see that his influence stretches far further than the mainstream. :wOOt:

If u r a prince fan but also like contemporary electro music this is a good buy.

I also like the pixelated packaging of previous prince covers and it is great that they carry the comments about prince by the covering artists, even if some of the comments are less than complimentary in places.

All in all I admire the vision of the project in trying to do something different with quality tracks that in my eyes, won't ever be bettered ... ...

I have a query as well, do u think Prince knows about the project? If so wonder what he thinks?

Peace,Love and New Power

I just got this CD like yesterday,so forgive me if I judge
too quickly on the songs.I'm just going by feeling,or by
what I want to hear.Who knows,after a few more listens I'll
probably wind up liking all of them.

Each artist made Prince songs their own,and did things to
them that I think are pretty unique.Like taking Controversy
and making it into a ballad,it sounds really good.

my fav off of the album is 'annie christian' with the bass lick. the rest is alright to kinda bad.

I wasn't getting at you biscuit, your entitled to your opinion as is everyone else on the org!

Apologies if it came across that way... ...

Anyway, it's the first cd that I've heard that approaches
his music with a fresh eye, for example ... ... things like TLC's version of If I Was Ur'e Girlfriend was good but just sounded like a copy of Prince's version, ditto with D'Angelo's When Doves Cry ... ..

where's the originality in that?

Thanks for posting though as this is the first post I have enjoyed for a while, what with all the complaining, the box set and the Leno stuff.

Peace

Your welcome Picasso.

I was just responding to those who enjoyed certain songs more than I did, and I felt I jumped to too much of a
conclusion. I'm not used to this music, never heard anything
like it before.

Xpertlover said:

That's quite strange, because in my opinion it's the worst one. Take a listen to "The Beautiful Ones" by Misty Dixon. Meanwhile I love it nearly as hard as I do with Prince's version

Think I'll have to buy this album now! If anyone didn't like it get in touch and I'll buy it from you!
Mark