Track listing

1. "North" – 14:00
2. "East" – 14:00
3. "West" – 14:00
4. "South" – 14:00

I find this is a really nice concept instrumental album, although I admit you gotta be in a certain mood to listen to a 14 minute instrumental

Personally I'd rank the songs from BEST - West,North,South,East - WORST

I'm curious whats all your favorite one of the four?

also

Anyone else hoping, like me, that Prince makes another instrumental album?(preferably concept)

I'm gonna go put it on now, and be back.

GraffitiKid said:

Hmm... so far we got
Madhouse 8
Madhouse 16
Madhouse 24x2
Kamasutra
Xpectation
NEWS
C-Note

That's enough

I like NEWS - not something you put on regularly, but for background music for work or reading, it's perfect. The packaging is too irritating though - sometimes I just want the CD without unlocking a puzzle. I had to put it in a separate jewel case.
[Edited 2/12/10 15:56pm]

great stuff. i wonder why people dislike "east" so much tho,
it's probably my favorit track on the album. although, this
album still feels like about 12 songs, just loosely fused
together to make four 14 minute songs.

i wish he'll release a few more, some day. would be nice if
he'd release one through the website before year one ends.

I dig it. And would love another instrumental album, since I'm finding his lyrics uninspired and divisive as of late.

Prince’s N.E.W.S.

North
This song feels like a question 2 me. 2 Love or Not 2 Love.
Like a pendulum in your mind swinging as your heart is swaying.
I Love this seductive track. The Guitar is so strong and climactic.
The soft Piano and Saxophone seem to convey that a decision has been made.
2 Love.

East

Still in a thought provoking vibe. This song feels like an angry relationship.
The Saxophone states a point of view…The guitar responds with a much stronger point of view.
It almost sounds like a female interrogation and then the man laying down the law.
These two sides merge in the 9th minute, yet soon the bickering continues. Talk about “Guitar Talking,” The guitar seems to get fed up toward the end. The emotion as the song unwinds feel like tears of hopelessness.

West

This is a nice jazzy rock song. I get a peaceful feeling from it, however, I feel the song portrays the happiness of being alone. This song doesn’t remind me of conversation as North, East, and South, do.

South

This song opens with a talking vibration. The song starts out happy and funky, like a man is trying to rise above a broken heart. He’s falling apart a little bit. This song does a great job in telling an instrumental story that I feel I hear as a listener. There’s Love on the N.E.W.S, but there is an unspoken tragedy written between the lines. Some of the greatest writing in History, are not comedies.

This is an emotional record.

My Favorite Track is “North.”
Followed by South, West, and East.

to me the album doesn't feel like it's about relationships at all,
it feels like it's about nature, as the titles indicate, lol.

there was a promo clip for the album online at his site back when
it was about to be released, iirc it was just a beautiful bunch of
national geographic style images.

the only real 'human' part about the songs is that the melodies
and rhythms to some portions of each one of the 4 tracks relates
to or copies a similar cultural style in the roughly equivalent
global position to the track's titles.

Have any of these been performed live?

IstenSzek said:

I've never heard it put that way before, but it makes sense. I'm gonna spin NEWS and consider this now.

I like it too, I agree that you must be in a certain mood to listen to it...

I can't stand the NEWS album,

Jazz light funk... and I hate Prince doing light jazz.

Madhouse.... 8 / 16 were at least original and more funky...

NEWS... I have tried to listen, but it's sooo booooring.

i love it. Completely-especially the guitar tone and vibe-sooooo funky. I also think its a players album.

If you play-most muso's love it. And the jazz lite tabs are a little unfair-its just P and his talented posse jamming really-and doing it extremely well

Love this album, North being my favourite track for Renato's piano solo at the end. Much prefer this to Xpectation.

I didn't really like it when it came out, for the reason that it wasn't really up to what I would usually consider good jazz-fusion. Nevertheless, it has proven out to be a very enjoyable record simply to listen to. My favourite part of the album are the 30 first seconds.

I love this album. The 4 first minutes of "South" are pure heaven, it has the same groove as "Call My Name".

billymeade said:

Exactly!

did the media totally ignore this???

i cant find ONE review

jonylawson said:

http://jazztimes.com/arti...w-s-prince

zaza said:

thanks

Sometimes P's lyrics have me but I always love the music. From one instrumentalist to another.

yankem said:

Agree.
Sometimes its just cool to hear him play the music and not waffle on and on about his love life
[Edited 2/15/10 16:19pm]

Took me some time to get into this, I didn't really like it at all when it was released, preferring Xpectation. Now it's the other way round, I never listen to Xpectation, but really appreciate NEWS.

Love this album. I think the packaging complaint is a bit silly in this digital world. When most people listen to music it's usually an ipod or a computer or in ur car.Do u really keep all ur cd's in all original packaging? Then u're better than me.

As much as I liked it it did feel like it was sometimes missing something, a little more umph maybe, more rock or more funk... regardless I feel it's a bad@$s record. I do think that it's far more superior instrumentally to the Madhouse compilations, those were great & I like those too but they're almost too looped, I get bored w/ the same sounds over & over again, NEWS took me on more of a ride. It was nice that Prince decided to take a break on vocals & let the instruments do all the talking.

LOVE N.E.W.S and the listening party online at The NPGMC was really fun too !

it's projects like this one that never get the right exposure imo ... there is more to music than FUNK, It's really nice to hear Prince doing instrumentals sometimes ! I also lOVE the Xenophobia and the rest of the X songs.

N.E.W.S.

I had seen the online teaser campaign that announced N.E.W.S. containing four new tracks each 14 minutes long back in the day. Straight away I placed my order, and when it arrived at work I placed it into my ibook and listened to it while I worked.

With the opening watery tinged bass of NORTH I submerged myself in the sound. With its hypnotic repetitive melody it just washes into your soul like fresh waves crashing on the shore. The song builds like a gentle storm brewing away in the distance and threatening to break. With the sax and intermittent guitar solo the track builds and builds to the brink of a crescendo before easing off, to be replaced by the tinkering keys of the piano. North always reminded me of storms in the night, that comfort of being safe and sound in your room while it approaches. Just waiting for it to break.

EAST with its synth-laden intro echoes the feel of the title. With a dash of mystic melody we are thrown into the path of the shuffling rolling beat of Mr Blackwell. This is his track. Allowing his skills as a drummer to work the kit to be more than just a backing instrument and allow it to become more melodic – check out the work over the hi hat gets. Similarly to North, at the 8 minute mark East changes direction. At this point it really gathers a full head of steam and moves more solidly into a jazz fusion track. And once again the skins of Mr Blackwell are at the fore, well at least right along side the purple strings of P. The last section of east seems to slowly untangle like the melody is being pulled apart thread by thread, unravelling itself to make way for the new.

The opening strains to WEST remind me a bit of dolphin of the gold experience. This is perhaps the most cohesive song oriented piece on here – and by that I mean it feels like a song ready made for vocals rather than an exploration of music. The first 3 minutes sooth and seduce you like a classic P ballad before stepping it up and blending in some more jazz fusion. For some reason the main section of this song reminds me of something of Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters album. Just that mix of a simple melody line played to within an inch of its life that captivates before it even comes close to be tired or overplayed. The piano solo deserves special mention here for its free form playing. The final phrasing of the song just lets it tease you with moments of ebb and flow and it goes from a full boil to a smooth simmer.

For me SOUTH is the jewel in the crown. With its funk lead main groove it travels to the highs of bliss before dipping into the shallows of pure melody. I especially love the moog synth solo with a bass line that bubbles and tweaks before taking the track into a moment of epic rock, then before it gets too carried away slides back into the main groove only to climb again. At the 5 minute mark the power makes way for the silence as the song slows and wanders in a field of experimentation before finding its way to the safe haven of a jazz song the rides the final waves of highs and lows before washing away on that classic of all classic end notes.

I wasn’t 100% sold on N.E.W.S. when I first got it. Each song had moments of brilliance but didn’t seem to be able to sustain the 14 minutes dedicated to each direction. As a result it found its place amongst my collection rarely to be brought back out to play. However listening to it now, I can find new highlights in each song that I had missed before.

Its funny that if people discuss Prince’s work as an artist this is an album that doesn’t immediately spring to mind, but here is the true study of an artist. As we all know a Prince instrumental fusion album was never going to be a big seller, but rather than clamour for a smash, he followed where the music lead him. And the true beauty is that here is a free artist, afterall Warners or any other major label would have been totally reluctant to release it. But being a true independent Prince had the freedom (and maybe even the luxury) to present this new direction to us all. And whether or not it is an album that is played often or rarely, we are richer for the chance to hear it.

Swa

it's beautiful

All I can say is West

Fantastic album - love it from start to finish! Particularly love East, especially for Blackwell's immense drumming.

Its a great complement to the Prince legacy and its amazing how many people are surprised to be told its Prince when I spin this!

I like it, but as the original poster said, I have to be in the right mood to listen to it. Mostly I'll put it on as background music while I'm reading or something like that. It's lovely and parts of it are terrific.

jonylawson said:

I remember reading to short reviews at about the time of it's release both full of praise.
I really enjoyed it.
I also loved TRC

these 2 releases get bad press here.

I prefer the challenging artist over the submissive popster
I'm not fanatic but grateful when he releases any new material