I can understand people's disdain for this New Power Generation gem from the nineties, I too held it in low regards initially. I have recently been exploring the album and the project is really not that bad

You got your ballads
You got your funk
You got your guitar work
You got your requisite symbologies
You got your crazy little unclassifiable Prince moments
You got a classic Prince album -- what's wrong with the picture then?

I put freaks on this side on repeat and have now played it about two or three days
and I must say that it is a pretty funky little number

Your thoughts

And in fairness to the topic let's try not to diss the album by comparing it to other Prince albums, because that is a really tired exercise. I could bore you to tears with those arguments myself, afterall I can name probably hundreds of Prince songs that I think are inferior to FREAKS ON THIS SIDE (for instance)

when you know the meaning of every book congratulations your a member of the New Power Generation...

http://prince.org/msg/7/330533?&pg=1

Doesn't seem like the other discussion is dead.

Cravens said:

I was just gonna post this myself. That thread was posted exactly one week ago, a little too soon to start a new topic on it.

Before this gets locked:

the problem with NPS:

1. only 3 really good songs.
2. almost every other Prince album is better than NPS.


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[Edited 2/25/10 7:32am]

One of the worst album from Prince!!

most of the songs are decent enough but imo this album and "come" get
a bad rap because they suffer from a bad opening and a bad end.

the song "new power soul" is a bit lukewarm and the ending of the
album is muddled because the official closing song is quite bad,
imo and then there's 40 tracks of silence before "wasted kisses"
comes on and it feels like too little too late.

just like the title track on "come" outstays it's welcome and the
closing track is not even a real track but just an annoyance.

if they had better book ends they would go down better with folks,
i'm sure, since they would actually feel like a 'complete' album.

personally, i like them both just fine. "come", i like more, since
it has stronger tracks overall and it doesn't drag in the middle,
like "new power soul" does. there simply aren't enough truly strong
songs on it. well, that's not true, there's enough good material
but it's broken up by bad book ends and "push it up" right in the
middle, followed by "freaks on this side" which both go nowhere
really.

he'd have probably been better off saving the 3 or 4 great tracks
from nps for "rave un2 the joy fantastic", where they could have
replaced silly/middle of the road songs.

but as it is, we got 2 albums and i don't consider that a bad thing
at all. i'm quite happy with the way he's released material since
his break from warners. there were more songs and even if most of
the albums feel a bit unfinished or slightly 'off', i'd rather take
an extra 10 songs that i don't care about that much.

even the bad songs are enjoyable on occasion and as such, "nps" is
an album i listen to quite regularly, despite it's obvious flaws.
in mood and tone it reminds me a bit of the black album, although
it's nowhere near as good. but the vibe is there, and the intention.

I like it. It's no masterpiece, but good second-tier Prince - which is really what it was marketed as. Wasted Kisses and Come On are killer.

squirrelgrease said:

Come On is definitely in my Top 10

djdaffy1227 said:

WHo made you the authority on the time a post should go up?

THis album is the perfect example of a good Prince album that is moslty underground and never gets the mainstream attention/kudos it should. Based merely on exposure and record sales, it is often called a disappointment by those who just dont know any better.

I still like it and also liked it back in 1998 when it came out. As a Prince album, it is probably not great but it is not really meant to be a "great" album and artistic statement in the first place, and considering what he was going through back then it is still a solid album.
Most other musicians would have tried drugs and booze or other selfdestructive behaviour but he went out and toured and released an album that contains little gems such as :
The One
Come On
Wasted Kisses
Freaks On This Side
Until You´re In My Arms Again

Sure, there are some real clunkers on it like Push It Up or the title track but even those are liked by some fans.
So, with at least 5 songs that I like, I can hardly call this a bad album. I´m glad he had the freedom to release it to begin with. With WB, we would have had to wait a long time for little side projects like this but that´s the good thing about Prince being independent. Some stuff sucks, but all in all, it´s good that he´s free do release whatever he wants to release.
I have huge respect for how he came out of that dark phase and everything that happened back then, no matter how weird and eccentric and delusional and at times two-faced he acted.
It´s a solid album and he didn´t go the route that many other musicians would have gone in a similar situation.
And the Come On remix maxi was the last good maxi single that he released, with lots of remixes and alternate versions. I miss that.

one of the songs that no one ever mentions, neither negative or positive
is "when you love somebody" which, to me, holds up very well, especially
after all these years. i love everything about that track.

Brofie said:

Do you actually believe the shit you spout? I'll LOUDLY proclaim it a disappointment, and that judgment isn't based on exposure or sales.

TwiliteKid said:

Profanity and belligerence seldom merit a substantial response. Keep up the good work.
[Edited 2/25/10 10:21am]

I dig the cd.....

Brofie said:

The reason I can't listen to this album has less to do with the songs, (which really aren't that great to begin with), and far more to do with the production value.

This album probably could have been better/richer if it had had a few songs with acoustic drums. The production is dated; which might work on a few select tracks across the album in a quirky way. One song synth based. The next song acoustic based.

But thrown together across an entire album in the same style, it just runs together in a bland way. Perhaps a better way of putting it is, this album FEELS like it was produced on a tight budget. "Well, we've got our drum sound covered for the entire album, now let's layer on the tracks".

Some folks have praised the horn arrangements, and to me that's the travesty of the production value. I can't stick around long enough to appreciate that stuff (which I live for on most other Prince records) because the songs themselves sound too similiar.

Brofie said:

Hardly authoritative to point out something very obvious, namely that the previous thread is precisely one week old and still active.

Brofie said:

If you ever said anything rational, you might get a different response yourself.

What is the story with the 30+ untitled tracks? has anyone expounded on the significance of 49 tracks