How come everytime Prince wants to play pop music his production most of the time sounds too slick,soft and overproduced,yet on the other side everytime

Prince goes into alternate direction like

TRC,Madhouse,NEWS and other similar projects his

music and sound breaths and sound perfect like

it isn't the same producer?

You can hate News but you must notice it's great production,

at the same time

his pop production sounds cheesy

I think people who hate the News album have no appriciation for instrument playing or sound. Too used to the garbage music today, or only care about vocals. News was a great album.

For me, Lotusflow3r/MPLSound is the most glaring example of this dichotomy. When I listened to those two discs, I couldn't believe it was the same person.

He's always leaned towards the electronic, his organic attempts were all failures. Rainbow Children was disjointed and forced, NEWS was boring and unfocused, Xpectation was decent background music, Madhouse was middle of the road, average jazz. He's got no business in the organic world.

We don't talk weather you like those songs or not we talk about the sound of those records

production

Prince is Gray...Prince is able to play whatever Prince is in the mood 4.

I Love it All. _ _ _ ... _ _ _And I'm Not Talking about the band..

thebanishedone said:

How come everytime Prince wants to play pop music his production most of the time sounds too slick,soft and overproduced

What does "overproduced" mean?

to much cluttered

too much produced

Alguy said:

He's always leaned towards the electronic, his organic attempts were all failures. Rainbow Children was disjointed and forced, NEWS was boring and unfocused, Xpectation was decent background music, Madhouse was middle of the road, average jazz. He's got no business in the organic world.

???

Thats some of his best material

Kara said:

For me, Lotusflow3r/MPLSound is the most glaring example of this dichotomy. When I listened to those two discs, I couldn't believe it was the same person.

Lotusflow3r/MPLSound really bring home the two sides to Prince's music throughout the past decade.

thebanishedone said:

to much cluttered

too much produced

OK...so how would you know when a record is "produced enough"?

Realmusician i don't tend to know ,

but for my personal taste

Prionce music sound the best when production is more about less(Dirty Mind ,Purple Rain,1999...albums)

on the other side you have overproduced records such as

Emancipation ,songs on that album with more stripped sound

could have given amazing results instead of average album.

NouveauDance said:

Kara said:

For me, Lotusflow3r/MPLSound is the most glaring example of this dichotomy. When I listened to those two discs, I couldn't believe it was the same person.

Lotusflow3r/MPLSound really bring home the two sides to Prince's music throughout the past decade.

Agreed.

Prince still has something to offer music when he chooses to accept the fact that he is a mature, experienced musician and is no longer a hip young man with his finger on the pulse of young listeners.

He still shines on work like TRC, ONA, and Lotus.

It's when he starts seemingly feeling the need to reassert his ability to write relevant pop music that we get either forgettable stuff like Black Sweat or complete trash like Laydown.

On albums like 20Ten, Prince reminds me of an old father who comes down to the basement with his son's young 20-something friends to talk about fucking girls and getting high as a way of proving to himself he can still hang with them. At some point, it just becomes really apparent the old guy doesn't belong down there and should return upstairs to drink his wine and talk about life with people his own age.

[Edited 7/23/10 13:14pm]

Purple knight i agree about the first half of your post,i even like your

description of Prince in the basement,but i don't agree.

maybe song Laydown ,not the other songs.

20Ten sounds more like:hey all you people this is

my sound ,is this what you wanted,offcourse it is sincere free album

,the crucial element of his royal badness is missing.

I just don't think Prince much enjoys that kind of music anymore. He doesn't sound like he does. He sounded like an artist unleashed on TRC. He sounded like a man who couldn't wait long enough to get out his message - he sounded a similar way on his 80's work too.

Albums like 20Ten just sound like Prince hoping people like it just enough to not banish him from Hollywood parties and hits concerts in large venues.

I can't even say I blame him. It's just that it makes him boring to follow.

thebanishedone said:

Realmusician i don't tend to know ,

but for my personal taste

Prionce music sound the best when production is more about less(Dirty Mind ,Purple Rain,1999...albums)

on the other side you have overproduced records such as

Emancipation ,songs on that album with more stripped sound

could have given amazing results instead of average album.

I know this is really just semantics...but there is a common misconception about what it means to "produce" a record. When people use terms like "overproduced", what they're really referring to is almost always the complexity of the arrangement (sometimes also, but to a lesser extent, the complexity of mixing effects).

The real definition of "producing" a record is actually making sure the record gets done - which of course involves a lot of different tasks and decisions, both practical and artistical. Sometimes - though not always - including arranging and mixing.

So, to be entirely correct, a record can (in one's opinion) be "over-arranged", but it really can't be "over-produced".

I think Prince is perfectly adept at creating whatever sound he wants, and his sound on MPLS is intentional... and not indicitive of limitations...

He does not want to sound like the pillars of reference you might hold in mind. But he could if he wanted to. I'm certain of this based on the sounds he has made live and in rehearsal.

Also he is overt in his intentions as a conversatin with Femi Jiya revealed. He makes a "Prince" brand sound on purpose.