No. I totally dig it. Great song imo.

peter430044 said:

To me the problem is that the verse works much better than the chorus, in terms of the music. The verse is above average and his dark voice works well with the melody. The chorus is below average and the sound of the chorus doesn't fit very well with the verse.

If you're going to sing about a dream where every living soul sang the most beautiful melody ever sung, then the chorus should be much better than this and fit better.

I think the chorus was kept simple so that it would be easy for audiences to sing along. He's already encouraging it at live shows. I promise when he plays it on TV in front of a crowd or in any big arena after people have digested it a bit, it will be pretty awesome. Hundreds or thousands of people singing together can be a pretty moving thing. Dude knew what he was doing.

[Edited 7/30/10 21:20pm]

gamera said:

peter430044 said:

To me the problem is that the verse works much better than the chorus, in terms of the music. The verse is above average and his dark voice works well with the melody. The chorus is below average and the sound of the chorus doesn't fit very well with the verse.

If you're going to sing about a dream where every living soul sang the most beautiful melody ever sung, then the chorus should be much better than this and fit better.

I think the chorus was kept simple so that it would be easy for audiences to sing along. He's already encouraging it at live shows. I promise when he plays it on TV in front of a crowd or in any big arena after people have digested it a bit, it will be pretty awesome. Hundreds or thousands of people singing together can be a pretty moving thing. Dude knew what he was doing.

[Edited 7/30/10 21:20pm]

Hopefully he will keep playing the song long enough for that to happen. It seems like new songs drop out of his setlist fairly quickly.

It's just great. What makes it amazing is the deep voice. Prince hasn't harmonized like this for years. Apart from the minneapolis sound, eclectic album etc I think Prince offered the world that if you can sing, being your own backing vocalist is the best thing ever. I think that this is what defines the album full stop-he hasn't utilized backing vocal (His own and others) like this for years. Songs likes Good Fun etc on the Crystal Ball album are other examples

TheVoid said:

I don't like any of the ballads on the album, honestly. But it's not that they're boring, but that I just don't care for that kind of song unless it has some 'umph' to it. Adore from SOTT had snippets of humor like "...well...maybe not the ride...." , and "The Beautiful Ones" ended up in a screamer that would have scared Teddy Pendagrass.

These are paint-by-numbers Prince ballads, which means they're good, but just not interesting to me. Walk in Sand to be the most skip-worthy one. I just can't endure that song. Actually the last 3 songs of 20Ten (if you don't count that embarassing Laydown track) don't do it for me.

It's good background music when cleaning though.

Exactly how I feel about the album.

First six songs are either good/great excepting the song on this thread, second half of the album take a mounmental nose dive.

This is one of the most beautiful Prince songs of the past 10 years. I think it ranks up there with She Loves Me For Me and Call My Name.

FSS, like most of the decades Prince soul ballads seem nothing more than paint by numbers in my eyes. I could tell where the song was going in the first listen, and thats never good.

It almost feels like P has to put a run of the mill ballad on every album now.

I'm sure the lovers of FSS will also like Future Baby Mama and Call My Name. Each to their own, but to me, its not in the same league as Adore, Beautiful Ones, Do Me Baby, Shhh, She Loves me for me. Even previous outtakes like "Goodbye" are far more original that FSS.

SquirrelMeat said:

FSS, like most of the decades Prince soul ballads seem nothing more than paint by numbers in my eyes. I could tell where the song was going in the first listen, and thats never good.

It almost feels like P has to put a run of the mill ballad on every album now.

I'm sure the lovers of FSS will also like Future Baby Mama and Call My Name. Each to their own, but to me, its not in the same league as Adore, Beautiful Ones, Do Me Baby, Shhh, She Loves me for me. Even previous outtakes like "Goodbye" are far more original that FSS.

I really like Goodbye too but I think when it comes to some of these ballads as we have heard so many over the years it is difficult to celebrate something new - he approaches them all in roughly the same way. I would suggest his best stuff in - the love song category - is where he does the whole bitter sweet stuff - I Know you Love me but I don't trust you anymore for example. Is that a ballad? Not sure but the big build of chorus and layers of schmalz? if thats a word do get predictable. I ramble.

Roundtheworld said:

SquirrelMeat said:

FSS, like most of the decades Prince soul ballads seem nothing more than paint by numbers in my eyes. I could tell where the song was going in the first listen, and thats never good.

It almost feels like P has to put a run of the mill ballad on every album now.

I'm sure the lovers of FSS will also like Future Baby Mama and Call My Name. Each to their own, but to me, its not in the same league as Adore, Beautiful Ones, Do Me Baby, Shhh, She Loves me for me. Even previous outtakes like "Goodbye" are far more original that FSS.

I really like Goodbye too but I think when it comes to some of these ballads as we have heard so many over the years it is difficult to celebrate something new - he approaches them all in roughly the same way. I would suggest his best stuff in - the love song category - is where he does the whole bitter sweet stuff - I Know you Love me but I don't trust you anymore for example. Is that a ballad? Not sure but the big build of chorus and layers of schmalz? if thats a word do get predictable. I ramble.

Prince has been writing sultry ballads for over 30 years. Why compare to all the other ballads. There all masterpieces.........

dumbasses....another of his classic gospel ballads

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Roundtheworld said:

I really like Goodbye too but I think when it comes to some of these ballads as we have heard so many over the years it is difficult to celebrate something new - he approaches them all in roughly the same way. I would suggest his best stuff in - the love song category - is where he does the whole bitter sweet stuff - I Know you Love me but I don't trust you anymore for example. Is that a ballad? Not sure but the big build of chorus and layers of schmalz? if thats a word do get predictable. I ramble.

Prince has been writing sultry ballads for over 30 years. Why compare to all the other ballads. There all masterpieces.........

God loves an optimist

luvsexy4all said:

dumbasses....another of his classic gospel ballads

It's not a gospel song, though. LOL.

Spinlight said:

luvsexy4all said:

dumbasses....another of his classic gospel ballads

It's not a gospel song, though. LOL.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Roundtheworld said:

I really like Goodbye too but I think when it comes to some of these ballads as we have heard so many over the years it is difficult to celebrate something new - he approaches them all in roughly the same way. I would suggest his best stuff in - the love song category - is where he does the whole bitter sweet stuff - I Know you Love me but I don't trust you anymore for example. Is that a ballad? Not sure but the big build of chorus and layers of schmalz? if thats a word do get predictable. I ramble.

Prince has been writing sultry ballads for over 30 years. Why compare to all the other ballads. There all masterpieces.........

Sorry, but "The Arms Of Orion" is no masterpiece.

This song is peformed masterfully and its sound is undeniably nourishing.

Actually, this one grabbed me. I'm not as much of a slow songs person. But the overall vibe of it got me. I've had dreams before where music is involved in a very spiritual way and I wake up with a goosebumps feeling i can't explain and I thought the song did a good job of putting that kind of a feeling into words for me.

The melody is simple, the beat is simple but not too simple. It's just a nice song about what sounds like a heartfelt dream he had. I like it.

PurplePartyman said:

Actually, this one grabbed me. I'm not as much of a slow songs person. But the overall vibe of it got me. I've had dreams before where music is involved in a very spiritual way and I wake up with a goosebumps feeling i can't explain and I thought the song did a good job of putting that kind of a feeling into words for me.

The melody is simple, the beat is simple but not too simple. It's just a nice song about what sounds like a heartfelt dream he had. I like it.

U described that song perfectly............

Spinlight said:

luvsexy4all said:

dumbasses....another of his classic gospel ballads

It's not a gospel song, though. LOL.

and what would YOU classify a song "gospel" ?

theblueangel said:

I've seen so much love on here for this song and I just don't understand it. Of all the boring slow songs he's put out in the last decade, this to me is by far the snooziest.

Don't get me wrong - it's not god awful....but it's just uninteresting to the extreme.

I'm perplexed as to why people are calling this one a classic. Does anyone else agree with me? Or have I finally lost my admittedly tentative grasp on Prince fandom?

for me its not so much that it's boring, it sounds like fake sugar, like sweetner.

i find a lot of his recent output is laced with insincerity, or some kind of vain attempt at genuine beauty.

i'm sure he feels sincere when he's recording, but to my ear and heart, it doesnt come across that way.

the backing vocals in this track are obviously very very nice, but it doesnt sound genuine.

it's that subtle difference between real pure true genuine soul clarity, and a substitute.

typos

[Edited 8/3/10 5:19am]

PurplePartyman said:

Actually, this one grabbed me. I'm not as much of a slow songs person. But the overall vibe of it got me. I've had dreams before where music is involved in a very spiritual way and I wake up with a goosebumps feeling i can't explain and I thought the song did a good job of putting that kind of a feeling into words for me.

The melody is simple, the beat is simple but not too simple. It's just a nice song about what sounds like a heartfelt dream he had. I like it.

The song does it for me. The melody , the message, the vibe gave me that goosebumps feeling you mentioned.

I kinda like it...It feels good on the ears!

It's an inspirational song. It's not gospel in the technical sense though he does mention "Lord" near the end.