Exodus

After a disappointing turn out on GoldN***a, I wasn’t too sure what to expect with Exodus. So with a mix of anticipation and a feeling of impending disappointment I put the cd into the player. With the swirl of the whole SLAVE / / Tora Tora talk revolving around this release I think some of the music got lost in the hype / ridicule.

With the operator answering (Prince’s) call I immediately smiled. The way it’s set up as not being a Paisley Park and thus Warners release was a nice little dig. I also like how he sets up the future of the npg.

Get Wild pumps through the speakers launching a full aural assault. Rather than building the layers of instruments, GW just kicks from 10. Perfecting the party song by now, Prince allows the track to just create the vibe and lets the listener get lost in it. This track is so rich in its offering it’s almost like every listen offers something you missed last time. You can’t sit still to this one, you gotta shake yo moneymaker.

With a sigh a segue played through. Never a fan of them, I always felt they were becoming too much a part of the convention of making a record in the 90s.

At least in DJ gets Dumped – Dream Factory is playing the background.

New Power Soul once again revisits the musical stylings of madhouse under a new guise. A smooth jazzy fusion that brings together elements of other tracks on the album with Get Wild horn blast punctuating the track.

More segues more yawns.

I have to admit to falling in love with the guitar melody of Count The Days – a little reminiscent of Jesse Johnson’s “Just wanting you” – the song is the flip side of Tomorrow. Whilst Sonny is on lead vocals I think most of us hear Prince over him in the mix, and thankfully the beautifully layered backing vocals are lush and filled with classic prince phrasing. A highlight on the album, and you could easily see it on an “official” Prince / recording.

The Good Life is another strong party track. I remember fondly the remixes of this, and put various ones on all kinds of mix tapes at the time. With it’s optimistic title the melody is suitably bright and bounces along carrying the tales of a better way in the lyrics. A private highlight for me is the slide synth whhhheeeeer that punctuates the song. For some reason it hooks my ear.

Cherry, Cherry just sounds like all the bad Prince ballads crammed into one. It feels a little dated from the first note and overly plush in its arrangement and production. A little too saccharine.

Return of the Bump Squad is a superfunk jam reinterpretation of the P-funk stylings. With enough bounce in the groove to keep you dancing all night, the song’s 7:20 time seems to fly past without feeling like it’s dragging. I remember mixing this and Atomic Dog back in the day for the ultimate party jam.

Big Fun – a prelude to the whole New Power Soul album – is another cool funk jam. With a tight beat underpinning Prince’s falsetto vocals it’s a total trip. There’s also a subtle hint of Sex in the Summer in here as well. Another tight offering.

New Power Day – the latest take on Bob George – just minus the killer groove and humour.

Hallucination Rain – the kind of song that inspires you to light candles and listen to it in the dark… with its gradual wind up to the bombastic crescendo you kind of get the feeling that this is how sound check jams might have ended up playing out. Musically a trip.

Saving the best for last – The Exodus Has Begun – offers a glimpse to the freedom that would be felt in Emancipation. Where as some of Prince’s more epic tracks sometimes collapse under their own weight, TEHB managers to inspire, build and pack a punch without wavering for a moment. Built on the solid foundations of funk the song blends gospel themes in an infectious way that just fills you with hope and belief. Also a befitting “send off” to Prince.

A much stronger musical offering than its predecessor, Exodus renewed any wavering faith about what was to come. As mentioned in the intro – a lot of the overblown buzz about the name overshadowed the music and unfortunately with popular consensus being that Prince had “lost it” Exodus didn’t get the props it deserved.

Remove the unnecessary segues, and the awful Cherry Cherry, and you’re left with a solid 8 track album. Load it and enjoy.

Great album. the use of segues on Prince albums had reached beyond pointless with this album imo, but i always skip the majority of them out when i play this.

Get Wild is a great party like tune, Hallucination Rain is another highlight for me, i like most of the tracks on this album and the outtakes are brilliant and could easily have filled another album.

The best NPG album.

I thought I was listening to some Sly Stone Parliament hybrid album. This took me back to the days when I was a shorty listenin' to some P-Funk with my dad ...

5 star album ...

PurpleLove7 said:

I thought I was listening to some Sly Stone Parliament hybrid album. This took me back to the days when I was a shorty listenin' to some P-Funk with my dad ...

5 star album ...

Yes, Hallucination Rain, and particularly the outtake 11 min version is very Funkadelic (Maggot Brain) inspired.

Top stuff indeed.

Some really good funky tunes! This probably goes without saying, but I would have preferred Prince's vocals over Sonny T's. Same with Goldnigga and Tony M. When these songs were performed live, Prince always took over the vocals. Favorite now is Hallucination Rain, unreleased version even better!

I love this album, and I don't even mind not hearing Prince's voice clearly out front (it is in there on a lot of the songs, it's just way back in the mix of the background vocals). Agree about the seques. Agree about there being a really solid album in there minus a couple clunkers. Agree about the outtakes, or alternate version of the album, really, also being great. I also loved that for a good long while a lot of people had no clue this album existed, or just hadn't heard it. Felt like I was listening to a secret.

Cerebus said:

I love this album, and I don't even mind not hearing Prince's voice clearly out front (it is in there on a lot of the songs, it's just way back in the mix of the background vocals). Agree about the seques. Agree about there being a really solid album in there minus a couple clunkers. Agree about the outtakes, or alternate version of the album, really, also being great. I also loved that for a good long while a lot of people had no clue this album existed, or just hadn't heard it. Felt like I was listening to a secret.

That was part of the joy of being a P fan. Even sometimes the most hardcore fans might miss a release, leaving it sometimes cool to sit with someone and say "oh do you have this..." and have them counter with "no, but do you have this". I'm always on the lookout for something new, and this served me well when The Vault was released without any promotion... but that is a story to be told another day soon.

Lots of great material on this one. Get Wild should have been a major hit. Love Big Fun as well.

I this funky album,

I hate those seagues though, they are ruining "the flow" of this cd...

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[Edited 10/4/10 20:26pm]