Prince is a perfectionist, one thing he has done with all his albums, at times to a fault, is to go completely out of his way to make each album sound different than the next, to the point of paranoia at times. it's my opinion that in his mind repeating himself is a loss of creativity. Eventually there has to be a breaking point where you just have to repeat yourself. For most artists, that is pretty much every single album regardless of how much they try not to, for Prince, it's been what, decades for the most part? With a few exceptions of course here and there.

20TEN to me is the most Prince sounding record in a long long time, in order to accomplish this I truly feel he resigned to the fact that it is ok to repeat yourself, especially if the quality is high. I listen to this album, I hear the controversy, dirty mind, 1999 and purple rain albums all meshed into one. He whipped out the old sounds for this one and stayed true to the Minneapolis sound. One of my favorite records of his in years.

peace

leadline

Pro Tools.

I respectfully disagree.

NouveauDance said:

Well, the first half is solid, I guess.

i kind of like the sticky/lavaux/act of god section.

If I just ignore some of the lyrics, I can get into it.

Future Soul Song's pretty. Again, i try not to listen to lyrics.

I'm still waiting on the return to form, but i respect that you guys like stuff I don't.

I can't really agree.

20Ten may be the album that sounds "most" like his popular material but he's been going back to that well since Musicology (and really, partly, Rave). Where he used to look forward and try new things on record, now he seems to be looking back.

That's not to say I haven't enjoyed the music, and I really prefer MPLSoUND over 20Ten, but he's been repeating himself for a while.

20ten is solid, not spectacular. The thing that most people dont realise is that there is a certain limit to anyones creativity, including prince. Eventually you just run out of ideas. Prince's level of creativity between 1980-1988 was outrageous and its virtually impossible that he can repeat that. He still makes some songs which i like but expecting him to put out another album as good as dirty mind, 1999, Purple rain or sign of the times is unrealistic

There are a couple decent songs on it. The rest is blah.

leadline said:

Prince is a perfectionist, one thing he has done is to go completely out of his way to make each album sound different than the next,

I have trouble agreeing with this statement.

herrherr said:

Well, the first half is solid, I guess.

Yeah, and I can even tolerate the rest, but as much as I could try to rationalize Everybody Loves Me I just have to scratch my head and wonder how someone, ANYONE, could put that piece of crap on an album. This is the same guy that closed with Purple Rain.

Not only is it a silly song, which I could possibly forgive, but the vocal sounds are harsh and unpleasant.

I guess this is also the guy who closed with Graffiti Bridge. Prince lately seems to be the near miss artist. He gets close to doing a good or even great album, but there are moments where he is either clearly out of touch or playing a huge joke on us. Either way, it's hard to tolerate.

Mintchip said:

i kind of like the sticky/lavaux/act of god section.

If I just ignore some of the lyrics, I can get into it.

Future Soul Song's pretty. Again, i try not to listen to lyrics.

I'm still waiting on the return to form, but i respect that you guys like stuff I don't.

Those are the only 4 songs on the album I listen to. Just cannot get into the second half of the album.....

Mintchip said:

Future Soul Song's pretty. Again, i try not to listen to lyrics.

yeah if I listen to the lyrics I can't take it. But it is pretty

NDRU said:

Mintchip said:

Future Soul Song's pretty. Again, i try not to listen to lyrics.

yeah if I listen to the lyrics I can't take it. But it is pretty

You guys seem to think like me.
I want him to suceed too.
I try to brush off my general disappointment. I also find the first half quite good, but also Walk in the sand.

The last three songs are really poor.

And Cause & effect, hot summer, rich friends What I think of as the bonus tracks aren't much cop either

thedoorkeeper said:

leadline said:

Prince is a perfectionist, one thing he has done is to go completely out of his way to make each album sound different than the next,

I have trouble agreeing with this statement.

ditto

leadline said:

I listen to this album, I hear the controversy, dirty mind, 1999 and purple rain albums all meshed into one. He whipped out the old sounds for this one and stayed true to the Minneapolis sound.

You have a vivid imagination.

My opinion:

While Lotusflower (disc 1) did not really grab me, that is a solid album with several good songs and performances, making it much better than this one.

20ten contains maybe a couple of decent songs/compositions (FSS, SLG and AOG) but they sure are not "great". Some compositions are mwha, alright (Compassion, WIS) and some are really bad (BE, SEO), with Everybody loves me as the most incredible turd he has ever written.

The performance on 20ten is perhabs the worst I have heard him do in a long time. First, in my ears it lacks soul, real raw emotion. Even NPS has more soul. The singing is nothing spectacular and many of the synth sounds are bland, singular and boring. The last song layitdown has a strong beat, but ends where it gets interesting and the rapping is extremely cringeworty. The lynn sounds he uses are almost an insult to his former work with that drum machine. I don't get it.

The guitar is sometimes funky like he was on LadyCabDriver, I will give this album that. But that makes it even harder to listen to. Because when he finally decides to pick up the funky rythm guitar like only Prince can do it, he does it on a bland album like this. It just sounds wrong that way.

As for the lyrics, I have no issues or anything with those, but on the other hand his lyrics are hard to have any issue with, because they seem so empty and meaningless. It's like he doesn't know what to write about anymore or he has a little idea, scribbles some incorrect thought down (like calling a house auction an act of god) and that's that. Not really a lot of thought going in it. I know Prince always wants to say some stuff, but it's like he can't get it out the way he would want to anymore....

In the end, I am pretty sure it didn't cost him more than a week maybe two to produce this.

--

[Edited 10/19/10 12:13pm]

Ha! not even P. can get away with anything.

Efan said:

There are a couple decent songs on it. The rest is blah.

Here we go again ..... a couple of good songs......give it 2 years it will end up being 4 then 5 etc... why Prince fans play this game i don't know?

The CD's good relax people it's ok to like Prince music post 1980's output ! ...

lotusflow3r title disc was a return to form... Solid songs like, Colonized mind, $, wall of berlin, boom, and of course Dreamer were some of his best throughout his career.

Free Product + Half the effort = 20TEN

Dreamer2 said:

Efan said:

There are a couple decent songs on it. The rest is blah.

Here we go again ..... a couple of good songs......give it 2 years it will end up being 4 then 5 etc... why Prince fans play this game i don't know?

The CD's good relax people it's ok to like Prince music post 1980's output ! ...

Who said anything about post-'80s output? Stop making stuff up just to suit a silly notion.

This will NOT be a 4- or 5-star album for me ever. Most of the music on 20ten would be better suited to an extended MaxiPad commercial, and the best song on the album is an uncredited Pointer Sisters remake. It's maybe worthy of 2 stars on a good day.

Dreamer2 said:

Efan said:

There are a couple decent songs on it. The rest is blah.

Here we go again ..... a couple of good songs......give it 2 years it will end up being 4 then 5 etc... why Prince fans play this game i don't know?

The CD's good relax people it's ok to like Prince music post 1980's output ! ...

I love 90% of P's recent work. 20Ten just happens to fall in the 10% that I don't really like. That doesn't mean that I won't stop liking him or buying his work.

20TEN is good for those:

- who do not like the stuff that prince has made after 1992.

- who name "Purple Rain" as the only Prince LP they ever liked.

- who dig all Prince stuff from 1978-1995, then liked NewPowerSoul,

Musicology and a little bit of 3121 and that was it.

- who are addicted to the eras 1982-1987 and won't accept

anything that sounds different from what he did back then.

His trademark sounds are the linn drum sounds and the heavy

funky synths, and all these you can hear on 20TEN. 20TEN isn't

the old prince, 20TEN is the Prince that you want him to be. That

WE want him to be, cus I'm one of those.

Face it people, you just love 20TEN because it sounds so retro.

It's the album you all have been waiting for these years. The

good ol' 1999/Purple Rain Prince..

I'd really like to be like most of you and keep on enjoying Prince's recent output.

But... what can I do if I have a really good taste for music?

vitriol said:

I'd really like to be like most of you and keep on enjoying Prince's recent output.

But... what can I do if I have a really good taste for music?

Well, for those of us who do have good taste in music, we know this cd is rocking. For those who claim this is not a good record and believe that they have good taste............ perhaps they should go back to their Beiber collection.

sugartuff said:

Face it people, you just love 20TEN because it sounds so retro.

It's the album you all have been waiting for these years. The

good ol' 1999/Purple Rain Prince..

No it's not. Not even close. And I am a 'retro' fan.

sugartuff said:

20TEN is good for those:

- who do not like the stuff that prince has made after 1992.

- who name "Purple Rain" as the only Prince LP they ever liked.

- who dig all Prince stuff from 1978-1995, then liked NewPowerSoul,

Musicology and a little bit of 3121 and that was it.

- who are addicted to the eras 1982-1987 and won't accept

anything that sounds different from what he did back then.

His trademark sounds are the linn drum sounds and the heavy

funky synths, and all these you can hear on 20TEN. 20TEN isn't

the old prince, 20TEN is the Prince that you want him to be. That

WE want him to be, cus I'm one of those.

Face it people, you just love 20TEN because it sounds so retro.

It's the album you all have been waiting for these years. The

good ol' 1999/Purple Rain Prince..

You forgot to mention the panty wetters, who claim that they are OBSESSED with Prince, but in reality are only obsessed with how Prince looks. The music just happens to be the soundtrack to their wank fantasies.

If Prince were to record the sound of him shitting into a bucket, and release it as an album, they would love that too.

" OMG!!! OMG!!! Princey....your ass just sounds soooooooooooooooooooooo sexy "

If by "retro" you folks mean "1998", then sure, 20Ten is the supremo RETRO PRINCE ALBUM!

Efan said:

Dreamer2 said:

Here we go again ..... a couple of good songs......give it 2 years it will end up being 4 then 5 etc... why Prince fans play this game i don't know?

The CD's good relax people it's ok to like Prince music post 1980's output ! ...

Who said anything about post-'80s output? Stop making stuff up just to suit a silly notion.

This will NOT be a 4- or 5-star album for me ever. Most of the music on 20ten would be better suited to an extended MaxiPad commercial, and the best song on the album is an uncredited Pointer Sisters remake. It's maybe worthy of 2 stars on a good day.

Here we go NME readers, U2, Madonna fans on the org ... rating Prince's 20Ten CD ..... give it a few years and everyone will be saying how much they like it .... same thing happend with LotusFlow3r ....

Pointer Sisters link is so weak ..... Just goes to show you have not played the CD or your download copy got corrupted !

sugartuff said:

20TEN is good for those:

- who are addicted to the eras 1982-1987 and won't accept

anything that sounds different from what he did back then.

His trademark sounds are the linn drum sounds and the heavy

funky synths, and all these you can hear on 20TEN. 20TEN isn't

the old prince, 20TEN is the Prince that you want him to be. That

WE want him to be, cus I'm one of those.

Face it people, you just love 20TEN because it sounds so retro.

It's the album you all have been waiting for these years. The

good ol' 1999/Purple Rain Prince..

I like 1999 in spite of how it sounds. That he now uses the same awful sounds, but with, at best, mediocre songs makes for some pretty forgettable music. Although, I have to say, 2010 at least doesn't sound so forced, it's actually listenable in the background.