Truth444 said:

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.

Well said, the keep Prince in a box marked 1980's music guru's are so past caring about new music from Prince i fail to see why they even act like they like stuff post 1995 .... the teenage dream is over Prince is 52!

MikeyB71 said:

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 "

20Ten is holding up pretty well for me. I enjoy it quite a bit. I played some of the tracks for the first time in weeks recently and I definitely liked them. I think it's an album that will continue to grow with me in time.

Lotusflow3r has done that. I liked it when it came out, but now I'm a huge fan of that record.

Planet Earth, the opposite... i view it more harshly now then at the time of its release.

NoVideo said:

20Ten is holding up pretty well for me. I enjoy it quite a bit. I played some of the tracks for the first time in weeks recently and I definitely liked them. I think it's an album that will continue to grow with me in time.

Lotusflow3r has done that. I liked it when it came out, but now I'm a huge fan of that record.

Planet Earth, the opposite... i view it more harshly now then at the time of its release.

I feel the same about each album

ick...

leadline said:

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

WOW. To me, most of his work since 1996 sounds the same.... bland.

With the exception of The Rainbow Children (which sounded different, but I didn't enjoy it), his post Warners releases have contained more misses than hits.

I know, I know, Prince would say "I'm #1 with the bank". That's great, but I am not listening to your music to make your banker feel better, I am listening to it to make me feel better, and usually, I find it forgettable instead.

Then again, I am just his target audience...

Tremolina said:

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]

Completely agree.

There is no wow factor, there is nothing special about it. None of the fresh faced innovation. No wit or charm. No meat to chew on. Nothing on it that doesn't seem carelessly thrown together.

To me it has no artistic appeal, but more like just assembly line produce going through the motions licking the stamps and mailing it in.

Not terrible, but just a hack job.

If this is a return to form, I think he should return the form. This is not from the same mold as his seminal works. Not even close.

[Edited 10/20/10 1:19am]

Tremolina said:

My opinion:

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.

I could not agree with you more. For me, any claims that this a 'return to form' is a desperate attempt to cling on to something that is becoming obvious is no longer attainable.

I've been following his music for 23 years now, and i cannot remember an album that i enjoyed less.

Fair play to him - he's now 52, he's achieved so much in his career, but unfortunately it does look now that he's no longer willing to push himself.

Many Prince fans can not keep up with his genius. I'm quite sure that if anyone here who plays music or sings came up with any of the songs on this cd, they would keep a shitty grin on their faces like they saw the burning bush! LOL...

All the critiques love U on the org!

boscho said:

Tremolina said:

My opinion:

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.

I could not agree with you more. For me, any claims that this a 'return to form' is a desperate attempt to cling on to something that is becoming obvious is no longer attainable.

I've been following his music for 23 years now, and i cannot remember an album that i enjoyed less.

Fair play to him - he's now 52, he's achieved so much in his career, but unfortunately it does look now that he's no longer willing to push himself.

Yes fair play to him. He has made so much music that he can do whatever he pleases now.

But does this album please him? I really doubt it. He doesn't play any of his new songs live.

And I can't help but think that if he would listen to 1999 and then 20ten, that back then he used to really tear the drum machine up on strong groundbreaking songs like Let's pretend were married, When Doves Cry or Erotic City, where the killer beat almost made the entire song, but that it now plays a modest role on more bland songs like Compassion and Beginning Endlessly.

I do think however that he is still willing to push himself, but that he doesn't know HOW exactly to do that anymore.

Maybe a good start would be to take some more time producing new songs and drop them when he finds them not too exciting himself either. Keep on digging untill something comes up that sounds new.

--

[Edited 10/20/10 6:54am]

Prince is now the Billy Joel of funk.

MikeyB71 said:

Prince is now the Billy Joel of funk.

Except BJ's music is still kinda listenable.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

MikeyB71 said:

Prince is now the Billy Joel of funk.

Except BJ's music is still kinda listenable.

"Who needs enemies when U got orgers as friends?" LOL

Reading the comments people make about how God awful Prince is now makes one wonder how much they would still pee all over themselves if he walked up to their front door. All the usual suspects here who claim the rest of us are stuck up his butt would be the first in line!

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

MikeyB71 said:

Prince is now the Billy Joel of funk.

Except BJ's music is still kinda listenable.

Which recent album of his did you find ´kinda listenable` ?

rwn said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Except BJ's music is still kinda listenable.

Which recent album of his did you find ´kinda listenable` ?

Anybody who says that should have their funk pass revoked...IMMEDIATLEY!

Ugot2shakesumthin

MikeyB71

Passes please:

[img:$uid]http://www.pennsylvaniatrustsandestates.com/tearing%20paper.JPG[/img:$uid]

jilljones said:

Tremolina said:

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

Really, IMO, this whole discussion just goes to show how difficult it is these days for Prince to craft an album that would please the majority of his fans. His fan base surely spans such a broad slice of music listeners/appreciators/celebrity followers that at this point in his career it is unlikely he could satisfy everybody with just one release. Prince has been in this business for 30+ yrs and gone through numerous musical phases himself, while musical/social trends have also moved around him. Recent albums surely show he's tried hard to strike a balance between releasing music that speaks to his core following and also remaining somewhat relevant to the evolving sounds within the larger music culture. I can imagine this is a real mindf**k for him; I mean, who really are his core fans?? Those that were with him from the beginning? That is, those that dug "Soft and Wet" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover" pop/r&b Prince? Well some of those folk probably dropped off when he went new wave/punk on "Dirty Mind" and "Controversy". Or are the core fans those who remained huge fans even after his peak popularity years, ala "Purple Rain" through "Lovesexy"? ETC ETC...If his goal in making albums at this point is in part to please his fans it seems to me he's got a tough row to till.

As someone alluded to earlier in this discussion, early in his career Prince made it a stated point to make all his albums sound different. A great example is the years 82-87/88 when he used the Linn as his main drum machine/predominant sound. Yet on each of those albums, he made the Linn sound a little bit - - or alot - - different. After a long period where he didn't use Linn sounds, the past few albums Prince has again begun featuring that sound in his music. I, for one, think it's telling that the Linn sounds he's been using are by and large from the SOTT era. I mean if he were really interested in going 'retro' why not use the PR era tunings (ala Justin Timberlake/Timbaland)? Or is the reason b/c d**n near every time he's put out a record in the last 15 yrs or so people/critics compare it to SOTT?? No way of course to know for sure if such criticism affects Prince to any such a degree (maybe subconsciously??).

For whatever it's worth, I fall into the camp that thinks 20TEN is Prince's most cohesive, satisfying record in many, many years. For me it's his best album since Emancipation. I like the simple, uncluttered approach to the production on most tracks, which for me is the common theme running through much of Prince's best work. I love the retro rhythm guitar throughout much of 20TEN. I dig the multi tracked falsetto (doubled lead vocals ala Mountains); to me the spartan manner in which Prince has mixed his vocals in the past 10-15 yrs has been a real drag.

I personally think it's an amazing legacy for Prince to illicit such strong responses on his music this many yrs into his career. I hope he keeps reaching to satisfy his own inner voice and not mine. But I recognize it must be tough for him to do so, especially at this point when he's got fewer fans and the music business is so s***y all around. This is a business and he ain't too far gone to see that yet...

You are absolutely right that it's impossible to please all his fans. That's why he shouldn't even be tyhinking about that when he is making new music. He should just listen to what his musical heart/intuition/talent/muse tells him. Not to MTV or the radio with the latest popular shit. Not to what anybdoy else is doing and certainly not to what his fans want since it is IMPOSSIBLE to please them all so its senseless to even try and please them.

But my argument is not so much about the style of music on 20ten as is about its quality. Lotusflower (disc 1) does not touch my soul like his older music does, but I can recognize he put some real effort and some true musicianship in that record. The compositions of most of the songs are also superior to most on 20ten.

Honestly 20ten defintely does have some of the elements of the old Prince with the lynn sounds and the funky rythm guitar. But when he finally returns to using those elements that made him the Prince he was back in the day, I really feel he should do it with great dedication. Do it properly, be creative and energetic and use it on very good songs. I am defintely not hearing a similar soul, creativity and energy like he showed on LCD or LPWM for example. Yes the lynn is cool to hear again but it sounds bland. He really should tear it up like he did on WDC and EC. It doesn't work on the background of kind of bland pop/soul/rock and roll type of songs like Compassion.

Yes, just the synths, a beat and a guitar is all that he needed to make "Purple music", but Purple music used to explore unexplored territory, dip into the margins of funk, where you could say: yeah now that is Prince. The "Puple Yoda" honestly still has it in him when he lays down a beat like on Layitdown, but then he choses to sound more like a contemporary rapper that has found renewed intyerest in the Prince of way back and decided to pay a tribute, instead of Prince.

Ultimately to each his own, but how Everybody loves me could ever be seen as a tribute to his former music or real quality music and not as something that should have never been released on a Prince album, is beyond me.

Tremolina said:

You are absolutely right that it's impossible to please all his fans. That's why he shouldn't even be tyhinking about that when he is making new music.

Exactly... Prince wasn't blatantly trying to please fans when he made albums like ATWIAD or LoveSexy. The idea that what fans "want" should even come into it is just a wee bit silly.

Unless of course, Prince's only goal at this point in his career is simply to milk the same people over and over again.

Ultimately to each his own, but how Everybody loves me could ever be seen as a tribute to his former music or real quality music and not as something that should have never been released on a Prince album, is beyond me.

I, honestly, think that if this song was on Dirty Mind and the lyrics involved jacking someone off in a car boot that people would be all over themselves defending it.

jtfolden said:

Tremolina said:

You are absolutely right that it's impossible to please all his fans. That's why he shouldn't even be tyhinking about that when he is making new music.

Exactly... Prince wasn't blatantly trying to please fans when he made albums like ATWIAD or LoveSexy. The idea that what fans "want" should even come into it is just a wee bit silly.

Unless of course, Prince's only goal at this point in his career is simply to milk the same people over and over again.

Ultimately to each his own, but how Everybody loves me could ever be seen as a tribute to his former music or real quality music and not as something that should have never been released on a Prince album, is beyond me.

I, honestly, think that if this song was on Dirty Mind and the lyrics involved jacking someone off in a car boot that people would be all over themselves defending it.

^ well that may well be the case, but we wouldn't be talking about the same song, would we? Different lyrics changes the whole feel of a song.

If this album had been released in 1998, during the years, it wouldn't have been a hit, but now it would be considered as the best thing he did after TGE...

ignore the radicals, ignore the jaded...

paisleypark4 said:

rwn said:

Which recent album of his did you find ´kinda listenable` ?

Anybody who says that should have their funk pass revoked...IMMEDIATLEY!

Ugot2shakesumthin

MikeyB71

Passes please:

[img:$uid]http://www.pennsylvaniatrustsandestates.com/tearing%20paper.JPG[/img:$uid]

Whatever you say.........not.

Nope. Pale imitation at best. Lame songwriting inept handling of sound. He needs some other ears.

Agree with the below. I don't like 20TEN anywhere near as much as Emancipation but it's certainly my favourite album of his since it came out.

jilljones said:

For whatever it's worth, I fall into the camp that thinks 20TEN is Prince's most cohesive, satisfying record in many, many years. For me it's his best album since Emancipation.

Perhaps we should have a poll:

how many fans who got into him in the 80's who like 20Ten, and how many fans who got into him in the 90's/00's who like 20Ten.

Not trying to create any factions, just interested in what be the result of such a poll.

paisleypark4 said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Except BJ's music is still kinda listenable.

Gtfohwtbs

MikeyB71 said:

paisleypark4 said:

MikeyB71 said:

Whatever you say.........not.

We here at the New Funk Order will dispute your claim and you should receive a statement in sixty to ninety days..if you still claim your statement was valid after this time your pass will still be seen as revoked until further notice. We suggest listening to more funk and review your claim as processed.

Wow! Someone even crazier than i am. New Funk Order? Sounds like a cult, i don't do what brain washed cult members tell me.

MikeyB71 said:

paisleypark4 said:

MikeyB71 said: We here at the New Funk Order will dispute your claim and you should receive a statement in sixty to ninety days..if you still claim your statement was valid after this time your pass will still be seen as revoked until further notice. We suggest listening to more funk and review your claim as processed.

Wow! Someone even crazier than i am. New Funk Order? Sounds like a cult, i don't do what brain washed cult members tell me.

http://newfunkorder.com/Home.html (you missed the whole orgers to new funk order reign). And while I'm just playing with you your funk pass has still been universally revoked...Billy Joel is more listenable than Sticky Like Glue, or Dance With Me or Get ON The Boat, Black Sweat..please, REVOKED.

[img:$uid]http://www.wallpaperama.com/post-images/forums/200904/06p-7301-sec-error-revoked-certificate.gif[/img:$uid]