GREAT ALBUM!

ONE OF PRINCE'S TOP 5

Is this acid-jazz, jazz-rock, wellness-pop, funk-rock or just PRINCE?

I love, love, love that album.

Genesia said:

I love, love, love that album.

Your little emoticon on the thread title threw me! I was all ready to start defending it!

I find it so relaxing...

One of my absolute favs too

imo, its his best album, for super special secret reasons to do with perfect harmlessness.

I FUCKIN ADORE THAT ALBUM.

...pain in the neck

I'd rather listen to silence, or even a Genesis album...

when it came out, I thought that Prince had finally lost it, I even stopped being a fan for some months...until Musicology came out...

[Edited 11/22/10 13:33pm]

I really dislike N.E.W.S. too.... BORING.....

Great album

I have never heard it. I saw it in stores once but I was not digging anything he had put out in a while when this dropped. You guys are getting me interested in hearing it now

...nother throwaway album that he cared about for as long as it took for it to be recorded.

It's interesting to see the different reactions to it.

Evidently there's something special in the mix in N.E.W.S. and either you feel it or you don't.

If you don't feel anything, you're apparently left with a boring album.

But if you do feel these tracks...well...

WetDream said:

FANTASTIC album.

I also love the NEWS album. Its Funky low keyed jazz fusion. I can hear Prince's guitar all it. It has it's own groove. It's mellow and wild at the same time and each song features a sound from other parts of th world .I really Dig it when I just want to be quiet and think but still be grooved8-)

WetDream said:

FANTASTIC album.

It's slow boning music. Keeps them pussayes wet.

panchopistolas said:

GREAT ALBUM!

ONE OF PRINCE'S TOP 5

Is this acid-jazz, jazz-rock, wellness-pop, funk-rock or just PRINCE?

Like MissDeeDeeDee said, jazz fusion.

I love parts of it, never listen to other parts. As much as I'd like to, I can't listen to it all the way through. If for not other reason that the fact that the long near silent parts used to stretch a couple songs to 14 minutes annoy the ever lovin' crap outta me. Don't like a lot of East, tolerate most of North and South, the first four minutes of West is one of the most achingly beautiful pieces of music Prince has ever recorded.

Also, I don't know about Prince moving on quickly from this album. It was pushed and discussed at the NPGMC quite a bit. And the NPGMC soundcheck jams from 2001-2004 are closely related to this project.

I think N.E.W.S. is very sensual, very groovy, and rich with texture. I think it goes very deep. I was listening to it just about a week ago, in a playlist I have set on random play with some other similar grooves. One of my favorite Prince projects.

N.E.W.S. is a reference album when it comes to "organic" live recording and sound quality. I consider N.E.W.S. as the only audiophile Prince record - just listen to it on a very good sound system, you’ll be blown away. Superb recording, amazing interaction between real musicians, very high coherence and no compression (unlike Lotusflowers)… N.E.W.S. has it all. From my point of view, that alone proves that a lot of heart was put into this record.

Also, it marks the end of the 2000-2003 period where Prince once again came up with innovative music (TRC / ONA / Xpectation / C-NOTE) and an amazing tour. After the grim late 90's, it seems that he found back his love for music around this period. To me, N.E.W.S is a successful attempt at delivering something really unexpected in a very consistent way (unlike other experiments such as Kamasutra, The Truth or the official Aftershow CDs that never quite nailed it). Love it or hate it, but N.E.W.S. deserves recognition.

Wincent22 said:

N.E.W.S. is a reference album when it comes to "organic" live recording and sound quality. I consider N.E.W.S. as the only audiophile Prince record - just listen to it on a very good sound system, you’ll be blown away. Superb recording, amazing interaction between real musicians, very high coherence and no compression (unlike Lotusflowers)… N.E.W.S. has it all. From my point of view, that alone proves that a lot of heart was put into this record.

Also, it marks the end of the 2000-2003 period where Prince once again came up with innovative music (TRC / ONA / Xpectation / C-NOTE) and an amazing tour. After the grim late 90's, it seems that he found back his love for music around this period. To me, N.E.W.S is a successful attempt at delivering something really unexpected in a very consistent way (unlike other experiments such as Kamasutra, The Truth or the official Aftershow CDs that never quite nailed it). Love it or hate it, but N.E.W.S. deserves recognition.

You had me until you mention The Truth, which I think hits the nail on the head for what it should be.

The only thing on this album that doesn't work for me is the 4x14' format.

The rest is ok.

Spinlight said:

Wincent22 said:

N.E.W.S. is a reference album when it comes to "organic" live recording and sound quality. I consider N.E.W.S. as the only audiophile Prince record - just listen to it on a very good sound system, you’ll be blown away. Superb recording, amazing interaction between real musicians, very high coherence and no compression (unlike Lotusflowers)… N.E.W.S. has it all. From my point of view, that alone proves that a lot of heart was put into this record.

Also, it marks the end of the 2000-2003 period where Prince once again came up with innovative music (TRC / ONA / Xpectation / C-NOTE) and an amazing tour. After the grim late 90's, it seems that he found back his love for music around this period. To me, N.E.W.S is a successful attempt at delivering something really unexpected in a very consistent way (unlike other experiments such as Kamasutra, The Truth or the official Aftershow CDs that never quite nailed it). Love it or hate it, but N.E.W.S. deserves recognition.

You had me until you mention The Truth, which I think hits the nail on the head for what it should be.

Don't get me wrong: I love the Truth and certain tracks are pure genius (Don't Play Me), but I never thought that it was consistent in terms of track selection and production. It feels very raw to me, like a demo. Whereas many Prince albums feel overproduced, The Truth definitely felt "underproduced" (and this apply to the official aftershows in a different category): the raw goods were certainly there, but work wasn't quite finished.

Great album, get regular spins from me.

^I don't think they were 'restricted', but 'extended' to the 14min thing. Especially 'North'. I didn't need any wind to reach the 14' mark.

I don't think the tracks were "extended" or "restricted" to 14 minutes. I think that there are more than 4 songs @ 14 minutes each on this album and that they were grouped together (and padded out) and combined into 4 tracks of exactly the same length.

the 4 X 14 thing is completely arbitrary. each of the 4 tracks is multiple songs with the indexing removed.

the album itself is pleasant enough and a very nice effort from him, but nothing particularly special in its own right or in his canon.

What a difference in the popularity this CD has gained in the absence of one person running around telling everyone it's crap, while at the same time daring anyone to say they like it, at the risk of being thoroughly roasted, lol.

errant said:

I don't think the tracks were "extended" or "restricted" to 14 minutes. I think that there are more than 4 songs @ 14 minutes each on this album and that they were grouped together (and padded out) and combined into 4 tracks of exactly the same length.

the 4 X 14 thing is completely arbitrary. each of the 4 tracks is multiple songs with the indexing removed.

That's where I was coming from. I think the album would benefit a lot from the different musical ideas explained in it being split into separate tracks. After that, maybe the icing on the cake would be crediting it to Madhouse.

Mong said:

It's slow boning music. Keeps them pussayes wet.

Oh god, the fun I've had to this album!