What do you think about this CD? What are your favourite tracks from this CD and why?

Why has Prince never performed any of these tracks live and there was no music video to any of these tracks ?

I'm asking because songs from this album are simply unknown for casual listener.

[Edited 1/12/11 4:12am]

[Edited 1/12/11 4:14am]

Jodelle91 said:

What do you think about this CD? What are your favourite tracks from this CD and why?

whole things shit apart from its about that walk

Overall, I really enjoy listening to that album.
When The Lights Go Down is definitely one of my favorite tracks... ever.

On the other hand... there's 'My Little Pill'

[Edited 1/12/11 3:39am]

I really like this album, i think most of the songs are great apart from My Little Pill.

It is a bit of a mixed bag really, with most of the tracks being written and recorded at different points throughout his career.

This album was given to WB along with Chaos & Disorder to fulfil his contract, and i think that these two albums are among the strongest of the 90's.

I really like 5 Women, There Is Lonely, Old Friends 4 Sale and Extraordinary.

Great album.

[Edited 1/12/11 3:40am]

Caroke said:

'When The Lights Go Down' is definitely one of my favorite tracks... ever.

co-sign!

5 women, She Spoke 2 Me complete version, and There Is Lonley are pretty essential too

whereas, It's About That Walk, Optimus, is crap except for the horns... but the whole cd is just a very enjoyable listening experience

yeah, it's good. the better of the 2 Prince albums released in 1999. listening to this for a couple of months made Rave sound all the worse when it came out.

A great album. Miles above what he's doing now.

yep, surprisingly good and some killer trax on there. Especially adore 'when the lights go down' and '5 women'.

^Well, I wouldn't say 'surprisingly'. It was made up of old tracks from better creative periods. Nothing to do with the crap he was doing in 99.

Jodelle91 said:

Why has Prince never performed any of these tracks live and there was no music video to any of these tracks ?

Prince didn't promote the release at all since he wasn't with Warners at the time of it's release.

As 'The Digital Gardner' says above, the album was compiled and given to WB along with Chaos & Disorder as part of his severance from his contract. C&D was released at the time, Warners chose to release The Vault in 1999, and they also had the option to release a 'best of' compilation at some time in the future - which they did in 2001 with 'The Very Best Of'.

Both albums (C&D and The Vault) were delivered to Warners 'as is' - complete tracklist and artwork - Everything about these releases was down to Prince.

IIRC, Prince performed 'When The Lights Go Down' and 'She Spoke 2 Me' at the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival (?).

^^ Extraordinary was also played on the 2002 One Nite Alone tour.

I wasn't gonna say anything, but since ya asked ...

For me, it was probably the most disappointing Prince album I have ever heard - and I have heard them all and own almost all of them.

Not saying you won't enjoy it (I don't know your musical taste), but it is very VERY mellow. If you're more into the guitar rocking, funky sounding, asses wiggling faster paced Prince songs than you definitely won't like this album.

As for the basics, it's a compilation album that was released by Warner Brothers on their own. Prince wasn't involved, actually Arista released his Rave album at the same time.

It peaked at 85 on the charts, and they didn't bother to release any of the singles in the US or UK.

Pentacle said:

Caroke said:

'When The Lights Go Down' is definitely one of my favorite tracks... ever.

co-sign!

5 women, She Spoke 2 Me complete version, and There Is Lonley are pretty essential too

whereas, It's About That Walk, Optimus, is crap except for the horns... but the whole cd is just a very enjoyable listening experience

I guess people just like different things, because it's my favorite song on the album.

I quite like the album but it's certainly not something I would recommend as a first purchase. I think it makes a lot of sense to save it until you've heard all of Prince's "real" albums, at least the ones from the WB years. When it was first released I was a bit disappointed with it, especially the brevity, but I think it holds together surprisingly well as an album, especially for a collection of outtakes.

I think the title of the album may have been a small mistake. When I heard that a Prince album titled The Vault was being released I pictured it as a sequel to Crystal Ball. Naturally, I was a little disappointed when it turned out to be a single album that ran less than forty minutes.

"It's About That Walk," "Sarah" and "Extraordinary" are my favourite tracks but I dig the whole thing. One of these days I'll have to make a cd that collects this album and the "new" songs from The Hits/The B-Sides and Girl 6. I think that "Power Fantastic" and "Don't Talk 2 Strangers" would fit pretty seamlessly on The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale.

Pokeno4Money said:

As for the basics, it's a compilation album that was released by Warner Brothers on their own. Prince wasn't involved, actually Arista released his Rave album at the same time.

It peaked at 85 on the charts, and they didn't bother to release any of the singles in the US or UK.

This factually wrong, read my and The Digital Gardener's posts above.

They promo'd tracks to radio, but there wasn't much point in releasing singles from the album, giving that the artist would not promote them in any way - no TV, no video, nothing.

rialb said:

I quite like the album but it's certainly not something I would recommend as a first purchase. I think it makes a lot of sense to save it until you've heard all of Prince's "real" albums, at least the ones from the WB years. When it was first released I was a bit disappointed with it, especially the brevity, but I think it holds together surprisingly well as an album, especially for a collection of outtakes.

I think the title of the album may have been a small mistake. When I heard that a Prince album titled The Vault was being released I pictured it as a sequel to Crystal Ball. Naturally, I was a little disappointed when it turned out to be a single album that ran less than forty minutes.

"It's About That Walk," "Sarah" and "Extraordinary" are my favourite tracks but I dig the whole thing. One of these days I'll have to make a cd that collects this album and the "new" songs from The Hits/The B-Sides and Girl 6. I think that "Power Fantastic" and "Don't Talk 2 Strangers" would fit pretty seamlessly on The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale.

I always used to add "Don't Talk 2 Strangers" to the end of it it for my listening copy of the CD so that the song would have a home. and make it symmetrical with C&D, its sister release. yeah, I'm like that

NouveauDance said:

Pokeno4Money said:

As for the basics, it's a compilation album that was released by Warner Brothers on their own. Prince wasn't involved, actually Arista released his Rave album at the same time.

It peaked at 85 on the charts, and they didn't bother to release any of the singles in the US or UK.

This factually wrong, read my and The Digital Gardener's posts above.

They promo'd tracks to radio, but there wasn't much point in releasing singles from the album, giving that the artist would not promote them in any way - no TV, no video, nothing.

I don't understand, which part are you saying is not accurate? That Warner released the album - his final contractual recording commitment with them - on their own?

You agreed with me about the singles not being released, so it can't be that.

I like about 75% of the album so it's a for me..it's not for everyone but I enjoy jazz so I enjoyed this..Sarah,It's about that walk, 5 women, Extraordinary..all solid tracks IMO.

Not really. It was a total disappointment. With all the hype about it being vault tracks from as far back as 1984, I was expecting some cold hard JAMS. There wasn't a damn thing on it that sounded like Old Prince. Some of the stuff may have been simply written back then but it sure as hell doesn't sound like it was recorded back then.

I don't understand, which part are you saying is not accurate? That Warner released the album - his final contractual recording commitment with them - on their own?

You agreed with me about the singles not being released, so it can't be that.

Warners wasn't involved, you could say: Prince delivered the cd complete, "as is" - he was a 100% involved.

It's alright...nothing on there that impressed me too much though.

Pokeno4Money said:

NouveauDance said:

This factually wrong, read my and The Digital Gardener's posts above.

They promo'd tracks to radio, but there wasn't much point in releasing singles from the album, giving that the artist would not promote them in any way - no TV, no video, nothing.

I don't understand, which part are you saying is not accurate? That Warner released the album - his final contractual recording commitment with them - on their own?

You agreed with me about the singles not being released, so it can't be that.

The way it read, you seemed to imply that Prince had no input in the album, which he did. If that wasn't what you meant, then no worries

vainandy said:

Not really. It was a total disappointment. With all the hype about it being vault tracks from as far back as 1984, I was expecting some cold hard JAMS. There wasn't a damn thing on it that sounded like Old Prince. Some of the stuff may have been simply written back then but it sure as hell doesn't sound like it was recorded back then.

Yeah it's an album of filler. It's way short, and Prince probably just gave them his least-favorite tunes and said "There, an album." They used cover art from the wrong era, etc. and the cover design looks like a bootleg. Maybe that's what they were going for.

The songs aren't bad, but they're not what I'd call stellar. If there were like 5 really good songs on it, the album would be good and balance out these mediocre tunes.

My $0.02.

CHas

i just played it earlier,got a used copy at FYE dirt cheap and they are 100% guaranteed

i really dig 5 women+,there is lonely and old friends for sale...

great jazz vibe to it

NouveauDance said:

Pokeno4Money said:

I don't understand, which part are you saying is not accurate? That Warner released the album - his final contractual recording commitment with them - on their own?

You agreed with me about the singles not being released, so it can't be that.

The way it read, you seemed to imply that Prince had no input in the album, which he did. If that wasn't what you meant, then no worries

My bad, I was referring only to the actual release of the album. He surely was very involved in putting the album together

He basically told Warner "Here it is, I'm out."

this is a really good record. well worth getting if you can. holds up much better than a lot of his output after wb. and i love the tape cover. colorful and full of attitude. still have this one while numerous others such as emancipation rave rainbow musicology 3121 npgmc all have come and GONE thru my collection as they are mostly unlistenable. vault holds up the way o(+> holds up .. a few annoying quirks but mostly really strong material.

yes

It's waste matter

I love it. 5 women is one of my all time favourite songs.

I like it. It has a very sort of jazzy sound to it. She Spoke to Me and Its About That Walk both stand out. It had a really different sound than the rest of his music.