All of us know that Prince's music has evolved throughout his career. Just try imagining a sequence of Prince's albums removing one out of every two albums. Could he have gone from For You to Dirty Mind? 1999 to Around the World in a Day?

That said, what do you imagine Prince's next musical tones will be? He has been working the jazz/fusion thing for awhile now, so my guess is that he will soon have a new character to his music. Any ideas as to what it will be?

Whatever it is, I will be sure to tune in.

two blocks west, then he gonna hang a left at the next stoplight...then another couple blocks till he gets 2...

...wait

I think Prince's evolution is what keeps people interested in the first place. "1999" wouldn't be "1999" if every album that followed it carried its style. Each album stands alone for what it is and therefore they all stand on their own for what they represent. I'm glad that Prince is a chameleon.

To the Grammy's tonight for a good laugh!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Moonbeam said:

chameleonism is a wonderful thing, indeed. that's one of the reasons why i dig p.

Moonbeam said:

Me too, that's why his music keeps being interesting, even when it is of mediocre quality. Because he is a camelon it is hard to say what nex... but since he delved into jazz I expect he is going along with it, while trying to mix it more with his pop, rock, soul and funk sound... But I could be wrong.

I think there are 2 main reason he's on a jazz fusion trip at the moment.

1: He's getting older, and doesn't wanna go leaping around the stage to Little Red Corvette no more. He wants a musical form that more closely represents his current mature mindset.

2. He's really into 'musicianship' over gimmicks or current trends in music, and leaning towards jazz enables him to do this.

So I don't think there will be a radical change in direction any time soon. But I wouldn't be surprised to see that enthusiasm for musicianship and a 'real band' feel filtering back into a more direct 'rock' & 'funk' vibe.

I would like to see another healthy batch of instrumental albums in the same vein as Xpectation and Madhouse.

I would also like to see a heavy guitar album a la The Undertaker with his current band.

And lastly, I would love to have a new solo Prince album that's highly electronic like 1999, Camille and Batman were only with an updated sound.

But who knows what he'll do.

I expect his next 'proper' release will be a diverse collection of songs, played with a definite 'live band' feel. There will be no studio trickery involved, and the whole album will feel more like the timeless classic albums of the 60's & 70's. A kinda cross between Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life, Led Zeppelin's 'IV', Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland and Sly & The Family Stone's There's A Riot Going On. The Jazz fusion vibe will still be evident on a lot of songs, but the rock songs will 'Rock' and the funk jams will 'Funk'.

BorisFishpaw said:

yummm...

I feel that he was only getting started with the new "jazz" sound on The Rainbow Children, One Nite Alone, and Xpectation.

I think that he'll be experimenting with this new instrumental sound for at least 2 more albums -- probably heading more toward a "Santana" sound on the next one. I see the lyrics of the next album being more "traditional" and less religious.

Hopefully he's exhausted the electronic sound (Emancipation, Rave) for a while. I love it, but I also love what he's doing now.

well, if the next record really is going to be called 'Two Thousand Free', I suspect we're in for another round of cliches and tedious "jazz"

the guy just can't shake it

I hope he never gets too mature for R&B and funk.