Ugh, not sure why my replies get formatted so horrifically sometimes, but here's my response buried above:I think his point is that the way he prefers is the way *most* fans prefer. Most fans want an album with at least a bit of focus and push. I prefer physical product, but I'd take something like The Slaughterhouse at this point. Just something that collects it all and says, "Here's an album. Enjoy."If you want to say that doesn't matter to you, that's okay. But you are clearly in the minority.

manci said:

Ugh, not sure why my replies get formatted so horrifically sometimes, but here's my response buried above:I think his point is that the way he prefers is the way *most* fans prefer. Most fans want an album with at least a bit of focus and push. I prefer physical product, but I'd take something like The Slaughterhouse at this point. Just something that collects it all and says, "Here's an album. Enjoy."If you want to say that doesn't matter to you, that's okay. But you are clearly in the minority.

You seem to think the issue is whether or not digital downloads or "traditional" releases are better.

It's not.

The issue is whether or not Prince's digitally downloadable releases should be considered as part of his musical output. There is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't.

honestly, i couldn't care less about an album as long as he'd just release lots of songs

on the website.

the way 2013 went was ok, but there should be at least 2 songs each month, that is

something i could fully get behind, album or not.

Byron, as I mentioned, The Slaughterhouse approach is just fine. That's a digital release. Yes, I think they should be "counted," but there are not real benchmarks to his releases anymore. No real thought put into it. "Here's a couple songs I made."For example, I had a hard time getting into "The Truth" back when it came out because it seemed to me to be just thrown in with CB as a bonus. "Oh, by the way, here's an extra disc of songs to increase the disc count."It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I went back and listened to it again, looking at it as its own standalone product, that I really enjoyed it. Would have loved to have seen what the promotion for that kind of product would have been.Maybe ten years from now, someone will compile the 2013 releases into a real album, and then I won't have to hunt down the scattershot elements and assemble them myself, and I'll enjoy it more. Right now...it's just scattershot, and the enjoyment of the music is somehwat impacted by the effort it takes to track it all down (and then realize you missed a track).Springsteen is a lot older. He has a new album coming out on Tuesday. You can get it on iTunes. It has a tracklist. It has a single out, promoting the album. I know where to find the album on Tuesday. That's pretty cool.

I find all the post WB albums to be cohesive concepts save maybe PE which is an odd mix of rock and R&B and somewhat falls flat because of that. Some albums are "a little bit of everything" like Rave or Musicology but that's an approach P has had every once in a while since at least D&P and there's always a "sound" to put everything together despite the disparity of genres. The Truth has a very strong cohesiveness as a whole. And if they hadn't been previously released as individual tracks TCI and The Slaughterhouse would have been perceived as cohesive albums as well: they have a very consistant "sound" to them and a good flow of songs.

I like albums as I said before so I miss having more of them. Now experimenting with the song by song approach makes sense in the "songs" culture of 2013. It's not my approach but reportedly people listen to songs more than albums nowadays. Prince is old skool, though, so I'm quite sure he's just experimenting with the format and will come back to albums quite soon. He'd already done that with NPGMC in 2001 but soon he was back to releasing albums. P's third decade (98-07) hasn't been such a bad decade albumwise.

1998: CB, The Truth, Newpower Soul, Come 2 My House, GCS 2000 = 5

1999: The War, Beautiful Strange and Rave = 3

2000: Rave DVD = 1.

2001: TRC = 1

2002: ONA, ONA Aftershow and ONA Live = 3

2003: Xpectation, NEWS and Aladdin = 3

2004: Musicology, The Slaughterhouse, TCI and C-Note = 4

2005: 0

2006: 3121 = 1

2007: PE = 1

That's 22 albums in 10 years + countless non-abum songs distributed online. It's not that many artists who release 22 albums during the third decade of their career (or at any other point of their career actually)!

Now the third decade has been much quiter but still:

2008: Indigo Nights = 1

2009: Lotusflow3r, Mplsound and Elixer = 3

2010: 20ten = 1

2011: 0

2012: Superconductor = 1

2013: 0

6 albums in 6 years is still an average of 1 album a year and even if we have only 1 album in 2014 the recent pace would still be an album every 2 years, which is in fact quite "normal" for most artists. And we also got dozens of individual tracks online.

Given the figures above it shows how spoiled we are claiming that "Prince doesn't release music anymore". He still releases more than most artists, and more than any other mainstream artists.

So yeah when I see a few crazies like John Zorn or Buckethead who're getting close to releasing an album per month, and knowing that Prince actually has enough material to do the same if he wanted, I'm a bit frustrated, but I'm spoiled too and I'm aware of it. People here are really losing all sense of perspective sometimes

[Edited 1/12/14 15:09pm]

I still hope for a great year. I would have loved an actual album last year, but was constantly surprised with the music did get released. This year it would be great to hear more music, in whatever format. Thank you Prince for continuing to do exactly whatever strikes your mood, it's always the opposite of what anyone else might do.

Xibalba said:

SquirrelMeat said:

He's been taking career advice from Kate Bush.

If only. Maybe i'd give a shit again!

.

.

As for most of this thread, the real issue is quantity vs. quality, and which period (WB or post-WB) is best by each measure...

Jamzone333 said:

thisisreece said:

Janelle Monae maybe?

Janelle is too young and not tested as a producer. No disrespect regarding her youth, however, Prince would need someone who totally gets him and would be an asset and could bring something new to the game. Not to young and not to old. I mean, you wouldn't want someone who would try to turn him into a rapper but you wouldn't want someone who would turn him into a torch singer. Prince is still cutting edge and a producer would still need to show that Prince is fully still in the game..I mean, Prince is so superbad, he is still generating good music...just my two cents...

I think Pharrell would fit the bill....do you?