What do you guys think of this album?

Personally I am very impressed by the album when it comes to Prince abilities, however I think it as a whole sounds a bit boring compared to other fusion albums from bands like Weather Report.

He shows us that he is more than able to groove and staying in the pocket with the drums. It is said that Morris Day played the drums on The Time albums. It can't be because of Prince lack of skills on drums though. To me, Prince could easily do the job for most funk bands.

What amazes me more though is his bass playing. That's on some elite level session musician stuff right there.

He is great on keys also.

But in the end, it never sounds avant garde like alot of his other 80s stuff.

Great instrumental. Jazz pop funk... I love it.

The dialogue from the Godfather movie is cool as well.

This instrumental is edgy, much better than Xpectation, News (or Kamasutra).

I love this album. If I had to pick my favorite Prince "side projects," I'd pick this one and the next Madhouse album, "16". I slightly prefer the "16" album, which is a bit funkier. But "8" has some peaceful moments, some funky moments, some quirky moments. And I love the collaborations between Prince & Eric Leeds. To me, these albums represent the time period of '86-'87... they just capture the colorful (err, peach and black) vibe of that era for me.

Best instrumental album ever from the Prince camp. Nice melodic playing, funky but also sensitive at times. Eric in top form, GREAT drumming by Prince and everything sounds so in place, like one big arranged piece of music. And beautifully recorded. My favourite track: 8, starting with that sampled "whom..whomwhom" and building up from that. Although reportedly recorded by Prince and Eric only, there seems to be lots of interplay between bass, drums, sax and keyboards. Sound like a "real" band playing and interacting. Also, I like whole presentation and concept of Madhouse. A sign of crazy genius.

I was lucky to find the original cd as a cut-out(with longbox) in a recordstore in the early 90's. I think I payed 25 guilders for it (around 10 euro). Wish I had bought the whole stock then (-:

Overall, I like this album much better than 16, which I find very difficult to listen to...

[Edited 6/21/14 14:30pm]

I liked 6, the rest was meh. Eric said he didn't like the writing on 8. Prince should have got Sheila and others to collaberate. 16 was great as well as Times Squared.

I listen to the Madhouse album all the time and that would be the record that really displays Prince's drumming ability.........Song number #2, 4, 7 shows how good he really is especially 7 which has great keyboard playing as well

jazzz said:

Best instrumental album ever from the Prince camp. Nice melodic playing, funky but also sensitive at times. Eric in top form, GREAT drumming by Prince and everything sounds so in place, like one big arranged piece of music. And beautifully recorded. My favourite track: 8, starting with that sampled "whom..whomwhom" and building up from that. Although reportedly recorded by Prince and Eric only, there seems to be lots of interplay between bass, drums, sax and keyboards. Sound like a "real" band playing and interacting. Also, I like whole presentation and concept of Madhouse. A sign of crazy genius.

I was lucky to find the original cd as a cut-out(with longbox) in a recordstore in the early 90's. I think I payed 25 guilders for it (around 10 euro). Wish I had bought the whole stock then (-:

Overall, I like this album much better than 16, which I find very difficult to listen too...

I went to sleep to Eight almost every night for several months in college. I had a drummer dormmate with whom I had almost nothing in common, but we agreed on that track.

He was an idiot who dropped out of the marching band because they had a gay guy walking behind him in several formations... and that just made him freak out. But, he liked Madhouse, so... there was that, at least. I much preferred the skater I had the first part of that year, but he smashed his head wide open in a pool and had to go home.

It's jazzistic poppy funk, I find too many of the tracks more enthusiastic than inspired, like a simplistic, youthful stab at a genre.

SanDiegoFunkDaddy said:

I liked 6, the rest was meh. Eric said he didn't like the writing on 8. Prince should have got Sheila and others to collaberate. 16 was great as well as Times Squared.

Eric saying he didn't like the writing on 8 is probably because he doesn't like that way of composing music. He is more of a jamming type of sax player. He loves to make up stuff on the spot, atleast more or less improvising along with the band. Prince laying down track after track with different instruments is the opposite of how Eric loves it. That's probably why he thought it was alot more fun to work with the whole Madhouse band. The group dynamic adds to the fun. Madhouse 8 is probably his most show off album as they were impressive from a technical viewpoint. He does more than a good job on all instruments, but 16 and 24 was more entertaining and fun.

It's a classic album, perfect from begining to end. Much better than most jazz fusion of the 80's because it's ageless, it still doesn't feel dated to this day. There's a very intimate, intriguing sound to it. 16 was more challenging, more experimental and much more agressive, it's good that did something different with the second album, but 8 is totally sweet.

I don't think it's never been hinted by anyone that didn't play the drums on some Time material because he wasn't skilled enough, we don't need Madhouse 2 know is a skilled drummer, after all he plays most of the drums on most of his own album from the very begining.

I hope one day we get a deluxe remastered Madhouse boxset with 8, 16, the b-sides/remixes/edits, a few outtakes and both versions of 24 (88 and 93). That or rerelease/release each album independently.

Where's the remaster??

I've listened to it quite a lot lately, actually.

It's his best instrumental album, but it's something he definitely could have put some more work into. Just like with the early-00s jazz-funk material. I like the drumming and the bass parts, but the keyboard solos don't really seem to be going anywhere. The first piano solo on One sounds like the first jazz piano solo he's ever recorded. His fingers might be moving fast, but he's not really aiming anywhere with his piano playing on that record.

I'd say Madhouse 8 and N.E.W.S. are still better records in overall than anything Weather Report put out after Heavy Weather. 8 is still quite tasty and in your face in the same way SOTT is, although like Replica stated Prince's 80s pop and funk stuff was more "avant garde" than anything he's done with his jazz-fusion projects (say, "Sexual Suicide" is in entirely different category in that sense). It's sort of weird if you think about it. Maybe "playing jazz" just offered him a break from his usual stuff.

always liked it - such memories - what a summer that was - it was out of the blue and cool - still is

databank said:

I don't think it's never been hinted by anyone that didn't play the drums on some Time material because he wasn't skilled enough

Attention math geniuses: can one of you guys work out this quadruple-negative and tell me what we're left with?

eyewishuheaven said:

databank said:

I don't think it's never been hinted by anyone that didn't play the drums on some Time material because he wasn't skilled enough

Attention math geniuses: can one of you guys work out this quadruple-negative and tell me what we're left with?

I just decided to assume databank meant what I would say, and didn't worry about parsing it out. That's my general approach--if I don't understand you, you agree with me.