A fan's response to the Guardian Review

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Thread started 09/30/14 8:11am

2funkE

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A fan's response to the Guardian Review

Had to share. This guy is not only spot on but he can write like a mf

Mine perineum. Damned with faint praise indeed.
Having closely followed Prince's career path for nigh on 22 years, each release has only served to confirm my initial teenage suspicions regarding this truly unique, incomparably talented, frustratingly obstinate mad professor who undoubtedly despises the entire human race for not being able to keep up, for just not getting it, for ridiculing a truly special consciousness from striving to flower into all it can be in this transient, all too brief flash of existence.
His beautiful specialness mocked and derided and belittled by those who have never picked up an instrument, pen or tool to express themselves from their bricked bubbles of self-loathing. Who have never bent their brain to try to understand what music actually is, what sound is and what purpose it serves to mammals - and I'm not spiritual or tinfoil hatted in the least.
A single musical note, I feel, is beyond human criticism. Any vibration on the tiny scale that our pishy ears can detect. It is the intent and inspiration behind the order of these notes are are played which is being judged - now, I hear you saying this is obvious. Whats my point?
My very humble opinion, is that this review is pointless for anyone wanting to know how 'good' these albums are. It's certainly not for me to spell out when people look into the void only the void stares back, and you can only ger gratification from what you bring to the party yourself. You need knowledge. You need the hunger to comprehend what an artist is trying to convey or express. I'd hope any critic, not just this one, who seems very levelled and balanced, calling out 57-year-old Prince Nelson, who scraped God's shoes with unmatched levels of inspiration and, yes, genius achievement before they had hair on the balls, should at least listen to the record a few times instead of skipping through it while browsing through a few websites.
Grim, blinkered perceptions limit everyone's perceptions. It's genuinely maddening to read that this ever-evolving musician who dared to give it all up, to walk away from fame, who wrote slave on his face to protest against corporate evils, who fought and rose above the most cruel and demeaning and disrespectful slurs a human could possibly experience over the past 20 years.
Lies such as he has been making the same mixed style bag record for 20 years, he's no longer musically daring, lyrically banal, sanitised kiddy muzak, jazz noodling bore etc etc etc bore anyone of any sound mind. It's ridiculous. Self-obsessed or starsailor? Bit of both probably, like us all, but someone has to call out the flux half-arsed drone blah heard in the majority of the mainstream press since Lovesexy, where not enough time is being spent with the works, where letters are put together, like musical notes with some artists, without true passion or inspiration.

*This rant was intentionally unfocused. As is AOA. It's music of the mind, genreless, a true trip, a brilliantly mad, surreal, magical and, ultimately and unexpectedly, emotionally devastating in conclusion. It's about death. It's about the race to the end, it's about facing mortality, the dying of the light, with a burst of energy that blinds all and makes a true and definitive statement. I am still here. I am alive. 'Most people in this world are born dead. But I was born alive'. If you understand, then you'll understand. He's back.
I believe criticising a true genius with widescreen pereption of the human condition for being messy is obviously absurd. Life is messy. Life is unfocused. Not every album can be The Songs Of Leonard Cohen. Which I adore, but Christ this is stratospheres above, looking down from the Hubble telescope on all ants on Earth and the self-built walls containing them. Stopping them from being who they want to me. Like Frankie said, don't dream it, be it. Prince is the imagination of himself. We can all be too. But it takes bravery.

PPS
The 'messy' first song is a parody on modern chart styles, pumping them hard up the arse and soaking them in Paisley -patterned, lavender-smelling creamy spunk. A piss-take, a mocking bite into the poison apple of popular culture, spat out with a grin, makes it funky - not in the musical sense but in the blood from stone, real from artifice, bleeps and binary quirks, to life, sense. It is the metaphorical 'cage' the modern-day Prince is trapped in. Clouds is the 45-year elongated death of the digital dream, the rest of the album is him waking up in a future where he is confused that he is understood and adored and not derided for trying to be all a human can be. For defying the limitations placed by all who went before him because they got old, bored, tired and gave up. Prince goes home. Prince stays forever Prince.

TrevorAyer	so i suppose clouds is a parody too .. cuz that song is shit .. aoc is much better and not a parody at all .. in fact i am pretty sure it quotes several prince songs intentionally .. the chelsae bassline .. the classic tony m era .. etc ..
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JoeTyler	the guardian review was totally accurate and even a bit merciful...
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thebunnyman	Number23
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