I've been giving this a re-spin lately after noticing that this record came up in the "most unlistenable album" thread quite a bit. Even more than NPS and Rave (and I don't hate those records either).

.

For the life of me I can't understand the hate for it. The production is a little on the tinny side and the thing could use a bit more thickness and depth on the bottom end of the sound but, my God. People talk about this record like it's a musical abomination, a total embarrasment and a genuine affront to Prince's legacy.

.

"(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" is just a fun little party dance track. No worse than a million things I've heard. I actually kind of like it and think it's fun. "Chocolate Box" is OK. Same thing. It gets me boucing around and is fun. "Dance 4 Me", "Valentina" and "Ol' Skool Company" are awesome. I love all of those songs.

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The ballads arent't awful either for a change. "Here" is a nice little mid-tempo number. I'll take this over Planet Earth, NEWS and some of the more meandering, cultish bullshit on "Rainbow Children" any day. People I play it for like it. It makes a nice compliment to "Lotus Flow3r". It's hardly a piece of garbage.

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Defenders of this albuim stand up!

herb4 said:

"(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" is just a fun little party dance track. No worse than a million things I've heard. I actually kind of like it and think it's fun. "Chocolate Box" is OK. Same thing. It gets me boucing around and is fun. "Dance 4 Me", "Valentina" and "Ol' Skool Company" are awesome. I love all of those songs.

Listen to it with headphones. You'll hear the sounds of a muse being strangled.

i like:

* Dance 4 Me

* Here

* Old Skool Company

* No More Candy 4 U

i don't care what others think, i like those tracks a lot. the rest of the tracks is
borderline boring/horrible to me U're Gonna C Me is cool, but i liked it more

on the One Nite Alone piano album.

I tend to just stick these at the back of 20Ten, to make that one a bit better,
for me personally anyway.

01. Beginning Endlessly

02. Dance 4 Me

03. Future Soul Song

04. Sticky Like Glue

05. Rich Friends

06. Lavaux

07. Here
08. Old Skool Company

09. No More Candy 4 U

"Here" is really good.

"No More Candy 4 U" is very much a Controversy sound in my opinion. He showed he can easily take it back there... maybe the backing tracks are from back then.

One reason is it's titled MPLSound Minneapolis Sound, and it isn't

V10LETBLUES said:

One of the worst albums ever made period. Prince or not.

Quit trolling. Honestly, it's embarrassing.

[Edited 5/7/15 7:24am]

IstenSzek said:

i like:

* Dance 4 Me

* Here

* Old Skool Company

* No More Candy 4 U

i don't care what others think, i like those tracks a lot. the rest of the tracks is
borderline boring/horrible to me U're Gonna C Me is cool, but i liked it more

on the One Nite Alone piano album.

Agreed 100%.

My GOD, Chocolate Box and There'll Never.... are fucking terrible. They're perfect examples of why 90's Prince was sometimes so bad - totally cheap sounding, totally plastic, totally fake and obnoxious.

PurpleKnight said:

IstenSzek said:

i like:

* Dance 4 Me

* Here

* Old Skool Company

* No More Candy 4 U

i don't care what others think, i like those tracks a lot. the rest of the tracks is
borderline boring/horrible to me U're Gonna C Me is cool, but i liked it more

on the One Nite Alone piano album.

Agreed 100%.

My GOD, Chocolate Box and There'll Never.... are fucking terrible. They're perfect examples of why 90's Prince was sometimes so bad - totally cheap sounding, totally plastic, totally fake and obnoxious.

Co-sign. Those songs are awful. I remember how people on the org heard the instrumental parts first and almost everybody here called it a fake track and said it wasn´t Prince. That´s how awful "There´ll Never "... is. The lyrics are terrible, too. I can´t stand his bragging songs.

My main gripe with it is the title, MPLSound, because while it does contain some really good songs, it is so far removed from the real Minneapolis Sound, a sound that him and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis created. I am a big fan of the real Minneapolis Sound and can´t understand why he would misuse that term. After all, it was him who abandoned that type of sound while it was still hot and fresh.

I like some of the songs though.

Dance 4 Me is a really strong dancefloor song, Valentina has some great guitar work and a nice and lazy beat that I really dig...if the lyrics weren´t so bad and Salma Hayek centered I´d play this song much more often because I really love the beat and the melody.

Here and Old Skool Company are nice, too. But I can´t stand No More Candy 4 U.

Ok, we get it, it sounds reminiscent of some of the songs from the Controversy or Dirty Mind era but those days are over and this song sounds terribly dated and out of place on that album. And I never was a big fan of those kind of songs anyway, never really liked Jack U Off or Delirious or Sister.

But that´s just me.

"No More Candy" is the weakest track on the record. Reminds me of "Everybody Loves Me" and "Ronnie Talk to Russia". Just not my style.

.

The only thing I really dislike about the album is the production. I don't know how to explain it but it needs Josh's touch from AOA. A little more bottom end, some subtlety, a bit of layering and an overall less "tinnish" sound.

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I guess I'm the only one that likes this record but I like Prince's dance stuff. NPS isn't as bad everyone says either.

jasminejoey said:

aaroncanderson said:

I love all the songs on MPLs and prefer it toLFlower. No More Candy is an improvement on that Annie Christian song. I don't understand the hate for this album.

Can't see the relation between the two.

There was this evening were I listened to MPLs and thought it was a decent exercice in today's production.
Problem is, what's the point of Prince lowering himself to what's ruling the charts in the 10's ?

Also, I was pretty loaded.
It's an album that requires a distorted listening (and I'm not referring to pushing it to 11).

Sober, you find yourself counting the seconds pretty quickly.

Re-spinning this one a lot lately to figure out reasons to hate it. I never realized how much "Dance 4 Me" sounds like "When Doves Cry". The beat and the keyboard sound are very similar.

bonatoc said:

aaroncanderson said:

I love all the songs on MPLs and prefer it toLFlower. No More Candy is an improvement on that Annie Christian song. I don't understand the hate for this album.

Can't see the relation between the two.

There was this evening were I listened to MPLs and thought it was a decent exercice in today's production.
Problem is, what's the point of Prince lowering himself to what's ruling the charts in the 10's ?

Also, I was pretty loaded.

Me niether.

What did you think of AOA? I thought that was a much better attempt at Prince embracing a modern sound. Nothing wrong with getting loaded/high and listening to music either so i'm not sure why that's a qualifier.

V10LETBLUES said:

Neither AOA or MPLSound sound like modern production, they sound like bad old fashioned productions using modern tools. Big difference. It sounds like what it is, an artist stuck in the past. The the work itself sounds very dated and cringe worthy. As bad as production gets, old, new or whatever, it's just amateurish and lazy.

Huh. OK. Agree to disagree then. I can certainly hear the difference in production between albums like Emancipation, MPLSound and AOA but am certainly ignorant of what goes into it. Maybe you're not. Do you work in the industry or have you produced records? I'm honeslt curious and not being a smart ass. I just know what my ears tell me and the production on AOA compared to MPLSound or NPS sounds miles apart to me.

Yes, there's a difference.

Emancipation, MPLSound, 20Ten all sound very plastic (no real news there)...

but while Emancipation at least still managed a scope and sense of scale amidst its mostly one-man-in-the-studio sound, MPLSound and 20Ten (though that latter less so) sound very small and cheap... rather than expressing the idea of going 'back to basics', they end up sounding unambitious, uninspired, thin and, well, cheap.

Art Official Age (the poor mastering distortions aside, Christ that kind of 'Job 1' imbecilery makes me mad) does sound modern, still of course, as that is at least partly its aim... and while it does still sound a little plasticky in parts... it's a kind of a more 'organic plastic' (!!) if that makes sense.

The sense of scope and scale has returned at least... it's a bigger record than MPLSound etc... though I would still prefer to hear the sound of an actual band playing on it... (I know 3rdEyeGirl play on some of it, but it still comes off sounding mostly like the one-man-in-a-studio again.)

But there's certainly a difference between them.

To me Art Official Age doesn't sound perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.

Let's not forget that the production on Planet Earth and 3121 wasn't just plasticky, it was unadventurous. At least Art Official Age offers some for a return to a more bearable sound.

warning2all said:

That whole end bit of 'Old School Company' those adlib lyrics about Christina Milian all that shit is just stupid & embarrassing.

Besides, it completely contradicts itself. 'Rather than reminisce I'm telling you this, we need a whole new scene', then goes back to talking about how things used to be & needing ol' skool company.

'Never B Another' bragging on himself yet again, but nothing on this whole album to back up his claims.

'Chocolate Box', aside from being repetitive as hell, always makes me think of his butthole so that's no good.

'Valentina' more celebrity namechecking & embarrassingly bad rhymes.

'Dance 4 Me' is just okay, but next to these other turds, it seems outstanding.

'U're Gonna C Me' was better on the piano album.

'Better With Time' unfortunately isn't.

I'm looking at the tracklist right now & I don't remember anything about 'Here', & that says what?

'No More Candy 4 U' may be the best track on here, because it knows how silly it is.

I do & still do like Lotusflow3r, tho.

..and perfectly great things r collectin dust on the shelves

MIRvmn said:

It's a very good album, I enjoy most songs on it especially the ballads

Gimme a hug.

VelvetKittyKat said:

That whole end bit of 'Old School Company' those adlib lyrics about Christina Milian all that shit is just stupid & embarrassing.

Besides, it completely contradicts itself.

I noticed a contradiction myself. During "Ol Skool Company" Prince is asking "where's my real drummer?" while he's performing over a beat program. It made me laugh. Would have been better with some real precussion and a live drummer, unless that was the joke in the first place and he didn't have Blackwell, Mike Bland or Sheila on hand at the moment.

luvsexy4all said:

..and perfectly great things r collectin dust on the shelves

Very well played. Very well played.

(There'll Never B) Another Like Me is probably the worst song to bear the Prince name