Read this thread a couple days ago and it made me want to revisit the album. Today, I heard it in full for the first time since '98, and you know what? It's a good album! Not great, but not horrible, either. Reminds me of a tighter, more focused Emancipation. The only song that kinda lost me was "The One" ... the last half drags on way too long.

bluefish said:

Read this thread a couple days ago and it made me want to revisit the album. Today, I heard it in full for the first time since '98, and you know what? It's a good album! Not great, but not horrible, either. Reminds me of a tighter, more focused Emancipation. The only song that kinda lost me was "The One" ... the last half drags on way too long.

"a tighter, more focused Emancipation"???

You are absolutely fearless.

databank said:

Aerogram said:

bluefish said:

Read this thread a couple days ago and it made me want to revisit the album. Today, I heard it in full for the first time since '98, and you know what? It's a good album! Not great, but not horrible, either. Reminds me of a tighter, more focused Emancipation. The only song that kinda lost me was "The One" ... the last half drags on way too long.

"a tighter, more focused Emancipation"???

You are absolutely fearless.

That's a GOOD thing, right?

Noodled24 said:

Funkyalien said:

The only time he's ever "conformed" to a genre was when he accidentally thought he was a Jazz artist.

hahhaha.....a jazz-noodling artist? maybe?

NorthC said:

Maybe Prince fans aren't that funky after all?

now that's grist for the soul-searching milll.

maybe they're pop fans...verse, chorus, verse, thank u very much. After all, it's entirely possible to go through your whole life listening to just prince....the sheer volume of it is astounding....so maybe many fans don't hear much else at all. That's also true of some greatful dead fans.

On the other hand, I know many prince fans who listen to a lot of other music, but that tends to dim the fan-fervour a bit...

I must confess, I don't know the answer. I can only speak for myself...I like blues, 60s rock, more blues, a lot of old-school soul and funk, a light sprinkling of free jazz....etc etc.....there are many odd things I listen to.

This would need a thorough survey, in which fans would need to be honest about their musical tastes, to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

NorthC said:

databank said:

I always was and always will be madly in love with this record and its 2 twin albums (C2MH and GCS2000). people can say what they want they can't change the fact that it's given me thousands of hours of listening pleasure, and I dig the lyrics a lot, too.

Back in 2000-2002 I was working and hanging out a lot with a bunch of professional musicians and hardcore funk fans who knew little about Prince (they were more into George and Herbie, that kinda stuff, mostly 70's funk and jazz fusion), and I remember playing NPS at a party at home and they came to me and asked "is that Prince? Fuck, this ROCKS!", and I gave them copies of the album on cassettes and they started to ask for more Prince from that point on, but they didn't stop praising NPS when they got Parade and TBA: to them NPS was the definitive Prince funk album and I tend to agree.

Yeah, that's what I said. Funk fans loved it more than Prince fans. Go figure... Maybe Prince fans aren't that funky after all?

Reliable statistic aside, my impression from years of erading the Org is that a great majority of Orgers are more into pop/rock than funk or electronic music or jazz.

And u know what, it has always puzzled me because IDK, it's not what I'd have expected.

On the other hand this might explain why so many people are so unsatisfied with post WB or post 80's material and why Orgers like myself who are more into funk and electronics are OK with it.

databank said:

NorthC said:

databank said: Yeah, that's what I said. Funk fans loved it more than Prince fans. Go figure... Maybe Prince fans aren't that funky after all?

Reliable statistic aside, my impression from years of erading the Org is that a great majority of Orgers are more into pop/rock than funk or electronic music or jazz.

And u know what, it has always puzzled me because IDK, it's not what I'd have expected.

On the other hand this might explain why so many people are so unsatisfied with post WB or post 80's material and why Orgers like myself who are more into funk and electronics are OK with it.

Maybe Prince knows this, and that's why he was reluctant to move away from making booty-shaking music for 13-year-olds in the 90s? and mainstream soft-rock in the 2000s? Well, that's not entirely true, but you know....those deep, mystical, personal albums have disappeared since TRC...

[Edited 8/20/15 7:33am]

[Edited 8/20/15 7:34am]

The NEWPOWER SOUL album with the heartfelt dedication to 's gifted son Gregory "UntilUbacknmyarms". The funky bass cut "ComeOn",the freaky club anthem "FreaksOnThisSide" & the accompanying HitNRun tour, along with the triple Jay Leno appearances was a

COMPLETE MEGA MASTERPIECE!!!

KingSausage said:

My main issue with NPS is that there are so few moments that sound truly incentive. Even the good songs aren't very "Princely." They're just competent electro-funk. Very generic.

I agree.This is the type of album that Prince could do in his sleep.

People still talking about this album LOL... 3 good songs. End of thread. Not a good album.

feeluupp said:

People still talking about this album LOL... 3 good songs. End of thread. Not a good album.

That made you laugh out loud? Wow.

filthyrichyuppie said:

feeluupp said:

People still talking about this album LOL... 3 good songs. End of thread. Not a good album.

That made you laugh out loud? Wow.

... That and Boy Trouble.

feeluupp said:

filthyrichyuppie said:

That made you laugh out loud? Wow.

... That and Boy Trouble.

Simple pleasures, I guess.

NorthC said:

I used to love the funk back in those days. I had my first James Brown LP before I had my first Prince LP! And then Sly, George Clinton and Larry Graham and all those guys (except Sly) started touring again in the 90s. But the thing with Prince was that he was inspired by those guys, but he also had something unique. No one else could have done Parade! Somebody I knew back then in the 90s said: "I used to like Prince in the 80s, but now, it's more like, if you're into funk, it's okay." And he was right. On an album like NPS, "The Artist" isn't doing anything the other funkateers haven't done before. And since then, I felt I had heared enough of the funk and it was time to listen to something else...

Yeah well 99% of the artists you'll hear never did anything that hasn't been done before in their whole career and still when the music is good it's good, so IDK why this topic is always coming back about Prince, as if it was an exceptional weakness. He wasn't going to be groundbreaking his whole life.

It's OK, like the tracks The One, Come on, Waisted Kisses and Until U're In My Arms Again

I think it's an aquired taste.When it came out i remember being a bit disappointed because at the time it sounded too "plasticly" to me and i wasn't a fan of Kirky J.'s drum programming.

In retrospective though it has grown on me just as Emancipation has.Not only because both were pretty similar in production but also have that unified sound that's distinctive for a certain 90's Prince sound that nowadays i find enjoyable.

[Edited 8/26/15 0:43am]