herb4 said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

That is simply not true.

It's kind of true. I'm about to start on it as a matter of fact (growers/first impressions then and now). SOTT, Lovesexy, Batman and especially Around the World in a Day and Parade were very hard to penetrate and absorb and took several listens to dig your teeth into. Everything in the 80's past Purple Rain and arguabley SOTT took a long time to get into.

Thanks herb4, you said it better than me.

Just listened for the first time. I need to digest and to reflect on this experience. I was a little afraid because of some negative posts, especially from dadeepop and KingSausage who have posted multiple times their very negative views. But..my first impression, it's very surprising and refreshing! Many times I found myself laughing (in a good way) and I thought wow, Prince really wants to give us a new listening experience. The album flows, it has many different tracks and I gotta say that Hardrocklover and Like a Mack are some of the freshest Prince tracks for a long time. I even think that Fallinlove2nite and TCBU fit in well. This is not a conservative Prince album and how lucky we are that Prince is still motivated to go into new directions. I don't feel it's an album by Josh. I hear his influence and work but I think it works for this music. I think Josh should be applauded for his contribution and for getting Prince out of his cage. I am happy that Prince still has the courage to take us on a journey like this. That said, I understand that people that want more typical Prince music and don't like current dance music may not buy into this album. I guess Prince will never please us all. Well, gotta go and listen some more...

moorman said:

Long time Prince fan, since around 1982. Gonna start posting here. I see the ONE thing thats never changed with Prince, he ALWAYS leaves you wishing for more of his good stuff. If the other tracks were on the level of June, he would have a number 1 album.

No he wouldnt. Sorry to say he could do Purple Rain part 2 call in Wendy And Lisa and Morris and Apollonia and others, and the fact would still be he is a 57 year old and age-ism keeps you off the radio and has since the invention of SoundScam. He is never going to be that number one guy again, lets all accept this and enjoy or hate what he puts out.

ZiggmanZoo said:

herb4 said:

It's kind of true. I'm about to start on it as a matter of fact (growers/first impressions then and now). SOTT, Lovesexy, Batman and especially Around the World in a Day and Parade were very hard to penetrate and absorb and took several listens to dig your teeth into. Everything in the 80's past Purple Rain and arguabley SOTT took a long time to get into.

Thanks herb4, you said it better than me.

Just listened for the first time. I need to digest and to reflect on this experience. I was a little afraid because of some negative posts, especially from dadeepop and KingSausage who have posted multiple times their very negative views. But..my first impression, it's very surprising and refreshing! Many times I found myself laughing (in a good way) and I thought wow, Prince really wants to give us a new listening experience. The album flows, it has many different tracks and I gotta say that Hardrocklover and Like a Mack are some of the freshest Prince tracks for a long time. I even think that Fallinlove2nite and TCBU fit in well. This is not a conservative Prince album and how lucky we are that Prince is still motivated to go into new directions. I don't feel it's an album by Josh. I hear his influence and work but I think it works for this music. I think Josh should be applauded for his contribution and for getting Prince out of his cage. I am happy that Prince still has the courage to take us on a journey like this. That said, I understand that people that want more typical Prince music and don't like current dance music may not buy into this album. I guess Prince will never please us all. Well, gotta go and listen some more...

Very Well put and as with EVERY new Prince album, you get the same reaction, just the negative dismissal, the total blind praise, the mixed vibe of what is he doing, or the ALWAYS POPULAR, I wish Prince could do something like such and such and such, and he would have a hit blah blah blah. So again that is where we are at, though I must say from Critics he is getting more love than fans, i'd say about 60 % of what I am hearing from fans generally like it but most hate it. From critics I have seen about 30 reviews and only 2 were hideous a few mixed and the rest pretty much liked or loved it and its direction, so as usual, does it matter what anyone thinks?

Some love for HitNRun... en français:

HitNRun is a nice surprise... oui?

http://www.trendsperiodic...ise-37414/

Lesechos: "Ultimately this is some great Prince: one foot in classical (Prince), but head turned toward the future."

http://www.lesechos.fr/we...153502.php

Let the Jerry Lewis French Connection jokes commence.

NorthC said:

And some more amour for HitNRun:

http://www.la-croix.com/C...07-1353243

The previews sound alright. Wouldn't sign up to TIDAL for it though, but I'd buy it off iTunes if it was available.

[Edited 9/8/15 16:57pm]

Listened 4x.

.

There are a handful of highlights, but overall this thing is a like a sound effects library put to some beats. I lost count of how many tired tricks of Josh's make the album. The man has exhausted every whoosh known to mankind and has used the "slow-down-Prince's-voice-to-a-dead-stop" technique more than his fair share. Somehow he's managed to craft an album chock full of studio tricks but highlight a handful of them so much that they become tiresome.

.

The final two tracks and the vocal delivery on Shut This Down are the highlights for me. Everything else is at best muddling, and at worst This Could B Us awfully remixed and ruined. The added guitar solo at the end can't save it for me.

.

Cheers to everyone who likes it. To me, I listen to this and think, "This is the kind of music that made me appreciate what Prince does." I never wanted Prince's version of Cher going techno-dance.

.

I'll keep listening, but man is it a task.

.

I like that Prince challenges us. I don't like that he's challenging us to listen to him try to be something that he's not or loosen the studio reigns and let a kid trample all over his sound.

tab32792 said:

and it's not so much wanting him to sound like 1984 or whatever year people love. i'm all for new and different long as it's good...this shit is whack. IN MY OPINION. drop the "producer" drop his "band" and start from scratch.

I feel your pain. I will continue to TRY to let this album grow on me before I cancel my free trial, but I don't think I will miss this after 30 days! I only need 17 DAYS!

Doozer said:

Listened 4x.

.

There are a handful of highlights, but overall this thing is a like a sound effects library put to some beats. I lost count of how many tired tricks of Josh's make the album. The man has exhausted every whoosh known to mankind and has used the "slow-down-Prince's-voice-to-a-dead-stop" technique more than his fair share. Somehow he's managed to craft an album chock full of studio tricks but highlight a handful of them so much that they become tiresome.

Thats like saying. "Guitars are so played out" b-string 7th fret. Who hasn't heard that before? Bending the strings... hardly original. Drums, such a cleché - someone hits them and quelle surprise their action turns vibrations into sound.

Prince has never made an album like this before. Ever. While the dance sub-genres that influence this album have existed for years... that's also true of every genre Prince has ever explored.

Does this mean there will be 4 phases?

Corey Tollefson @tollyc 1000 hugs n kisses" which is far superior than the outtake from 1991. We heard all 44 tracks that made the tune.

— Prince3EG (@Prince3EG) September 6, 2015

Beekbeek said:

Does this mean there will be 4 phases?

Corey Tollefson @tollyc 1000 hugs n kisses" which is far superior than the outtake from 1991. We heard all 44 tracks that made the tune.

— Prince3EG (@Prince3EG) September 6, 2015

No it means that 44 studio tracks went into making the song. I'm surprised by that actually, because the song sounds kind of spare to me.

terrig said:

I would bet that Josh had nothing to do with X's Face or HardRockLover --- these two tracks are Prince really tinkering around, himself. They really work well next to each other ---- I could get with a whole album in this vein......

I think Josh talks about HardRockLover in one of the recent interviews. I'm not sure what he really means when he says Prince tells him what feel he wants (I think he says that's how this one worked)--is Prince really letting him write the whole thing, or is he giving him the bare-bones chord changes of a written but not arranged song and then letting him go from there (sort of how Kiss moved from that demo through to David Z's production for Mazarati that P then took back)? Or does Prince just come in, take a completely Josh track, write the lyrics and a melody, do the vocal and anything else he wants to add, and then call it a day? Or is it different approaches for different tracks? I'd like to know specifics on each track, just so I can know who deserves credit (or blame).

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Beekbeek said:

Does this mean there will be 4 phases?

No it means that 44 studio tracks went into making the song. I'm surprised by that actually, because the song sounds kind of spare to me.

Yeah, I couldn't figure out where 44 tracks were in that recording, either.

Noodled24 said:

Here's the thing...

Everyone who said they weren't going to like the album before hearing it - they don't like it. No surprise. They're trying extra hard with this one because for the first time in a long time, Prince on record, sounds like he understands contemporary music. It's the binality of the comments I read that makes me laugh. So generic and non-specific.

It's far from perfect, but there is no such thing. It's definitely experimental, it's been years since Prince has released a song you can actually dance to, and he's rarely if ever dived into the EDM sub-genres like he has on this album. I'm glad it's upbeat and not ballad-heavy.

My fave track is LIKE A MACK... the hornz hooked me. I will drop this track 4 sure at the climax of my Prince party on Sept. 19th here in Toronto ( http://www.purplelectricity.com ). It looks like the physical release in North America will be on Sept. 14th and here in Canada, amazon.ca is indicating distribution by Universal: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/p...YIK6Y9EEQB ... I'm sure that Warner is still busy figuring out how 2 move the mountains of AOA and PLECTRUMELECTRUM in the wreckastores.

Doozer said:

thanks2joniandu said:

Listening to:

Shut This Down .. I like it, slammin bass

The Macks funky I like it

X's Face 'l grown on me

3 tracks down, ya Id play these at loud decibels in the car absolutely

[Edited 9/8/15 20:58pm]

MadeUpName said:

Million Dollar Show sounds so much like single ladies I keep waiting for beyonce's part. Does anyone else feel that way?

[Edited 9/8/15 19:39pm]

HitNRun album was good. Not great, but to get 2 Prince albums where they actually have a sound that is modern and new is refreshing. This album isn't as good as Art Official Age, but it isn't a bad follow-up at all; and waaaay better than I expected when I heard it was to be experimental. I thought experimental was another word for "sucks" and "I'm giving Tidal an album worth of songs I was going to throw away."

Stand out tracks to me:

Ain't About to Stop,

X'sFace (favorite-could be a club banger)

Hardrocklover (listening to it with good speakers made all the difference in the world than when I first heard this song released)

Mr.Nelson (crazy beats)

X's&O's,

June (probably my favorite. Classic song)

This Could be Us and My Way Back Home were my favorites on his last cd, but he ruined This Could Be Us on this one.

Overrall, I will buy this album in cd form as soon as it is possible, and I will cancel my subscription to TIDAL before the free trial runs out. No problem with Tidal, just hate not having my music in my mp3 player or flash drive.

terrig said:

I did not bother to listen to the mp3s yet, after quickly checking them at work.

So if the album was 'for the fans', how come we are not so enthusiastic about the music?

KingSausage said:

Doozer said:

KingSausage said:

I can't think of another Prince album that does a worse job of representing what's special and unique about Prince. Why would anyone listen to this album rather than any number of other electropop albums? There's very little special about this music.

. Yuh huh. The beauty of many of Prince's albums is a moment of simplicity in the music from time to time. So much of HitNRun is overworked, like no one could say "That's enough." . After listen #5, that's where I am. That's enough. Will have to revisit much later.

Indifference has the simplicity you crave. He must've been listening to some Dylan.

purplethunder3121 said: