^ It's also experimental in the sense that Prince has never really experiemented with drum&Bass/dubstep before.

My review... At least we got Indifference...

MattyJam said:

Well I'm liking it a bit better than I did first thing. Some of it is a 'tidal' wave of shit though.

But..... 1,000 hearts is an absolute killer tune. I love the dreamy keys. I'd like a whole bunch more of these please.

Aerogram said:

TchoFessio said:

derrick31 said:

You know Bobby Womack did this the right way when he let Jamie X do his production on "The Bracest Man in the Universe" cd. If Prince wants to experiment, why choose a rookie producer like Josh ? Why not go with someone like Rick Rubin, Nike Godrich, Jamie X, Ferrel, etc.? [Edited 9/6/15 22:53pm]

I think you'll find its produced by Damon Albarn from the gorillaz/blur. https://en.wikipedia.org/...bby_Womack

it's a cracking album by Womack by the way (appart from Jubilee...)

Maybe you were thinking of Jamie xx's remix of Gil Scott-Heron's last album We're New Here?

USA TODAY : 3/4

As far as the music goes, there's certainly no rulebook there, either. The Purple One and his newly knighted in-house producer Joshua Welton, jammed and noodled their way through HitNRun, coming up with a fun and funky collection of tracks that feels like a tour of the many facets of Prince.

(...)

Fortunately, this reach back into the Prince vault, as it were, comes off as exciting and fresh rather than as a lamely self-aware re-tread of past glory.

New York Times : not so positive, some good, some bad.

Skillfull and scattershot.

Back in the day Prince just dropped a dope killer jawdropping album w/o all the hype and it took days — if not weeks — for fans to properly listen and absorb each song.

But he — like everyone in the troubled flash-in-the-pan over cautious entertainment/news industry — has bought into the I need to hire some inexperienced bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed techie youngster to appeal to the millenials (and who ever cums after the millenials) and rebrand content with a lot of meaningless "awesomeness" hype. I'm talking about JayZ and Josh.

AOA/PE and LotusFlow3r have proven that he has a stock of incredible even marvelous music on the shelves. But we he needs to separate himself from some money grubbing leeches who simply think music is about making the benjamins and who care nothing about it's lyrican content, euphoniousness, or spritual affect on the fans or larger culture.

The days of paying in advance — trusting the corporatist media prereviews — are over.

Blixical said:

I wonder if he realizes when he releases crap stuff. I would say that I am glad I didn't subscribe to TIDAL, but in all honesty, there was no way I was going to pay money to subscribe to that rich artist spank-fest anyways. But, seriously, I wonder if Prince actually knows when he releases junk these days; or, is it that he actually believes what he releases is worthy of paying TIDAL premiums for or shelling out money for. Essentially, what old boy did was release a mix-tape, charged for it, and scrwe up every possible opportunity to promote it correctly..... in other words, he's just doing what he has been doing for years.

RJOrion said:

Joshua Welton trying to end Prince's career with these cookie cutter pop beats...after listening to this lp a few times, im almost embarrassed for P...seems like they tried too hard to make an lp that would fit todays radio formats...its like the sound of a someone trying to fit a round peg into a square hole...June is cool....shut this down is cool...1000 xs and os is cool...x's was good, but by now its becoming played out....the rest of the lp is sadly non-eventful...a bunch of katy perry/madonna beats..

i wish Big Chick was here, to physically escort Joshua Welton off the premises ....Prince deserves much better...

Right. No need to release a physical album or on other sources (GooglePlay, iTunes). Just let it die.

funkymuc said:

fantasticjoy said:

Knowing Prince he'll hear about some of the negative comments about this album and decide to not release any physical copies.

Hopefully! This "album" needs to go away.... fast. No physical release means no one will remember it and this might be for good.

I´ve never been this irritated by a Prince release before. So, NEXT please.

exactly. call the law!

V10LETBLUES said:

So now we know why he called it hit and run. He not only runs his last holdout fans over over with a car, but backs up and hit us again and then just speeds away. It's a felony.

KingSausage said:

I'm listening right now. This is really bad. Like a Mack is almost BOYTROUBLE terrible. Million Dollar Show...it's never a good idea to reference your classic material in the middle of terrible material. Shut This Down? Yikes. Ain't About to Stop? Yeah, Justin Timberlake called and he'd like his music from 10 years ago back. Where are the songs? The melodies? The hooks? The "real music from real musicians"? It's hilarious that Prince thinks this is experimental. Oh, my daughter just pooped. I need to pause for now.

"Oh, my daughter just pooped. I need to pause for now." Was that her reaction to hearing HitNRun?

My disappointment in this record is so far minimised, because I think it's a mistake to consider it a new album in itself.

It clearly references Art Official Age in its artwork (something a Prince album cover has never done before - directly reference another, unless it's been a single/EP from that album)...and it's called Hit'N'Run.... much like the tour of the same name, it's a last-minute, here today/gone tomorrow type of thing.... that seems like an offshoot or accaompaniment to Art Official Age....

I think considering this as being a 'proper' new album is the same as if you considered the Beautiful Experience EP to be a new 'proper' album... of course it's disappointing, because it was never meant to be listened to that way. It's a side project.

Although, when anything you release sounds like Beyonce having an arm wrestle with Justin Timberlake - that escalates into a name-calling, faeces-throwing mudfight - it might be time to take a vacation for a while and have a lilttle rethink...

I've only hear it one and bit times, so more listens will reveal... something. Anyway, it's kind of fun, as long as you don't expect anything... well... much.

Course it might be that I'm just trying to deny the fact that Prince just farted, and one his priestege's caught it on record.

Se7en said:

Listened to the 30 sec samples, figuring they would compel me to sign up for a free Tidal trial. They didn't. I checked my "usual places" to see if anyone put it up yet. They didn't. I'm not really pressed tho. Might be the first time ever. Indifference, I guess.

I'm kind of more interested in getting an iced coffee down me.

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Wow!!! I am actually really disappointed in this. I've heard people say that Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and Emancipation are the two biggest stinking piles of shit in the Prince catalogue. I personally thing this effort has just claimed that trophy.

With the exception of "Like A Mack" and Ain't About To Stop" and perhaps "HARDROCKLOVER" I find this album mostly unlistenable. As for why recycled moments like "This Could Be Us" and "FALLINLOVE2NITE" are on this album is anybody's guess. In the case of TCBU I think the Art Official Age version shits all over this.

"MR.NELSON" is also really straight out of the recycle bin, basically a poorly executed remix of "Clouds" from the AOA album.

The rest is a bitter disappointment and indicative that this album is probably merely the result of a quick tidy up of the vault.

Interestingly, the two recently released singles in "Baltimore" and "Stare" which both were great tracks, one for its socially concious lyrics and the other for just being a good classic Prince funk workout, are not here. Perhaps this album might have been salvagable if the pointless rehashes were removed and those two tracks slotted in to their place.

Unfortunately in my honest opinion, this album is a complete dud and will most likely be forgotten by this time next week. I long for the day where Prince gets back to sitting down, writing and recording a cohesive, considered and well produced album that has had some thought put into it and contains the classic Prince blend of pop, funk, soul and rock.

On a more positive note, I would like to pass on my sincere appreciation to Jay-Z for providing new subcribers to Tidal with a 30 Day Free Trial Period. Because at least I know I am not going to get stung in the hip pocket for daring to listen to this attrocious record.

It's a 2/10 from me.

andykeen said:

Two questions. 1) is it as experimental as Josh and Prince stated? [snip - M] X

If the experiment was to overtly try and piss off his last remaining fans, then yes this experimental piece is highly successful.

Yep, the usual nutters have taken over this place!

KingSausage said:

1000 X's and O's is nice.

Yes, because it's a twenty year old song. Back then he was much better than now. It's really sad that he now can only fill an album with remixes of recent songs plus some old material from past decades.

antonb said:

antonb said:

Yep, the usual nutters have taken over this place!

Of course. And they're providing also great reasoning behind their not liking the album, stuff like "it's shit", "I can't believe I listened to this" and the likes. All great explanations that give way to constructive discussions.

[Edited 9/7/15 6:49am]

Marco81 said: