It always takes me a while to digest but just a few points.

1- I like that Prince is taking on a more current sound and like the production for the most part. Few years ago, everyone complained everything sounded dated....I like the direction he is going.

2- I really don't like that we have 3 tracks that are basically pretty old. Give us the new stuff, we have this!

3- Switch Judith's vocals with Prince and have her backup!

4- Standouts for me are Shut this Down!, 1000 X & O, Ain't about to Stop and June

5- Mr. Nelson....pointless?

Feels like a Phase 2 is needed....not enough here. There's things I definitely like tho...just not enough material (especially with older tracks)

Waitaminute! Yeah, yeah, yeah with Hitnrun....

So the NPGMC albums are on Tidal. Are they lossless? Can they be saved to a computer or only streamed?

I might sign up get them and cancel after all...

djThunderfunk said:

People seriously need to check out the album for themselves because as Prince changes his sound he will get new followers and lose some old ones perhaps

This is my take on it :-

1 MILLION $ SHOW Similar to Gwen Stefani stuff. Judith Hill sings most of the song. Chorus a little childish but I can see why the album starts with it. A little weak 5/10

2 SHUT THIS DOWN 2015's My Name Is Prince, I wasnt keen on that song and not a big fan of this one. Bit of a mess, bit of club feel 4/10

3 AINT ABOUT TO STOP Starts ok but the last minute is a mess all over the place, very noisy, could have been better. Similar to Rihanna's Cockiness in parts 6/10

4 LIKE A MAC Sounds like a Beyonce track in parts, but thats ok. Its ok, despite it being slated, nice start and nice horn in last minute 6/10

5 THIS COULD BE US I am one of the few who prefer this verison to the original 7/10

6 FALLINLOVE2NITE Despite this getting a slating when released I thought it was pretty good, modern sound. At least it is catchy & simple and clean 7/10

7 X'S FACE Again had an hammering from old P followers but again a modern sound, different and catchy 7/10

8 HARD ROCK LOVER An old school feel to this track which I expect to be liked by those who prefer the rock side. 8/10

9 MR NELSON The most ppointless song on the album which is bascially a electronic remix instrumental of Clouds that i could have done in my bedroom. Should have been left out 1/10

10 1000 X'S 0'S Love the feel of this, similar riff to Dont Look Any futher by Dennis Edwards. 9/10

11 JUNE Starts off like Art Of Noise Moments in Love, really enjoyed this and really simple effective production. Quiet Storm material 9/10

.

So overall not as bad as people have made out but only 3 excellent tracks for me, Hard Rock Lover and the superb 1000 X's o's and June.

dodger said:

iZsaZsa said:

dodger said: I won't speak for anyone else. One thing I know is, is that it's hard to burn pasta. He's far away.

I've burnt pasta. Well it was spaghetti but technically its pasta.

Now you've confused me (which isn't hard before you say), what do you mean he's far away?

Sometimes you speak in riddles

How do you burn pasta?

Rebeljuice said:

KingSausage said:

djThunderfunk said:

Waitaminute! Yeah, yeah, yeah with Hitnrun....

So the NPGMC albums are on Tidal. Are they lossless? Can they be saved to a computer or only streamed?

I might sign up get them and cancel after all...

They can't be permanently saved. But I'm sure someone somewhere has figured out how to do it.

Yeah, I pretty quickly skipped over to listening to the MPGMC era stuff on Tidal today.

You can't download them, but they can easily be ripped if you have the right software, so that you can save them and not have to keep paying for Tidal... the funadmental flaw with streaming services for me... once I have an album in the collection and 'paid for', I don't want to keep paying to be able to keep listening to it... I signed up for the trial of Tidal, but won't be staying with it. Used to be a Spotify user, but cancelled that too...

I CAN'T stop listening to 1000 X&O

dodger said:

EFFDUBB said:

I really like the album. Very cohesive. Been playing it repeatedly and really really like it. It has a modern sound which is obviously not going over well with the old people who are stuck in the past. It's contemporary with good melodies and a great feel. It's upbeat and energetic. Great job Prince and Josh. Some of you old minded stuck in the past people need to stop comparing it to how much it sounds like his old shit. You're not even actually listening to the melodies grooves and sounds. You're just comparing it to how close it sounds to your favorite Prince era. It's 2015, for a modern 2015 album, this a good one. If this album was cut by a new young artist, they would be heralded as a genius. For those of u waiting for the revolution reunion, and the remastered purple rain, keep waiting. You're stuck in the past. Prince is an actual person and he is not devolving for you "mental relics". Get used to the fact that he's not interested in staying stuck in the past musically. For those that don't hate contemporary sounds with good grooves beats and melodies, Prince did the damn thang on this one. Very good album.

It's not about being stuck in the past. Well, unless you mean HITNRUN's cheesy beats and production, which are very much stuck in the past.

Silly me. All this time I thought Controversy and Around The World In A Day wee experimental albums. I never knew that a man pushing 60 trying to sound like a tween was experimental. Also including weak remixes or slightly altered versions of songs that have already been released is just iceing on the cake. Way to go Prince.

Romeoblu said:

Tidal doesn't have gapless play back. I think that's why some of the songs don't seem to flow nicely into one another. After a few spins now I think it's ok, it has some nice moments but pales in comparison to Art Official Age. It feels kind of thrown together no real Substance. For me the real low point is June. By far the most boring closing track ever on a Prince album. I'm struggling to hear what is so special about it.

What !!!!!

June is fantastic !!

Aerogram said:

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

Skillfull and scattershot.

Interesting how that's the only part you quoted from this largely negative review. You missed this one: "...sorely mismatched remixes trying too hard to be trendy."

antonb said:

I like AOA better but I do love some of these tracks.

Millins $ show ad FallinLove2Nite are fun dance songs.

This Could Be Us remix, 1000 X's & O's and June

More gems to my collection. I've listened to "June" several time trying to process the lyrics .

I'm a happy fan today

Cheater07 said:

Wow... that was far far far better than I expected! Maybe I'm still in shock, but I feel very pleased!

When the album and it's concept were announced, I was hoping for at least some long instrumental jams using this 'new' 'Josh sound', only then I could cope with it. But then I saw the tracks timings and started to worry. Once I started to listen I understood and accepted the whole concept: that it really is 'HITNRUN', short and sweet (almost like a 40min mixtape) and I started to love it! When I listen to this as an experiment, as a fresh unstoppable machine track after track... it works!

Thought the sequencing worked pretty well (a few exceptions) and this time even X'S FACE and FALLINLOVE2NITE sounded fun to me. 1000 X'S AND O'S is amazingly classy, and JUNE is pretty strong too.

The album of course starts with some samples, but I had the idea that there were more old Prince sounds (in particular from his first 2 albums?) showing up again. And the SHUT THIS DOWN beat reminded me of the '7' loop.

Fun project, not a masterpiece per se, but props to Prince anyway!

yes finally we are getting some more positive and realistic posts. Some of the negative posts have been ridiculous. Way too damning.

*sighs*

1) Million $ Show - 6/10 I think it's a pretty fun track. Mostly because it has Judith Hill; and she's just awesome. Her singing alone brings it up 3 points for me. I wish it was longer, though and went different places.

2) Shut This Down - 4.5/10 I don't understand the hype for this. It's alright.

3) Ain't About To Stop - 4/10

4) Like A Mack - 1/10 What the fuck? Never mind, it gives me a headache just thinking about this piece of crap, with crap lyrics..... oh now I've done it...

5) This Could B Us - 1/10 Because it does a terrible service to the original! So much nostalgia destroyed thanks to this...

6) FallInLuv2Nite - 3.5/10 It's not the best track anyways and it works extremely better with Judith Hill.

7) X's Face - 4/10

8) HardRockLover - 7/10 Solid track. EXCEPT; wasn't we all expecting a longer version? It still has that all-over-the-place ending.

9) Mr. Nelson - -1/10 Ruins the nostalgia of CLOUDS. This shit is why I hate remixes. Fuck this remix. and fuck remixes in general. I hate them! That being said, how did this shit get on the album?

10) 1,000s X's & 0'S - 6.5/10 Thank God. Finally a good track again.

11) June - 4/10 meh

OVERALL: 3/10 smh

[Edited 9/7/15 9:38am]

PurpleMedley122 said:

antonb said:

Yep, the usual nutters have taken over this place!

How about instead of whining that the whole board isn't kissing Princes ass, post your impressions? Just saying it's great without posting why doesn't help your case when the majority of fans don't like the album. As far as I could see, those who don't like this album (myself included) are giving constructive criticism, instead of "THIS ALBUMZ SUCKZ!!! DEATH TO ZA WELTONZ!!" . Jesus, can't post anything negative about the guy without being called juvenile terms like "hater", or "old timer who only likes 80's Prince" by the usual suspects on here. Realize that this is the reason Prince is comfortable realeasing mediocre shit like this to the masses, like he doesn't already have enough yes men and feet kissers around him these days. It's getting ridiculous.

Who are the majority of fans? did you take a survey of Prince's fan population?

People on the Org are not the majority of his fans.

KingSausage said:

iZsaZsa said:

dodger said:

I've burnt pasta. Well it was spaghetti but technically its pasta.

Now you've confused me (which isn't hard before you say), what do you mean he's far away?

Sometimes you speak in riddles

I just meant that he would have had to drift off (take that however you want to) for such an amount of time that a pot full of boiling water dried up.

If we can bring spaghetti into this it can be quite easy to burn that if it's too long and you don't fully immerse it in the water, then the parts resting on the rim of the pan can often get all charred and nasty. Probably a rookie mistake, but definitely possible. Anyway this is what I've been reduced to talking about in this thread since I can't get Paypal working to get the free trial of Tidal working, and I can't find my wallet so I can't do it by card. Ah well

Nikkie said:

The Guardian's 'First Listen' review is very positive, **** http://www.theguardian.co...b-gdnmusic

Wait, The X's Face is about "the recent spate of shootings of young black Americans?" I had no idea!!!!

jaynoonan said:

I CAN'T stop listening to 1000 X&O

I lovvvve that song!!!

ZiggmanZoo said:

Still haven't listened but reading the comments. I'm an oldy Prince fan and it was a general attitude, also in the 80's, that you really needed to listen many times to new Prince music to be able to rate it. For instance, I remember many people didn't fancy Kiss until after multiple listening. I rembember when I heard Kiss the first time, I thought "wow, what a simple song and not catchy at all, this is not gonna be popular." A week later I loved it and I still do. Sign of the times...hmm... many people were not appreciating this song in the beginning, then I witnessed that it got many new fans on the Prince boat and got to be a hit.

My point is, I am reading many negative posts after short listening experience. Is it possible that a longer digestion is needed for this new music?

That is simply not true. I don't know what Prince fans you were around, but there was no such general attitude like that in Detroit. One of the things I loved and appreciated most about his 80's music how I only needed to hear it once, to know whether I liked it or not and 9 times out of 10, I actually LOVED it on that first listen.

If it doesn't groove for me on the first listen and at the most a second listen, it's not going to groove for me on 100 listens. If anything repeated listening to something I don't like, only makes me hear more of WHY I don't like it.

EFFDUBB said:

KingSausage said:

It's not about being stuck in the past. Well, unless you mean HITNRUN's cheesy beats and production, which are very much stuck in the past.

Musically, this album is GREAT. If the name on this album wasn't Prince, you and your kids would be calling it a masterpiece. But because people have an expectation for how it should sound because it's Prince, they don't actually listen, they compare instead. It's 2015, not 1984. Get over it. Actually LISTEN to it, instead of comparing chronologically. It's GOOD GOOD shit. Props to Prince and Josh.

I can guarantee you that I wouldn't be calling this a masterpiece even if it was an album by "D'Angelo and King Sausage (featuring Kate Upton licking King Sausage's balls)." And if my kids like it, well, I have only one kid and she's four months old. I expect anyone older than her to realize this album is horseshit.

wonder505 said: