Prince Releases New Album 'HitNRun Phase One'

Prince has released his new album 'HitNRun Phase One' exclusively through Jay Z's Tidal Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images Entertainment

As promised, Prince released his new album, now titled HitNRun Phase One, exclusively through Jay Z's Tidal on Sunday night. Tidal users can listen to the album now at the streaming service, while non-subscribers can stream the LP by signing up for a free 30-day trial.

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Prince's 34th studio album opens up with a sample of the slo-mo vocals from "1999" and the sustained opening note and the "Dearly Beloved" psalm from "Let's Go Crazy" before first track "Million $ Show" kicks in. HitNRun Phase One then finds Prince exploring many genres over its 11 tracks. There are woozy ballads ("This Could B Us"), EDM-like experiments ("X's Face"), full-on dance songs ("Fallinlove2nite," "Ain't About to Stop") and atmospheric slow jams ("June"). The album also features appearances by Rita Ora, Lianne La Havas, sister duo Curly Fryz and Judith Hill, whose work with Prince on her own solo LP resulted in a lawsuit.

On top of HitNRun Phase One, Prince also promises to share a new Purple Pick of the Week with subscribers, with Prince personally curating new tracks, rarities and other exclusives from his vast musical vaults to unveil each week on Tidal. The first Purple Pick of the Week is "Stare," a funky track that previously popped up on Spotify without warning. Tidal will also be the exclusive home of Prince's immense catalog.

To celebrate the release of HitNRun Phase One, Prince's Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota have hosted three consecutive nights of dance parties featuring live music and DJs. According to the Star Tribune, Prince did not appear at the first night of festivities on Friday, while the rocker strapped on a guitar and performed for just 90 seconds during Liz Warfield's set on Saturday night. On Sunday night, the Paisley Park crowd was treated to the Minnesota debut of HitNRun Phase One as the album dropped on the East Coast an hour earlier. Prince did not show up for the listening party.

"After one meeting, it was obvious that Jay Z and the team he has assembled at Tidal recognize and applaud the effort that real musicians put in2 their craft 2 achieve the very best they can at this pivotal time in the music industry," Prince said in a statement after entering into his Tidal partnership "Secondly, Tidal have honored Us with a non-restrictive arrangement that once again allows Us to continue making art in the fashion We've grown accustomed 2 and We're Extremely grateful 4 their generous support. And lastly, in the tech-savvy, real-time world We all live in 2day, everything is faster. From its conception and that one & only meeting, HitNRun took about 90 days 2 prepare its release. If that's what freedom feels like, HitNRun is what it sounds like."

HitNRun Phase One Track List
1."Million $ Show"
2. "Shut This Down"
3. "Ain't About to Stop"
4. "Like a Mack"
5. "This Could B Us"
6. "Fallinlove2night"
7. "X's Face"
8. "Hardrocklover"
9. "Mr. Nelson"
10. "1000 X's & O's"
11. "June"

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/prince-releases-new-album-hitnrun-phase-one-20150907

How nice of him to promote his own record for 90 seconds.

awesome, a new josh remix every week.

Tidal also kicks off Purple Pick of the Week, which will unearth unreleased music from rocker's massive musical vaults

Ok Tidal's keeping my $$$

[Edited 9/8/15 1:26am]

Hopefully this is the platform where he starts releasing tracks from his vault. My guess is that he will rework them, much like he did Extra Loveable. The best would be if he left them untouched in their raw, analog forms, but we all know he's a perfectionist. This might keep his attention for the next month

LittlePurpleYoda said:

newpowersoul said:

laurarichardson said:

LittlePurpleYoda said:

How nice of him to promote his own record for 90 seconds.

I guess you missed the other article.

The one where he showed up & performed at a 3 day event celebrating the release of his album for all of 90 seconds? Nope. I'm good. Show's his amazing level of commitment is as staggering as ever.

Well, I guess unlike his last 2 albums, he did at least show up for this one. Maybe he is devoted here.

this plus the new 3rd eye girl video...needed with that half assed phase 1 album

This won't last and nothing of consequence will be posted here. Like someone else said, probably Josh remixes.

newpowersoul said:

awesome, a new josh remix every week.

My exact thoughts :/

inspireof said:

Tidal also kicks off Purple Pick of the Week, which will unearth unreleased music from rocker's massive musical vaults

Ok Tidal's keeping my $$$

[Edited 9/8/15 1:26am]

exactly. this is the ONLY reason i'd keep tidal.

newpowersoul said:

awesome, a new josh remix every week.

He didn't remix the NPGMC era albums that were just released on Tidal. If I thought he'd follow through on this I would subscribe to Tidal. The problems I have is you don't own the songs, you can't integrate them into your own music library, they can go away at any time (as can tidal itself), and how do you play the videos on your TV.

amazing.. the My Medallion song... is now on the Chocolate Invasion album....

Smells just like a $77 lotus flower.

nonamesleft said:

Awesome! Makes me wanna subscribe to Tidal. Oh, wait, no it doesn't: I don't do streaming. Hope I can support these releases in some other way.

My sentiments exactly! Or maybe not...

I don't do streaming at all but I'd sign up for Tidal just for this if I knew that I'd finally get to hear "In All My Dreams"-type stuff in good quality.

This whole Tidal thing is bollocks. I don't want to have to pay a monthly subscription to continue to be able to listen to things - I want to buy them, once.

My vote for next weeks pick of the week is 1000 hugs and kisses, the original, not redone version. His vocal on the Nona Gaye version would just be astounding, that version also flows much better imo.

Sammieh said:

That would be hilarious ... if it worked.

alandail said:

newpowersoul said:

awesome, a new josh remix every week.

He didn't remix the NPGMC era albums that were just released on Tidal. If I thought he'd follow through on this I would subscribe to Tidal. The problems I have is you don't own the songs, you can't integrate them into your own music library, they can go away at any time (as can tidal itself), and how do you play the videos on your TV.

U connect your laptop to your TV via an hdmi cable and then you can watch everything you want on your tv screen...

Sammieh said:

Since I subscribed to Tidal I've fallen in love with it.

If this works out it would be fantastic and make me love Tidal even more. However I can't see it lasting long, but hopefully they've already got a few months worth of stuff ready to roll as the picks of weeks.

So I wonder if it will be an update every Monday.

Prince is basically encouraging his followers to steal this disc.

I did. Always better when it is free.

Free to change yo mind.....FWIW, the disc sucks.

[Edited 9/8/15 10:16am]

Lianachan said:

This whole Tidal thing is bollocks. I don't want to have to pay a monthly subscription to continue to be able to listen to things - I want to buy them, once.

I agree that he should make it available for purchase. However selling music isn't really working these days. Nobody sells alot of music in 2015. New times mister.

Lemme guess. "Kiss" 12", "She's Always in my Hair" and another version of "U Got the Look".

Why doesn't he just do this shit himself on his own website and let us buy what what we want?

Splash is gonna be the pick next week, watch. He loves that song .