The Piano & Microphone tour was Prince at his best. Phase 2 was a high quality album. He still had a great voice and his musical chops. Was still writing great songs. It was a very good time to be a Prince fan on April 20, 2016 almost 40 years after he began his career. We are proud of you Prince.

Prince died at the absolute lowest point in his career as a recording artist. His album sales were embrarrassing even in an embrarrassing market.

His ability to perform was still phenomenal.

homesquid said:

Most of us don't care about album sales. Black Muse, Stare, etc. show that he was still a great recording artist. How many people put out aongs like that 40 years into the game?

homesquid said:

Prince died at the absolute lowest point in his career as a recording artist. His album sales were embrarrassing even in an embrarrassing market.

His ability to perform was still phenomenal.

The person is clearly talking quality-wise. HitnRun Phase 2 is not his best record ever, but it's a step up from 20Ten and the NPGMC-released albums (which I would consider his lowest points from a quality perspective).

homesquid said:

Prince died at the absolute lowest point in his career as a recording artist. His album sales were embrarrassing even in an embrarrassing market.

His ability to perform was still phenomenal.

Okay, but to be fair, I can think of no other art form as hostile to the aging process as popular music. Prince's only option for surviving in that market would be letting himself be pigeonholed as an adult contemporary artist and/or letting some A&R people take over his career, to which I imagine Prince would respond, "Shut up, already, damn!" At the end of Matt Thorne's book, he says he wishes Prince would find a well thought-out, original overall concept through which to revisit his back catalog on tour, and judging by the setlists I'd say Piano and a Microphone pulled that off.

Hmm, disagree. I think Hit and Run 2 is one of the weakest of his entire career, BUT at the same time, if people listen to it because of his death, they may like, because it´s not ´weird´ and the production flows really well. I like the album´s sound

About the tour, I agree that it was interesting (from an historical point of view, of course) that he died after a very intimate and unique tour. And his career started with the afro and ended with the afro. That was interesting too

homesquid said:

Prince died at the absolute lowest point in his career as a recording artist. His album sales were embrarrassing even in an embrarrassing market.

His ability to perform was still phenomenal.

Prince sales were far from embarassing.

While the very side project HTN1 didn't burn up the charts...Art Official Age did just fine for a record with almost no publicity as did 3rd Eye Girl.

Believe me, if he CARED about album sales, he would've done things differently.

donnyenglish said:

The Piano & Microphone tour was Prince at his best. Phase 2 was a high quality album. He still had a great voice and his musical chops. Was still writing great songs. It was a very good time to be a Prince fan on April 20, 2016 almost 40 years after he began his career. We are proud of you Prince.

I agree. I was so, so, so looking forward to seeing Piano.