databank said:

(Copied from another thread):

To be honest I believe it to be one of P's weakest efforts ever, but contrarily to most others who think that way it's not because I lack musical education and understand only pop music, but because I do have acquired some musical education over the years. In fact when the album got released I wasn't familiar at all with contemporary neoclassical, ambient and experimental, and I was totally impressed by it. Then over the years I started to listen to a lot of stuff in the aforementioned genres and slowly realized how amateurish an effort Kamasutra was.

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The problem is that Prince didn't do his homework. He just tried to emulate classical music on synth without realizing that all along the 20th Century there had been a whole scene of people with a classical music background who were/are composers and do that kind of stuff (to name a few among the most famous: Steve Reich, Jon Hassell, John Zorn, Philip Glass, Gavin Bryans, John Cage, Harold Budd, Chick Corea or Ryuichi Sakamoto, not to mention the dozens of musicians working on a more experimental/electronic level such as Zeena Parkins or Alva Noto, and the enormous ambient scene). By not doing his homework, Prince ended-up with a gross, naive, almost childish caricature of classical music that would have made any serious listener of contemporary music laugh out loud. It just sounded like someone who'd try to make jazz but would only know New Orleans jazz from the 1920's. To come-up with something relevant, Prince would have had to check out what was out there before going into the studio.

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Now I do appreciate the effort: I like it when a musician goes out of his comfort zone and I certainly wish Prince would do it more often, so I'm not gonna say he should have not done it at all, I'm actually glad he did, only he could have done his homework. He certainly has the talent to come-up with something more substantial that that and maybe he should give it another try, with the help of MBN and String Genius for the parts that require musical theory. There are some things on Kamasutra that I still like, but there's a lot that makes me cringe.

EXACTLY!!! That's what I was trying to say. I remember reading in one interview that Prince said he liked to listen to things that he "couldn't do", and proceeded to list ambient/classical film scores that he enjoyed. I was like dude, you can do that too if you worked with someone with the foundation to make what you want happen. I feel like he held himself back from growing even more because he had to be in control all of the time. I'm not saying that I don't consider him the most prolific artist of all time(because I do), but I feel like he boxed himself in a lot of times.

databank said:

I like it when a musician goes out of his comfort zone, only he could have done his homework.

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This was truly a case of an artist believing if he is great at one thing, he'll be great at anything he attempts. Prince wrote the great little ditty "Jack U Off".....that led him to believe he could write and arrange classical pieces??? Prince wrote great songs....that led him to believe he would be a great film director??? Prince was a great stage performer....that led him to believe he could revolutionize the business model of the music industry????

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Jimmy Page tried film scores, Madonna tried acting, Michael Jordan tried baseball...great at one thing does not mean great at something else. Prince should have noted that.

OP here. Thanks to the orgnote gods I am currently listening to it and I have to say when that main theme comes in on the piano I got a little weepy. Apparently I did get to hear some of it before the tape popped because it got me right in the feels I can definitely see this being the soundtrack to a ballet performance with the the repeating themes. It is background music basically you're supposed to watch the dancing. Unlike a classical or film score which would likely have more going on musically. I am also a big fan of ambient and film soundtracks. Been a Ryuichi Sakamoto fan since the Bowie years. I know Prince was also a big fan of Blade Runner's soundtrack and it was a big part of 1999's synth sounds. So he listened to a lot of stuff but probably wasn't very academic about it.

I've just heard the title track to Kamasutra, and I really like the theme, the repeated melody. Something about it sounds a bit chintzy though. I think maybe it's the mix. So at times it sounds like synth instruments only. Regardless, the repeated melody captured me. I wish I could find the CD also, but I read that it was originally included in Kamasutra as a 5th CD for members of P's website.