I always felt that this and The Chocolate Invasion had the biggest disservice of not being released to the public at large.

And yet the first three tracks are easily the most satisfying first 3 tracks on a Prince album since Controversy, 1999 and Parade. It slips after that.

.

Future soul song 10/10

Compassion 10/10

Beginning Endlessly 9/10

Lavaux 8/10

Laydown 8/10

Walk in Sand 7/10

Sticky like glue 6/10

Sea of Everything 6/10

Act of God 5/10

Everybody Loves me 4/10

20Ten is one of my favorite Prince albums of the new millenium. Loved it when it came out and still love it today. The sequence of the first 6 tracks works perfect for me. After that the album loses steam for me. I don't really dig the two organic ballads and Laydown I am in two minds about. I do enjoy Everybody Loves Me, just a goofy silly fun track not meant to be taken too seriously.

InwardJim said:

I listened to the album this week for the first time in a very long time to rate the songs for the current Prince poll and surprisingly the songs on average rated higher than the Musicology and Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic albums.

Planet Earth is another album that wasn't as bad as I remembered when I revisited it this week.

MPLSound was though.

sexton said:

I listened to the album this week for the first time in a very long time to rate the songs for the current Prince poll and surprisingly the songs on average rated higher than the Musicology and Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic albums.

Planet Earth is another album that wasn't as bad as I remembered when I revisited it this week.

MPLSound was though.

Planet Earth just needed some continuity. The music was good, but the words were of varying quality.

sexton said:

I listened to the album this week for the first time in a very long time to rate the songs for the current Prince poll and surprisingly the songs on average rated higher than the Musicology and Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic albums.

Planet Earth is another album that wasn't as bad as I remembered when I revisited it this week.

MPLSound was though.

Ol' Skool Company is worth the whole disc.

mothyham said:

sexton said:

I listened to the album this week for the first time in a very long time to rate the songs for the current Prince poll and surprisingly the songs on average rated higher than the Musicology and Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic albums.

Planet Earth is another album that wasn't as bad as I remembered when I revisited it this week.

MPLSound was though.

Ol' Skool Company is worth the whole disc.

Agree with both of you. 20ten is better than a lot of the albums mentioned, especially MPLS Sound. However, Ol' Skool is now becoming a classic song of his and absolutely loved the Tonite Show rendition of it.

funkaholic1972 said:

20Ten is one of my favorite Prince albums of the new millenium. Loved it when it came out and still love it today. The sequence of the first 6 tracks works perfect for me. After that the album loses steam for me. I don't really dig the two organic ballads and Laydown I am in two minds about. I do enjoy Everybody Loves Me, just a goofy silly fun track not meant to be taken too seriously.

ha, i could have pretty much written this myself. it's a carbon copy of how i feel about the album.

.

i think it's a really good, solid record. beginning endlessly and future soul song are two of my favourite prince tracks, and might be my favourite consecutive tracks on a p record since...hmmm...play in the sunshine & housequake, probably.

In addition to what I have already mentioned about the album I would like to say that I feel that the mix of most of the tracks could have been better. A bit more umph in the low for sure. And the drum machine (is it really a programmed LM-1 or are they samples in a DAW) sounds quite dull and dry, the beats could have benefitted from a bigger, more effect heavy sound. IMHO of course...

Sticky Like Glue and Future Soul Song are my top 2 favorite tracks from that album. I also like Everybody Loves Me because its a fun/silly song

fortuneandserendipity said:

It was clearly Mplsound Pt. 2. I had been so madly in love with Mplsound that 20ten was a bit of a disappointment for me by comparison, but I always liked it alright, and it was totally cool to see Prince revisiting the sound of his youth like that. I've always suspected he was aware of the fact that it was a "minor" record in his discography, and inferior to Mpslsound, hence the limited magazine release, but the fact that he considered 20ten Deluxe may mean I'm wrong. I wish someone, one day, could have had lenghty interviews with him about his recording process and how he felt about each of his past records. The autobiography project was a good indication that he may have opened a bit in his later years.

In any case Lavaux is my jam, I'm crazy about that song

oceancrayon said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

He wanted one of the tracks pulled at the last minute, but alas it'd gone to press. Does anyone know which one?

I too was wondering the same thing, the only thing i could possibly come up with is Compassion In the UK 'bloody' is considered a somewhat (maybe completely idk) vulgar word, yeah? My guess is maybe he didn't realise until too late that it would kind of be like him cursing and decided that wouldn't fly? Other than that I don't have any clue about any other track on there that he wouldn't want released. We can deduce it wasn't Sticky Like Glue, Beginning Endlessly, Laydown, Act of God, Future Soul Song, and Everybody Loves Me because he performed them all live. That only leaves Compassion, Lavaux, Sea of Everything, Walk in Sand, and other than 'bloody' I can't think of anything in the other songs that might be precieved as offensive or questionable. Unless it was just a vanity pull and he simply juat didn't like one of the songs anymore lol.

According to this he tried to scrap the whole album:

.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/inside-princes-bizarre-life-paisley-233220

.

'A few days later, on returning to London, I got a clearer idea of why he had managed to fall out with so many people in the entertainment industry.

Prince, who was renowned as a perfectionist, tried to force us to scrap the album - apparently because he had gone off one of the tracks - but the CDs had already been pressed and we had watertight contracts.'

oceancrayon said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

He wanted one of the tracks pulled at the last minute, but alas it'd gone to press. Does anyone know which one?

I too was wondering the same thing, the only thing i could possibly come up with is Compassion In the UK 'bloody' is considered a somewhat (maybe completely idk) vulgar word, yeah? My guess is maybe he didn't realise until too late that it would kind of be like him cursing and decided that wouldn't fly? Other than that I don't have any clue about any other track on there that he wouldn't want released. We can deduce it wasn't Sticky Like Glue, Beginning Endlessly, Laydown, Act of God, Future Soul Song, and Everybody Loves Me because he performed them all live. That only leaves Compassion, Lavaux, Sea of Everything, Walk in Sand, and other than 'bloody' I can't think of anything in the other songs that might be precieved as offensive or questionable. Unless it was just a vanity pull and he simply juat didn't like one of the songs anymore lol.

I'd heard the story but had no idea it was because of ONE song. Are we sure of that?

damosuzuki said: