Then maybe those who don't like it would have had a more positive view of the music at least. Im not sure how much of the religious statements effected ones pleaseure/displeasure center.

rdhull said:

You're not???

Supernova said:

You're right. I am sure. Thinking out loud..too loud lol.

i loved the music and what he had to say on the album. sure it's preachy and a bit macho and stuff but hey he's been doing this kind of thing from the start anyway. only now he's all conservative and all.

I bought the album when it came out, and listened to it once and thought it was alright, I'm religous but the lyrics doesn't effect me..This last month I've tried to listen to it again, and I just LOVE IT!! I dont know if people would like it more without the lyrics, but the music definitely does it for me!!

rdhull said:

Well, I'm not saying that's the reason ALL of them dislike it (the ones who don't), but the vast majority of those who expressed their dislike of it here, on amp, and even on that God forsaken aol board have voiced this as their reason.

I've got more issues with the style than the subject matter. I still like it though.

anyone who doesn't like this album deserves to go straight to hell

MrBliss said:

MrBliss said:

yeah!

Supernova said:

lol..we been thru some shit havent we

One thing I can say is that TRC somehow gets better with time..like Parade did. It isn't bombastic like some of Rain or SOTT etc. This was like it was marinated before it was cooked.

rdhull said:

Aw, heeyyylll yeahhh!

Supernova said:

Just real quick..Bev...

rdhull said:

Oh Jeezus!

rdhull said:

Some people are always on the lookout for a reason to dismiss him... so I don't know that it would have made a major difference for them.

I do not like the religious lyrics, but other than that I think it's a true masterpiece. It's mature, original and the music kicks ass and his voice is amazing.

rdhull said:

I don't like marilyn manson. While his music is not that bad, his lyrics stink, so i never listen to it.

Prince is of course a different matter that manson. But altho'because musically he is one of my favorite artists, when he writes lyrics that I don't like it takes away some of the magic of the music...(not necessarily the lyrics from TRC) That is me personally. i don't know how others feel about it. Some probably couldn't give a rat's ass about lyrics... I do however.

NuPwrSoul said:

This is true...but the dogma added more to those opposed to the music other than the chronic complainers.

huggy said:

I guess I'm guilty as charged then..because I love the "music" and for the most part the lyrics were never an issue excpet on a rare occassion of goofiness etc..but I realize now that as long as the "music" is happening then I dont really care that much --or as much as I did if I ever did about the lyrics. Thats th ething..his music took it to another level where I can live with or without th elyrics, they don't effect my take on the overall music picture in the end result. For example everyone was trippin on Wedding feats..Im like "so? Everlastin Now etc is jammin". I think that's a good thing.

Don't necessarily agree with where he's coming from with 'the message', butthe music (and the cover) make this, for me, his best album (meaning the one I most want to play and play all the way through and not skip a single track (not even 'Wedding Feast'!?).

This album has got to be his most committed overall performance on record. His beliefs (which I do not share) seem to have focussed him the most since the late eighties.

Prince is a better musician now (as well he should be) than he was in his commercial heyday (not that he was rubbish then!). He has absorbed a wider variety of music styles, and has become an even better guitarist and keyboard player.

In my view, one of the keys to TRC's musical greatness is that Prince, having all but exhausted his earlier influences of '70s funk, soul, etc (hence the somewhat less good mid-to-late '90s period, where his inspiration seemed to come less frequently) has now found a love for another interesting strand of '70s popular music (the time in which he grew up and which is the heartland of almost all his music, even now) - jazz-rock-funk fusion, and is exploring his own take on this style today.

Having said all that, I'd rather he tone down the JW lyrics in future albums!

Miles said:

Can't f*ck with that

I'm pretty sure we would all take another preachy conservative "Well-Done" album than something like NPS again...

I don't necessarily have a problem with the tone he's taking with the lyrics of TRC, after all, there is no radical difference in what he's saying now to what he's been saying all along - ie, love God blah blah. Maybe he's a little more direct, dogmatic, exclusive - he seems almost to have 'evolved' from an individual spirituality towards religion, which is opposite to the way people normally go.

What does jar in the lyrics of TRC for me is the sheer clumsiness in parts ("accurate knowledge of Christ and the Father will bring the Everlasting Now") - which compare very badly with some of the ease and grace of his earlier, even his more direct, songs (like most of Lovesexy, or Elephants and Flowers). It's almost like he's lifting lines directly from some text.

The music itself is spectacular, the instrumentation and the vocals, everything, but I wish he'd recover some of the subtlety of before.

WatchThemFall said:

That's a good point - get the perv with the crap music, or the good music with the bland saint.

rdhull said:

Yes it gave them a reason. But I am convinced they would find another if they had to.

Miles said:

I agree wholeheartedly.

If Prince strays too far from themes that he feels strongly about it becomes kitschy and hollow. I don't think we would really want to hear him try a faux-nasty song at this point in his life given where he is spiritually. It would sound fake.

He's much much more convincing with the more refined sensual/spiritual tone he strikes in TRC's highest moments (in "Mellow" for instance: where you wanna eat tonight / I know this dope spot called one another).

He should leave the base stuff for the chitlin circuit R&Bers. Let them sing about feelin on a booty and pissin on people

MrBliss said:

yer comin with, then.