If this is what we are going to be expecting from the late artistic genius’s mythical vaults, all we can do is hope and pray that Prince’s estate gets its act together in 2018, for the bar has indeed been set sky high with Purple Rain Deluxe.

www.billboard.com/article...ael-prince

Prince is always the standard

master said:

master said:

The estate and warners did one of worse jobs I have seen considering material available to them Many of extra tracks were not best versions.Poor remastering 7 inch edits, no associated artist plus Syracuse in bad quality and not 1st avenue. Could have been best release of alltime. I see it as an absolute insult considering time we were made to wait.A and you are Muppets if except this poor effort .3/4 rehash badly remastered .Shocking [Edited 12/30/17 11:09am]

If you are referring to the Time and A6 songs in the film, there was no room in that project for any of them, given that those songs belong on other Prince albums, i.e. Ice Cream Castle and Apollonia 6, that themselves deserve a proper deluxe reissue in due time. Asking for them being included is tacitely saying that ICC and A6 don't deserve the deluxe treatment, which I don't think is what a true Prince fan should wish for. Of course we do want ICC and A6 rereleased with previously unreleased bonus material!!

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Being an "orphan song", Modernaire could have been an acceptable addition but IDK if the rights to Dez' versions could easily have been secured without paying Dez a fee WB may have not wanted to pay (though it's unclear to me whether Dez really had the rights to the recording when he decided to finally release it in 2005, but in the end he wasn't sued so he may have). As for Sugar Walls, another orphan song, Sheena's recording now belongs to WB thru Parlophone, but I guess its inclusion may also have led to further contractual obligations, and giving Sheena a share of the pie. IDK how simple those things are to secure or not.

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However there were indeed many problems:

- Several single edits missing.

- Audio and/or video versions of the live music videos missing.

- Clean versions of the TV renditions of PR and BIAS would have been a plus in audio and/or video if the rights could be secured (again I fear WB wanted to keep things cheap and simple).

- Sound problems with the really uncool drop-out on CB and the outrageous glitch at the beginning of EC.

- The choice of outtakes was apparently limited to whatever was in the WB vault, as opposed to access to Prince's original tapes.

- Apparent mistakes in the liner notes regarding recording dates, something that could have been easily improved if Duane had been consulted.

- Apparent poor sourcing for several of the outtakes.

- As for the quality issues with mastering and video, IDK, but many audiophiles have complained so I guess it could have been better.

- The First Avenue show would indeed have been a nice addition, given its historical importance. I guess everyone was hoping for it. But it can and, I'm pretty sure, will be released later.

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In any case, this Billboard article shows what is often true in the music press: to a music journalist who is a casual Prince listener and wasn't even capable of hearing the glitch on EC, this is probably a must. But to the real fans it was a disappointment despite all the cool stuff on it.

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Unfortunately, I've read several rave reviews such as this one in the music press, all written by people who obviously had no clue. Given that, to my knowledge, WB hasn't issued a single statement admitting the several issues on the release, neither have they apologized to consumers for the EC glitch, it may mean they will be pretty satisfied with the fact that the project received rave reviews, and that they won't be any more careful with any further project (admitting there is any further project before estate issues are settled, since nothing has been announced yet).

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In that case, the music press, by not doing its homework, is really playing against us the hardcore fans. If every reissue they review is being reviewed with such poor knowledge of the artist's original material and catalogue, it's pretty depressing.

In a roundabout way I was asking a rhetorical question.

If this is what we are going to be expecting from the late artistic genius’s mythical vaults, all we can do is hope and pray that Prince’s estate gets its act together in 2018, for the bar has indeed been set sky high with Purple Rain Deluxe.