It really was a period of transition - coming off the huge success of 3121 in 2006 , 21 nights tour/planet earth album in 2007 , Indigo Nights in 2008, Lotus Flower/ MPLS sound in 2009 & 20TEN in..err 2010 ! Followed by a 4 year album break until 2014.

2006 - 2011 must have been hugely productive & I suspect the vault during this period will be filled some stellar material.

Tour wise we have the 20Ten tour in Europe & of course the Welcome 2 series from 2010 - 2012 across America, Europe, Canada, Australia [in 2012]

The options for the estate here are bloody HUGE! Lets dream because we know it 100% won't happen!

We can have a deluxe set of:

1] disc of vault tracks from 2006 - 2011

2] disc of vault tracks from 2012 - 2014 pre Plectrum

3] Welcome 2 Global compilation Dsic x2

4] Welcome 2 DVD

5] Welcome 2 America - the album

What do you think we will actually get?...I suspect just the album as intended!

they will give us what they give us. which is never enough, for us. but oh hey, let's just see what we get this time around. if they ever start a site to release more projects that are not for the big public, me and my card will be waiting.

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

Lets dream because we know it 100% won't happen!

my comment to say "no comment"

nayroo2002 said:

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

Lets dream because we know it 100% won't happen!

my comment to say "no comment"

Some things happen faster than we can think of......" sometimes things happen in April".

outtakes from the mid to latter 2000s don't fit with the W2A concept, really, but i agree that in addition to the supposedly finished studio album and a live gig they should also offer any stray outtakes of the era 2010-2011 that may #1 fit within the scope of the w2a project as envisioned by prince and #2 probably aren't going to be released otherwise for a long time, if ever.

Im well over the sign of the times deluxe, as good as it was. I need a new prince fix! Please estate pull your finger out!

OperatingThetan said:

I seem to recall Morris Hayes saying that there were around ten new albums recorded around that general time period (2010-12). It seems he may have had more involvement in that material having produced the Welcome 2 America album.

There was probably another one sometime in 2012, which included tracks mentioned in the poem sent Funkenberry (1 in Your Heart, Screwdriver, U Will B etc.). Someone saw a couple of these tracks show up as downloads for a few mins on the then website prince2013.com, IIRC.

lustmealways said:

outtakes from the mid to latter 2000s don't fit with the W2A concept, really, but i agree that in addition to the supposedly finished studio album and a live gig they should also offer any stray outtakes of the era 2010-2011 that may #1 fit within the scope of the w2a project as envisioned by prince and #2 probably aren't going to be released otherwise for a long time, if ever.

fair point...right now I'd take anything!

OperatingThetan said:

I seem to recall Morris Hayes saying that there were around ten new albums recorded around that general time period (2010-12). It seems he may have had more involvement in that material having produced the Welcome 2 America album.

The mind boggles doesn't it. They just need to open the damn vaut before we get too old & too broke!

Romeoblu said:

Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will get an announcement with full track and package details plus a track from the set made available l

..............................something is cooking in the skillet....It's burning..... it's burning !!!!!

[Edited 4/6/21 6:23am]

Yeah someone on Schkopi is saying "get ready". Plus, Mathieu Bitton has started a 3,2,1 countdown on his FB page, but this could be something totally unrelated though...

[Edited 4/6/21 6:49am]

Marco81 said:

love2thenines2003 said:

In two weeks time it is the fifth anniversary of Prince's death. Claiming "something is coming" is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Romeoblu said:

Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will get an announcement with full track and package details plus a track from the set made available l

lemme predict some of this shit right now:

album is 7 tracks, clocks in at 29 minutes

howe will state in an interview that there is also a 12 track version of the album in the vault but they decided the 7 track one is probably the best representation of what prince was going for at that time or something like that. when asked about the other 5 tracks he will say he can't talk about them but other people who were there or feature on those tracks will come out to say they were the best work he ever did and sounded like nothing else before or after.

the live show will be the only show in the vault from this tour that was incomplete on the tapes and had to be stitched together from various sources (perhaps even an excellent quality bootleg) since, again, the estate and those involved in the project feel strongly that this is the one particular show that highlights everything that the Welcome 2 concept is about. turns out this is also the show where he performed zero surprise deep cuts.

there won't be a dvd. there was supposed to be one at one point. howe can't go into the details, becasuse nda. a 4 minute portion of the dvd will be playing for vip members of the Paisley Park tours - visitors will report that the 4 minute portion 'will blow Ur mind.' and is 'a return to form'.

the artwork will be 'ok' and won't hold a candle to the fanmade 'tracklist + artwork' posted to the org a week before the actual artwork and tracklist is revealed.

we've been here before people.

oh and let's not forget another likely scenario: mr hayes, who has said he produced the album, will not be consulted for the release and will later state that this version released is not the one he worked on for/with prince and that the 7 songs here are all smothered in additional production by prince that he added at some later date, whereas the original tracks prince and morris recorded were simply amazing (and here i would tend to believe morris completely since the man speaks sense). he'll let us know he reached out to the estate to offer some help and insight but never heard back.

let's hazard a guess:



WELCOME 2 AMERICA
HOT SUMMER
RICH FRIENDS
1000 LIGHT YEARS FROM HERE
RUNNING GAME (SON OF A SLAVE OWNER)*
CAUSE & EFFECT
CHECK THE RECORD**
SAME PAGE DIFFERENT BOOK
STAND UP AND B STRONG***
WHEN SHE COMES
BORN 2 DIE


still excited?

first single: 1000 LIGHT YEARS FROM HERE, single art features a pic from 2014.

second single: HOT SUMMER: REMIXED BY AND FEATURING DOJA CAT

(*) only available on physical cd copy through Estate website exclusive.

(**) Itunes bonus track exclusive

(***) Vinyl only bonus track

initial upload on all streaming platforms will contain a 'mistake' where a song segues into another song that is no longer on the album. will be corrected within 24 hours of initial release.

last few guesses:

RUNNING GAME clocks in at 0:53 seconds, it's more of a segue.

CHECK THE RECORD has lead vox by shelby and elisa but has a short sweet rap by prince.

whatever. i'm still excited to the point of bursting that we'll get to hear "BORN 2 DIE" which from what Morris has said about it sounds like a beautiful song. and at this point i'm dying to hear even just ONE, ONE SINGLE 'NEW' SONG from prince.

oh and who could forget:

a day or two after the album is announced there will be a good/excellent quality audience recording popping up of the studio version of title track WELCOME 2 AMERICA as it was being played over the PA before 1 of the live shows.

probably including a verse and some extremely wicked guitar wizzardry that will not be present on the version that will be released on the album.



this shit just writes itself

my only serious prediction is this:

album opens with

WELCOME 2 AMERICA

album closes with

WELCOME 2 THE FREEDOM GALAXY

this isnt an archive release per se, its an unreleased finished album so i expect there will not be any big deluxe edition, just the album, like with piano and a microphone.

one day i hope someone does find the good songs from this era and release them, though its unlikely, and its really subjective as to what is good and what isnt for most prince listeners. so who knows. i know he never stopped recording, but how much of what he did at this stage in his career was that special, idk.