4*

https://www.theguardian.c...ica-review

Six years before his death, Prince’s career was in a peculiar position. He had restored his unimpeachable reputation as a live performer, bolstered by his half-time appearance at 2007’s Super Bowl and his extraordinary 21-night stand at London’s O2 Arena the same year. But his recording career doggedly refused to follow suit. It was in a better state than it had been a decade before – when Prince seemed content to release endless collections of instrumental jazz-funk jams to an audience that had shrunk to diehard fans – but his much-touted albums Musicology and 3121 had never quite recaptured the glory of his imperial phase.

He seemed locked in a cycle of underwhelming releases – Planet Earth, Lotusflow3r, MPLSound – distributed via newspapers and deals with big-box retailers. Things bottomed out with 2010’s 20TEN, which didn’t even warrant a release in the US, and in the UK was given away free with the Daily Mirror. In fairness, it got one laudatory review, proclaiming it “his best album in 23 years” and “as good as anything that anyone has done”.

Read the rest of the article at the link above

Thanks for the effort but someone has posted a link to it in the Welcome 2 America thread

antonb said:

Thanks for the effort but someone has posted a link to it in the Welcome 2 America thread

Oh noooooo!!! I really should be punished.

Colonized Mind [...] the latter nothing special beyond the fact that its lyrics foreshadowed the rise of the alt-right

Ok directly into the trash you go.

Poor journalism.

It's been a long time since I've read any pop music journalism review that says anything interesting. Do people really give any value to reviews? If so, why? Or are they there just to reinforce a ball-park mainstream opinion? Because this review certainly does that. His best album since 1996?

"release endless collections of instrumental jazz-funk jams"

one album, right? Not endless. NEWS. Doesn't even get a mention by title in the review but gets a Grammy nom. Yes, it's dull, yes, when listening to it, it feels endless but.... it was (thankfully) only one album.

"It was genuinely depressing to see the once uncontested, no-further-questions genius produced by 80s pop"

SOTT received mixed (the NME review still sticks in my mind even now) to good reviews at the time, ATWIAD less good. The genius accolade was still gathering pace at that point. It's only since Prince's passing that the genius appellation is becoming uncontested.

"one of his legendary unheard albums – not 1986’s Camille"

Just a thirty second look at the wikipedia page for that album shows:

1 Released officially 2020

2 Released officially 1987

3 Released officially 1987

4 Released officially 1989

5 Released officially 1987

6 Released officially 1988

7 Released officially 1987

8 Released officially 1994 (even though the bootleg heard by millions by the end of 1987)

How is that unheard??????

Ok I'll switch off my grumpy mode now.

Petridis is a pretty decent journo, and he's listened to it, I think it's a pretty decent review all in all, not sure why you are so down on it.

Makes me excited to hear it in full.