switters said:

I REALlY like this album! I like every single track. It’s got a soulful, easy, breezy, groovy vibe throughout, and it’s a perfect summer album. Absolutely love the background vocalists, they are the magic ingredient here, just stunning singing, so much so that I don’t mind them being high in the mix—it still FEELS like Prince. Prince isn’t reinventing himself here. He’s just jamming some funky grooves with live musicians, and it feels good to me. Son of a Slave Master, 1000 Light Years, Same Page, Yes, One Day…these are my favorites. How can you not groove to these soulful tracks? My only issue is the hard-to-ignore flawed clicking sound in Stand Up. That’s just fkd up that they left that in. I’d listen to this record over 20Ten any day. It’s more soulful. It’s more listenable from start to finish than Musicology or Planet Earth. I thought ArtOfficialAge was the last great/inventive-sounding Prince album, enjoyable start to finish. I’d put Welcome 2 America in a category similar to New Power Soul…a little album under the radar that I just really enjoy listening to. It’s no Purple Rain. There’s no Prince inventiveness. It’s just good to listen to. And it stands out with the ladies and their soulful vocals. Three stars. For those of you saying it shouldn’t have been released, I don’t get that. I am so grateful to have it!! New Prince music that FEELS so good.

Great review.

2 ½ stars.

coldcoffeeandcocacola said:

2

After the 80's Prince elevated his live performances and became one of the greatest live performers to the very end.

But his studio work, as with this album here, were pretty stale and predictable. The antithesis of his former self.

Like most Prince abits this gets better the more I listen.

Not sure because the Deluxe and Gold Vinyl i pre-ordered 3+ months ago haven't arrived yet. Looks like the Deluxe is arriving by middle of this week and the gold vinyl next Saturday. Unacceptable especially since they charge for shipping. I'm done ordering from Prince.com. This happens every time.

* * *

I put it on par with 20Ten, Plectrumelectrum, MPLSound - the lower tier of Prince albums from the 2000s. But it's still enjoyable. It's definitely better than HITNRUN#1, which is my least favourite from this period.

switters said:

I REALlY like this album! I like every single track. It’s got a soulful, easy, breezy, groovy vibe throughout, and it’s a perfect summer album. Absolutely love the background vocalists, they are the magic ingredient here, just stunning singing, so much so that I don’t mind them being high in the mix—it still FEELS like Prince. Prince isn’t reinventing himself here. He’s just jamming some funky grooves with live musicians, and it feels good to me. Son of a Slave Master, 1000 Light Years, Same Page, Yes, One Day…these are my favorites. How can you not groove to these soulful tracks? My only issue is the hard-to-ignore flawed clicking sound in Stand Up. That’s just fkd up that they left that in. I’d listen to this record over 20Ten any day. It’s more soulful. It’s more listenable from start to finish than Musicology or Planet Earth. I thought ArtOfficialAge was the last great/inventive-sounding Prince album, enjoyable start to finish. I’d put Welcome 2 America in a category similar to New Power Soul…a little album under the radar that I just really enjoy listening to. It’s no Purple Rain. There’s no Prince inventiveness. It’s just good to listen to. And it stands out with the ladies and their soulful vocals. Three stars. For those of you saying it shouldn’t have been released, I don’t get that. I am so grateful to have it!! New Prince music that FEELS so good.

I've only listened to the album once so I might be wrong, but I think the clicking is something to do with the drumming (by Prince I think) like he's using a drum stick to hit on the metal rim on top of one of the drums maybe?

im giving it a TWO and thats being generous

and seriously FFS the people trying to say the clicking is there on purpose, you obviously never lived through the last 20 years of rotting CDR's

[Edited 8/2/21 0:26am]

fragglerock said:

im giving it a TWO and thats being generous

and seriously FFS the people trying to say the clicking is there on purpose, you obviously never lived through the last 20 years of rotting CDR's

[Edited 8/2/21 0:26am]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found this clicking. For a moment I thought I was going to have to send my CD back to Amazon because there was something wrong with it ... it sounded exactly like a CDR that's on the way out (and I've made and lost tons of them over the years!). Why the hell did they leave that in there?

It's 2 stars for me. The positive reviews got my hopes up, but I put most of them down to the reverence most journos now have for Prince and the reluctance to say anything negative about him.

For me it was very forgettable, just a bit m'eh, and I can see why Prince left it in the vault. Considering some of the stuff he chose to release in the later years (which also wasn't that strong) they should have respected his wishes.

W2A is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Very few of the songs work by themselves, and there's not a strong single (maybe 1000 Lightyears From Here). But collectively, the record works as a statement. It's political and opinionated. Some of the opinions are questionable, but still...damn.

Hot Summer and Same Page Different Book sucked as singles (can we consider them singles?), but they work exceptionally well in context of the rest of the album.

Taken by itself as its own thing, and without comparing W2A to any of Prince's "masterpieces," it's a 5/5.

AhPook said:

OperatingThetan said:

AhPook said:

W2A is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Very few of the songs work by themselves, and there's not a strong single (maybe 1000 Lightyears From Here). But collectively, the record works as a statement. It's political and opinionated. Some of the opinions are questionable, but still...damn.

Hot Summer and Same Page Different Book sucked as singles (can we consider them singles?), but they work exceptionally well in context of the rest of the album.

Taken by itself as its own thing, and without comparing W2A to any of Prince's "masterpieces," it's a 5/5.

Exactly! It works so well as a cohesive whole and should be considered as such. Any other approach is reductive, as it would be with The Rainbow Children or Lovesexy.

It's a real statement to the times. I wonder how I would have taken the lyrics in 2011; now they really resonate. W2A feels like a distictly American album in a way that most of his others aren't. It continues the politics of "Family Name," anticipates "Baltimore," and feels especially prescient of summer 2020. I especially like that Prince namechecks Benjamin Benneker in the final track, although it took me a second because he puns it with Benjamin Franklin.

3.5 so far.

Cohesive album, great production and band. Only missed stronger songs, but it´s very enjoyable to listen to.

** Mediocre. A couple keeps.


Sounds about right to me. Glad to have it though.

[Edited 8/3/21 6:08am]

I've listened to it 3 times now. And after much consideration, I'm going to give it 3 stars.

.

Prince and I were starting to part ways musically with "Musicology", but I kept returning just to see what he was up to. The particular style and vibe of most of "W2A" isn't exactly for me. And that's fine. Prince was following his muse. He could do what he wanted.

.

Having said that, there were some fun tunes on this new/old album. "Check The Record" is the standout. It sounds like it could have been recorded during the "Chaos And Disorder" session.

.

But every song on "W2A" was better than anything on "20Ten". Yeesh...

.

Interesting how he started so many albums with slow, murky, semi-spoken meditations. "Crystal Ball", "3121", "Welcome 2 America"... all cut from the same cloth.

.

I got the SDE version, just for the included book. I will probably never listen to the vinyl, and the pack of collectibles will stay sealed. I'm a sucker for liner notes. Love 'em.

.

Anyway, like I said, a solid 3 out of 5 stars.

It's always interesting to see how people rate albums! For example, the post right above this hates 20Ten . . . I just listened to it in full yesterday and it's so much better than W2A (IMHO).

20Ten . . . *** (solid album)
W2A . . . ** (mediocre). I might give it 2.5 stars.

After this initial "first few weeks" excitement wears off, I doubt I will listen to W2A much as a whole, start to finish. As for tracks I would eventually seek out to listen to, 1,000 Light Years From Here, 1010 (Rin Tin Tin) and Running Game (Son Of A Slave Master).

Additional note: I don't hate this album. I enjoy it just fine.

We are comparing a Prince album to other Prince albums, some of which have set the bar so high for not only Prince, but pop culture!

1/2, listened to it on youtube.