vainandy said:

I'm not referring to rapping. I'm referring to the Fisher Price sound of the music and the attitude.

There are a few good tracks on this album,but it's not one of my favorites.Haven't actually played it in years.

I quite liked Come On at the time, but other than that I think it's horrific.

mb71 said:

I quite liked Come On at the time, but other than that I think it's horrific.

The groove is there, but something is missing with the hook or keyboard flavor or something. It sounds like a drum machine. With live drums (which I think he used on Leno), it's funkier and has more groove to it. But the talk/rap shit is sorta cringy.

vainandy said:

26ten said:

vainandy said:

I'm not referring to rapping. I'm referring to the Fisher Price sound of the music and the attitude.

Do you feel the same about the Exodus album too?

Off topic, but I think the two worst songs on Exodus are the two that were singles: Get Wild and The Good Life. Those sound like a pathetic attempt to emulate Boyz 2 Men. Bland, generic, unoriginal, lifeless, cheesy, plastic, inauthentic. Otherwise I think the album is okay. The only song I really listen to is The Exodus Has Begun.

lurker316 said:

26ten said:

lurker316 said:

Off topic, but I think the two worst songs on Exodus are the two that were singles: Get Wild and The Good Life. Those sound like a pathetic attempt to emulate Boyz 2 Men. Bland, generic, unoriginal, lifeless, cheesy, plastic, inauthentic. Otherwise I think the album is okay. The only song I really listen to is The Exodus Has Begun.

Oh maaaan but Counting The Days is so good haha I asked because NewPower Soul is basically like an update on the P Funk formula almost to a fault, and although people view Exodus as his P Funk album they're really sort of a pair in that way, and with only a few exceptions this is pretty consistent. + I'm hoping for specific issues from Vain Andy cause the thing he said about shit hop doesn't make sense, and his update was evasive. [Edited 10/9/21 8:41am]

I see a lot of P-Funk influences on the Exodus album but other than Freaks On This Side I don´t see many P-Funk sounding songs on NPS.

The Good Life, Count the Days and Get Wild are some of my favorite songs on Exodus .

lurker316 said:

26ten said:

vainandy said: Do you feel the same about the Exodus album too?

Off topic, but I think the two worst songs on Exodus are the two that were singles: Get Wild and The Good Life. Those sound like a pathetic attempt to emulate Boyz 2 Men. Bland, generic, unoriginal, lifeless, cheesy, plastic, inauthentic. Otherwise I think the album is okay. The only song I really listen to is The Exodus Has Begun.

I really like those songs but I do agree that Get Wild sounds a bit cheesy, especially the video where they attack the DJ and destroy his vinyl. The lyrics and Mayté´s adlibs add some extra cheesiness.

But The Good Life is very autobiographical and the music sounds nothing like Boyz 2 Men.

What do you find reminiscent of Boyz 2 Men in those songs?

KoolEaze said:

26ten said:

26ten said:

vainandy said:

I'm not referring to rapping. I'm referring to the Fisher Price sound of the music and the attitude.

Do you feel the same about the Exodus album too?

I like Return of The Bump Squad, Cherry Cherry, and Count The Days.

It's a very good album, though I feel half the album would've sounded better played live. People who don't like the album probably have rockz for brainz.

26ten said:

KoolEaze said:

Out of sheer curiousity.....what exactly do you find clever and cool about that song?

.

I mean, I do like it and prefer it over stuff like Push It Up or I Like Funky Music but I don´t see why you´d consider it clever or cool.

Compositionally the song is insane. I don't know if you are a musician so I'll just sort of describe what I hear: So it starts with the crowd chanting. Already I see a stadium full of people chanting - texturally to hear that, your first response is to mentally see it. It's a really interesting sound musically and it's sort of sharp and fuzzy at the same time. The crowd is on beat and pretty well synchronized. Then they get used as a metronome and the drums and bass hit in at once - but we still hear their echoing voices (now with reverb, which adds a real cool psychedelic feel). Then suddenly these ultimate P funk horns enter with a jolt and are joined by this real dark sounding organ. When the horns drop out the organ continues and Prince's voice enters, but there is an slight atonal effect on his voice that throughout the song gets increasingly dissonant until by the end it sounds like two wacked out voices that are pulling themselves apart. All throughout the bass and drums keep the beat, and the chants are put back in and then removed back and forth. Texturally it's one of his most incredible tracks, and it's the equal of any of his 80's work in my opinion. It would have worked well on SOTT for instance. [Edited 10/7/21 19:23pm]

Thank you for this!

when I hear people diss on Newpower Soul is does tend to make me think they don't really have ears, or at least aren't bothering to use them.

I LOVE Freaks On This Side, for all the reasons you mentioned, it's intensity, its funkiness, the chant, the mood... I love the way it kicks out of Push It Up, which itself builds frantically and is then released into Freaks....

And I ADORE the blend of organic and synthetic instruments throughout this album. The opening track has some insane horn arrangements, as does Freaks. And the way the horns and guitars are contrasted with synths and keyboards and samples, etc, throughout the record is one of the best things about it. It's an album I still find fresh and exhilarating.

Honestly have NO IDEA what people are talking about when they complain that it's plastic and uninspired. Seriously.

This album is SO. MUCH. FUN.

Hated it and made that known vehemently during alt.music.prince days but grew to like half of it quite a bit (titled track, The One, Mad Sex, Until U're In My Pants (wait, Arms) Again, Come On, Wasted Kisses)

[Edited 10/10/21 11:03am]

SantanaMaitreya said:

The thing with these NPG albums is that P was trying to catch the sound of his live band in the studio and that didn't work because he just couldn't resist putting extra sounds on it. I see complaints about Get Wild and I understand, but live, that song was a killer! It's the same for jams like Come On or Like Funky Music: nothing special on record, but on stage it was much better.

PJMcGee said:

Farfunk's concert recollection reminded me of when Prince kicked off a concert in MSG with Push It Up.

25 September 1998

https://www.princevault.c...ember_1998

A charming, stripped-down, breezy, funky album, with the best horns on any Prince record, imo. Weirdly underrated. "One" is worth the price of admission alone. And I wouldn't trust anyone for whom "Freaks" doesn't bring at least a little joy.

Would the whole thing have sounded better with a live band? Maybe, maybe not. I'm happy with what we got.

I've come to love this album, but that took some time.

The title track is a masterpiece, one of his best tracks of the 90's. Those horns, but also the bass (2.40), the variety, the vocals (I like the gemini rising rap), the false ending. This song is over way too soon, it should have been as long as Come.

Strangely, I don't like The One

Freek99999 said:

I've come to love this album, but that took some time.

The title track is a masterpiece, one of his best tracks of the 90's. Those horns, but also the bass (2.40), the variety, the vocals (I like the gemini rising rap), the false ending. This song is over way too soon, it should have been as long as Come.

Strangely, I don't like The One

I prefer other songs on the album but I have heard of someone years ago who became a Prince fan after he heard the title song of the album.

I guess I need to listen to that song again.

langebleu said:

26ten said:

I am going to be experiencing this album again and will he playing it as much as I can. A cursory listen makes me remember how much I love Freaks On This Side and how clever and cool it is - and trippy. This, Come On, and Wasted Kisses are likely the Peaks of the album, but overall it's an album that at once could be way better if he didn't base so much of it around these sort of (dated now) catch phrases but is hysterically underrated. How do you all feel about this record? Is it one you listen to much compared to the rest of his work?

Dig me some Newpower Soul!

KoolEaze said:

not heard this since it came out but i remember wasted kisses being better than the proper album.

there were a lot of good musical touches, great horns, some cool bits here and there, but there was something a bit lightweight about the drums, and the overall production that ruined it. the songs were also not really very strong. and IIRC it wasnt really even much of a band project, it was just prince and kirky j mainly. got to be one of his worst albums.

vainandy said:

26ten said:

vainandy said: There is basically no rapping on it at all haha

I'm not referring to rapping. I'm referring to the Fisher Price sound of the music and the attitude.

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I do agree on the Fisher Price sound.

His sound got lost right there. The following albums all lacked from the same poor sound.

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Love the avatar by the way.

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The horn arrangement on "Freaks On This Side" is insanely good... probably the most complex horn arrangement of any P song.

I really like NPS, always have, although I skip a few tracks: NPS, Until U're in My Arms Again, When U Love Somebody and The One I can do without - all else I really enjoy, including the much-maligned Push It Up.

Oh, and I appear on a 1-second close-up of the Come On video, I was at the Cafe de Paris gig, front row

hyperpessimist said:

The horn arrangement on "Freaks On This Side" is insanely good... probably the most complex horn arrangement of any P song.

I really like NPS, always have, although I skip a few tracks: NPS, Until U're in My Arms Again, When U Love Somebody and The One I can do without - all else I really enjoy, including the much-maligned Push It Up.

Oh, and I appear on a 1-second close-up of the Come On video, I was at the Cafe de Paris gig, front row

Agreed... reminds me of the hornwork(?) on some of 'Songs in the Key of Life'.

Cool about the Paris gig!