I like the minor/major changes.
but, i think it's missing a nasty guitar solo!

The leaked version probably had channels muted and would have sounded like a very naked, underproduced demo in the context of an album. Not the "wow" nakedness of when doves cry or tambourine- just a naked underproduced draft.

I hope and i truly believe nobody actually added music to prince's tracks but i guess this mix is reimagining the prince demo, enhancing it and bringing it to a reasonably professional sounding "real" song.

Can't say i hate it and can't say i feel violated.

A minor outtake, but still a SONG - not a fart like some tony M alternate rap over an existing beat, know what i mean?

And yeah, a weird lazy concept for an album

btw I only just heard sandra st victor's original
a. she's amazing
b. great tune
c. hardly any resemblence to prince's (it's almost insulting on his behlaf. but he clearly loved her stuff).

NICKthebrick said:

Feels I'm in the minority but I much, much prefer the version we've had for years to this new one

I had the same reaction as back when Crystal Ball came out with a reworked version of Sexual Suicide that was vastly different from the bootleg we knew. It took some getting used to and now I love it.

With Stone, I was so used to the version we already had, I found the addition of synth orchestra unsettling at first, but now I'm getting familiar with it and guess it's not so horrific.

The new version is supposedly an outtake from the early 1996 configuration of Emancipation and I think the sound fits as Prince was into synth orchestrations at the time.

With both With This Tear and Stone being originals by Prince, my fear that Timeless would be Frankenstein mixes like Originals have been calmed, and I'm actually looking forward to the release even though I'm as disappointed as everyone else in that it's only a few tracks that seem like a drop in the ocean of what's in the Vault.

[Edited 6/4/26 22:01pm]

scififilmnerd said:

FragileUndertow said:

Mediocre. It's okay but it's a throwaway demo. Didn't need to be released. I was hoping for something COMPLETE like "We;come 2 America".

You are completely right to question the "cover" label. While the track was originally written by Sandra St. Victor, Tom Hammer, and Jules Van Even as "Nothing Left To Give", Prince didn't just record a straight cover.

When Sandra St. Victor sent him her unreleased Sanctuary album tape in 1995, Prince fell in love with her songwriting but completely Prince-ified the tracks. For "geometry dash subzero" he added his own distinct musical elements, altered the lyrical flow, and rebuilt the instrumentation from the ground up. Because he rearranged it so heavily to fit his own sonic universe, it feels more like a heavy re-imagining or a collaborative reconstruction than a standard cover song

lucillecorley said:

fucking bots

its pretty good. the thing is, if they have, and i dont know if they have, remixed this to sound more contemporary, it still doesnt. it sounds like a demo. and it still sounds like the 90s. which is no bad thing as in the 2020s, a lot of kids are all into the 80s and 90s. i like it though. prince did good covers of female artists on songs like another lover, soul sanctuary, or this one. i listened to the previous leak and its not that different really, just slightly better quality. but it sounds like something that you just cant really make that much different. the bass and rhythm guitar sounds a bit higher in this version, thats all. if this was on TGE or emancipation it would have made those albums just a bit better.

[Edited 6/5/26 7:57am]

NICKthebrick said:

So what are people's thoughts on Stone? I've seen a number of people refer to it as a cover version but musically it bares very little resemblance to Sandra St Victor's Nothing left To Give. I think this version is better than the leaked version. I'm pretty sure the new musical elements not present o the leaked version have not been posthumously added as I've seen suggested. I think it's solid little pop song and would have been a worthy addition to Emancipation.

It's the version he recorded/gave to Marva King

I love the song, not the keyboard

I like the lyrics. Always have. I think I can see why Prince would like the song. There's some rare honesty about his feelings of loneliness (words which may or may not have come from his mind).

I don't think it's any secret that Prince had a tendency to overproduce a lot of his music. I think this qualifies. I prefer the bootleg.

The released version seems to have the vocals buried slightly. Perhaps this was the closest thing to a final version without being a final version. Or perhaps the estate had someone tweak it? - Again some transparency from the estate would be nice here.

I like the new version well enough, but I feel that funky guitar hook is a bit more buried in the mix than on the demo which is a pity. The guitar also has a different tone colour (effect?) and I prefer the raggedy sounding original.

I'm just pathetically grateful to have both🤣

FragileUndertow said:

Not a fan of that click track / Cow bell ? Feels generic. I feel like prince would have not added it, but what do I know. Maybe the track will grow on me in time

Same cowbell is on the boots I have.