Just a fun party album, the running out of creativity, an embarrassment, a cool little album.

What is this album to you?

its a masterpiece


F

the

nay

sayers

shausler said:

The '95 version was...
that '98 release?

I just see it was just a fun album...

i don't care for it too much. live, the material is great! i just don't think it has a lot of personality on record. i did love it when it came out though...

I think Prince made this album in an attempt to free himself of any artistic expectations his audience might have. It was him trying not to take his music seriously. I think listening to it, he almost sounds 'refreshed'. It was certainly an album designed for background music at a party, nothing more.

Overall, I don't think it's crap, as many say. Compared to virtually every pop album released over the past 5 years, this one shines. However, I don't think it extends past the levels of mediocrity either. But... I think that was the point. To make an album that didn't have to be critiqued.

To be sure, this is a 3 star album, or a 6 or 7/10. A solid effort that marked a new form, a new spiritual direction in Prince's music. I have also found this about Rave. Actually, I could see the two as a double album, with Beautiful Strange included of course. Speaking of which, I think the Beautiful Strange video really effectively shows the light that was intended to be shone on this album.

I would agree with many that aristically, this was a low point in Prince's career, but I can't for the life of me ever imagine comparing it to albums that are truly bad.

Ummm...I know there seems 2 be a "group" of people who dislike "NEW POWER SOUL" and include it on "the list" of worst PRINCE albums. SO, I would LIKE 2 say something POSITIVE about this wonderful creation.

NEW POWER SOUL is an excellent and well produced record. It has great FUNK like the The title track, "PUSH IT UP", "COME ON" and "EYE LIKE FUNKY MUSIC". In fact, "NPS" ONCE again displays PRINCE's "still relevance" 4 creating nothing more than FANTASTIC pop songs like "WHEN U LOVE SOMEBODY" and "UNTIL Y'RE IN MY ARMS AGAIN".

Play this album 2 it's fullest discibles and ONE can't help but BUMP 2 "MAD SEX" and "COME ON". The album has GREAT, feel good jams that can make 'JAM a hot summer ride' including "PUSH IT UP", "NEW POWER SOUL" and "FREAKS ON THIS SIDE".

OH! AND NEVER 4get the little surpise bonus at the end - :Wasted Kisses"

*** When I used 2 live in Los Angels, I attended a few PRINCE concerts of importance. I noticed so called "FAMS" outside "socializing" talking about how PRINCE's music of late "SUCKS" - "NEW POWER SOUL" sucks etc.

Now these so called PRINCE "critics" I noticed are some on this here org - the thing is "AFTER" thier "speaches" and thier little audience would leave they were jamming and LOVING the "NPS" album when others or themselves played it from thier cars and ESPECIALLY when PRINCE himself played it LIVE...I won't name names or shall I say "org names"... ; ) Sometimes I wonder if the ONLY way 2 be an elitest in the PRINCE FAM world is to take part in the "this is the PRINCE cd suck list Band Wagon TREND".

hmmm something 2 ponder...

But, in the end..."U can say it's 7 and I say it's 11 STILL Eye Wish U HEAVEN"

p.s.
"PUSH IT UP!"

The album was saved by "The One" and "Wasted Kisses" for me... Never really appreciated the rest of it, until I saw how "Mad Sex" and "Come On" lit up the dance floor at a club where the DJ played it. Those two are actually two of Prince's last electro/synth funk uptempo dance tracks that he released on CD... so I'd say it was a party record.

i think it just seems like a bad album when people compare it to the other stuff prince has done... but if you compare it with the other stuff that was coming out at the time, it's a pretty damn funky album that suffers from some bad production and a few bad cuts... a different drummer would've helped and he could have lost a few of the ballads ("when u love somebody" and "until ur in my arms again" come to mind)... he should've stuck to the upbeat jams and let "the one" be the only slow jam...

and i could've done without all those damn blank tracks leading up to "wasted kisses"...

NewPowerSoul was the final goodbye to public success.
He killed his remaining non-core fan base.
The bad thing: NewPowerSoul wasn't a pleaser for his hardcore fan base, either.

When he released Rave, there were only his hardcore fans left to buy it so it bummed.

It will have a special place in my heart, as he came to Europe to tour and he gave me my 2nd best concert experience, including Lenny and Larry.

And oh! That guitarjam in Tivoli (is the concert I am talking about) still resonates in my soul!

I'll keep it simple...

Musically Funky, yes, super Funky at times! BUT! But, the cover, the theme, the photography, the overall design and typography... just not up there.

The NewPowerSoul term had this great positive spiritual feel when used in Lovesexy, that era. But here he was miles far from the artistic/spiritual he had set that up as.

It was New Power Soul with Prince holding a mic and it wasn't named after him but rather New Power Generation, HUH? And hoochie legs in the back, it was just kind of messy.

So it was a party album, and not to be taken seriously, but he was on the cover, it was. And shoot down preconceptions? It was Prince with the gun mic again! Ala Diamonds and Pearls!

I haven't bought the album yet, imagine. I just pick it up in the used record stores and have seen it at NPGMC but, I'm just NOT moved to buy it.


.oOo.
[This message was edited Wed May 21 0:18:38 PDT 2003 by FlyingCloudPassenger]

EllisDee said:

That's exactly my opinion about the NPS album!

Personally I love it all the way through, with the exception of Shoo-Bee-Doo, which doesn't do much for me.

It is pretty duff when put next to some of Prince's other albums, especially some of the 80s albums where he was at a creative peak.

But I've always enjoyed the album, it's a fun little pop record, quite throw-away, but I like throw-away too

It also reminds me of the summer of 1998 when Prince toured, and I got to attend my first aftershow at the Hippodrome, and got to see Chaka Khan live at Brixton Academy. Just for taking me back there it feels like a special album.

I think it's nice. I like the jams 'New power soul' and 'Come on'. PS. How did the 95 version go?

CAMILLE4U said:

It's on Exodus.

richb8 said:

Cloudbuster said:

Oh, sorry I was confused. Someone mentioned that the 95 version is better than 98. That's what they must of meant.

I was thinking about another album. There was an alternative ending to Exodus where a voice says 'Tune in to the new album, The NPGs New power soul, coming soon on NPG record.

That album was what I was asking about, but it probably never exsisted (not fully anyway)

I hated that song on Exodus. The whole album was great but that one jam was sooo repetitive.

The 98 version of that song was kinda cool.

I really like this album. Seems like it was something that Prince had a good time putting together. Nothing earthshattering, except maybe The One and Come On (remix), but all-in-all, a nice piece of work that I can groove to.

Sure isn't his worst. Come on, The One and Wasted Kisses give it exactly 3 more good songs than C&D and The Truth had. It's also better than Rave IMO.
[This message was edited Wed May 21 9:08:15 PDT 2003 by intha916]

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

Yesss. I took my screen name back in 96 when I first got online inspired by "NewPowerSoul" being invoked in Lovesexy. It was like he created his own genre of music and gave it a name unto itself.

While "Newpower Soul" in the "Exodus" album was pretty cool in a Brand New Heavies kinda way, and more successful in capturing the vibe of NPS than the 1998 release was, I think naming a song or album "Newpower Soul" is as difficult as naming a song or album "Jazz" or "Rock"... it's too difficult to capture that vibe.

"Newpower Soul" (the term, not the album or either 96 or 98 songs) will always be to me the name of the sound that Prince crafted.

NuPwrSoul said:

Right! Prince created a new genre of music in '88 with "NewPower SOul"! He should of promoted that even to this day really, it would go along so well with the club. It's still all Newpower Soul to me!

But then again, he may have been expressing the actual empowerment of one's soul with a "new" personal/spiritual "power"...