I just noticed something on the cover of my Miles Davis Bitches Brew CD. Above the title is the following:

Directions In Music By Miles Davis

Does anyone think that Prince sees Xpectation and NEWS in a similar way as the groundbreaking Bitches Brew? Like using the word "experience" to describe his music in the mid 90's he was borrowing from Hendrix. Perhaps he's borrowing this "New Directions In Music By Prince" from Miles?

I'm pretty sure Miles is one of Prince's heroes and I guess he would like to be remembered in the same way as Miles: a musical innovator. So yes, I think he got the idea from Miles...

If he's borrowing the phrase from Miles, it's completely stupid of Prince, especially with this album. Miles just called his 'directions in music,' and then went ahead and practically invented a new form of music. But he didn't call it 'new,' he just suggested it was a path. Prince calls his 'new directions,' which suggests something even further than Miles was going. But where does he go? If he's trying to innovate with NEWS the same way Miles innovated with Bitches Brew, it's a horrible failure, amplified by Prince's description of the album.

It wasn't just Bitches Brew that Miles had this subtitle on. It was on many of his albums from 1967-75. I think Prince is using it as somewhat of a reference to Miles, but I don't think he's trying to be "groundbreaking" or anything, it's just a nice little homage. Damn, why do so many of you hate Xpectation and NEWS? It's only music, and it's all good!

Yes, Miles used 'directions in music' for several albums, a series of his electric fusion before it became 'fusion' period recordings. Several were groundbreaking, 'Bitches Brew' and 'On The Corner' in particular. If 'New directions' is intended pay any sort of homage to Miles, at least Prince could back releasing something that tries to be new, instead of this half-baked collection that would have been soggy 35 years ago when Miles was busy reinventing instrumental music. A whole album imitating 'Cutz' (Kamasutra) would be WAY better.

And who hated Xpectation in this post? It's on par with his best instrumental recordings. I posted a large response about his instrumental career at the end of this post. Just because NEWS and Xpectation were released consecutively doesn't mean they're the same piece, and I wish Orgers wouldn't lump them together like that.

Finally, "it's only music"? Don't be so cavalier - that's like saying "it's only air," or "it's only lovemaking" - these are things that keep people ALIVE.

I think Xpectation was much more cohesive than NEWS and thus more enjoyable IMO. NEWS is creative and I don't dislike it per say but I just can't find myself listening to it as much as TRC or Xpectation. It's too much all over the place...

toejam said:

the fact that he called Xpectation an experiment, and experiments are basicaly done to discover something new, shows that Prince was intending to pass this shite off as something new, which the term "groundbreaking" is usually used to describe, which in turn disputes your theories on your intimate knowledge of Prince's motives.

he actually believes he has created an experimental or "groundbreaking" piece of music, because that is what he has said.