Ok,so far 2004 has been pretty great for Prince fans , a string of excellent TV performances ,
including a reunion with Wendy , some fine live performances and interviews culminating in his induction into the Hall Of Fame ,a funky 3 song set and some quite splendid guitar playing on
"While My guitar gently weeps " which is generally acknowledged to have kicked ass.
People are talking , even raving , about Prince again , his music , his sheer energy as a live
performer , his importance in popular culture over the last 25 years. But this has all been going on while theres been no new product out ,Musicology is still a "future release". Yes
some of you will get your shiny free copy at the concerts , the majority will wait for the
downloads or some possible official release by a record company thats yet to be confirmed or denied by people in the know.But will all this hype about Prince carry on through until the eventual release of the new album or wll the fickle public have forgotten it all by then.If the album doesnt live up to the hype he's generated around himself , or even if it does but the promotional machine goes wrong , will all this great PR he's done over the last few weeks have been for nothing . Should he have released Musicology earlier in the year to coincide
with all the promotional appearances? Prince has placed himself on the verge of a potentially
huge comeback. Does anyone fear it might still go wrong for him?

I think his timing is going very well, with such a huge build-up right before the start of the tour. The spanner in the works is the album, and he really needs to get that out soon. However, it may not be so urgent, as the US tour dates are spread over five months (! is this normal? !)

This year will be a very big year for Prince, even if the album's timing is bad, as the word on the street is already out that Prince is back and he seems to be selling out venues.