Last night I was in the process of making a mix CD for a co-worker (which turned out to be harder than i thought). She is a casual listener of prince but is digging the musicology single and plans to buy the CD. So last night i ended up listening to a lot of prince in hopes of finding a group of songs to present to her, i gave up after puffing on a lil green bud but i made the following observations.

1) How cool is it that are 2 different versions of the rave album? I consider the original 1 to be an alright prince CD and listen to it frequently at work. The club version i hadn't listened to in a while. Damn what funky stuff. Those remixes are great. Wouldn't u love if Prince always put out the same album twice but altered.

2) Things like Xpectation and C-note prove how much of a "pure" musician prince is. They don't pander to anyone. They come completely out of nowhere without any real commercial potential. So they are entirely something that prince needs/wants to do. Those who say that prince has lost his edge just don't see that now he is expermenting in different areas whether we as individuals like it or not is irrelevant. Years from now N.E.W.S will be considered classic material. It is as much a conceptual masterwork as Lovesexy, TRC, Parade or the black album.

3) The best thing about Prince music is that the music is never static. Take almost any song and notice that Prince is continually reinterpeting from the first note to the last. So just when think u have your head around the song he introduces a new sound or turn in the music.

4) As good as Musicology is TRC is a masterwork. If u don't judge it on terms of your religious or racial bias and more as a piece of ART to be savored, u can see this is a master creator at work. Some of the songs on there are incredibly dense pieces of work. Not everybody can deal with the complexity of arrangement he is presenting. Its overwhelming. Its almost like his brain is working on some level most of us can't attain. Recently Terry Lewis or Jimmy Jam said that Prince hears notes we do not. I believe this to be true. What better way to describe genius.

5) The scariest part of all this is I don't see an end to his talent. There is no way after producing all of the music he has that he should be able to knock out a great great piece of work like the musicology CD. I don't know maybe we really or just now seeing prince in his prime. Listen to the lyrics of undisputed (i know some hate the song). He's not lying. peace orgers.

damn somebody say something (good or bad lol)

Nicely written Tricky99....

I concur

Your point on #5 is just what I was thinking.

I've yet to hear Musicology, although I heard the lead-off single weeks ago. But there are enough Prince fans online and offline that I know whose opinions I hold in high esteem, so I'm figuring I'll dig Musicology. Just as I thought I would dig TRC before I heard it and many were regarding it as his best work in years. I couldn't care less about the uptight attitude some have about its religious rhetoric, and/or their misinterpretation of it. The only track on NEWS I'm not enamored with is "North," but the rest of the album makes up for it. It's stick-to-my-ribs-Fusion.

One thing I find funny about certain Orgers: a couple of them straight out tell you by making multiple threads per day that the Musicology album is gonna be crap (before they've even heard it), then backtrack after hearing it and say they only said that about the single. Gotta love the bitter, jaded, hypocrisy of those who judge something without knowing a damn thing about it.

i really like the SOUND of TRC.. and i want to love it, but....

for me, the material just isn't there. There are only 2 classic songs, in my opinion: She Loves Me 4 Me and Last December.

The Work, Everlasting Now, Family Name and 1+1+1=3 are all okay... rather pedestrian, in my opinion. The rest of the album is filler. Good sounding filler, yes. Sometimes interesting. But filler nonetheless.

not only is the rainbow children his best album ever.. it is the greatest album ever recorded... and i'm an athiest... the god shit does nothing for me... its just an absolutely brilliant album... i look at the religion aspect as his inpiration in making that as other artists may use drugs as an inspiration... i dont do drugs so does that mean i can't appreciate songs about them or from them.. great art is great art.. and a truly open minded person will look at it for what it is.. not what it says that you dont agree with..

the rainbow children is the greatest album EVER recorded... hands down...

if you dont see it, you're lookin too closely.