Been listening to some of my Prince albums, remembering that he is my favourite artist, and anticipating the new album. Seen plenty of mixed responses to this one, mostly positive but what about the rest of his post Slave material...?

Got quite a few gaps in the collection, I guess I was pretty cynical after NPS and haven't bought anything since. I want to get a flavour of what he's been doing since 98 and pick up some of the essentials (if any!).

Please post your mini reviews of Crystal Ball/Truth, Rave Un2/In2, One Night Alone, ONA...Live, Rainbow Children, NEWS, plus anything I've missed out! I know that there's loads of npgmc stuff too but I can't download em cause I use a Mac(os9), still I'm interested in what they're like and how they fit in the jigsaw.

Thanks!

jimmyreeve said:

well let's see... here's my 2 cents on the post NPS stuff:

Crystal Ball - overall a disappointment, despite it containing some great material. Some of it is throwaway stuff that should have stayed in the Vault, especially with such great material still unreleased. Also, each of the 3 discs is too short, especially for a compiltation. The sequencing is very random and doesn't present the material in the best light. That being said, there is essential stuff on it that is worth having in perfect CD quality, like of course "Crystal Ball", "Crucial" and a very funky live version of "Days of Wild"

The Truth - acoustic based material. some very cool tracks, but nothing very earthshattering, in my opinion. The strongest track is probably "Comeback" which is a beautiful, heartbreaking song, but very short. Overall the Truth has never made much of an impact with me.

Rave un2 - A potentially great album ruined by bad sequencing and having a handful of real duds that bring the album down ("Hot wit U", "Everyday is a winding Road"). The titletrack would have been better served by being on Crystal Ball. That being said, this is an essential record with some very strong material, especially "I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore" and "ManOwar" - 2 very bitter, beautiful ballads. Definitely a pop album, but with some good things. The limited edition alternative version is OK - a mixed bag of different mixes from the regular album, to some tracks that are identical. But it's worth picking up just for the addition of Beautiful Strange, which is a top-notch track.

The Rainbow Children - an experiment that is interesting, but ultimately fails because of its lack of great material. Aside from 2 classic songs - She Loves Me 4 Me and Last December - most of the rest of it is average to forgettable. The context and structure of the album are hard to wade through. That being said, the SOUND of the record and the musicianship are superb, definitely up there among his best. I can even get over the annoying narrator voice. If only there were more good SONGS.

One Nite Alone - piano album. - Much like the Truth, but on piano instead of guitar. I like this better than The Truth, honestly. His voice is amazing on this record. Avalanche, One Nite Alone, A Case of U and Pearls b4 the Swine are all essential tracks. This one is hard to find, or so I hear, but i would DEFINITELY recommend picking it up.


ONA - live. Pretty solid live disc. I can't say i listen to it all that much. Maybe i'm not a huge fan of live albums. But good nonetheless.


the NPGMC downloadsL

first the 3 instrumental (mostly) releases:

Xpectation - lite funky-jazzy instrumentals, with lots of horns. Interesting.... but nothing earthshattering. Doesn't really connect.

NEWS - 4 long jazz-flavoured instrumentals. Very good at times, but I play it only for background music.

C-Note - this one really rocks... much better sound and energy than the other 2 instrumental albums. Also worth it for the live extra "Empty Room" which is a really hot version of the otherwise unreleased track.


The other stuff:

The Chocolate Invasion - actually very good. a collection of songs that were earlier made available via NPGMC as individual tracks, but put together as a coherent album. This is better than Rave, and nearly on par w/ Musicology. Some great tracks, especially When I Lay my Hands on U, Judas Smile and U Make My Sun Shine. Great pop Prince album.

The Slaughterhouse - less commercial and funkier - and more hip-hop influenced - than the Chocolate Invasion. The material isn't quite as strong, but it's still very good, especially HypnoParadise and The Daisy Chain. A couple real weak tracks, but overall worth getting.

- hope that helps!

Thanks Jon!

Awesome rundown, very thorough. It's incredible how much music Prince makes. It's frustrating... I have the feeling that he could really make Musicology a hit record, and he certainly seems to be tolerating the media circus once more, but maybe there's just too much music in the guy to concentrate on one record for more than 5 minutes.

One question re. Rave: I'll probably only get one, does In2 solve the problems you highlighted with Un2, or does it just serve as a companion to the original? Are the remixes actually better or just overworked extensions? I agree that Beautiful Strange is a great track, I only ever heard it once (on the Channel Four doc a few years back) but the opening hook stayed with me.

Thanks again for your advice, I know everyone has different responses to art and I'm still interested to hear what anyone else has to say!