Anxiety said:

not really,its the only Prince album i never go back to

I’m sorry but TRC is just not very good. Simply stated, it’s like Prince trying

to make Jazz and not Prince being Prince. TRC reminds me of ATWIAD, like Prince

just started listening to the Beetles and made Sergeant Pepper inspired pop

songs without really letting the sound sink down to the bone. Compare a track

like “ATWIAD” with the real deal “I Could Never Talk the Place of Your Man” and

you see what I’m saying. One sounds like a half-digested influence regurgitated

and the other sounds like Prince with traces of the Beetles. It’s like the

rapping on Diamonds and Pearls and Symbol, Prince raps without really

understanding what rap is all about. P. ends up sounding like a naïve

interpreter of something he just does not really get. Prince’s busy and

impatient mind is always absorbing new and different forms of music but

sometimes the process of absorption is incomplete. TRC liked other failed

attempts to diversify, is stuck in this stage of incompletion. The funk songs

are weak (1+1+1 sounds like a watered down version of Erotic City and the work

is completely indistinct, the James Brown equivalent of Prince doing Sly on

“Make Your Mama Happy”). The title track is boring and without real

feeling. You think is Jazz? Please, this is the shell of jazz, hollow, empty,

and soulless. “Mellow” and “Muse 2 the Pharaoh” are aight but what’s new here?

“Everywhere” and the first half of “Last December” fall flat. And “Face Down”

is awful; I can’t even listen to that song anymore. The “meaning” connecting

the songs is inchoate and insulated and alienating and the music is stale. Fans

say that this record is the most “experimental” Prince music he has recorded?

No, I just can’t agree with that. This music is regressive and empty.

Experimental Prince (The entire Black Album, most of Lovesexy, most of 1999,

Computer Blue, most of Dirty Mind, about a third of Sign of the Times) has edge

and vitality, two things the dismal TRC lacks. One of the reasons Musicology is

so solid is because P. all the influences that P is working with are deep down

there, twisted up in his soul and part of the man. On TRC P. is reaching and it

shows. What am I missing folks?

17ways69days said:

Hard to be credible when you spell The Beatles wrong. (The Beetles?) Prince's understanding of music (rap and jazz included) is more deep and wide than you ugive him credit for. The man could hang musically with Miles Davis and also with Chuck D or Dougie Fresh. (if you don't believe in Prince's rapping please listen to Pussy Control.

So I feel you on not liking The Rainbow Children, but your reasoning rings hollow.

This is a fucking stupid thread.

TRC is a marvellous album.

Clean out your ears. The musicianship on TRC is second to NONE.

And learn to spell Beatles right, while you're at it!

Doozer said:

But is that always good? He's never done a bluegrass album either.

Dude, I GUARANTEE you that if he ever does come out with a bluegrass album, it'll be one of my favorites!!!

I should have asked ya’ll how much jazz you listen to. I would not be the least bit

surprised if most of the fans that are feeling TRC are coming at without a real Jazz based

referent point. Without the horns of M. Davis, Monk’s piano, and the drums of M. Roach

echoing through the mind and soul TRC is a very different record. Possibly a better

record? I don’t know, I can’t listen to it without that putting it into a certain context.

Placing Prince in any context is dangerous and often times, in the case of Prince, context

blinds you from the brilliance and originality of the music. But listening to TRC with a

Prince-centric context or without any sort of real familiarity with Jazz is going to, in my

opinion, create a warped impression about the quality of the music.

I still don't understand how people could praise TRC as much as they do. I understand we all have our tastes in music, but come on. To call TRC a masterpiece is a bit over the top, even for a fam. Maybe within all that murmuring on the album there's some secret mind control that makes some people praise the album like crazy. Just a theory.

Aerogram said:

And your opinion is so much subtler? In fact, you are the very negative of the fam picture you paint -- they like everything, you call it all "crap". Same difference.

skywalker said:

You are CRAZY if you think Prince can hang with Doug E. Fresh or Chuck D. in the rap game!!!! Prince couldn't freestyle if his life depended on it. And his flow on something like Pussy Control sounds contrived at best. He is NO rapper, and I'm sure even he would admit to that. I mean, he sounds all right on some rapped tracks, but let's not say that he can "hang" with most rappers, especially folk like Chuck D!!!!

Aerogram said:

That's cuz I can't stand a single song on TRC. At least Musicology has A Million Days and Cinnamon girl. So it's not like I'm just a hate machine.

So I didn't see Prince "hanging" musically/chopswise and other wise with Doug E. during a string of concerts in 1998? So I didn't hear Prince and Chuck D together on one of the strongest songs off of Rave? I never claimed Prince was a great rapper-just that he understood the genre and could use it effectively.

And don't tell me you wouldn't have creamed yourself and witheld from calling the rapping on Pussy Control derivative if it wasn't Prince.

Aerogram said:

That's cuz I can't stand a single song on TRC. At least Musicology has A Million Days and Cinnamon girl. So it's not like I'm just a hate machine.

Compare a track

like “ATWIAD” with the real deal “I Could Never Talk the Place of Your Man” and

you see what I’m saying.

Prince raps without really

understanding what rap is all about. P. ends up sounding like a naïve

interpreter of something he just does not really get. Prince’s busy and

impatient mind is always absorbing new and different forms of music but

sometimes the process of absorption is incomplete.

You think is Jazz? Please, this is the shell of jazz, hollow, empty,

and soulless.

I understand where you are coming from on this, even if I disagree. TRC is a difficult album, and since it pretty much centers around jazz as its primary sound, it really requires a love of that style. Personally, I loved TRC, but then again, I love jazz, so it wasn't hard for me to connect with. I find that this album is one of those "love it or hate it" things.

In fact, since you and I tend to agree about Manson, I kinda view this album as being a similar affair to "Mechanical Animals" (not musically, but in the way people react to them). When MA came out, a whole lot of folks hated it, because it was so far afield of the Reznor sound, and had incorporated Bowie and Lou Reed-eque types of sounds. Now, personally, I dug it for that very reason, because I truly love the art glam of Bowie/ Reed and Iggy Pop. If you don't like the base of the music, then its really not going to do a thing for you.

I think TRC is very similar in that regard. The music is ALL jazz based, and that will thrill some, and turn off others. Obviously, you're not too into jazz (nothing wrong with that, even if I hae a hard time understanding). Add in the fact that the disc has some truly awful lyrics (I'm not hating on the message, folks, I just think the vast majority of the lyrics on TRC are rather poorly written), and I can see how this would just leave you cold. Its not nearly as diverse as the majority of Prince's albums, so there's nothing really for you on this one.