I was going to respond to the "career is over" thread directly, but thought this should instead be it's own thread as I think the topic in that thread couldn't' be more wrong. Prince is back, plain and simple. Here are some reasons/signs that Prince is back:

- A very strong tour - I've been to 8 concerts over 6 tours over 16 years, from Lovesexy to Musicology. With the Musicology tour, Prince is back to being "Prince". Don't get me wrong, I thought One Nite Alone tour was great, but for the general public, it's not what they expect from a "Prince" concert. This tour brings back that Prince back with a vengeance - it's the best "Prince" tour in at least a decade and it's selling out all over the place (Columbus and Cleveland being the two most recent sellouts). Prince is going to end up with one of the highest grossing tours of the year.

- A strong album. Like with the tour, with this album, Prince is "Prince" again. At least the Prince the general public expects. And the album has everything you come to expect in a "Prince" album. Funk, rock, soul. I can see multiple grammy nominations coming out of this album, including best male vocal if the right singles get released. The leadoff song has his best video in years.

- the press suddenly loves him again.

- the video channels suddenly are playing him again in heavy rotation. Who would have thought that MTV would have Prince in heavy rotation again.

- giving out the album is a brilliant move - gets the buzz going. I got two copies and gave one to someone who otherwise wouldn't consider buying it. College students I know who went to the concert as a spur of the moment kind of thing not only were blown away by the concert, but they walked out with the new album. Who knows if they would have otherwise bought the album, but you can be sure they've been playing it now and telling their friends about how good the concert was and the album is.

- airplay is taking off - especially Urban/AC where Musicology is in the top 10 and has substantially more momentum than any other song:
http://www.mmr247.com/mmr...format=u2R
http://www.mmr247.com/mmr...p?chart=U2

It remains a mystery why they aren't going for adds at CHR/Pop stations, or even Hot AC, though. This song should be able to hit top 10 across multiple charts.

- sales appear strong. The #6 pop song at iTunes music store, the #6 album at amazon.com. For the album, though, the important thing isn't where it debuts, but rather where it sits in a couple of months. My guess is it'll go platinum or multi-platinum in sales. Plus a million copies given away during the tour.

Forgot to add the release of the special edition of Purple Rain DVD as well as the possible re-mastering of his back catalog as additional reasons this year to mark a huge comeback year for Prince.

I dunno, artistically the album is weak and I don't think it's going to be a commercial success either. To be honest I don't see a Prince revival happening either unless songs/albums are going to be re-released. A revival won't happen just because they're releasing special edition DVD's of weak movies. These type of "rock movies" have become terribly outdated.

Did you just call Purple Rain a "weak movie", or were you referring to the other two?

analbolic said:

Prince's songs and influence never went away. The tour proves that. Outkast proves that. Alicia Keyes proves that. Prince being back with new songs in the mainstream would only crystalize something for which all the elements are already there -- not so much a revival as return of the Original.

I agree - commercially speaking and that is obviously what this album is all about. Even here in the UK where we have had none of the tv appearences or the tour, everyone has suddenly remembered him. Posters everywhere, a Virgin Megastore ad on the tv, video being shown, every newspaper has run something on him in recent weeks, and I just glided by Virgin and the cd is in pride of place at store front and his shelves were looking much barer at 5 this evening than any of the others.

On a street level, everyone at work was asking me about the album as there was a pic on the Metro paper (free on the underground/subway) front cover lauding P for having at last hit another 'purple patch' More than one person was asking if they should buy it.

It just remains to be seen if they all like what they hear. A TV appearance would seal it here but that seems unlikely until he's finished educating the states.

yeah, i agree musicology is more of a "here public you will like this" style album compared to say, the rainbow children. im really interested to see where he goes after this, cos if he does stop the hits (i reckon he's more likely to cut em down, and play the less known ones) i imagine he will play alot of stuff post TRC, so that album, this one, and the next. etc.

as for sales, i think it will do well to get certified, if it goes platinum it can be considered a big success, anything more than that and we have princes biggest album since D&P really.

do you think with this success warner bros. will start ordering updates on his back catalogue re: RIAA? cos didnt ATWIAD sell 3 million in the USA, yet its only double platinum isnt it? plus SOTT sold 1.3 million according to one of the bios and that was a few years back. it would only have to had sold another 200k to be certified 3x platinum. plus its about how many shipped and im convinced there are at least 200k in ciculation anyway.

I think the idea is to get some new hits to play, starting with the title track.