No, i am not talking bout the bloke who just married Camilla Parker Bowles, but about Karl Wallinger aka the one-man band World Party, one of the most underrated artist of the last 20 years in my opinion.

Not to say that his music (always) sounds a Prince, but just like Prince Karl has the ability to mix all kind of musical influences (Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and ..yes....Prince) and create exciting, high quality music with it.

Maybe because he is a Brit theres a bit more irony and sarcasm sometimes as in the music of Prince, but during the last 20 years he has released only 5 but good to great albums, i still enjoy listening to nowadays:
- Private revolution: the title track is very Prince influenced pop-funk, Ship of fools is an epic, classic rocktrack, another cut reminds me a lot of 'condition of the heart' from Prince, not all the music is that good on his debut-cd, but you hear traces of a great artist blossoming
- Goodbye Jumbo: his second, near perfect album, as varied in style as Sign of The Times, and one my top-10 records of all time. Thoughtfull lyrics about the state of the enviroment and the society combined with catchy music ranging from Hendrix-like ballads (Lovestreet) and beatlesque pastiches (put the messages in the box), to Sly Stone-references (Aint gonna come till i am ready) and princely funk (show me the top).
- Bang: A bit schizophrenic record: light folk and pop songs mixed with dance / funk-orientated tracks. Give it al away (especially the reprise) owes a lot to Princes 'Positivity'. A record that needs a few listens, but is almost as good as Goodbye Jumbo.
- Egyptology: a harsher, darker record with more personal lyrics, owing a lot to the Beatless sound during the period 1966 - 1969. Again some nice little dancetracks thrown into the mix. She's the one is a Lennonesque ballad, which later became a big hit for Robbie Williams: Karls' version is deeper and better.
- Dumbing up: compares itselve to Goodbye Jumbo, as Sly Stones 'There's a riot going on' to his record 'Fresh'. A positive thinking idealist turned into a saddened realist. In case of Sly it let to a paranoic sounding druggy record (Riot), while Karl on 'dumbing up' sounds often very sarcastic. The beauty is, in between those rants of harsh social critism, there a few splendid (love)ballads to find, that offer a glimpse of hope.

Karl has always remained some kind of cultartist, a critical darling, maybe it is because of low rade he releases material (there are 4 - 5 years between every cd he realesed), his lack of image or good looks (think about some pale brit, a young Dylan, not really caring about 'the surface'), but to me its one of the best singer-songwriters / performers of the last 20 years.

For Prince fans curious about his music: start with 'Goodbye Jumbo' (his masterpiece), and go for 'Bang' after that.

Any other lovers / admireres of Karls music in here?

'private revolution' is the deal. i love that album to pieces. i bought it on vinyl when it first came out, and i played that sucker over and over and over and over. i always call it one of the best prince albums that prince never made. but it's also got its fair share of beatles, bowie and dylan influence, too. i think the whole album is just a big box of candy. yummy. plus it had a very young sinead o'connor on backing vocals!

'goodbye jumbo' ain't half bad, either. not quite as fully-realized as the first album, but still really good. after that, eh, i parted ways with world party...

Anxiety, thanks for you reaction.

I do like a few songs on the Private Revolution, but the production oftens sounds to cheap for me, and sounds even very dated nowadays. For me he made a huge lap in quality (when it comes to songwriting AND production) on Goodbye Jumbo.

But hey, opinions are like asses

Is it true that The Waterboys (KW 1st band) song the whole of the moon is about Prince?

For some reason I always got the impression that Karl Wallinger had an ego problem, but I don't know why as I've never heard him talk...

Anyhow... I really like Egyptology in particular.

Another try.....my pc got stuck

I read that Mike Scott (singer / bandleader of the Waterboys) indeed wrote Whole of the Moon as an hommage to Prince, because he was in such awe of the things Prince seemed to achieve musically.

When listening to those lyrics, i think Mike Scott considers Prince as the artist who saw 'The whole of the moon', while he was still struggling to achieve the same.

By the way, I consider this a great, epic rocktrack, it has a great 'drive', and i love the use of soundeffects in it. Karl Wallinger tried to achieve the same kind of vibe with his song 'Ship of fools'

Bryanpage, Karl Wallinger an ego-problem, Naah, i dont think so, i rather see him as an artist underestimating himselve, needing the 'push' from other people to get his things together, and release another cd (hence the liner notes on the 'Egyptology'-cd)

When it comes to EGO's in popmusic i think Prince has a big eg.....oops....head

Riverpoet31 said:

true enough - especially considering the fact that i like 'private revolution' exactly because the production sounds a little rougher. it sounds gorgeous on vinyl, probably a bit tinny on CD (i don't have it on CD yet, shame on me).

I completely forgot about this man, thanks for reminding me i need to replace my copy of Goodbye Jumbo which i gave away because i enjoyed it so much