New Prince

why is hendrix always brought up when it comes to princes playing? i hear a lot more or just as much santana as hendrix. santana also played in a prettier, less messy/rougher style than hendrix, which is more how prince plays. the hendrix-prince guitar playing similarities are really over emphasised, prob just cos theyre the biggest black rock icons of the past 40 years. prince plays a lot poppier than hendrix.

the rainbow children and the truth are his last two good albums.

I think its more Hazel than anyone else (as I mentioned a few posts back) but the Hendrix stuff comes up because Prince is fond of breaking out those "chitlin circuit" gimmicks that Hendrix became famous for - playing with his teeth, whipping his guitar around, etc. Physically they play the guitar in very similar ways.

geir otm! titchyschneider SO RONG

yeah I don't think people who are interested in him post-Musicology are really blinded to how bad the vast majority of his 90s output is. Prince has definitely gone through an "I'm gonna re-engage with the general public" campaign with the last few records, and its merited much better musical results... you can't tell me 3121 is somehow just as bad (or worse) than, say, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.

ah i dont care. i 'let go' of being a prince fan years ago. each new album just reminds me why. 3121, musicornolgy, planet earth, rave unto the joy fantastic, god, theyre all virtually the same album!

see, that is demonstrably untrue. Rainbow Children, N.E.W.S., Rave, Emancipation, all those Warner Bros extras, etc. are all quite different in tone and construction from the last three.

This is the wrong thread, but anyone who says Emancipation isn't worth trolling through for an album and a half's worth of really fine material hasn't been listening. And what he's doing on these recent albums compared with Emancipation seems very different to these ears.

planet earth is more fm-rock than anything hes made since chaos and disorder, sure, but rave, musicology, 3121, these three are pretty all the same 'please return me back to commercial/mainstream form' albums. im not talking about emancipation (its cliche to say but theres a really really excellent one-disc album in there) or TRC, those are quite different.

lol prince plays SO MUCH like hendrix.

I don't mind when Prince's stuff doesn't work (like most of Planet Earth) because the stuff that does (like most of 3121) are so worth the pain of the failures.

the rainbow children and the truth are his last two good albums.
3121, musicornolgy, planet earth, rave unto the joy fantastic, god, theyre all virtually the same album!

ROFFLES NON-STOP

I sort of miss his Come period.

Surely the slightly electro back-to-the-80s feel of "3121" had absolutely nothing in common with the "I want to be Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen and early Funkadelic rolled into one) approach of "Planet Earth".

I sort of miss his Come

um....

period

I'll just throw in a few ellipses and nobody will know that's how the sentence ended

iTunes comments on the new single are great:

What is this?
Zepplin Kashmir
Seriously what is this? This isnt Prince. It sounds like someone is on helium. This isnt the true prince. Press yes if you agree.

NOT THE BEST OF PRINCE
NCORTEZ
THE WHOLE SONG IS TERRIBLE AND THE VOICE I CANT STAND

I'm gonna crown

MOUNTAINS EXTENDED MIX

i came into possession of some bootleg prince dvds recently and i've been going through them.

live in syracuse '85 - so good. the height of the purple rain band, all the hits are extended versions with new parts etc. he changes clothes between every single song, i think. it's super drum-machine heavy - bobby z just plays cymbals on a lot of songs, and when he does play his whole kit is triggered. i could do without the psychedelic video effects in the last third (it was produced for tv). he talks to god for awhile. three encores. the second one is a funk jam where jerome and sheila e. pop up out of nowhere (maybe the time and sheila were the opening acts?). 'purple rain' is the final encore and they play for ten minutes before prince starts singing the first verse.

live in (somewhere in germany) '88 - totally different show, lovesexy tour, just as good. prince drives onstage in a cadillac, first song is 'erotic city' with just him dancing with sheila and kat. this is the stage set with a bed, swing set, b-ball hoop, etc.. it's the opposite of '85 i.e. very few epic versions of tunes, everything is sliced and diced into medleys but it's cool. some of the transitions are just sick. when they do 'head', he puts the mic between his legs for kat to sing backups. interludes where he'll do a blues ("if i had a harem"), an acoustic piano set. he does his bob george thing and it's pretty silly (lots of microphones as guns etc.). 2 hours solid and it's never boring, prince knows how to put together a fucking set.

i've still got some '81 shows to check out.

anyone check out the target trilogy?

The cover frightened me.

Is it out already? The sample songs on his site weren't that promising, but I guess I'd still want to check it out.

Does anyone know what's the difference between Lotusflow3r and MPLSound? Is the latter one supposed to be more like a jam album?

Not particularly good, though some will probably dig how hard he's pushing the pseudo-'80s sound on MPLSoUND. (More Parade than Purple Rain)

lotusflow3r is supposed to be the rock album and mplsound is supposed to be the electro/throwback album. i haven't heard it yet, but there have to be at least a few great tracks in there. maybe a great ep?

Yeah, MPLSoUND is very "you want 80s Prince? you want Linn Drums and helium vox? FINE, here it is!" but it's still actually pretty fun and listenable and does at times sound like a nice compilation of scraps circa '86. Lotusflow3r is pretty typical recent rock band Prince, couple decent songs but really bland.

yeah, what you said

the protege album isn't that bad, but very anonymous

I picked this up on Sunday, but I haven't listened to it yet. The Prince fanboys on RYM and other forums seems to be loving it (even the protege disc).

prince stans are the most delusional of all stans

http://gossipvixen.blogspot.com/2007/05/prince-stan-rushed-by-security.html

(ws)

prince stans are the most delusional of all stans

We must be. He hasn't turned out an even second-rate album since The Gold Experience.

the songs he did on leno were just shit. the rock one was the best, but even that was just like sub lenny kravitz.

is this on spotify?

i will listen to this a lot and enjoy it, no matter how bad it is.

http://www.imeem.com/groups/v89boZ9o/video/bdRqsGsQ/prince-feat-q-tip-chocolate-box-music-video/

That doesn't sound half bad! Not a classic tune or anything, but if the reast of MPLSound is like that, I can imagine liking it.

They all fade out into anonymity pretty quickly. The Bria Valente album is OK - some of it sounds like the last Paisley Park Sheila E album. As said above MPLSound is really "here's all the sounds that apparently make me sound 'experimental'", but the songs are pretty average. Not listened to LotusFlow3r yet (jeez they are crap titles) - but his "rock" songs always tend to the bland and over produced. Given all that, I'm not sure why I went to the 02 five times last year and would gladly go again... I'm not really sure even Prince knows why he still makes Prince albums - other than to have an excuse to play live and build really shit websites that he'll abandon in 6 months.

I'm listening to MPLSound now, it sounds pretty good! Good grooves and nice synths, it basically has everything I love about Prince. The tunes sound a bit throwaway, but to be honest some of my favourite Prince tunes are throwaway B-sides ("Scarlet Pussy", "La La La He He Hee", etc). There's something fresh about him just riding the funk instead of trying to craft the perfect pop hit.

I hope they release this separately, so I don't have to buy the rock album. Never cared much for rock Prince.

yeah the comparisons that kept running through my head listening to it were the disc 3 b-sides on the Hits comp

looks like you have to get the set but at least it's the cost of a single cd: http://www.target.com/Prince-LotusFlow3r-3-CD-Only-Target/dp/B001TI3IB0/sr=1-1/qid=1238521940/ref=sr_1_1/189-5229057-3186863?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k%3Aprince&page=1

yeah it's a pretty great deal, i picked mine up with a 12 pack of soda on sunday

it basically has everything I love about Prince

Nu-uh.

So far it seems to be available in Europe only as a pretty expensive import. I hope it has a proper release in here soon.

is the subscription website U.S. only or availabe in other countries?

Nu-uh.

lol hardcore at this; how do you know what Tuomas loves about Prince?

If you lol hardcore, you should excelsior it.

Right. The only problem I have is that three ballads is a bit too much for a 9-song album. "U're Gonna C Me" is nice though, but "Here" could've been replaced with a dance number. "No More Candy 4 U" sounds like a classic weird-ass rockabilly Prince tune in the spirit of "Jack U Off", great way to end the album.

(x-post)