there's been quite a few box sets with added material to the 'big' records like Sign O The Times, Purple Rain and 1999. the box sets were too expensive for me, even though I'm a big fan
there was also a famous piano rehearsal bootleg that was cleaned up digitally for official sale (1983 rehearsal or around that time, at the end you hear Prince composing a new song for about 16 minutes, they left that off the official version), a greatest hits with one 'new' track (the excellent 'moonbeam levels' track) and finally also an 'Originals' compilation where you can hear Prince sing the songs he wrote for other artists (typical example : Nothing compares 2 U)
here's one of the tracks on the forthcoming album, it was released digitally to the Prince fan club around 2010 or 2011
Not impressed upon first listen. Gonna give my copy a few more spins today.
'When will we B paid', a strong track, was not included on the album after all. 'Hot summer', another previously released track, was and is decent.
There is extensive use of female vocalists throughout the album to the point at times it hardly feels like a Prince solo album. Female 'background' choirs pushed to the front, dual female lead vocs, female parlando/rap.
Only one signature 'sexy' ballad.
Hardly any rock guitars. A lot of downtempo and mid tempo tracks.
This had better be a grower because I had high expectations for this one. While it's true there are conscious lyrics here, there is nothing 'deep' here either.
Who knows, might like it more by the end of the day.
Gave this a listen. Agree with female vocals. Born 2 die, 1000 light years, check the record, and one day we will all be free. Those are decent. The rest didn't have much replay value for me. I am guessing there was a reason why this wasn't previously released. There is nothing really outstanding. Not a bad listen, but not up to regular Prince standards.
True. Gets a bit better on repeated listens but there are just very few songs on here that make you sit up and really pay attention. I like the second half of the album better.
A lot of critics seem to be very generous in their reviews.
The guy who helped produce this album and who was his keyboard player at the time, Morris Hayes, is doing loads of press to promote the album in Europe. He has very interesting things to say about Prince but it's telling he doesn't discuss the actual songs much.
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