Hello, the olympics have started, been watching the opening ceremoney, and it started great with a wonderful jungle display but then things started getting boring having nearly 200 countries getting an introduction (I hear americans get an edited 1,5 hour version, understandible they would get confused learning that the world is so much bigger than the US. Anyway famous tennis star Gustavo Kuerten has just brought in the flame and robbed of gold marathon runner Fernando Lima lighted the flame intrucing as to a fantastic moving sculpture.
Today's artist has been with us for sometime here, after all he has an enormous ouvre with lot's unreleased stuff as well. He commands the biggest space in my collection. Normally i'd post chronically but this time i will post cross his discography from 4 different decades. You can wait to see what i'll post or your welcome to request a title ... N'joy
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Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. During the '80s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock. Not only did he release a series of groundbreaking albums; he toured frequently, produced albums, and wrote songs for many other artists, and recorded hundreds of songs that still lie unreleased in his vaults. With each album he released, Prince showed remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres. Occasionally, his music was inconsistent, in part because of his eclecticism, but his experiments frequently succeeded; no other contemporary artist blended so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole.
Prince's first two albums were solid, if unremarkable, late-'70s funk-pop. With 1980's Dirty Mind, he recorded his first masterpiece, a one-man tour de force of sex and music; it was hard funk, catchy Beatlesque melodies, sweet soul ballads, and rocking guitar pop, all at once. The follow-up, Controversy, was more of the same, but 1999 was brilliant. The album was a monster hit, selling over three million copies, but it was nothing compared to 1984's Purple Rain.
Around the World in a DayPurple Rain made Prince a superstar; it eventually sold over ten million copies in the U.S. and spent 24 weeks at number one. Partially recorded with his touring band, the Revolution, the record featured the most pop-oriented music he has ever made. Instead of continuing in this accessible direction, he veered off into the bizarre psycho-psychedelia of Around the World in a Day, which nevertheless sold over two million copies. In 1986, he released the even stranger Parade, which was in its own way as ambitious and intricate as any art rock of the '60s; however, no art rock was ever grounded with a hit as brilliant as the spare funk of "Kiss."
By 1987, Prince's ambitions were growing by leaps and bounds, resulting in the sprawling masterpiece Sign 'O' the Times. Prince was set to release the hard funk of The Black Album by the end of the year, yet he withdrew it just before its release, deciding it was too dark and immoral. Instead, he released the confused Lovesexy in 1988, which was a commercial disaster. With the soundtrack to 1989's Batman he returned to the top of the charts, even if the album was essentially a recap of everything he had done before. The following year he released Graffiti Bridge (the sequel to Purple Rain), which turned out to be a considerable commercial disappointment.
Diamonds and Pearls In 1991, Prince formed the New Power Generation, the best and most versatile and talented band he has ever assembled. With their first album, Diamonds and Pearls, Prince reasserted his mastery of contemporary R&B; it was his biggest hit since 1985. The following year, he released his 12th album, which was titled with a cryptic symbol; in 1993, Prince legally changed his name to the symbol. In 1994, after becoming embroiled in contract disagreements with Warner Bros., he independently released the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," likely to illustrate what he would be capable of on his own; the song became his biggest hit in years. Later that summer, Warner released the somewhat halfhearted Come under the name of Prince; the record was a moderate success, going gold.
Gold Experience In November 1994, as part of a contractual obligation, Prince agreed to the official release of The Black Album. In early 1995, he immersed himself in another legal battle with Warner, proclaiming himself a slave and refusing to deliver his new record, The Gold Experience, for release. By the end of the summer, a fed-up Warner had negotiated a compromise that guaranteed the album's release, plus one final record for the label. The Gold Experience was issued in the fall; although it received good reviews and was following a smash single, it failed to catch fire commercially. In the summer of 1996, Prince released Chaos & Disorder, which freed him to become an independent artist. Setting up his own label, NPG (which was distributed by EMI), he resurfaced later that same year with the three-disc Emancipation, which was designed as a magnum opus that would spin off singles for several years and be supported with several tours.
Crystal Ball However, even his devoted cult following needed considerable time to digest such an enormous compilation of songs. Once it was clear that Emancipation wasn't the commercial blockbuster he hoped it would be, Prince assembled a long-awaited collection of outtakes and unreleased material called Crystal Ball in 1998. With Crystal Ball, Prince discovered that it's much more difficult to get records to an audience than it seems; some fans who pre-ordered their copies through Prince's website (from which a bonus fifth disc was included) didn't receive them until months after the set began appearing in stores. Prince then released a new one-man album, New Power Soul, just three months after Crystal Ball; even though it was his most straightforward album since Diamonds and Pearls, it didn't do well on the charts, partly because many listeners didn't realize it had been released.
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale A year later, with "1999" predictably an end-of-the-millennium anthem, Prince issued the remix collection 1999 (The New Master). A collection of Warner Bros.-era leftovers, Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, followed that summer, and in the fall Prince returned on Arista with the all-star Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. In the fall of 2001 he released the controversial Rainbow Children, a jazz-infused circus of sound trumpeting his conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses that left many longtime fans out in the cold. He further isolated himself with 2003's N.E.W.S., a four-song set of instrumental jams that sounded a lot more fun to play than to listen to. Prince rebounded in 2003 with the chart-topping Musicology, a return to form that found the artist back in the Top Ten, even garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2005.
3121 In early 2006 he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing two songs with a new protégée, R&B singer Tamar. A four-song appearance at the Brit Awards with Wendy, Lisa, and Sheila E. followed. Both appearances previewed tracks from 3121, which hit number one on the album charts soon after its release in March 2006. Planet Earth followed in 2007, featuring contributions from Wendy and Lisa. In the U.K., copies were cover-mounted on the July 15 edition of The Mail on Sunday, provoking Columbia -- the worldwide distributor for the release -- to refuse distribution throughout the U.K. In the U.S., the album was issued on July 24.
LotusFlow3rLotusFlow3r, a three-disc set, arrived in 2009, featuring a trio of distinct albums: LotusFlow3r itself (a guitar showcase), MPLSound (a throwback to his '80s funk output), and Elixer (a smooth contemporary R&B album featuring the breathy vocals of Bria Valente). Despite only being available online and through one big-box retailer, the set debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart. A year later, another throwback-flavored effort, 20Ten, became his second U.K. newspaper giveaway. No official online edition of the album was made available.
From mid-2010 through the end of 2012, Prince toured throughout Europe, America, Europe again, Canada, and Australia. During 2013, he released several singles, starting with "Screwdriver" and continuing with "Breakfast Can Wait" in the summer of that year. Early in 2014, he made a cameo appearance on the Zooey Deschanel sitcom The New Girl, appearing in the episode that aired following the Super Bowl. All this activity was prelude to the spring announcement that Prince had re-signed to Warner Bros. Records, the label he had feuded with 20 years prior. As part of the deal, he wound up receiving the ownership of his master recordings, and the label planned a reissue campaign that would begin with an expanded reissue of Purple Rain roughly timed to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Art Official Age First came two new albums: Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum, the latter credited to 3rdEyeGirl, the all-female power trio that was his new-millennial backing band. Both records came out on the same day in September 2014. (Two years later, the Prince reissue program and the expanded edition of Purple Rain had yet to appear.) Almost a year to the day, he released HITnRUN: Phase One, with contributions from Lianne La Havas, Judith Hill, and Rita Ora. A sequel, HITnRUN: Phase Two, was released online in December 2015, with a physical release following in January 2016. In early 2016, Prince set out on a rare solo tour, a run of shows he called "Piano and a Microphone." The tour was cut short in April due to sickness, however, and Prince flew home to Minneapolis. On April 21, 2016, police were called to Paisley Park, where they found Prince unresponsive; he died that day at the age of 57. His early death and incredible achievement prompted an outpouring of emotion from fans, friends, influences, and professional associates. On the following week's Billboard charts, he occupied four of the top ten album positions and four of the top singles positions.
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It's nearly impossible to judge Lovesexy as anything but a hastily assembled substitute for the withdrawn Black Album, which does the record a disservice. An exactingly sequenced song cycle -- the compact disc didn't have index markings to separate the individual tracks -- Lovesexy is quite a different record than not only The Black Album, but anything else Prince had recorded. Where Dirty Mind was single-minded in its lust, Lovesexy connects the carnal with spiritual, and the calmness of the music reflects this outlook. Even when the record dips into hard funk, such as on the title track or the single "Alphabet Street," there's a relaxed, casual quality to the music that is shocking after the dense paranoia of Parade, Sign 'o' the Times, and The Black Album. Prince intends to enter a new phase of maturity with such considered music and ambitious lyrical themes, but neither his music nor his lyrics are consistently well stated over the course of the album. A handful of tracks are worthwhile -- the sappy ballad "When 2 R in Love," the moving "I Wish U Heaven," the weird psychedelia of "Anna Stesia" and "Glam Slam," as well as the wonderful "Alphabet Street" .
Prince - Lovesexy (flac 262mb)
01 I No 5:46
02 Alphabet St. 5:39
03 Glam Slam 5:04
04 Anna Stesia 4:58
05 Dance On 3:44
06 Lovesexy 5:47
07 When 2 R In Love 4:01
08 I Wish U Heaven 2:43
09 Positivity 7:17
Prince - Lovesexy (ogg 102mb)
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Like Come before it, Chaos and Disorder is a contractual obligation album for Prince, a way to get himself out of his contract with Warner Brothers. Unlike Come, Chaos and Disorder doesn't sound disjointed and pasted together -- it's a fun, offhanded throwaway. For the first time since 1987's Sign 'O' the Times, Prince has made a pop/rock album, complete with squealing guitars and sighing melodies. None of the songs qualify as major songs in Prince's canon, but that's part of the record's charm -- Prince sounds like he's having a good time, and he could really care less what anyone else has to say. Or, as he puts it in one of the album's best and most careening tracks, "I Rock, Therefore I Am." Chaos and Disorder sounds immediate, like the songs were recorded the same day they were written. While that might mean there's a handful of throwaways scattered throughout the album, there are wonderful moments like the stuttering jazz-funk of "Dig U Better Dead," the scathing "Had U," the psychedelic clashes of the title track, the heavy rock of "I Like It There," and the beautiful "Dinner With Delores," a rough gem that ranks as one of Prince's simplest and most charming singles of the '90s. So, Chaos and Disorder isn't Prince's best or most important work, but it is a really fun listen, especially if you're willing to accept it as what it is -- a record that does nothing more than rock.
Prince - Chaos And Disorder (flac 350mb)
01 Chaos And Disorder 4:20
02 I Like It There 3:15
03 Dinner With Delores 2:46
04 The Same December 3:24
05 Right The Wrong 4:39
06 Zannalee 2:43
07 I Rock, Therefore I Am 6:15
08 Into The Light 2:46
09 I Will 3:36
10 Dig U Better Dead 4:00
11 Had U 1:26
Prince - Chaos And Disorder (ogg 120mb)
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Billed as Prince's most controversial album -- at least by his press agency and label -- upon its release in the fall of 2001, The Rainbow Children was arguably his most curious album to date, which isn't necessarily the same thing as controversial. It could have been controversial, that's for sure, given that it follows his conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses and that it trumpets his faith, over the most elastic, jazziest backing music he's made. If Prince hadn't marginalized himself through his record company battles, multi-disc sets, and botched superstar comebacks, this could have been genuinely controversial, since people would be paying attention to what he's doing. And then a new album musically The Rainbow Children is his most cohesive set since The Gold Experience, and the only one to really push past his traditional limits since then (which, admittedly, is still much more imaginative). And, you know, that's really too bad, because as a musical experience, this is pretty rich, demonstrating not just that Prince knows no borders, but that his music effortlessly mutates within the course of one song, perhaps drawing from his standard book of tricks -- jazz fusion, smooth soul, lite psychedelia, hard rock, and funk general weirdness -- but always sounding unpredictable and rewarding. It's too bad, then, that the very thing that inspired the album for its creator is what will turn off even those diehards that stuck with him this long, seeking out this album -- namely, its religious views. It's not that Prince has become a Jehovah's Witness -- any objective listener really wouldn't care -- but it's that his message doesn't support the music and doesn't fit with the sounds or the approach; it's hard to shut it out, not just because the words are so prominent, but because they're delivered in so many different voices (most distracting of all, the electronically altered basso profundo voice last heard on the decidedly secular "Bob George"), often in short, two-minute songs. This becomes a little overwhelming about halfway through, when the opera comes in on "Wedding Feast," reminding us that this is indeed a concept album, then delving into three eight-minute jams to conclude the record. It all winds up as a bit much, but it doesn't erase the musical facts: this is Prince at his most focused and rewarding in a long time, since Emancipation really.
Prince - The Rainbow Children (flac 449mb)
01 Rainbow Children 10:03
02 Muse 2 The Pharaoh 4:21
03 Digital Garden 4:07
04 The Work Pt.1 4:28
05 Everywhere 2:54
06 The Sensual Everafter 2:58
07 Mellow 4:24
08 1+1+1 Is 3 5:17
09 Deconstruction 1:59
10 Wedding Feast 0:54
11 She Loves Me 4 Me 2:49
12 Family Name 8:17
13 The Everlasting Now 8:18
14 Last December 7:57
15 - 19 (no audio) 0:20
20 (no audio) 0:08
21 Last December (Reprise) 0:38
Prince - The Rainbow Children (ogg 165mb)
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The cartoon album art of Prince's HITnRUN: Phase One echoes the cover portrait on its 2014 predecessor Art Official Age, a deliberate move suggesting this 2015 set is either a cousin or perhaps a reboot, questions the EDM revision of "This Could Be Us" (here titled "This Could B Us") doesn't put to bed. Prince consciously reconnected with his '80s work on Art Official Age, a nice wink for his return to Warner Bros., but HITnRUN covers similar territory in an edgy, impatient fashion, suggesting he wasn't thrilled by the 21st century indifference greeting both it and its companion, PlectrumElectrum, recorded with his power trio 3rdEyeGirl. He opens the proceedings by sampling himself and he's happy to throw side glances to his purple past, but he also ratchets up the electronic rhythms along with the stylized weirdness, peppering in references to Red Bull and cellphones alongside cameos from Rita Ora. What he winds up with is something neither fish nor fowl: a record that doesn't quite feel retro or fresh, yet is undeniably Prince. The question is, how is HITnRUN undeniably Prince? This used to be a fairly complicated question, but as he's gotten older it's turned into a simple equation consisting of a heavy dose of R&B, a few flourishes of fuzz guitar and pop harmonies, all divided between vamping soul workouts and slow jams. Prince has been dancing around this template since at least 2004's Musicology, perhaps even 1998's New Power Soul, but since 2007's Planet Earth he's been consistent in delivering tight little records where the elements are well crafted and perhaps even quite enjoyable, but all add up to something a little less than the sum of their parts. HITnRUN is no exception. Underneath its aggressive opening and occasional woozy electronics, it is anchored by two or three songs (the exuberant "Fallinlove2nite," the recycled "This Could B Us," maybe the Graffiti Bridge throwback "Million $ Show") that wind up revealing how the rest of the record feels like little more than nimble calisthenics.
Prince - HITnRUN Phase One (flac 250mb)
01 Million $ Show 3:10
02 Shut This Down 3:03
03 Ain't About 2 Stop 3:38
04 Like A Mack 4:04
05 This Could B Us 4:11
06 Fallinlove2nite 3:12
07 X's Face 2:38
08 Hardrocklover 3:42
09 Mr. Nelson 2:27
10 1000 X's & O's 4:27
11 June 3:21
Prince - HITnRUN Phase One (ogg 90mb)
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Today's artist has been with us for sometime here, after all he has an enormous ouvre with lot's unreleased stuff as well. He commands the biggest space in my collection. Normally i'd post chronically but this time i will post cross his discography from 4 different decades. You can wait to see what i'll post or your welcome to request a title ... N'joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. During the '80s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock. Not only did he release a series of groundbreaking albums; he toured frequently, produced albums, and wrote songs for many other artists, and recorded hundreds of songs that still lie unreleased in his vaults. With each album he released, Prince showed remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres. Occasionally, his music was inconsistent, in part because of his eclecticism, but his experiments frequently succeeded; no other contemporary artist blended so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole.
Prince's first two albums were solid, if unremarkable, late-'70s funk-pop. With 1980's Dirty Mind, he recorded his first masterpiece, a one-man tour de force of sex and music; it was hard funk, catchy Beatlesque melodies, sweet soul ballads, and rocking guitar pop, all at once. The follow-up, Controversy, was more of the same, but 1999 was brilliant. The album was a monster hit, selling over three million copies, but it was nothing compared to 1984's Purple Rain.
Around the World in a DayPurple Rain made Prince a superstar; it eventually sold over ten million copies in the U.S. and spent 24 weeks at number one. Partially recorded with his touring band, the Revolution, the record featured the most pop-oriented music he has ever made. Instead of continuing in this accessible direction, he veered off into the bizarre psycho-psychedelia of Around the World in a Day, which nevertheless sold over two million copies. In 1986, he released the even stranger Parade, which was in its own way as ambitious and intricate as any art rock of the '60s; however, no art rock was ever grounded with a hit as brilliant as the spare funk of "Kiss."
By 1987, Prince's ambitions were growing by leaps and bounds, resulting in the sprawling masterpiece Sign 'O' the Times. Prince was set to release the hard funk of The Black Album by the end of the year, yet he withdrew it just before its release, deciding it was too dark and immoral. Instead, he released the confused Lovesexy in 1988, which was a commercial disaster. With the soundtrack to 1989's Batman he returned to the top of the charts, even if the album was essentially a recap of everything he had done before. The following year he released Graffiti Bridge (the sequel to Purple Rain), which turned out to be a considerable commercial disappointment.
Diamonds and Pearls In 1991, Prince formed the New Power Generation, the best and most versatile and talented band he has ever assembled. With their first album, Diamonds and Pearls, Prince reasserted his mastery of contemporary R&B; it was his biggest hit since 1985. The following year, he released his 12th album, which was titled with a cryptic symbol; in 1993, Prince legally changed his name to the symbol. In 1994, after becoming embroiled in contract disagreements with Warner Bros., he independently released the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," likely to illustrate what he would be capable of on his own; the song became his biggest hit in years. Later that summer, Warner released the somewhat halfhearted Come under the name of Prince; the record was a moderate success, going gold.
Gold Experience In November 1994, as part of a contractual obligation, Prince agreed to the official release of The Black Album. In early 1995, he immersed himself in another legal battle with Warner, proclaiming himself a slave and refusing to deliver his new record, The Gold Experience, for release. By the end of the summer, a fed-up Warner had negotiated a compromise that guaranteed the album's release, plus one final record for the label. The Gold Experience was issued in the fall; although it received good reviews and was following a smash single, it failed to catch fire commercially. In the summer of 1996, Prince released Chaos & Disorder, which freed him to become an independent artist. Setting up his own label, NPG (which was distributed by EMI), he resurfaced later that same year with the three-disc Emancipation, which was designed as a magnum opus that would spin off singles for several years and be supported with several tours.
Crystal Ball However, even his devoted cult following needed considerable time to digest such an enormous compilation of songs. Once it was clear that Emancipation wasn't the commercial blockbuster he hoped it would be, Prince assembled a long-awaited collection of outtakes and unreleased material called Crystal Ball in 1998. With Crystal Ball, Prince discovered that it's much more difficult to get records to an audience than it seems; some fans who pre-ordered their copies through Prince's website (from which a bonus fifth disc was included) didn't receive them until months after the set began appearing in stores. Prince then released a new one-man album, New Power Soul, just three months after Crystal Ball; even though it was his most straightforward album since Diamonds and Pearls, it didn't do well on the charts, partly because many listeners didn't realize it had been released.
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale A year later, with "1999" predictably an end-of-the-millennium anthem, Prince issued the remix collection 1999 (The New Master). A collection of Warner Bros.-era leftovers, Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, followed that summer, and in the fall Prince returned on Arista with the all-star Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. In the fall of 2001 he released the controversial Rainbow Children, a jazz-infused circus of sound trumpeting his conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses that left many longtime fans out in the cold. He further isolated himself with 2003's N.E.W.S., a four-song set of instrumental jams that sounded a lot more fun to play than to listen to. Prince rebounded in 2003 with the chart-topping Musicology, a return to form that found the artist back in the Top Ten, even garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2005.
3121 In early 2006 he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing two songs with a new protégée, R&B singer Tamar. A four-song appearance at the Brit Awards with Wendy, Lisa, and Sheila E. followed. Both appearances previewed tracks from 3121, which hit number one on the album charts soon after its release in March 2006. Planet Earth followed in 2007, featuring contributions from Wendy and Lisa. In the U.K., copies were cover-mounted on the July 15 edition of The Mail on Sunday, provoking Columbia -- the worldwide distributor for the release -- to refuse distribution throughout the U.K. In the U.S., the album was issued on July 24.
LotusFlow3rLotusFlow3r, a three-disc set, arrived in 2009, featuring a trio of distinct albums: LotusFlow3r itself (a guitar showcase), MPLSound (a throwback to his '80s funk output), and Elixer (a smooth contemporary R&B album featuring the breathy vocals of Bria Valente). Despite only being available online and through one big-box retailer, the set debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart. A year later, another throwback-flavored effort, 20Ten, became his second U.K. newspaper giveaway. No official online edition of the album was made available.
From mid-2010 through the end of 2012, Prince toured throughout Europe, America, Europe again, Canada, and Australia. During 2013, he released several singles, starting with "Screwdriver" and continuing with "Breakfast Can Wait" in the summer of that year. Early in 2014, he made a cameo appearance on the Zooey Deschanel sitcom The New Girl, appearing in the episode that aired following the Super Bowl. All this activity was prelude to the spring announcement that Prince had re-signed to Warner Bros. Records, the label he had feuded with 20 years prior. As part of the deal, he wound up receiving the ownership of his master recordings, and the label planned a reissue campaign that would begin with an expanded reissue of Purple Rain roughly timed to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Art Official Age First came two new albums: Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum, the latter credited to 3rdEyeGirl, the all-female power trio that was his new-millennial backing band. Both records came out on the same day in September 2014. (Two years later, the Prince reissue program and the expanded edition of Purple Rain had yet to appear.) Almost a year to the day, he released HITnRUN: Phase One, with contributions from Lianne La Havas, Judith Hill, and Rita Ora. A sequel, HITnRUN: Phase Two, was released online in December 2015, with a physical release following in January 2016. In early 2016, Prince set out on a rare solo tour, a run of shows he called "Piano and a Microphone." The tour was cut short in April due to sickness, however, and Prince flew home to Minneapolis. On April 21, 2016, police were called to Paisley Park, where they found Prince unresponsive; he died that day at the age of 57. His early death and incredible achievement prompted an outpouring of emotion from fans, friends, influences, and professional associates. On the following week's Billboard charts, he occupied four of the top ten album positions and four of the top singles positions.
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It's nearly impossible to judge Lovesexy as anything but a hastily assembled substitute for the withdrawn Black Album, which does the record a disservice. An exactingly sequenced song cycle -- the compact disc didn't have index markings to separate the individual tracks -- Lovesexy is quite a different record than not only The Black Album, but anything else Prince had recorded. Where Dirty Mind was single-minded in its lust, Lovesexy connects the carnal with spiritual, and the calmness of the music reflects this outlook. Even when the record dips into hard funk, such as on the title track or the single "Alphabet Street," there's a relaxed, casual quality to the music that is shocking after the dense paranoia of Parade, Sign 'o' the Times, and The Black Album. Prince intends to enter a new phase of maturity with such considered music and ambitious lyrical themes, but neither his music nor his lyrics are consistently well stated over the course of the album. A handful of tracks are worthwhile -- the sappy ballad "When 2 R in Love," the moving "I Wish U Heaven," the weird psychedelia of "Anna Stesia" and "Glam Slam," as well as the wonderful "Alphabet Street" .
Prince - Lovesexy (flac 262mb)
01 I No 5:46
02 Alphabet St. 5:39
03 Glam Slam 5:04
04 Anna Stesia 4:58
05 Dance On 3:44
06 Lovesexy 5:47
07 When 2 R In Love 4:01
08 I Wish U Heaven 2:43
09 Positivity 7:17
Prince - Lovesexy (ogg 102mb)
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Like Come before it, Chaos and Disorder is a contractual obligation album for Prince, a way to get himself out of his contract with Warner Brothers. Unlike Come, Chaos and Disorder doesn't sound disjointed and pasted together -- it's a fun, offhanded throwaway. For the first time since 1987's Sign 'O' the Times, Prince has made a pop/rock album, complete with squealing guitars and sighing melodies. None of the songs qualify as major songs in Prince's canon, but that's part of the record's charm -- Prince sounds like he's having a good time, and he could really care less what anyone else has to say. Or, as he puts it in one of the album's best and most careening tracks, "I Rock, Therefore I Am." Chaos and Disorder sounds immediate, like the songs were recorded the same day they were written. While that might mean there's a handful of throwaways scattered throughout the album, there are wonderful moments like the stuttering jazz-funk of "Dig U Better Dead," the scathing "Had U," the psychedelic clashes of the title track, the heavy rock of "I Like It There," and the beautiful "Dinner With Delores," a rough gem that ranks as one of Prince's simplest and most charming singles of the '90s. So, Chaos and Disorder isn't Prince's best or most important work, but it is a really fun listen, especially if you're willing to accept it as what it is -- a record that does nothing more than rock.
Prince - Chaos And Disorder (flac 350mb)
01 Chaos And Disorder 4:20
02 I Like It There 3:15
03 Dinner With Delores 2:46
04 The Same December 3:24
05 Right The Wrong 4:39
06 Zannalee 2:43
07 I Rock, Therefore I Am 6:15
08 Into The Light 2:46
09 I Will 3:36
10 Dig U Better Dead 4:00
11 Had U 1:26
Prince - Chaos And Disorder (ogg 120mb)
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Billed as Prince's most controversial album -- at least by his press agency and label -- upon its release in the fall of 2001, The Rainbow Children was arguably his most curious album to date, which isn't necessarily the same thing as controversial. It could have been controversial, that's for sure, given that it follows his conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses and that it trumpets his faith, over the most elastic, jazziest backing music he's made. If Prince hadn't marginalized himself through his record company battles, multi-disc sets, and botched superstar comebacks, this could have been genuinely controversial, since people would be paying attention to what he's doing. And then a new album musically The Rainbow Children is his most cohesive set since The Gold Experience, and the only one to really push past his traditional limits since then (which, admittedly, is still much more imaginative). And, you know, that's really too bad, because as a musical experience, this is pretty rich, demonstrating not just that Prince knows no borders, but that his music effortlessly mutates within the course of one song, perhaps drawing from his standard book of tricks -- jazz fusion, smooth soul, lite psychedelia, hard rock, and funk general weirdness -- but always sounding unpredictable and rewarding. It's too bad, then, that the very thing that inspired the album for its creator is what will turn off even those diehards that stuck with him this long, seeking out this album -- namely, its religious views. It's not that Prince has become a Jehovah's Witness -- any objective listener really wouldn't care -- but it's that his message doesn't support the music and doesn't fit with the sounds or the approach; it's hard to shut it out, not just because the words are so prominent, but because they're delivered in so many different voices (most distracting of all, the electronically altered basso profundo voice last heard on the decidedly secular "Bob George"), often in short, two-minute songs. This becomes a little overwhelming about halfway through, when the opera comes in on "Wedding Feast," reminding us that this is indeed a concept album, then delving into three eight-minute jams to conclude the record. It all winds up as a bit much, but it doesn't erase the musical facts: this is Prince at his most focused and rewarding in a long time, since Emancipation really.
Prince - The Rainbow Children (flac 449mb)
01 Rainbow Children 10:03
02 Muse 2 The Pharaoh 4:21
03 Digital Garden 4:07
04 The Work Pt.1 4:28
05 Everywhere 2:54
06 The Sensual Everafter 2:58
07 Mellow 4:24
08 1+1+1 Is 3 5:17
09 Deconstruction 1:59
10 Wedding Feast 0:54
11 She Loves Me 4 Me 2:49
12 Family Name 8:17
13 The Everlasting Now 8:18
14 Last December 7:57
15 - 19 (no audio) 0:20
20 (no audio) 0:08
21 Last December (Reprise) 0:38
Prince - The Rainbow Children (ogg 165mb)
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The cartoon album art of Prince's HITnRUN: Phase One echoes the cover portrait on its 2014 predecessor Art Official Age, a deliberate move suggesting this 2015 set is either a cousin or perhaps a reboot, questions the EDM revision of "This Could Be Us" (here titled "This Could B Us") doesn't put to bed. Prince consciously reconnected with his '80s work on Art Official Age, a nice wink for his return to Warner Bros., but HITnRUN covers similar territory in an edgy, impatient fashion, suggesting he wasn't thrilled by the 21st century indifference greeting both it and its companion, PlectrumElectrum, recorded with his power trio 3rdEyeGirl. He opens the proceedings by sampling himself and he's happy to throw side glances to his purple past, but he also ratchets up the electronic rhythms along with the stylized weirdness, peppering in references to Red Bull and cellphones alongside cameos from Rita Ora. What he winds up with is something neither fish nor fowl: a record that doesn't quite feel retro or fresh, yet is undeniably Prince. The question is, how is HITnRUN undeniably Prince? This used to be a fairly complicated question, but as he's gotten older it's turned into a simple equation consisting of a heavy dose of R&B, a few flourishes of fuzz guitar and pop harmonies, all divided between vamping soul workouts and slow jams. Prince has been dancing around this template since at least 2004's Musicology, perhaps even 1998's New Power Soul, but since 2007's Planet Earth he's been consistent in delivering tight little records where the elements are well crafted and perhaps even quite enjoyable, but all add up to something a little less than the sum of their parts. HITnRUN is no exception. Underneath its aggressive opening and occasional woozy electronics, it is anchored by two or three songs (the exuberant "Fallinlove2nite," the recycled "This Could B Us," maybe the Graffiti Bridge throwback "Million $ Show") that wind up revealing how the rest of the record feels like little more than nimble calisthenics.
Prince - HITnRUN Phase One (flac 250mb)
01 Million $ Show 3:10
02 Shut This Down 3:03
03 Ain't About 2 Stop 3:38
04 Like A Mack 4:04
05 This Could B Us 4:11
06 Fallinlove2nite 3:12
07 X's Face 2:38
08 Hardrocklover 3:42
09 Mr. Nelson 2:27
10 1000 X's & O's 4:27
11 June 3:21
Prince - HITnRUN Phase One (ogg 90mb)
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1 comment:
Thank you for all these Prince posts! So many albums I had only just heard about in passing. So much to discover!
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