Three hours of perfect Prince is hard to believe. Here it is. All the grooves are present. All the funk. The indulgent boudoir ballads. The ambiguous spirituality. Cameos of soul & gospel & rap. If you've ever liked any Prince song, then you're bound to find another favourite on this explosion of creativity.
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Of course there's a reason this album is so overwhelming, both in terms of quantity and quality: it represents the best of five years of songwriting. Allegedly in 1991 or so Prince walked into the Warner Bros. offices and dumped five albums' worth of music into their laps, thus fulfilling his 'contractual obligations' for the next five years. He then went home and continued to write songs. Once 'emancipated' from WB, free to form NPG music, he released this treasure trove. Without normal distribution, however, it "only" reached No.11 on the Billboard Album Chart, and spawned only one single. Crazy stuff. There's enough musical genius here for three or four chart-topping albums and a host of singles.
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There are DVDs available of Prince's more recent lives shows, featuring consumate musicians, such as Maceo Parker and members of The Family Stone, but none more distinguished than Prince himself - his performances are terrific and showcase his enormous talent. Music is his life. He can play virtually any instrument, sing, write, arrange...dance. What's more, he enjoys himself on stage - and it's hard not to share in it all. The DVDs are ideal complements to this CD set.
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I think this is one of his best ever albums, and one of the best pop albums of all time. Having heard almost all his work, this would be my desert island recording. I've wondered why the praise for it has been less than universal and concluded that in a strange sense it is "too good" - there are at least twenty songs that could have been Top 10 hits, and which beg to be treated as 'favourites' - normally, I'd listen to an album and come back to 2 or 3 songs repeatedly - here, that makes for a difficult choice - what's more, since these songs have been starved of airplay they don't bring that welcome nostalgia of a popular hit, no memory of dancing to this or that at a party - it's almost like listening to a great new song for the first time. Also, there's no filler, nor is there a "theme" which allows for half-attentive listening - every four minutes another great tune shouts out and demands to be heard! It's so good that it's almost hard work!
See all 12 tracks on this disc
