Prince - HITnRUN: Phase One

His Royal Purpleness' first album of 2015, not nearly as good as PLECTRUMELECTRUM, IMO, but it's very electronic with a few dance tracks even. You can't doubt this guy at 60 (I'm from the 80s), even if he's a Jehovah's Witness now. I hate to list TIDAL, but it seems to be an exclusive (he's almost as old as my Dad FFS)

http://listen.tidal.com/album/50767183

that cover belongs in the bad 90's design thread

dude it's better than the Dave Chapelle album cover, I give him a pass. he's a senior citizen now, lol. he's still probly the greatest live guitarist I've ever seen, save the Reverend Horton Heat. Unfortunately, you can't see this clip anymore without sitting thru minutes of Johnny Depp bullshit commercials, which is sad but that's 21st Century Corporate 'Merica.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/watch-princes-incredible-eight-minute-snl-medley-20141102

Of course he's weird on purpose, that's his schtick. But he's had some real pain in his life and he still smiles; his son died, his wife divorced him, he has an empty nursery in his mansion, but he still creates. At this point, I think maybe he's resigned himself to getting laid but never a fulfilling relationship, maybe that's why he adopted God. But his musical talent will never be questioned. Who knows, what the fuck do I know? Just celebrity gossip. He is a musical genius though, I have no doubt.

Nah, that cover isn’t 90s. It’s perhaps early 2000s, but it’s fine. Prince hasn’t had a good album cover since… 3121, maybe? That cover’s alright.

My theory is that this album is “HitnRun” in the sense that it was produced really quickly (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing). “HitnRun” has been a Prince live show “concept” (show up and play a show with very little notice) for a while now, why not extend it to albums?

But yeah, this isn’t as good as the last pair of records (Art Official Age & Plectrumelectrum). I’m bummed they removed Zooey Deschanel from backing vox on FALLINLOVE2NITE, as well.

Still, there are a few interesting tracks. The “electronic production” angle is mostly tiring, but occasionally interesting (like on “X’s Face” for example). And the great singing and playing obviously shines through.

This is out now on CD btw (no Tidal for me, eff that). However! One thing I am super jealous of is that there is a bunch of obscure/OOP stuff up on Tidal alongside this album, like The Truth, the NPG Music Club compilations, etc. I wish those would be reissued on CD!

RIP

Topping this thread to mention that HITnRUN Phase Two is also now out on digital and CD. It is (of course) quite different than Phase One and mostly organic, funky, horn-driven tracks. It has “Xtraloveable Reloaded”, “Groovy Potential”, “Big City”, and a few other latter-day Prince tracks that I am excited to own on a physical format.

Wanted to post about it because in all the sudden flurry of other sad Prince news this (the fact that this is now a widely-available pressing) almost passed me by.

RIP for real.

rest in pleasure dude

thx for the heads up!