New Power Soul (NPG) - Prince (CD 1998)

Every time I listen to Prince's 1998 record NEW POWER SOUL, that's 1 hour and 3 minutes of my life I'll never get back. That probably sounds bad, doesn't it? It's meant to. I've been listening to Prince since 1987 and in 1990 I went back and bought all the records I'd missed up to that point, so if I know any music in the world, it's Prince, and whatever it is on this record, it ain't Prince. Oh, it TRIES to be Prince, with twisted around lyrics ("Every while in a great once / There comes to town a show / That lives up to all you're funkspectations / No matter how high or low" from the title..

Prince, I gotta hand it to you. Somehow, you were able to write a software program that enabled your Mac to automatically create an album. Using a series of logarithms and other complex mathematical processes, your software not only wrote the music and lyrics to all eleven tunes on Newpower Soul, but it performed every musical instrument flawlessly, from the Backstreet Boys drum program on "Shoo-Bed-Ooh" (gotta love these song titles), to the bleeping, burping, bip-bopping key-cheese melted all over "Until Ure In My Arms Again," to the too-trite-to-be-tight horn section on the title track,...

I'll admit it: I hated this album when I first bought it. I shelved it after one listening and left it there for three years. I just pulled it out to give it another chance, and I'm glad I did. This album is not nearly as bad as its made out to be. There are some good jams here, and even at his worst, Prince is still better than most artists on the radio today. I particularly like track number 4, "When You Love Somebody." There is some great horn work in it. Other good tracks include the opener "New Power Soul" and weird "Freaks on the Side." Be sure to leave the CD in the player for hidden...