The Prince Album He Could Have Made Would Have Been "Wow"
What If Prince Had Released A Single Album?
I dismissed the Prince albums, the two new releases for Warner brothers, out of hand last week. But that didn’t stop me listening to them more and more. It is, after all, Prince. He deserves and he rtains our interest and what might not sink in at first deserves a closer inspection.
So I inspected further and instead of the disaster I thought I’d been listening to, I noticed that if you edited down for him, it would’ve have made a pretty good single album. Not a great one, not even Emancipation or Crystal Ball, but still, vastly better than Lotusflower or Planet Earth It would have made to a fair to middling effort.
Now some people whose tastes I respect, love PLECTRUMELECTRUM, Joe Steinhardt of Don Giovanni Records said “I think both albums are pretty incredible, but especially plectrum electrum”. He recommended it to people who loved Purple Rain and perhaps but where are the pop hits?
The one song that really hits hard is “Wow” so in my own personal Prince album of 2014, I name the album from it and lead off with it:
1. Wow – A terrific drum roll introduces you into a quicksand bass hook which sinks in and out before Prince opens with “hello, how are you, looking so good, no that’s true”, the track roils in waves of bass percussion and funk – A
2. PLECTRUMELECTRUM – Tasty instrumental funk work out, sound an awful lot like Larry Graham – B+
3. FIXURLIFEUP – Cool lick to open the proceedings and a modified rock bea before morphing into a 60s pop rocker and then heads for the weird – B+
4. BREAKDOWN – The early release single is a fine falsetto Prince ballad so three heavy duty funk workouts and then a hot cool off – B+
5. THISCOULDBEUS – His pop move, with limited success – B
6. ANOTHERLOVE – Funk ballad work out, ho hum
7. MARZ – Heavy duty glam rocker – B+
8. BREAKFASTCANWAIT – The Monday morning rock with finger snapping relish, great bass picking – B
9. THEGOLDSTANDARD – Consider this the song he should give to Morris Day – B-
10. FUNKNROLL – Big sound funkarama – B
