Prince’s New Albums: Brilliant, Messy
Of Prince’s new albums, The Guardian says: ‘There are fantastic songs here, among them the drum machine-driven, effects-laden electro-funk of “Clouds,” which comes complete with lyrics that simultaneously set up the album’s concept – a lot of guff about emerging from suspended animation 45 years in the future…There are moments when Prince sounds ready and able to take on R&B artists 30 years his junior at their own game…And there are brilliantly idiosyncratic production touches, not least on “Breakdown,” a ballad powered by the insistent boing of what appears to be a detuned bass guitar: it looks ridiculous on paper, but sounds incredible. But “The Gold Standard”’s attempt at taut, “Black Album“-style funk isn’t taut enough, “This Could Be Us” and “What It Feels Like” aren’t particularly interesting songs, while the lengthy “Time” stumbles between sounding idiosyncratic and a bit of a mess.’
