DEEP DIVES – Album Review: Goldnigga by The New Power Generation, and The Hits/The B-Sides

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I am doing a deep dive into the work of the musical artist Prince.  Each week until December I will post my thoughts on albums released by Prince (and his bands and side projects) focusing on one year of his career. 

This week I’m focusing on the 1993 release by The New Power Generation, Goldnigga.

Album: Goldnigga
Artist: The New Power Generation
Release Date: July 26, 1993
Label: NPG
Favorite Tracks:

  • Oilcan
  • Deuce & A Quarter
  • Call the Law

Thoughts:

This album is hard-to-find due to it’s limited release and it’s been out of print for decades.  I was only able to find it because a fan posted it on YouTube.  Prince wrote and produced this album, but by and large this is an outing for The New Power Generation.  Tony M takes the lead vocals and raps on a collection of 90s R&B/hip-hop which also feature some jazz arrangements.  It sounds pretty good and of its time, but not anything I’d want to revisit.  The segues on the album with members of the band just chattering aimlessly feel like filler on an already slight album.

Rating: **1/2

 

NOTE: While I generally won’t be including compilation albums in this Deep Dive, I did want to mention that The Hits/The B-Sides, Prince’s first and best greatest hits collection, was also released in 1993.

There are three separate discs: The Hits 1 and The Hits 2 were sold individually, or you could buy them in a box set which also included The B-Sides disc. The best part of the collection is that it includes several tracks never before released on album as well as new outtakes.  The compilation serves as a good bookend to Prince’s early career as 1993 is also the year he changed his name to Logo. Hollow circle above downward arrow crossed with a curlicued horn-shaped symbol and then a short bar in the midst of a contract dispute with Warner Bros.

Favorite Tracks:

  • Peach
  • Nothing Compares 2 U
  • Pope
  • Horny Toad
  • Erotic City
  • Scarlet Pussy
  • La, La, La, He, He, Hee
  • How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?
  • Another Lonely Christmas

 

For You 1978 ***
Prince 1979 ***1/2
Dirty Mind 1980 ****
Controversy 1981 ****
1999 1982 Prince and the Revolution *****
Purple Rain 1984 Prince and the Revolution *****
Around the World in a Day 1985 Prince and the Revolution ****
Parade 1986 Prince and the Revolution ****
Sign “☮︎” the Times 1987 ****1/2
8 1987 Madhouse ***
16 1987 Madhouse ***1/2
Lovesexy 1988 ***1/2
Batman 1989 ***
Graffiti  Bridge 1990 ***1/2
Diamonds and Pearls 1991 Prince and the New Power Generation ***1/2
Logo. Hollow circle above downward arrow crossed with a curlicued horn-shaped symbol and then a short bar [Love Symbol] 1992 Prince and the New Power Generation ***1/2
Goldnigga 1993 The New Power Generation **1/2
Come 1994
The Black Album 1994
The Gold Experience 1995
Exodus 1995 The New Power Generation
Chaos and Disorder 1996
Emancipation 1996
Kamasutra 1997 The NPG Orchestra
Crystal Ball 1998
The Truth 1998
Newpower Soul 1998 The New Power Generation
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale 1999
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic 1999
The Rainbow Children 2001
One Nite Alone… 2002
One Nite Alone… Live! 2002
Xpectation 2003
N-E-W-S 2003
Musicology 2004
The Chocolate Invasion 2004
The Slaughterhouse 2004
C-Note 2004
3121 2006
Planet Earth 2007
Indigo Nights 2008
Lotusflow3r/MPLSound 2009
20Ten 2010
Plectrumelectrum 2014 with 3rdeyegirl
Art Official Age 2014 with 3rdeyegirl
HITnRun Phase One 2015
HITnRun Phase Two 2015

50 Years, 50 Albums (1987): …Nothing Like the Sun by Sting

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I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to listen to and review one album from each year of my life, 1973 to 2022.  The only qualification is that it has to be an album I’ve not reviewed previously. 

1987

Top Grossing Albums of 1987:

  1. Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi
  2. Graceland – Paul Simon
  3. Licensed – Beastie Boys
  4. The Way It Is – Bruce Hornsby
  5. Control – Janet Jackson

Grammy Award for Album of the Year of 1987:

Other Albums I’ve Reviewed from 1987:

Album: …Nothing Like the Sun
Artist: Sting
Release Date: 5 October 1987
Label: A&M
Favorite Tracks:

  • The Lazarus Heart
  • Be Still My Beating Heart
  • Englishman in New York
  • We’ll Be Together
  • Straight To My Heart

Thoughts:

Revisiting The Police for the 50 Years project didn’t go well but fortunately my favorite Sting album from when I was younger holds up pretty well.  At the time Sting was establishing himself as a singer/songwriter who used jazz arrangements and working with Brandford Marsalis (at the time when he was still an up-and-coming artist).  It’s definitely softer than Sting’s work with The Police but not the “soft rock’ that would plague the last few decades of his career.  I’ve always loved the sax solo and the drum break in “Englishman in New York” and they still sound “cool” after all these years.

Rating: ***1/2

Book Review: Chlorine by Jade Song

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Author: Jade Song
Title: Chlorine
Narrator: Catherine Ho, Imani Parks
Publication Info: HarperAudio (2023)
Summary/Review:

Ren Yu, an American-born child of Chinese immigrant parents, finds the place she belongs in the pool as one of the top athletes on her high school swim team.  Her life is dedicated to trying to please her strict mother and abusive coach while pushing her body to the limit to shave seconds of her time.  At the beginning of the book, Ren declares she’s a mermaid, but whether that is a metaphor or if she undergoes a magical transformation is something not immediately explained (the actual story may surprise you!).

The novel is written in first person in Ren’s voice detailing her anxieties and the visceral description of her body’s suffering whether it be in the pool, the pain of menstruation, or the expectations placed upon it by others.  Alternate chapters are written as letters to Ren from Cathy, her best friend on the swim team with whom she shares a mutual, but unspoken, romantic attraction.  This debut novel deals with high school as a horror story incorporating the torments of youth sports, racial prejudice, and mental illness.

Recommended books:

Rating: ***

Book Review: In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

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Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Title: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex 
Publication Info: Penguin, 1999
Other Books Read By the Same Author: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, and Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution
Summary/Review:

In the Heart of the Sea is a history of a 19th-century whaling disaster told in novelistic style by Nathaniel Philbrick. In 1820, the whaleship Essex, sailing from Nantucket, was rammed and destroyed by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean.  This incident influenced Herman Melville in writing Moby Dick.  Only 8 of the 21 crew members survived the arduous journey on whale boats with the survivors resorting to cannibalizing those who died of starvation.

Philbrick does a great job at establishing the community of early 19th century Nantucket and how it’s economy centered on the whaling industry.  Ships were crewed by inexperienced sailors who learned on the job under the command of captains with only a few journeys under their belt.  In this case it was the first-time captain George Pollard Jr. who Philbrick characterizes as hesitant and too willing to be influenced by his crew.  This includes first mate Owen Chase, perhaps resentful that he had not been appointed captain, and very assertive of doing things his way.  What we know of the Essex‘s journey are  based on accounts by Chase and 14-year-old cabin boy cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson.

Race and social caste play their part in the whaleship.  Native Nantucketers were considered the superior group and tended to socialize among themselves.  Other groups included white sailors from the mainland who the Nantucketers considered green hands, as well as a group of free Black sailors.  While Quaker Nantucket was known for abolitionist, the Black sailors were nonetheless discriminated against, and significantly almost all of the sailors to die from starvation and then cannibalized were Black men.  Philbrick draws on other historical accounts and scientific research to viscerally describe starvation’s effects on the human body and mind.

Philbrick’s writing is engaging, and sometimes stomach turning, as a deep dive into a significant historical event that would become part of the American mythology.

Favorite Passages:

“But the rise of the Pacific sperm-whale fishery had an unfortunate side effect. Instead of voyages that had once averaged about nine months, two- and three-year voyages had become the norm. Never before had the division between Nantucket’s whalemen and their people been so great. Long gone were the days when Nantucketers could watch from shore as the men and boys of the island pursued the whale. Nantucket was now the whaling capital of the world, but there were more than a few islanders who had never even seen a whale.”

“…the whalemen preferred to think of it as what one commentator called “a self-propelled tub of high-income lard.” Whales were described by the amount of oil they would produce (as in a fifty-barrel whale), and although the whalemen took careful note of the mammal’s habits, they made no attempt to regard it as anything more than a commodity whose constituent parts (head, blubber, ambergris, etc.) were of value to them. The rest of it—the tons of meat, bone, and guts—was simply thrown away, creating festering rafts of offal that attracted birds, fish, and, of course, sharks. Just as the skinned corpses of buffaloes would soon dot the prairies of the American West, so did the headless gray remains of sperm whales litter the Pacific Ocean in the early nineteenth century.”

“Nantucketers were suspicious of anything beyond their immediate experience. Their far-reaching success in whaling was founded not on radical technological advances or bold gambles but on a profound conservatism. Gradually building on the achievements of the generations before them, they had expanded their whaling empire in a most deliberate and painstaking manner. If new information didn’t come to them from the lips of another Nantucketer, it was suspect.”

“Shipowners hoped to combine a fishy, hard-driving captain with an approachable and steady mate. But in the labor-starved frenzy of Nantucket in 1819, the Essex had ended up with a captain who had the instincts and soul of a mate, and a mate who had the ambition and fire of a captain. Instead of giving an order and sticking with it, Pollard indulged his matelike tendency to listen to others. This provided Chase—who had no qualms about speaking up—with the opportunity to impose his own will. For better or worse, the men of the Essex were sailing toward a destiny that would be determined, in large part, not by their unassertive captain but by their forceful and fishy mate.”

“But if the island’s inhabitants once ventured to the far corners of the world, today it seems as if the world has made its way to Nantucket. It is not whaling, of course, that brings the tourists to the island, but the romantic glorification of whaling—the same kind of myths that historically important places all across America have learned to shine and polish to their economic advantage. Yet, despite the circus (some have called it a theme park) that is modern Nantucket, the story of the Essex is too troubling, too complex to fit comfortably into a chamber of commerce brochure.”

“Like the Donner Party, the men of the Essex could have avoided disaster, but this does not diminish the extent of the men’s sufferings, or their bravery and extraordinary discipline.”

Recommended books:

Rating: ****

50 Years, 50 Movies (1995): Devil in a Blue Dress

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I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to watch and review one movie from each year of my life.  The only qualification is that it has to be a movie I’ve not reviewed previously.

 1995

Top Grossing Movies of 1995:

  1. Die Hard with a Vengeance
  2. Toy Story
  3. Apollo 13
  4. GoldenEye
  5. Pocahontas

Best Picture Oscar Nominees and Winners of 1995:

  • Braveheart
  • Apollo 13
  • Babe
  • Il Postino: The Postman
  • Sense and Sensibility

Other Movies I’ve Reviewed from 1995:

Title: Devil in a Blue Dress
Release Date: September 29, 1995
Director: Carl Franklin
Production Company: TriStar Pictures
Summary/Review:

This film captures the feel of film noir stories in immediate post-war Los Angeles with the additional historical reality of Black migration to the city during that period. Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins (Denzel  Washington) is a WWII vet who loses his job as a machinist and needing to pay his mortgage, agrees to work for private investigator DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore).  His duty is to track down a white woman, Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), who is known to socialize in Black nightclubs.

Naturally, it’s not that easy for Easy as he finds himself in the middle of multiple murders, harassment from the cops, and a scandal involving both candidates for mayor of Los Angeles.  He calls in for help from his friend from Texas, Mouse (Don Cheadle), although that only creates more trouble as Mouse needs very specific instructions on when not to kill people.  It’s a great noir in the style of Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, and Kiss Me Deadly with an underlying social message of discrimination and segregation.  I like the performances from Washington and Cheadle and most of the rest of the cast.  Only Daphne feels underdeveloped and I don’t think it’s Beals fault so much as how she was written and directed, more as a MacGuffin than a woman.

Rating: ****

 

Albums of the Month: Chuck D, Fishbone, Sigur Rós, Julie Byrne, and Barbie

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Album: We Wreck Stadiums 
Artist: Chuck D as Mistachuck
Release Date: March 31, 2023
Label: Spitslam Records
Favorite Tracks:

  • We Wreck Stadiums
  • Warning Track
  • Hard to See My Baseball Cards Move On

Thoughts: Chuck D of Public Enemy typically wears a baseball cap and yet I never expected him to be a passionate baseball fan.  Under the nom de rhyme of Mistachuck he raps about his favorite players of the past including Dave Parker, Ferguson Jackson, and Wilie Mays. Surprisingly he also makes the case for enshrining Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens in the Hall of Fame.  Some of the best tracks incorporate the parallels of baseball and life such as the reflection of mortality on “Hard to See My Baseball Cards Move On” or his memories of becoming a fan watching the 1971 All-Star Game.  In addition to being a treat for baseball fans, its musically an “old school” rap album.

Rating: ***

Album: Fishbone
Artist: Fishbone
Release Date: May 27, 2023
Label: Bottles to the Ground
Favorite Tracks:

  • All We Have is Now
  • Estranged Fruit

Thoughts:

I was a big fan of the ska-funk-punk-metal band Fishbone in high school and college and they were in fact the first band I saw in concert on a double bill with Primus (and still one of the greatest concerts I’ve ever experienced).  The band’s musical style went in a direction I didn’t want to follow in the late 90s.  But now they’re back with an EP that reunites most of the band’s original lineup.  It shares the same title as the band’s 1985 debut EP with a modified version of the original Fishbone EP’s album cover.  While their ska-punk sound is back, it is not all retro with lyrics focused on social and political issues of our time, especially on “Estranged Fruit (with NOFX),” an homage to Billie Holliday’s “Strange Fruit” that deals with contemporary manifestations of racial violence.  Whether this is a one off or the start of a Fishbone revival, it’s good to have them back.

Rating: ****

Album: Sigur Rós
Artist: Átta
Release Date: 16 June 2023
Label:Von Dur | BMG
Favorite Tracks:

  • Blóðberg
  • Skel
  • Klettur
  • Andrá
  • 8

Thoughts:

Iceland’s Sigur Rós, an old favorite of mine, return after a ten-year album.  The album continues the band’s practice of making broadly atmospheric and highly-orchestrated music (in this case performed by London Contemporary Orchestra). The music is beautiful but serious dealing with the despair and depression of a world beset by “climate change, doom-scrolling and going to hell,” to quote the band’s leader Jónsi.  This is definitely a “headphones album” where you can just let your ears dive in and let the sound wash over you.

Rating: ***1/2

Album: The Greater Wings
Artist: Julie Byrne
Release Date: July 7, 2023
Label: Ghostly International
Favorite Tracks:

  • The Greater Wings
  • Portrait of a Clear Day
  • Summer Glass
  • Lighting Comes Up From the Ground
  • Hope’s Return

Thoughts:

Death to the old ways
But who am I without them?

– “Lightning Comes Up From the Ground”

Buffalo singer/songwriter Julie Byrne explores her grief after the death of Eric Littmann – her friend, musical collaborator, and one-time lover – during the production of this album.  Her music is a blend of contemporary American folk music with 80s-style synthesizer arrangements.  Even with minimal instrumentation, most of the songs begin with finger-picked guitar before growing, there’s a bigness to the sound that resounds through these songs. Regardless of instrumentation, Byrne’s beautiful and heartbreaking voice is the center of this album

Rating: ****

Album: Barbie: The Album
Artist: Various Artists
Release Date: July 21, 2023
Label: Atlantic
Favorite Tracks:

  • “Pink” – Lizzo
  • “Dance the Night” – Dua Lipa
  • “Speed Drive” – Charlie XCX
  • “Man I Am”  – Sam Smith
  • “I’m Just Ken” – Ryan Gosling
  • “What Was I Made For?” – Billie Eilish
  • “Choose Your Fighter” – Ava Max
  • “Barbie Dreams” – Fifty Fifty featuring Kaliii

Thoughts: Barbie is not a musical but more than is typical in contemporary movies the original soundtrack contain songs specifically written for the film and in many cases interact with the action of the movie.  Produced by Mark Ronson, the soundtrack album features an all-star list of contributors including Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice, Charlie XCX, Tame Impala, Haim, and Billie Eilish.  It should be noted that two previously released songs featured prominently in the movie – “Closer to Fine” by Indigo Girls and “Push” by Matchbox 20 – are not on the album (at least not this version).

The lead track, “Pink” by Lizzo, narrates Barbie’s day at the beginning of the movie although the album does not include the bad day reprise of the song.  Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” scores the key dance party.  Sam Smith and Billie Eilish’s contributions are also important to the movie.  But the song that sticks in my head is “I’m Just Ken,” the power ballad performed by Ryan Gosling and a chorus of Kens in the movie’s showstopping dance number.  I really want this song to hit Number One. I only wish they’d resisted including Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” although at least it only appears remixed into Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World.”

All in all this is a fun, eclectic mix of contemporary pop styles.  The best tracks are frontloaded so the latter part of it is less interesting but it’s ultimately an excellent soundtrack.

Rating: ***1/2

2023 Album Reviews

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

  • Chuck D as Mistachuck – We Wreck Stadiums
  • Fishbone – Fishbone
  • Sigur Rós – Átta
  • Julie Byrne – The Greater Wings
  • Various Artists – Barbie: The Album

Song of the Week: “Hypothetical Girl” by Little Fuss

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Little Fuss – Hypothetical Girl

Boston’s Little Fuss, who’ve already appeared in Albums of the Month this year for their January release Girls at Parties, are back with the EP Lovely Distraction which includes “Hypothetical Girl.”

Songs of the Week for 2023

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Movie Review: Rye Lane (2023)

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Title: Rye Lane
Release Date: 17 March 2023
Director: Raine Allen-Miller
Production Company: DJ Films | Turnover Films | BBC Film | BFI
Summary/Review:

This quirky rom-com begins with a meet cute in a public restroom.  Nebbish Dom (David Jonsson) is weeping over a recent breakup which stirs the interest of the outgoing Yas (Vivian Oparah).  They end up spending the day together, sharing the stories of their breakups, and gently pushing one another beyond their boundaries.  Hijinks ensue, including confronting each of the exes and their respective new partners.  The movie and its leads have a lot of charm as the community and places of South London are seamlessly blended into their budding romance in a way that Vienna did for Before Sunrise.  Definitely a good film for the hopeless romantics among us.

Rating: ***1/2

DEEP DIVES – Album Review: [Love Symbol] by Prince and The New Power Generation

~ Liam ~ 1 Comment

I am doing a deep dive into the work of the musical artist Prince.  Each week until December I will post my thoughts on albums released by Prince (and his bands and side projects) focusing on one year of his career. 

This week I’m focusing on [Love Symbol] from 1992.

Album: Ƭ̵̬̊ [aka – Love Symbol]
Artist: Prince and the New Power Generation
Release Date: October 13, 1992
Label: Paisley Park | Warner Bros.
Favorite Tracks:

  • Sexy M.F.
  • The Max
  • 👁 Wanna Melt with U
  • The Continental
  • The Flow
  • 7

Thoughts: This is the most hip hop album yet released by Prince.  It definitely sounds of it’s time and it’s strange for Prince to be following trends rather than leading. This is most evident on the lead song “My Name is Prince,”  a boast track where Prince sounds out of his element.  Fortunately, the rest of the album has a lot of strong points, including two all-time classics: “Sexy MF” and “7.”  The album was originally intended as a rock opera with an appropriately bizarre plot but was later pared back. It nevertheless contains spoken word segments featuring Kirstie Alley as a reporter attempting to interview Prince that don’t make much sense out of context.  Musically though, it’s another solid Prince album with a diversity of styles.

This is the point in my life where new music from Prince was off my radar until the 2010s so there’s a lot of stuff I’ll be hearing for the first time.  It feels strange because it feels like we’re so deep into Prince’s career and yet this is only one-third of his discography!

Rating: ***1/2

 

For You 1978 ***
Prince 1979 ***1/2
Dirty Mind 1980 ****
Controversy 1981 ****
1999 1982 Prince and the Revolution *****
Purple Rain 1984 Prince and the Revolution *****
Around the World in a Day 1985 Prince and the Revolution ****
Parade 1986 Prince and the Revolution ****
Sign “☮︎” the Times 1987 ****1/2
8 1987 Madhouse ***
16 1987 Madhouse ***1/2
Lovesexy 1988 ***1/2
Batman 1989 ***
Graffiti  Bridge 1990 ***1/2
Diamonds and Pearls 1991 Prince and the New Power Generation ***1/2
[Love Symbol] 1992 Prince and the New Power Generation ***1/2
Goldnigga 1993 The New Power Generation
Come 1994
The Black Symbol 1994
The Gold Experience 1995
Exodus 1995 The New Power Generation
Chaos and Disorder 1996
Emancipation 1996
Kamasutra 1997 The NPG Orchestra
Crystal Ball 1998
The Truth 1998
Newpower Soul 1998 The New Power Generation
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale 1999
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic 1999
The Rainbow Children 2001
One Nite Alone… 2002
One Nite Alone… Live! 2002
Xpectation 2003
N-E-W-S 2003
Musicology 2004
The Chocolate Invasion 2004
The Slaughterhouse 2004
C-Note 2004
3121 2006
Planet Earth 2007
Indigo Nights 2008
Lotusflow3r/MPLSound 2009
20Ten 2010
Plectrumelectrum 2014 with 3rdeyegirl
Art Official Age 2014 with 3rdeyegirl
HITnRun Phase One 2015
HITnRun Phase Two 2015

Movie Review: A Thousand and One (2023)

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Title: A Thousand and One
Release Date: March 31, 2023
Director: A.V. Rockwell
Production Company: Sight Unseen | Hillman Grad Productions | Makeready
Summary/Review:

In the mid-90s, Inez (Teyana Taylor) is released from a prison sentence on Rikers Island and finds her 6-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) is in the hospital  after an injury at his foster home.  Inez abducts Terry and attempts to make an ordinary life in Harlem finding work, a place to live, and marrying a longtime lover, Lucky (Will Catlett).  Set against the gentrifying of New York City under the leadership of Giuliani and Bloomberg, the film shows Inez and family attempting to scrap by at the edges of poverty. The direction really captures the feel of the changing city in the 90s and 00s.

The narrative jumps forward twice showing Terry at 13 (Aven Courtney) and ultimately at 17 (Josiah Cross). Terry succeeds at school but struggles with the trauma of his past and his secret identity.  There’s a major plot twist in the final act of this movie that I feel kind of makes the story more
sensationalistic and I don’t really like it.  Nevertheless, the strong acting, especially by Taylor, carries this movie through.

Rating: ***1/2