DEEP DIVES – Album Review: LOtUSFLOW3R/MPLSoUND by Prince

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 we’re revisiting 2009 when Prince released his multi-disc set containing LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSoUND (originally released exclusively at Target!!!). I will not be reviewing the third album in the set, Elixer, the debut studio album by Bria Valente.

Album: LOtUSFLOW3R
Artist: Prince
Release Date: March 24, 2009
Label: NPG
Favorite Tracks:

• Crimson and Clover
• Colonized Mind
• Love Like Jazz
• Wall of Berlin
• Dreamer

Thoughts:  Prince continues to embrace his status as a legacy artist with this throwback album that channels classic rock (particularly Jimi Hendrix-style psychedelic rock), baroque pop, and soul. Prince’s guitar virtuosity is on display on many of the tracks. It’s a really strong return to form for Prince.  Or maybe I just like classic rock too much.
Rating: ****

Album: MPLSoUND
Artist: Prince
Release Date: March 24, 2009
Label: NPG
Favorite Tracks:

• Chocolate Box (feat. Q-Tip)
• Dance 4 Me
• Ol’ Skool Company
• No More Candy 4 U

Thoughts: This albums focuses more on a funk and soul sound with touches of neo-soul and hip hop. Or as the title says, the Minneapolis Sound that Prince invented and shepherded over the decades.  I didn’t like this one as much as LOtUSFLOW3R but it is still more consistent than most of Prince’s releases of the Oughts. That being said, if Prince had spliced together the best tracks of these two albums into one release, it would’ve been much stronger overall.
Rating: ***

 

 

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	**1/2
Come	1994		**1/2
The Black Album	1994		***1/2
The Gold Experience	1995		**1/2
Exodus	1995	The New Power Generation	***
Chaos and Disorder	1996		**1/2
Emancipation	1996		***
Kamasutra	1997	The NPG Orchestra	***
Crystal Ball	1998		***1/2
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		**1/2
One Nite Alone…	2002		**
One Nite Alone… Live!	2002	Prince and the New Power Generation	***1/2
Xpectation	2003		***1/2
N-E-W-S	2003		**1/2
Musicology	2004		***
The Chocolate Invasion	2004		***1/2
The Slaughterhouse	2004		***1/2
C-Note	2004		**1/2
3121	2006		**1/2
Planet Earth	2007		**
Indigo Nights	2008		****
LOtUSFLOW3R/MPLSoUND	2009		***1/2
20Ten	2010
Plectrumelectrum	2014	with 3rdeyegirl
Art Official Age	2014	with 3rdeyegirl
HITnRun Phase One	2015
HITnRun Phase Two	2015

Song of the Week: “Frontier’s Edge” by The Budos Band

The Budos Band – Frontier’s Edge

The Budos Band, one of the stable of artists from New York’s Daptone Records, are back with new Afrobeat sounds on the title song from their most recent studio release Frontier’s Edge.

 

Songs of the Week for 2023

January

• “Happiness” by THICK
• “Abathembu” by uKhoiKhoi
• “Blood Rushes” by CIVIC
• “Doomscrollers” by Quasi
• “Fold” by Bonobo & Jacques Greene

February

• “Go Dig My Grave” by Lankum
• “Tokyo Dub Story” by Gezan & Million Wish Collective
• “MA EMILY (featuring Rapsody)” by C.S. Armstrong
• “All of the Time in the World to Kill” by The Milk Carton Kids

March

• “False Spring” by Shelli Le Fay
• “Barley” by Water From Your Eyes
• “exodus the north star” by Yaya Bey
• “Grey Eagle” by Mighty Poplar

April

• “My My Orca Card” by Who Is She?
• “Pop Song Baby” by MEDIOCRE
• “Too Many Things” by The Linda Lindas
• “Consumerism” by Acid Tongue

May

• “Freak Me Now” by Jessie Ware
• “Journeyman” by The Baseball Project
• “Roll the Credits” by Danielle Ponder Hannah Jadagu
• “What You Did” by Hannah Jadagu
• “Star” by CERES

June

• “Kristine From the 7th Grade” by Ben Folds
• “Lima” by Rocket Empire
• “Eliza, I See” by Darlingside
• “Vine” by Glasser

July

• “Cellar” by Sea Lemon
• “hot blue summer” by dayaway
• “Tumbling Dice” by Little Dragon
• “ETA” by NewJeans
• “Jacaranda” by Sivan Levy

August

• “Hypothetical Girl” by Little Fuss
• “Boston” by The Elovaters
• “Planet of the Bass” by DJ Crazy Times and Ms. Biljana Electronica
• “You Shatter” by Sweeping Promises

September

• “Frontier’s Edge” by The Budos Band

DEEP DIVE – Album Review: Around the World in a Day Prince and the Revolution

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 reviewing the soundtrack for Around the World in a Day from 1985.

Album: Around the World in a Day
Artist: Prince and the Revolution
Release Date: April 22, 1985
Label: Paisley Park, Warner Bros.
Favorite Tracks:

• Paisley Park
• Raspberry Beret
• America
• Pop Life
• The Ladder
• Temptation

Thoughts:

This album has a special place in my heart because it was the only album I listened to for a couple of weeks in my childhood.  My family moved in the summer of 1985 and all my cassette tapes were sealed in a box I couldn’t find.  But Around the World in a Day was in one of our first parcels of mail at the new house, from our friends at Columbia House.  And so I listened to it, a lot!

The album cover, Prince’s outfits, and the music draw a lot upon the psychedelic rock era of the late 1960s, particularly The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland.  That being said, the influence has been overstated.  This album contains Prince’s typical eclecticism and a lot of experimentation, especially for an artist just coming off his peak commercial success.

My favorite songs on the album start with the dreamy “Paisley Park,” a name also used for Prince’s record label and recording studio/residence.  “Raspberry Beret” is one of Prince’s instant classic romantic songs.  The other big hit from this album, “Pop Life,” meditates on the downsides of fame in the 1980s with excellent call and response vocals by Wendy & Lisa. “America” is one of Prince’s most ardently political tracks attacking the state of the nation in the Reagan Era.  The album finishes off with Prince’s intertwined obsessions of faith and sex, as often in conflict as they are unified, in the gospel track “The Ladder” immediately followed by the raunchy blues of “Temptation.”

This is a personal and mystical album, and definitely there’s a lot more going on than this being Prince’s “psychedelic” album, but I can’t decrypt it all either.

Rating: ****

 

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 O’ the Times	1987
8	1987	Madhouse
16	1987	Madhouse
Lovesexy	1988
Batman	1989
Graffiti  Bridge	1990
Diamonds and Pearls	1991	Prince and the New Power Generation
Love Symbol	1992	Prince and the New Power Generation
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