Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Prince, Legacy Recordings/Sony Music 2018.
I acknowledge that Prince was one of the great innovators in pop but for some reason I’ve never been a dedicated fan of his music.
Thus I approached this collection with some trepidation.
The anthology covers one of the most important parts of his stellar career and many of these tracks have been out of print and hard to find for some time.
Some tracks are available for the first time making this anthology a must have for the dedicated fan.
For Prince, 1995-2010 was an unprecedented period of sustained creativity.
After he was released from the constraints associated with the contractual obligations of his major label he celebrated by releasing albums at a rapid-fire rate.
The period of freedom resulted in some of the most experimental and provocative music of his career.
There are 37 tracks in this collection covering styles from soul through funk and onto rap and beyond.
The anthology opens with Emancipation from his 1996 album of the same name. At the time of its release, Prince rated the album as his most important record.
There are tracks from The Gold Experience, Emancipation, Chaos And Disorder, Crystal Ball, The Truth, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic, The Rainbow Children, One Nite Alone, C-Note, N.E.W.S, Xpectation, Musicology, The Slaughterhouse, The Chocolate Invasion, 3121, Planet Earth, Lotusflow3r, MPlSoUND, and 20Ten.
This is the first release in what is to be a series covering his entire catalogue.
I listened to the album while writing this review and was surprised by the variety and quality of the work contained on the disc.
I’m still somewhat ambivalent about Prince but there is no doubt that he was a supremely talented individual.