PRINCE
PRINCE: Lead and Backing Vocals, Guitars and Bass Guitar
JOSHUA WELTON: All other instruments
with
THE HORNHEADS
NPG HORNZ
STRINGENIUS string arrangements by Adi Yeshaya
Composed, Produced, Arranged and Performed by Prince and Joshua Welton
Released September 7, 2015
In a career that has already crafted one head scratcher after another, I am wondering if the artist forever known as Prince has perhaps delivered his biggest head scratcher yet.
What is collaboration and what is control in the musical universe of Prince Rogers Nelson? From the very beginning of his musical odyssey, every single album Prince has released has carried the following credit: "Composed, Produced, Arranged and Performed by Prince" (or some variation of that credit adding either his bands The Revolution, The New Power Generation or 3RDEYEGIRL or even that unpronounceable symbol the proceedings). What that credit achieved is the identification that we, as listeners, were being presented with an artistic vision as its most singular, that even if other names were attached to his, we all knew that Prince's fingerprints were upon every single beat, strum and sound that reached our collective ears.
So complete was this impression, that on albums that were released that did not feature his own name anywhere, works that existed through pseudonyms or albums were credits were falsely attributed to other individuals (like Vanity 6, The Time, Madhouse, The Family, Jamie Starr, Alexander Nevermind and so on). Even on Shelia E.'s first two albums, especially "Romance 1600" (released August 26, 1985) where she was credited with performing guitar, bass, keyboards as well as drums and percussion, it was in truth an album where Prince largely created the works on his own, yet left his name nowhere in sight (save for that album's centerpiece "A Love Bizarre"). In all of those circumstances and more, regardless of what was written within the liner notes, we still all knew who the true architect was without question.
But still, there were periods when Prince relinquished control in the spirit of true collaboration. During their stint in The Revolution, Prince relied heavily upon the talents and efforts of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, whom in interviews expressed how the trio created a considerable amount of music together (nearly all of it still unreleased and housed inside of The Vault to this day), describing how Prince would give them sketches of songs to complete on their own. Another period was during the creation of the three disc/three hour epic album entitled "Emancipation" (released November 19, 1996) where Prince allowed drummer and close friend Kirk Johnson to handle all of the album's drum programming.
Certainly there have been many times upon which Prince has gladly displayed the spotlight upon other band members and collaborators, especially the touring unit he assembled during the "Sign O' The Times"/"Lovesexy" period (featuring saxophonist Eric Leeds, bassist Levi Seacer Jr. and the monstrous Shelia E. on drums), or even the very first incarnation of The New Power Generation for "Diamonds And Pearls" (released October 1, 1991), or all of the guest appearances that flow through the "Griffiti Bridge" album (released August 20, 1990) among many others.
And yet, Prince always seems to function within a series of cycles. Points where he has worked with others to an absolute peak position, only to disband everything and bring all of the music solely back to himself again. In ways, this process not only continues to craft Prince's unique musical vision, iconography and inscrutable persona, it also completely blurred whatever lines that exist between the so-called "official" Prince releases and the side projects, so much so that some of the side projects and pseudonyms (like The Time, Madhouse and The Family) feel more like regular Prince albums than some of those aforementioned official releases. Head scratching indeed.
Now we arrive at "HITNRUN: Phase One," Prince's third album in twelve months and 38th official album overall! Self-described as an "experimental" release (aside from his deal with Jay-Z's TIDAL) is the fact that the album credits list the name of Joshua Welton as co-producer! While his name did appear in the album credits for last year's "ART OFFICIAL AGE" (released September 30, 2014), Joshua Welton's presence on this new album, and in all of the accompanying press interviews, has grown considerably larger, making it impossible to overlook him.
Joshua Welton, a musician/producer in his own right, is in fact the husband of 3RDEYEGIRL drummer/vocalist Hannah Ford Welton, and his initial presence within Paisley Park was to function solely as support for her. After a time, and after Welton and Prince had begun to know each other and connect through spiritual matters, Prince essentially created an impromptu contest within the walls of Paisley Park as he handed an unfinished track to Welton and two other producers and instructed them to complete it, after which Prince would choose a winner. Joshua Welton was the victor.
With "HITNRUN: Phase One," both Prince and Welton have described the album's creation process as being fully collaborative. As they have each explained, Prince would give Welton instructions to create a certain soundscape, which Prince would then take and add to it. Welton expressed that while Prince always recorded his vocals completely alone, he was present many times when His Royal Badness would add either his peerless instrumental skills on guitar or bass only, leaving the lion's share of the instrumentation to Welton. From the sounds of their recent interviews, the creation of this new album feels akin to Prince and Joshua Welton rolling a ball back and forth to each other, taking turns building up a song piece by piece...and yet, this just sounds absolutely strange and confusing to me.
Prince, whether intentionally or not, has spent the entirety of his career cultivating an image of himself as a musical Svengali, the primary figurehead, the sole creator of this idiosyncratic musical universe and the thought that he has now loosened the reigns to include another individual to actually produce him feels unfathomable. In interviews, Welton has even expressed that while Prince ALWAYS had the final stamp of approval, there are some tracks on the new album on which Prince does not even touch one instrument. Say what?! Again...head scratcher indeed!
But now onto the album itself...
"HITNRUN: Phase One" is entitled after a longtime euphemism Prince uses to dub surprise concert performances in smaller venues and nightclubs or for very accelerated tours through specific locales. Get in. Get out. Leave 'em spent and begging for more.
Unlike the concept album wonderland of "ART OFFICIAL AGE" or the analog, full 3RDEYEGIRL band, analog guitar fireworks of "PLECTRUMELECTRUM" (released September 30, 2014), this new album is precisely as named: a collection of dance floor ready pop song club tunes that hit hard, fast, get in and get out...hopefully leaving the listener begging for more.
"HITNRUN: Phase One" opens with a most familiar sound to my ears, the opening multi-tracked vocals of "For You," itself the very first song and title track from Prince's debut album, released April 7, 1978. Within moments, the song phases into the opening moments from both "1999" and "Let's Go Crazy" before settling into the high stepping, horn section fueled introductory track "MILLION $ SHOW," which is somewhat of an oddity as it does serve as the album's preamble (as valiantly sung by Judith Hill) and yet Prince does not even appear in the song for nearly two full minutes and even then, it is surprisingly brief. It is almost as if Prince is guesting on his own album and eve then, he does run the risk of overshadowing his new work with the music of his past, itself an odd way to begin a new work, no matter how euphoric it is presented.
With "SHUT THIS DOWN," Prince makes his presence fully know as his aggressive "My Name Is Prince" vocal gruffness and downright nasty bass work combined with Welton's more martial/industrial beats and keyboards merge strongly, effectively creating a sweaty and hot atmosphere, that only continues with the vaguely Middle Eastern tinged "AIN'T ABOUT 2 STOP."
Collaborating with Rita Ora and a blazing guitar solo from 3RDEYEGIRL guitarist Donna Gratis, Prince and Welton again conjure an aggressive track that just dares you to stop moving. As Prince proclaims "If u're life is the B-side, my dream is the A," his furious bass playing returns and I particularly enjoyed how Welton created samples of Prince classic stacked "1999" era keyboard sounds and incorporated them into the stomping mix, tickling the ears at just the perfect time.
"LIKE A MACK," featuring the vocals of Curly Fryz plus the frisky NPG Hornz section, while enjoyable, doesn't stick as firmly as I had wished, feeling more like a holding pattern until the next selection, a remixed/reworked version of "THIS COULD B US" from "ART OFFICIAL AGE." For me, the album gets itself back on track as Welton takes the ballad and injects just enough of a sultry bounce to give it more of an erotic atmosphere...and certainly, Prince's stinging, percolating guitar solo anchored by that incredible bass just cements the song perfectly.
Now by this point in "HITNRUN: Phase One," and again, while I was enjoying myself, I was feeling that perhaps the songs were perhaps a tad...slight. Now certainly, was fully aware that these are a set of songs that are only really meant to get the listener moving and out onto the dance floor, wherever that may be. But even so, I just felt the need to have something that stuck to the ribs a bit more. Thankfully, the second half of the album arrived just in the nick of time.
Prince's inner Donna Summer explodes on the album highlight "FALLINLOVE2NITE," where his "Camille" alter-ego vocals, horns, and strings superbly augment Welton's soaring keyboards and disco beat. Now, here is where the push/pull of Prince's collaboration and control arrives again, albeit in a more subtle fashion. This particular song has already been released as a single and featuring actress Zooey Deschanel's vocals as it was a tie-in with Prince's wry appearance upon Deschanel's hit sitcom "New Girl." Yet, for "HITNRUN: Phase One," Deschanel's vocals have been completely removed. Not that it really altered the song as a whole in any fashion one way or the other but a curiosity just the same.
From here, Joshua Welton creates soundscapes that are more minimalist or at least less bombastic than the album's first half, therefore emerging with not only a stronger and more memorable sequence of songs but ones that almost feel as if Prince is operating solely on his own. Perhaps the musical marriage between Master and Apprentice is beginning to truly gel.
The sparse "X'S FACE," the soulful reworking of the "Diamonds And Pearls" outtake "1000 X'S AND O'S" and the instrumental "MR. NELSON," itself a revamped, and again Middle Eastern tinged, version of "CLOUDS" from "ART OFFICIAL AGE," all work very well in creating and continuing that inexplicable aural landscape that is Prince's romantic/erotic/spiritual dreamworld. Yet, "HARDROCKLOVER," is the album's show stopper, with bursts of Prince's sky-scraping guitar heroics and inimitable vocals, which have not lost a single octave, blasting through the moody purple atmospherics, again created by Welton.
"HITNRUN: Phase One" concludes on a more meditative note with "JUNE," track that feels as if it could be a close cousin to "Reflection" from "Musicology" (released April 20, 2004). Here, over a musical bed of airy, dreamy keyboards and finger snaps, Prince, speaking to an unknown listener and cooking pasta, weaves in a series of small non-sequiturs which range from "Tell me what did U have 4 lunch 2day" to "Y did U come 2 this planet/Y did U come 2 this life." He muses that "Sometimes eye feel like eye was born way 2 late/Shoulda been born on the Woodstock stage." He ponders "Somebody famous had a birthday 2day/But all eye saw was another full moon." And in classic "Purple Yoda" mode, he concludes with "Somethin' burning' on the stove/It must B the pasta/Yea...it's June."
When it is all said and done Prince's "HITNRUN: Phase One" is not one of his finest releases. Frankly, it is not even the finest release he has given us in the past twelve months. But such as it is, and with an artist as prolific as Prince, not every single album can be an Earth shaker. Not every album is even designed to be a grand artistic statement. To that end "HITNRUN: Phase One" fully accomplishes what it sets out to do. The album runs under 40 minutes, the songs arrive quickly and the album flows without any breaks between tracks creating an infectious continuous momentum. And most importantly, and as with "ART OFFICIAL AGE" and "PLECTRUMELECTRUM," Prince clearly sounds like he is having a great time as well as fully rejuvenated, revitalized and re-engaged.
But as for being "experimental"...well...hmmm...
Maybe the experiment in question is as much for Prince as it is for the fans and not necessarily within the approach of the songs themselves. Maybe the experiment is witnessing the famously meticulous and singular Prince letting go of the reins a bit to allow another figure to step in and shape the sonics and in turn, the experiment is to see how the fan community reacts and therefore accepts the figure known as Joshua Welton.
In interviews, Prince has expressed his excitement and pride towards Welton and their creative partnership, even going so far as to express his fascination at what good fortune may flow Welton's way once he branches outwards and collaborates with other performers. But for now, and with this album and upcoming tour on which Welton will serve as keyboardist, this is our time to get to know Welton and see how he fits within this purple universe. Look, he did do a good job on the album, but I still feel that Prince has created more ferociously innovative, ahead of the curve musical landscapes completely on his own and I await the day when he does return into himself for sole inspiration.
Even so, and with my hesitations and head scratchings, "Phase One" can only lead to a "Phase Two" and as always, I'll be ready when it arrives!!!
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