Prince - 20Ten

by Marc James
(Leicester, UK)

Prince - 20Ten

"Here comes the Purple Yoda!!! "

Although I am a massive fan of Prince, I must say that over the past 10 years, I have been more than disappointed with the mediocre output from the purple one. With a few exceptions, the lack of quality control since leaving Warner Bros. has left me and fans around the word frustrated and sometimes alienated.

This album was released in the uk as a free CD with the Mirror newspaper. The newpaper cost 65p. To be honest, I didn't think it would be worth the money.

Now I'm not going to give a track by track analysis of 20Ten, but I will say this - If you are a music fan, it would be the best 65p you could ever spent. If you are/were a Prince fan - you need this CD. Quite simply - I love this album!! Prince finally gives us an album that is smooth, cool, understated, funky and organic. The mix of linn drum, synths, guitar, bass, occasional horns and supreme vocals is just right. This is a well executed pop album pure and simple. No over the top brass sections, no crazy chord progressions, no pretentious self indulgent cheesy lyrics and no over produced guitar, brass and midi arrangements.

The whole album flows and grooves from beginning to end. There are a few ballads which seem timid on first listening, but work in the album context regardless. Even the Prince rap parts are fresh - the secret track 'Laydown' had me get up n start groovin' to 53 year old MC Prince.

I listened to the album on my laptop with iTunes and interestingly, when the album finished ( unbeknown to me ) the next album iTunes loaded up was 'The Glamorous Life' by Sheila E - Produced by Prince in the 80s. I didn't realize that I was no longer listening to 20Ten until Sheila E's vocals came in. This for me is most definitely an indication that Prince has got his production mojo back.

"From the heart of Minnesota, here come the purple yoda"