What can we say about Prince these days? Maybe it’d be easier to say what hasn’t been said. He was once one of the biggest stars in music and even now, well after his heyday, he still commands a certain cache. He’s dabbled in everything from rock to funk to straight-ahead jazz to hip-hop, generally making each album bend to his aims.
In other words, Prince makes a lot of different kinds of music, but at the end of the day, he only really makes one kind of music: his own. And whenever he releases a new record – something which seems to happen a lot these days, actually – all the hopes rise up and people expect something like he would’ve recorded 30 years ago: a swaggering mix of funk and rock, a marriage of skeletal rhythms and dirty rhymes, a song where the bass line was erased and another imploring us to party like it’s the end of the world.
Well, I’ve got news for you. Prince isn’t making those records any more. But that doesn’t mean you should write the guy off, either.
Prince has always shown a knack for reinvention. Say what you will about his phase as the artist-formerly-known-as, but in the 90s his beats were draw-droppingly huge and his music was lush, funky, and as dirty as ever, even as he incorporated hip-hop and new jack swing influences (not to mention weird telephone segues). Go listen to Love Symbol Album or The Gold Experience if you don’t believe me (it’s okay, I’ll wait).
More recently, Prince has reinvented himself with a backing band he put together from people he met online: 3rdeyegirl, which consists of Donna Grantis on guitar, drummer Hannah Welton, and Ida Kristine on drums. With this trio backing him, Prince’s music has picked up an energy it hasn’t had in a while. It started with two records – Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum, but bootlegs of his latest tour suggest his band’s hit their stride. It definitely shows on HITNRUN Phase One, too.
The first real indication of this came with a digital single, “Baltimore,” which Prince wrote in the wake of protests and racial unrest. It’s a bluesy number, albeit one with a string section, with Prince playing a searing lead guitar and chanting “If there ain’t no justice, then there ain’t no peace!” That anger isn’t really present on this album, but the energy certainly is. Take “Shut This Down,” for example. Between Prince’s shouting, which he stretches out with some autotune (has he been listening to Kanye? The Weeknd?) and a thumping, driving bass line, Prince’s R&B/Funk game is as on-point as it’s been in decades.
There are other contemporary influences. With the swirling electronics and crashing beat, “Ain’t About to Stop,” sounds like techno and his claiming North Minnesota reminds me of how Drake’s claimed Toronto. The song ends with a furious bass solo and stabs of organ, one of the many moments where it consciously evokes the past. The line “if your life is the B-side, my dream is the A-side,” is pretty good, too.
Things really kick into gear with “FALLINLOVE2NITE,” a killer R&B jam that evokes his back catalogue while sounding fresh; there’s splashes of horns and strings for colour, but it’s driven by a drum machine and a call-and-response vocal by Prince and Zooey Deschanel. “We can sleep all day tomorrow and dream about this fantasy,” sings Prince – he’s still staying up all night, even if he isn’t going crazy.
There are some interesting moments on the album. There’s the fuzzed, almost dazed “X’s Face,” (where Prince asks “who needs enemies when you’ve got friends?”) and “Hardrocklover,” which mixes slap bass with sizzling lead guitar but mostly lurches back and forth between a loud/quiet dynamic, pulsing and pounding. It sounds a little restrained on record, but it feels like something written for the stage, not the stereo.
Although it loses some steam in the back half – “Mr. Nelson” sounds a little underdeveloped and the funk jams move away from the driving energy on the first half , although it closes with the nice slow burn “June” – HITNRUN Phase One is an interesting addition to the Prince catalogue, showing that even as he nears 60, the guy’s still finding new ground to cover and is pushing his music forward. Sure, it’s not Purple Rain Part Two, but wouldn’t be a disappointment if we found Prince standing still?
Rating: 3.5/5