Prince - N·E·W·S mp3 album

i hope that one day soon, a nice vinyl issue ofthis one will be available...

Could I suggest that the title be listed in a more searchable way - either as just "NEWS" or as "N.E.W.S" since the centered dot character is not on most keyboards

Recorded on February 6 (presumably 2003), N.E.W.S consists of four 14-minute instrumentals, "North," "East," "West," and "South," performed by Prince on guitar, keyboards, and percussion, with Eric Leeds on baritone and tenor saxophone, John Blackwell on drums, and Rhonda Smith on acoustic and electric bass. ("North" includes string samples "courtesy of" Clare Fisher.) The seemingly improvised music ranges from funk to jazz to new age without any apparent direction or intention. There are attractive passages here and there, such as some solo piano work on "North" and Leeds' warm horn playing throughout. Needless to say, this aimless studio jam is not what Prince fans are used to hearing from him, even given his eclectic and exploratory nature, and this is not the kind of album he might have been expected to deliver if he were still working for an established record company instead of putting out his own discs. But that may be the point. The listener, who will have to be a particularly rabid aficionado of all things Prince to be interested, must throw out all expectations and simply revel in the joy of hearing the musician and his cohorts experiment with relaxed musical textures for 56 minutes. Of course, no one else needs to bother.FROM:http://www.allmusic.com/album/news-r652435/reviewI really don't like PRINCE, but this album is real MASTERPIECE of Instro Jams ranging from Fusion Jazz to Funk without any apparent direction or intention !!!A VINYL REISSUE WOULD BE WELCOME...

Probably my favorite EP project by Prince, and probably one of his 'worst'. 4 14-minute long instrumental compositions; I don't see what's not to like. Anyone suggesting that this may be along the lines of Prince's Madhouse project is surely in for a surprise. This collection of music has a much broader appeal in style and genre than Madhouse's primarily jazz array of instrumentation. Most reviews of this product that I've read speak of self-indulgence, but I think if this album were not as musically strong or not as well layered in production I might agree (personally I feel most Madhouse music is rather self-indulgent) but this EP is one great composition after another, and it isn't as though each track is the same thing throughout the 14 minutes. Each piece grows and evolves; take West for instance, first a slow ballad-esque tune which like some tornado the track goes into a massive battery hyper aesthetic. I'd say if you haven't heard NEWS yet ignore the hype of this being such a poor seller and pick it up to see for yourself.