Track Listing

1. N.P.G. Operator Intro
2. Get Wild
3. Segue
4. DJ Gets Jumped
5. New Power Soul
6. DJ Seduces Sonny
7. Segue
8. Count The Days
9. Good Life
10. Cherry Cherry
11. Return Of The Bump Squad
12. Mashed Potato Girl Intro
13. Big Fun
14. New Power Day
15. Hallucination Rain
16. NPG Bum Rush The Ship
17. Exodus Has Begun
18. Outro

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82409 in Music
• Released on: 1995-03-01
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

PRINCE Fans - Ignore this CD at your peril
This is a Prince 'classic' if ever there was one. Prince and the NPG in full flow and you are in for a wonderfully upbeat and heady mix of funk, r&b and soul.

The album's over-the-top, experimental, weird, (standard Prince then), and joyously funky throughout.

A mainstream label wouldn't touch it, (way too risky and most of it unplayable on radio), and his dispute with Warner was in full flow at the time - which is why it was Prince's own NPG Records that released it during his SLAVE period. On this album the NPG have been given a major input and the result shows they certainly enjoyed themselves. I do feel however, that a tighter production rein was needed on the extremely self indulgent 'conversations' that start and finish the songs. Brilliantly done on the 'Gold' album - its atrocious here !

But that's what CD's are for !

listen to them once as a novelty, realise its totally unnecessary and edit them out when you play it again and again after that. 9 songs out of a 21 track listing shows how much rubbish could have been removed and more songs should have been added ! (and why this gets 4 stars not 5)

The songs are what you buy the album for and you will not be disappointed here.

These include the raunchy 'GET WILD', (concert favourite at the time), and 'THE GOOD LIFE' (CD single in the UK). In no way do they prepare you for the 'RETURN OF THE BUMP SQUAD' - a raucously funky dance track, and 'COUNT THE DAYS' - a slow song with the usual Prince twist (the opening line says it all... "Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple, Here's a MF that I gotta blow away!")

The standout track is 'THE EXODUS HAS BEGUN' which, in my opinion, is worth the money alone. A gloriously over-the-top jam session lasting 12 minutes, (which shows they were enjoying it), which builds and builds and builds to an outrageously mad ending. It's Prince and the NPG showing off again admittedly but it works superbly.

I'm not saying all the songs will satisfy everyone, as I said we are in 'experimental non-commercial Prince-land' here
('HALLUCINATION RAIN' takes some listening to for example), but lets face it - a few Prince gems are worth more than most of the absolute rubbish being released today in our 'manufactured pop' era.

I have no doubt that most of the songs will hit the target and you'll be glad you forked out the cash.

One of his better experiments
During the dark days of his 1990s (and, let's be honest, 2000s) output, Prince whiled away the hours on a few experiments. Some of them were frankly dire ("N.E.W.S." springs to mind, as does "New Power Soul") but the odd one actually worked pretty well. On the days when he wasn't writing the word "SLAVE" on his cheek, he sometimes wrapped a scarf around his face, slung on a bass guitar, and called himself Tora Tora for some reason, and this album is the product of those times.

Initial impressions are mixed. The childish artwork (and a frankly smutty design on the CD itself) doesn't bode well, but when you look on the back and see that there are 21 tracks you feel your heart leap a little. It should be noted however that of the 21 tracks, only 9 or so are actual songs, the others being "segue" pieces, usually recordings of the band larking around, telling jokes, swearing a lot and so on - it's like hearing somebody reminisce about "hilarious" events on a drunken night out which you didn't attend. Keep your finger on the track skip button however and these can be avoided relatively easily.

Of the songs, the keyword here is "funk". Most of the tracks are bass-heavy, fun, and often full of bad language, so be careful who is around when you play it. "Return Of The Bump Squad" and "Get Wild" are probably the most commercial, but the absolute stand-out is "The Exodus Has Begun". Granted, at twelve minutes it does outstay its welcome a little, but the sheer power of the track is undeniable, its spoken verses (Prince with his voice slowed down) bursting into life in the singalong chanted choruses. It is easily the best track here, and worth the purchase on its own, the other tracks inessential but enjoyable enough.