Media Junkie

CD Review: Prince - MPLSoUND

Prince
MPLSoUND
2009
NPG Records

Buy This Album

The Minneapolis Sound.  The sound invented by Prince in the 1980s, known for its fusion of funk, rock, and heavy use of vintage drum machines.  Albums like 1999, Purple Rain, and The Time's self-titled debut (written and performed by none other than Prince himself, with Morris Day providing vocals) personified the sound that was often copied in the mid-80s.  Bands like Ready For The World did such a good job emulating Prince's style, that many even mistook their hit “Oh Sheila” for Prince.

Now, as part of a 3CD set, Prince has attempted a return to the funk sound that made him famous with the appropriately titled MPLSoUND.

If Lotusflow3r was a disappointment, MPLSoUND is the remedy.  Even when compared to some of Prince's classic works, MPLSoUND is the funky record that Prince fans have been starved for.

Though he's dabbled in his classic sound on tracks like Musicology's “Illusion, Coma, Pimp, and Circumstance” and “Black Sweat” from 3121, MPLSoUND locks into its groove early and maintains it for a full 48 minutes. 

Featuring heavy use of the classic Linn LM-1 drum machine that became synonymous with Prince's sound, MPLSoUND is easily one of the funkiest records Prince has recorded since 1988's controversial classic Black Album.

CD Review: Prince - Lotusflow3r

Prince
Lotusflow3r
2009
NPG Records

Buy This Album

You've gotta hand it to Prince – he sure knows how to operate outside the system of the music industry.  Love him or hate him, Prince was a pioneer in the world of online, digital distribution – making his records available through his fanclub website years before artists like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead jumped on the bandwagon.

After leaving his original record company, Warner Bros., Prince has signed numerous distribution deals to make his CDs available in retail shops as well.  His latest is a 3CD set, sold exclusively at Target for a bargain price, that includes a new protégé album, a funk-oriented disc entitled MPLSoUND (a Princely conjunction of “Minneapolis Sound”), and a more pop-rock-oriented one entitled Lotusflow3r.

Fans have known that Prince is a guitar virtuoso for decades.  Anyone who has ever seen him perform live has undoubtedly witnessed him go off on an extended guitar solo.  He has demonstrated his prowess numerous times on television, including a performance of the song “Fury” on Saturday Night Live several years ago, and during his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (specifically during the all-star tribute performance of George Harrison's “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”).  Despite this, there has never really been an album that has truly captured his extraordinary guitar-playing ability and after hearing that Lotusflow3r may be that album, I was cautiously optimistic.

Required Viewing: Watchmen

Watchmen
Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures
R
163 Minutes
2009

To say that Watchmen has been a long time in the making is an understatement.  Those even remotely familiar with the beloved graphic novel know that its history in Hollywood has been a long, strange one.  After several attempts to bring Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' masterpiece to the big screen, and even a proposed TV miniseries, the property was eventually deemed unfilmable. 

Eventually, the project landed in director Zack Snyder's lap.  Snyder had experience successfully adapting difficult properties for the silver screen with his highly sylized, largely praised adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 in 2007.  Though it broke away from the conventions of typical "comic book films," 300 was a smash hit and it paved the way for Snyder and screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse's vision of the comic that broke all the rules and practically invented the graphic novel as we know it today.

Though the book's original writer Alan Moore has disowned the film, as he has done with all of his other works such as V For Vendetta, From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Snyder's take on "the most celebrated graphic novel of all-time" is largely faithful, and sure to please all but the most unwavering fans of the original work, but also sure to alienate people who are expecting a light-hearted superhero romp.

The Hiatus is Over

I had debated mentioning this on Media Junkie because it is obviously a very personal and rough thing for my family and I to deal with, but tomorrow marks the two week anniversary of the devastating fire that ravaged our house and all our possessions.

My family and I are safe, thankfully, and we have started the long rebuilding process. Thousands of CDs, hundreds of movies, games, and books, not to mention all my concert posters, t-shirts, hoodies, and ticket stubs were all lost.

However, the time for sadness is over. We are rebuilding our collections and I have a nice, fancy new PC ready to be moved into a rental house within the next two weeks.

With that in mind, I will begin updating Media Junkie again. Updates may still be more sporadic than they've been over the last few months until we're settled in to our new place, but later tonight I will be posting an exhaustive review of Zack Snyder's long awaited big screen adaptation of Watchmen.

Thanks for sticking around, loyal readers. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

-Matt A.