Without a major label trying to tell him what to do, Prince continued to follow his muse—or whatever it was—to the neighborhood of jazz for a pair of releases. More to the point, both featured the phrase “new directions in music by Prince”, which everyone will tell you was similar to what Miles Davis had on the cover of Bitches Brew. Both were also entirely instrumental. Xpectation came first, as a digital download, and would remain that way, with no physical release, ever. Ranging from quiet and dreamy (“Xhalation”, “Xcogitate”, “Xotic”) to upbeat and funky (the title track, “Xpand”, “Xpedition”), with a prominent electric piano on all tracks, this is dinner music jazz. He does play some guitar, the rhythm section of Rhonda Smith and John Blackwell is consistent, and some tracks feature Candy Dulfer and/or Vanessa Mae on violin. And yes, all the track titles follow that theme. We don’t know why the last jam ends with a baby crying, but maybe that’s none of our business.
N.E.W.S. followed a few months later, and was considered important enough that it was available on CD. Four improvised jams at exactly 14 minutes each—with the same rhythm section, plus one Renato Neto on keys and the stalwart Eric Leeds on misspelled “saxaphone”—were captured live on tape in one day, each named after a point on the compass; hence the album title. “North” does have some spacey elements resonant of certain Jan Garbarek albums, “East” sports Saharan instruments and effects until it doesn’t, “West” takes a while to find something of a groove then switches to a more typically Prince slow groove melody about halfway through, and “South” is pretty much straight funk.
These are even more meandering than tracks on Xpectation, which each are at least shorter, and more focused. The fact is, his music shouldn’t be background music.
Prince Xpectation (2003)—3
Prince N.E.W.S. (2003)—2
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