N.E.W.S. (2003)
1. North
2. East
3. West
4. South
This one falls squarely into the “experimental” category. And make no mistake—this is Prince going full jazz. The album title stands for the four instrumental tracks included: North, East, West, and South. Each one runs exactly 14 minutes, each one is entirely instrumental, and each one leans heavily into improvisational jazz.
To be clear, it’s not a bad record. It just isn’t all that engaging. Prince’s guitar pops up now and then, and there are moments of interest scattered throughout, but unless you're the type who lives and breathes jazz-fusion, it's hard to imagine this getting much play in your rotation. There's very little here that resembles what most people would consider “Prince music.”
Then again, that’s probably the point. By this stage of his career, Prince wasn’t particularly worried about chart success or mainstream appeal. He was doing what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it. So this release came and went without much noise—and that felt perfectly fine for everyone involved.
No one tried to market this as a misunderstood masterpiece. It wasn’t promoted as anything more than a curiosity for those who were curious. For the vast majority of fans, though, this one will go entirely unnoticed. And that’s probably just as well.
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