New Power Soul (1998)
1. New Power Soul
2. Mad Sex
3. When U're in My Arms Again
4. When You Love Somebody
5. Shoo-Bed-Ooh
6. Push It Up
7. Freaks on the Side
8. Come On
9. The One
10.(I Like) Funky Music
11.Wasted Kisses
This is where the dry spell officially begins. You could argue that things started slipping with Crystal Ball, but that one gets a bit of a pass since it was mostly a massive pile of leftovers. Here, though, it’s a proper new release — or at least it tries to be. Technically, this isn’t even a “Prince” album. The credit goes to The New Power Generation, but let’s be honest — it’s Prince all over the place. That’s him on the cover, of course, love symbol tattoo and all.
The main issue? It’s boring. Just plain boring. Prince experiments with a lot of styles here, sure, but you wouldn’t notice unless you were really, really paying attention. And honestly, you won’t be. Because this is one of those albums where you keep zoning out mid-song and realize you’ve missed three tracks. Nothing really sticks. And worse — some of it is actively unpleasant. What exactly is going on with the backing vocals on “Freaks on the Side” and “I Like Funky Music”? It sounds like a cheerleading squad in a gymnasium. Who thought that would be a good idea?
Sad to say, but the best thing here might be the hidden track — “Wasted Kisses”. And you know you’re in trouble when the best song is the one they didn’t even bother to list. A couple of other tunes, like “Come On” and “Until U’re in My Arms Again”, are passable. But that’s about where the praise ends. This is the same guy who couldn’t stop putting out masterpiece after masterpiece just ten years earlier — now reduced to coasting through a bunch of filler tracks that sound half-cooked.
The whole album is mostly forgettable. It’s hard to say exactly what was going on at this point, but something was off. Prince was still releasing material at a steady clip, but the magic wasn’t there. You might keep this one around if you’re having trouble sleeping — otherwise, best to let it quietly fade away.
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