Welcome 2 America (2021)
1. Welcome 2 America
2. Running Game (Son of a Slave Master)
3. Born 2 Die
4. 1000 Light Years From Here
5. Hot Summer
6. Stand Up and B Strong
7. Check the Record
8. Same Page, Different Book
9. When She Comes
10.1010 (Rin Tin Tin)
11.Yes
12.One Day We Will All B Free
Despite the sleek presentation, the polished cover art, and the weighty rollout that accompanied it, Welcome 2 America is not, in the strictest sense, a “new” Prince album. More likely, it’s a curated batch of recordings from a specific session or era – in this case, the early 2010s – that the artist himself shelved. And if there’s one truth we’ve learned over the years, it’s that Prince shelved a lot. Not necessarily because the material wasn’t good, but perhaps because he had better. Which tells you something right there.
What we get here is a low-key, groove-oriented affair. There's little in the way of high-octane funk workouts or pop-leaning chart bids. Instead, it leans heavily on steady, mid-tempo rhythms, soulful backdrops, and subdued arrangements. Prince the showman takes a step back; Prince the bandleader and social observer steps forward. There are a few bright flashes of the guitar brilliance that became one of his signatures, but for the most part, this is music to soundtrack quiet productivity rather than ecstatic release. Think deep-cleaning the kitchen, not dancing in it.
The title track, which opens the record, is arguably the weakest. Less a song than a spoken-word manifesto, it finds Prince offering his elliptical commentary on the state of the nation, cloaked in his usual layers of mystical phrasing. It aims for gravity but lands with a bit of a thud. And over time, the album’s overall sonic palette starts to feel slightly thin – not undercooked, exactly, but clearly not fussed over to the same degree as his more official releases.
And yet, what remains is still solid – often better than what many other artists would proudly present as headline work. This may not have been a record Prince ever intended for us to hear, but its appearance now is hardly unwelcome. As with much of his archival output, Welcome 2 America reminds us that even Prince’s “filler” had a tendency to outperform the main courses served by his peers.
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