PRINCE - 4EVER

My biggest fear after Prince died was that major record companies would do what they've done with artists like Elvis Presley or Jimi Hendrix.  Anytime they come up with a previously unreleased outtake, demo or live recording, they package it along with previously released material to make a greatest hits package they can sell for a cool profit.

I hoped, with the amount of music Prince left behind, there would be the motivation to release entire albums of previously unreleased material.  However, in its rush to capitalize on Prince's passing, Warner Bros. put together this hasty compilation.  The packaging is lovely, but at the same time, a bit disappointing.  They use photos from his previous greatest hits package, Paisley Park's "The Hits/B-Sides".

In order to make the set more appealing, they also list edits of certain songs as previously unreleased on CD.  We all know that's not the case.  With most of these tracks, you can find the edits on CD singles or promotional CD releases.  There's no real value here.

There is one, and let me be specific here, one singular unreleased track included.  'Moonbeam Levels'.  And this is exactly what I feared would happen.  For the rest of our lives, we'll get a new Prince greatest hits compilation once a year with one or two new songs.  They'll charge us the price of a double disc set for a single song or two.  Not even at his most anti-establishment, "artists should profit from their legacies" moments would Prince imagine screwing over his fams like this.

Most die-hard fans already have copies of this song.  Either downloaded or purchased on bootlegs.  It's not new to the community.  So now, you're asking me...  If you have all of this material, why did you invest in the set?  

The answer is simple...  I've always said and I wrote this in a chat with Prince himself once, that even if I owned a bootleg, if he released music in an official capacity, I would purchase it legally.  And I have.  However, I'm disappointed with what's happened here.

Prince is not an artist you can parse out over time.  He has work that needs to be put together and sold as a complete package.  Anything else is a betrayal of his legacy.

I'm not going to get into this release much more.  I find it somewhat sad and not worth the price tag.  I'll leave it at that.  My final words:  A SKIP UNLESS YOU'RE A COMPLETIST.

PRINCE - 4EVER
CD1
01. 1999
02. Little Red Corvette
03. When Doves Cry
04. Let's Go Crazy
05. Raspberry Beret
06. I Wanna Be Your Lover
07. Soft And Wet
08. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
09. Uptown
10. When You Were Mine
11. Head
12. Gotta Stop (Messin' About)
13. Controversy
14. Let's Work
15. Delirious
16. I Would Die 4 U
17. Take Me With U
18. Paisley Park
19. Pop Life
20. Purple Rain
CD 2
01. Kiss
02. Sign 'O' The Times
03. Alphabet St.
04. Batdance
05. Thieves In The Temple
06. Cream
07. Mountains
08. Girls & Boys
09. If I Was Your Girlfriend
10. U Got The Look
11. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
12. Glam Slam
13. Moonbeam Levels
14. Diamonds And Pearls
15. Gett Off
16. Sexy MF
17. My Name Is Prince
18. 7 (Album Edit)
19. Peach
20. Nothing Compares 2 U