Lotus flow3r review

Well, in most previous cases I wrote a full review of Prince albums when I had heard them in full detail. Now I thought it coud be a good idea to post my impressions as I go on with the listening sessions. This means I will be updating this entry during the next days, until I have made a clear opinion on the new songs.

Those of you following this blog probably have read my previous, mostly positive comments on the new 3CD set from Prince. Here I will focus on my most awaited album, Lotus flow3r, the "guitar-driven" CD which many fans have been expecting since a couple of years ago (at least!).

The very first idea coming to me when starting with From the lotus... is "look ma, I still know how to do this with my two old friends & no frills". Chaos & disorder vibe all around and one is ready for the best. Prince, Sonny T & Michael B are, I told it many times, my dream band as far as rhythm section is concerned, and they certainly do not disappoint here: a fine mixture of poppish melodies wrapped up in a powerful envelope: this is Prince at his finest skills when making artisan, old school, real songs. Prince crafting little pieces of music as only masters can. New ground? Forget it, the class in some of them makes new ground unnecessary (in my book, at least).

In fact, contrary to the first assumptions, the concept of Lotus flow3r is not a rock album, or only a guitar-driven album (as shown by the reported changes in final tracklist, with some songs being interchanged between Lotus flow3r and Mplsound). There is the usual mixture of styles, often in the very same song. But a clear feature is an organic sound, the sound of a band playing the good ol' drums, bass and guitar (with a few embellishments, of course: this is Prince after all!). It's not a raw recording (that many fans dream about and most possibly will never get), but it's not the multilayered ProTools music displayed in Mplsound.

Now, flavours, what flavours do we have here? Are there new flavours in this kitchen, or even new dishes? Is Adriá-Prince reinventing ways of mixing potatoes with ham and eggs, or did he stick to prepare an all classic eggs-and-ham but using extremely high quality material for it?

Well, I don't see new dishes in today's Prince kitchen, but I do perceive some new flavours, and also some old ones. Among the latter, the hard guitar (sometimes with a strong Hendrix spirit invading it) makes a very bold re-apperance in Prince's discography, and you can feel that many hardcore fans are warmly welcoming it. At the top in this category, you have Dreamer, a powerfull anthem in which Prince's guitar gives another lesson on how to sound inspired, coherent and classic. Many of us are already drooling by figuring out this song played live in forthcoming shows. However, even in less demonstrative tracks (From the lotus..., Wall of Berlin, Back to the lotus), one gets the feeling that Prince, Sonny and Michael are having great, great fun while playing together. And this is, to me, probably the clearest symptom of good music. I'd like to know whether these songs were actually put together at the same time, or if Prince using previous backbones from sessions with Sonny and Michael in order to create them. Whatever the case, I am truly delighted to see such a bulldozer machine going through rhythms while drawing intricate melodies.

Continuing with the good, old flavours, we have THE flavour, the funk: a song that appeared in a demo longtime ago, Feel better, feel good, feel wonderful, is released in this album in its fullly finished version, which is in my opinion one of the best from the album. Hard and effective, the song has been improved by the addition of horns and it retains the full force of a minimalistic melody subjected to the usual Prince masterdom in production.

Purple pop is served under the form of Boom, Crimson & Clover, The morning after, 4ever and $. None of them goes into new territoires just the same, but still Prince manages to make amazing songs, 4ever being my favourite among those. Yes I realize it's old Prince all the way, but sometimes, I just don't know why, all pieces fall into a perfect place, and 4ever sounds catalogue Prince but it gives me shivers everytime. It's just the way it is, I can't make anything against. Crimson & clover is flawlessly performed, and being written by someone else, Prince make it his own song by the passion and commitment put in it. Boom is remarkable because, once more, Prince displays his recovered love for hard guitars, although the interlude acoustic parts are less brilliant. The morning after is another nice effort, if not oustanding; although I appreciate and enjoy the tasty vocal melodies, this is average Prince. And closing this chapter, you have a Camille-like Prince singing $, rhythm exercice on Mrs. Hilton (I suppose) carried out with solvence by Prince. At the begining I doubted on the fitness of this kind of voice treatment here, but when you listen enough, I think Prince succeeded and I find myself taping and enjoying this (otherwise simplistic) song.

What about new flavours? Well, they are old flavours all the way, but they are somehow new in this kitchen: the latin vibe. It's being making point appearances in some recent albums from Prince (the never enough praised piano part from The Dance in 3121 was thus far the best example). And it seems he's still interested in this sound, as we have two controversial songs in Lotus flow3r whith a latin vibe again: Love like jazz, which is not a jewel but marks in my opinion the right direction: Prince is investigating this sound and he can write and play it in a fully credible manner (although some friends completely disagree with me on this), which probably means we will see further attempts in the future; I'm particularly happy this is the case, as I think Prince (with Sheila) could make brilliant works if they persist in this direction. And we have another latin surprise: 77 Beverly Park, a melody so round that I could believe it's been lifted from other album, or maybe directly inspired by ancient songs. In fact, after listening to it a few times I am really really astonished to see that this music (which could have been released in Italy or Spain by local musicians) has been written and played by Prince. My smell tells me we have further, amazing latin surprises in Prince music boutique.

And then... we have THE song in Lotus flow3r.

In my book, there is no doubt: it is Colonized mind.
I was blown away by Colonized mind since it was first released at Lotusflow3r.com. It is one of those Prince songs which get me on first listen. I have said before that the quality of this song has nothing to envy from the very best of past Prince catalogue, bar none. This is sonic perfection, nothing is out of place. The guitar puts you flying and it is one of the (few cases) of what I consider an orgasm when listening music. If you had to point out to songs which demonstrate that, musically speaking, Prince is out of this world, this would easily make the list, together with other classics as If I was your girlfriend, Purple rain, Anna Stesia, etc. Some people say I exagerate in my praises of Colonized mind; but the more I listen to it, the more convinced I am of its status as Instant Classic. A song like this in every album would justify a huge bunch of fillers (which is not the case in Lotus flow3r).

In conclusion, I think my smell was right and we have an excellent album from Prince, once again. There are, at least, two full classics (Colonized mind and Dreamer) and two other truly excellent songs in here (4ever and Feel better, feel good, feel wonderful). If a collection of songs like this does not convince some fans that Prince keeps on being musically relevant in 2009, then... I don't know what they need.

PS Attentive readers will notice that I said nothing on the lyrics. It's on purpose, as I prefer not to comment about colonized minds.

Smelling quality in the lotus

Due to the professional duties mentioned in the previous entry, I had no time to listen properly Lotus flow3r, MPLsound and Elixer. Yet I could browse them quickly and have read reviews from many fans. And thus far I smell that my previous feelings are getting confirmed: we have a very strong release from Prince.

Of course, if anybody out there is interested in my usually long reviews of Prince albums, rest assured: they will be posted here, as soon as I consider I have heard the new albums in enough detail.

Never let prejudices dictate your opinion on anybody

This weekend I had the pleasure to receive a guest due to professional duties. Without going into details, a number of events led me to had, many years ago, a rather bad opinion about this guest. Fortunately time went by, I got information from many other sources, and my initial opinion turned upside down, to the point that I currently have the best consideration of this person, both on personal & professional terms.

I learned a clear lesson: never again rely on a single source of information about people I don't know; and never again let prejudices (even if they seemed founded on first look) to dictate my opinion about anybody. Things are much more complicated than they seem first, and specifically for people who are responsible of teams, personal relationship play an important role, whose understanding requires a broad view which is often lacking.

Anyway, I'm happy because I could eventually pay a much deserved tribute to this person.

Expectations on Lotus flow3r

We are roughly one day in advance of the official release of the new Prince website, Lotusflow3r.com, as well as the new albums, Lotus flow3r, MPLSound and Elixir. And maybe it would be a good time to have a look at the expectations on the new music, from which only a few snippets/songs are known.


Prince has been pioneering some innovative approaches to promote his career, which started early in the 2000s when he used the NPGMC to release exclusive material to fans, at a time when that was not standard. Then, in 2004 he gave the album Musicology included in the ticket price for his USA tour, in a controversial movement that received mixed opinions but worked great, marketing- and business-wise. Then in 2007, he reached an agreement with a British newspaper to give Planet Earth with it, another idea which was subject of heated discussions, but once more worked great, leading to a record-breaking series of shows at the O2 arena in London.

And here we are in March 2009, when Prince is once again trying to use new ways to promote his career. Mind you: I'm writing on purpose "his career", since it is not entirely clear to me what is exactly the final goal of the current promotion: does he want to focus on the new albums, or are the new albums just another tool to make people subscribe to his website and/or attend his legendary live shows? We will see in a few months, when the hyped new website has shown exactly what kind of content is it actually providing to subscribers.

But what is getting my attention lately is this question: what is the target public of Prince for this release?

The case of the potential public for Prince is more complicated than your average 80s-superstar example, because he's attracted (and in some cases, lost) a number of different fans along the years.

First you would have the teenagers interested in trendy new music. Many of us were there in the 80s, when Prince was a massive superstar with a huge coverage in media, fully backed by the all powerful support of WB, who first nurtured and later capitalized on the Prince possibilities. Obviously, these people are no teenagers anymore, and some of them had his interest vanished (from Prince music, and in other cases from music in general), while others became hardcore fans of Prince music. It remains to be seen whether current teenagers can be hooked on Prince music. But I'll go to this topic later on.

Then you would have the music lovers, all genera confounded, who have heard, or experienced by themselves, about the superlative quality of Prince shows. Given the recent approachable attitude of Prince towards media (in a significant change from his superstar ways of the 80s, when he gave very few interviews and was mostly a reclusive guy, never happy to make public promotion), the number of people in this category has increased a lot since the begining of this decade, leading to the tremendous success of the Musicology tour or the 21 Nights in London gigs.

And finally you have the nucleus of hardcore fans (yours truly included) who are following every minor move from Prince, collecting every live recording and who know his discography by memory.

Now, if you look at the initial descriptions/reviews of the new albums, one feels a bit confused on what kind of public is Prince after.

First and foremost, you have Lotus flow3r, which is the center of the release. From the songs sampled in the website, this seems to be the hardcore-targetted album, recorded with the longtime favourite rhythm section of Michael B & Sonny T, and being described as very guitar-driven. It contains the jewel "A colonized mind", and I have the feeling this might be one of those records which set up a landmark in Prince's career, such as The Rainbow Children did a few years ago. Yet, even taking into account the classic, not difficult sound of songs like "A colonized mind", its commercial potential is rather unclear at this time.

Second you have MPLSound, described in media reports as the result of Prince having fun with ProTools. While this might look positive on first look (or at least, this was the case for me), the results are discutable at best, and I personally think that Chocolate box, announced to be the first single of this album, is among the weakest songs ever released by Prince. The melody is forgettable and the production is a poor attempt to repeat catchy hooks of the past with the "trying-hard-to-sound-like-Prince" written all over its face. Yet I confess that other samples, as "(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" sounds rather enjoyable in my opinion, even if the sonic purposes are quite similar. Whatever the final result, one would say that Prince is trying to demonstrate to today's fans of Justin Timberlake "hey guys, I can do the same, and I do it better than him". Whether they will pay any attention to Prince's efforts remains to be seen.

And finally you have Elixir, an all-Prince-penned album, last in a long tradition of releases showcasing a protegée whose quality varies depending on the quality of the provided material, and the quality of the protegée-of-the-season. This time, the songs are unimpressing in my opinion (at least, those known thus far), and the singer (or should I say the model lady?) fares much better in sophisticated poses for fashion photography than in her capabilities to inject vocal personality in the songs. As in previous cases (the Tamar never-eventually-released album being the most recent example) I really don't know what's the point here: does Bria's talent deserve a strong commitment from Prince to launch her career? Are we dealing with strictly personal matters to explain such a release? Or maybe Prince feels that a pretty woman might help him to receive wider exposure in the papier couche magazines?

But beyond the analysis of the albums (I will write in depth when I had the time to heard in detail all songs), and after reading different reviews, articles, small blurbs in media, etc, after looking at the promotional emails, after looking at the partnership with Target to distribute the albums... frankly, still I don't know who is being addressed by Prince this time. Maybe this is a master stroke to please as many people as possible, as he tried (but ultimately failed) to do with Emancipation. Or maybe this is the result of Prince confusion on which is, actually and in 2009, his public.

Regardless of the final outcome, I expect this will be a resounding success for Prince, helping to strenghthen his (much deserved) prestige as the best musician in modern music.




* Some people with an eye on the finer details might detect that I did not comment on some recent events dealing with the relationship between hardcore fans and Prince. I did it on purpose, partly because I have written in depth in previous occasions, and partly because I don't want some personal issues to take over my pleasure to listen the music of my favourite musician.

Brussels at night

Professional duties brought me to Brussels, and given that pictures taken at night are becoming somehow a speciality of yours truly, I went for dinner today and took a few pictures. The restaurant was Chez Vincent, a truly nice play with very typical food from Brussels, and reasonable price. A clear evidence of its quality is the fact that it remained full all the time, on a Thursday, in a thighly packed, large room nicely dcorated.
I confess I did not expect such a cosmopolitan city, and the center of town is really beautiful. Hereafter I will post some shots that I liked particularly. All of them were taken, as usual, with my beloved Pentax K10D and DA 18-55 lenses, the standard supplied with this camera. When possible I used ISO 100, except in a few cases where nothing was available to hold the camera, as I didn't bring any tripod with me. I hope you will enjoy them.

Those little things

While we are walking in the streets, in the evening, Manuel recites to us some poetry from Antonio Machado he learned at school from his teacher, Felipa.

The orange trees are full of oranges because this year nobody did the harvest; yet they are full of flowers-in-the-making; the smell of azahar will soon invade the streets of Córdoba.

Alba, Irene and Lucía hang around the park in their bicycles, speaking with some friends.

The warm weather cames during the day but goes home at night.

A plant that was a gift to me from a beloved friend from Chili, back in 1995, was planted in the new ground of our new house. It's full of little red flowers, just like it was in the summer of 1996, in France.

Buba is not here. He's missing very often and sometimes we speak about him; other times we just remember him.

Life is made of those little things, like the great Serrat sung longtime ago.

On happiness

During the last days, Coca Cola has launched a TV campaign in Spain with a truly astonishing commercial.

It tells the story of the oldest man of the country: he travels travels to Madrid to know a just born baby. The text goes well beyond the cheese and it is, in my opinion, a masterpiece:



I will try to translate the text (the speech is done by the old man, no fiction just the same):

Text:
"This story is real.
In these difficult time, we make meet the oldest man with the youngest baby

Madrid. Aitana Martinez. Three hours before birth.

Mallorca. Josep Mascaró. 102 years."

Now the speech:

"Hi Aitana. I'm called Josep Mascaró and I'm 102 years old.
I'm a lucky guy.
Luck because of being born, like you.
Luck because of the possibility of hugging my wife.
Because of having known my friends.
Because of having said them goodbye.
Because of remaining here.

You will wonder what is the reason of coming to know you today.
It is that many people will say you "who thinks in coming here in these times?"
That there is crisis, that you can not.
This will make you strong.
I have lived moments worse than this.
But in the end, the only things you will remember are the good ones.
Don't waste your time on the stupid things there are,
and go searching what makes you happy, as the time goes very fast.

I have lived 102 years and I ensure you that the only thing you won't like of the life is that it will seem to you too short.

You are here for being happy."

I think this is the best commercial I have seen in many, many, many years.

First review of Fujifilm F200EXR: delivering on promises

I have been following with attention the release of the new Fujifilm F200EXR, a camera which is somehow a late successor of the acclaimed F30/F31 from the same brand. And the first review hasjust been published by CNET Asia. Apparently the camera seems to deliver on Fuji's promises regarding the power of the new Super CCD EXR sensor, whose main feature is the dual capability of either behaving like a 6 Mp, high ISO capabilities sensor, or else working like a high performance 12 MP sensor when light is not limiting.

I have not tested this camera of course, but from the information I gathered thus far, it seems to me the obvious choice among high end compact cameras, for those with an eye on the finer details. If its performance comes near that of my beloved F30, it will be a strong success for Fuji, one of the very few brands brave enough to pursue their own pathway instead of playing a ridiculous "ialsohaveloadsofmegapixels" competition.

The end of megapixels war

This might be the begining of the end for the megapixels war: Olympus head of dSLR development, Akira Watanabe, said in an interview for CNET News they believe that 12 megapixels is enough for most users.

I don't know how long will it take for the whole community to reach a consensus on this matter; but it is painfully clear for everybody in the world of photography that the current war of more megapixels every season is plain nonsense. As discussed before, 6 megapixels proved to be almost magic in the much acclaimed FinePix F30, and really very, very few people is actually using the information provided by 10 megapixels dSLR cameras, which were the flavour of a couple of years ago. Current APS-C dSLR cameras are easily into the 14 megapixels territory, and full frame ones are well into the 20 megapixels or more.

Now if you compare the resources necessary to capture, store and later process files of twenty something megapixels sensors, and then put it next to their use (i.e., in specific, professional users, they will make really huge prints; but in most cases, they will remain unprinted, or else printed at smallish sizes), then it is really clear that full frame and 20-60 megapixels are a necessity for a very minor part of the photographers; and that most of us (certainly including me) are more than well werved by 10-12 megapixes, even in the handful of cases where we decide to make a big (for our standards) print.

So I hope this bold statement from Olympus will be reflected in other manufacturers and the current madness around megapixels will end. It's time to focus on more important features, as discussed in this interview:ISO capabilities, dynamic range, colour accuracy should receive more attention than they currently do.

Pentax 645D to be released in Japan

After long time of speculations on the hypothetical commercial release of the much heralded Pentax 645D, medium format digital camera from Pentax, there are actual news: a Pentax representative stated to Amateur Photographer that the camera will actually be released in Japan. Apparently it will be addressed to very high end customers, so Pentax does not plan to release it in the USA and no news are known regarding Europe.

For amateur photographers like me, the relevance of this camera is rather small: I would never spend that amount of money for a hobby, and it is clear that only professional photographers, or very rich amateurs, are the target of the 645D. But I find interesting that, after the merging with Hoya and the many speculations on the future of Pentax in the current, very troubled economic waters, still Pentax decides to release a flagship, extremely expensive, professional camera like this. I remember now some recent comments, posted in Luminous Landscape, where they reflected on the actual meaning of the Nikon D3X and its $8000 tag.

I found particularly interesting this paragraph from that article:

Excepting possibly only Leica, Nikon has a sense of its place in history like few other companies. Unlike some large corporations who are simply motivated by market share and the bottom line, Nikon actually cares about its perceived role in photography. The company thus appears to sometimes make product decisions based on more than financial considerations. So, when it comes to the D3x, what we are seeing may well be a corporate statement by Nikon, much as was made with the F6. We're back in the game, and we don't give ground in any market segment.

In my view, the decision of putting actually in the market the 645D is a similar movement from Pentax, compared to what Nikon has done with the D3X: it possibly has little financial logic, but it will be of high value to evidence amateurs & connoisseurs alike that yes, Pentax has been and keeps on being a top notch photography manufacturer, whose cameras and lenses have nothing to envy from anybody.

The lenses statement is rather clear today for anybody with a bit of attention: the limiteds from Pentax are a legend per se, and you can often read envious comments from Nikon or Canon users. Now with the 645D and the upcoming successor of the Pentax K20D, I bet that more photographers will realize that Pentax cameras are very serious business too. And this might constitute the core statement from Pentax, behind the release of the 645D.

Further info on a prototype of the Pentax 645D shown at the PMA 2006 is available at Digital Camera Info.

Loads of pictures of a functional prototype shown in 2008 are shown in Digital Camera

Lotus flow3r: a success a la Musicology or a fiasco a la 3121?

Here we are, in the begining of March 2009. Once Prince returned to the mainstream in 2004, we have seen the release of three albums of new music, including Musicology, then 3121 and finally Planet Earth. The initial hints of Lotus flow3r appearing at the end of 2008, and discussed here a few weeks ago, looked promising indeed. However, in these three months we have a rather mixed balance of the Lotus flow3r promotion. On the one hand, we had rave articles, a new, professional website, a few good songs played in radio and in the website (including jewels like A colonized mind) and insiders posting optimistic comments. On the other hand, we have delays and more delays, an underexploitation of a fully fledged website, some terrible samples (like Chocolate box) and a strange party after the Oscars, initially announced as the uber-exclusive gig for celebrities, which for unknown reasons turned out to become a small gig for fans, with a tracklist composed mainly of versions (instead of the expected new songs).

I know that "contradiction" and "Prince" will always be linked words, but I can't avoid to be shocked by the lack of consistence in the promotional campaign of what is supposed to be a major release from Prince. To the point that I wonder, now, if we are leading to a big, smash hit album + large tour in the USA, as happened in 2004 with Musicology, or if we are rather going towards a big promotional fiasco, as happened in 2006 with 3121, which flopped instead of being his most brilliant album since The Gold Experience.

Talking loud and saying nothing

During the last weeks, since the closure of HQ, I have been following the comments from all kind of people. Aaron has said very little, and nothing in public, on that. Quite recently the homepage of Housequake.com changed including a cryptic "38:II" quote. This led to all kind of speculations on its meaning, and on the possible messages behind that quote.

I have no direct information, so it is not up to me to say what is the meaning, and besides I won't speculate. Aaron knows why did he include such quote in the homepage, and the reasons/goals that prompted him for doing it are unknown to me.

Now, one thing is clear: Aaron has been running HQ for more than ten years, and only god knows what he had to endure along that time in order to keep on running such a large community. And I am not only meaning unreasonable requests from famous musicians, but also the behaviour of many people in the community.

In Spain there is an old sentence stating "Es fácil ver los toros desde la barrera", which means it is very easy to criticize the behaviour of others when you are not in their role. If you had the possibility of putting yourself into such role, probably you would understand much better some facts.

My point is that I have the highest respect for Aaron's labour during all those years. Independently of my opinion/understanding on some facts, of the present or of the past, I think he's got a track record which deserves a huge respect, instead of cheap words addressing situations unknown to me; or, using a famous song title, "talking loud and saying nothing".

Yet it's obvious not everybody thinks the same.