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Prince New Album Review
Prince New Album “Welcome 2 America” Review
Being a kid in 2008, I lived on the other side of the world from the United States. At the time, America seemed like a pink cloud of freedom, love, and peace.
There’s this place in America, too, called Los Angeles. It’s always sunny, warm, and welcoming there. There’s also New York with massive skyscrapers. There’s a whole America with its uncontrolled democracy, civic liberties, and freedom of speech.
I’ve been living in the U.S. for a couple of years. The pink cloud of ‘Free World’ in my mind has turned into a blurry mess. The “American Dream” Hollywood sells to people living outside of the U.S. doesn’t correlate with reality much. But the new Prince’s album “Welcome 2 America” does, almost in a prophet way.
History
In between 2010-2011, Prince started working on “Welcome 2 America”. It took the spring of 2010 to finish most parts of the recordings. Some of the songs were soon streamed on radio stations and YouTube channels. Eventually, Prince went on the 2010 Welcome 2 America Tour with the new album program.
However, throughout the 2010s, “Welcome 2 America” never got released. Instead of publishing the new album, Prince put it in a vault until later.
Prince during 2010 Welcome 2 America Tour
Music
Eleven years later, the record is finally out. Surprisingly, it doesn’t sound out-of-date, and perfectly fits within the spectrum of today’s music. One might expect to hear “Welcome 2 America” instrumentals performed by FKJ or other modern RnB artists.
What’s also interesting is that the instrumentals are not necessarily kept within one mood. The musical part of the album is eclectic within; it’s hard to catch one particular spirit in any of “Welcome 2 America” tracks. Even if, in some parts, the instrumental sound is somewhat consistent, lyrics can still push you off the roof.
Lyrics
The lyrics resonate with our modern times, too. Prince’s vision of America in 2010 is basically today’s vision of contemporary society and the troubles within it.
“Welcome 2 America” asks questions and raises conversations within a wide range of topics modern society seeks the answer for. From New World Order to historical wounds; From Apple products to slavery, segregation, and racism.
Prince and His Vision
No one knows why Prince decided to withhold the album. But it might be just the answer society is looking for today.
Black Lives Matter protests revealed that racism and segregation are still not a “no more.” There’s a lot of work to be done overcoming the obstacles of historical consequences.
Praised neoliberal “New World Order” was massively despised and almost defeated, thanks to the revealed information on U.S. worldwide mass surveillance. By the way, Apple also provided oversight through its products. Prince mentions Apple products in the title album track.
The world’s perception of the United States has shifted in the past 10 years. The decade has torn the pink cloud of the American ‘Free World’ dream apart.
The list of societal fuckups within the past decade can go on for a while. Prince reflects on a decent majority of them. That’s why you should just go listen to “Welcome 2 America” instead of reading this.
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Written by Nikita Serdiuk| IG: @nikitasrdk| Twitter: @nktserdiuk
