Marcel Reviews: Prince — N.E.W.S. (2003)
There are albums you play.
There are albums you listen to.
And occasionally there are albums where the sensible course of action is to turn off the lights, close your eyes and allow the thing to happen to you.
N.E.W.S. is one of those.
Prince has dispensed with songs, choruses, singles and practically anything resembling an obligation to explain himself. Instead we have four pieces — North, East, West and South — each exactly fourteen minutes long.
Marcel approves of this immediately.
“Four tracks,” he says, settling into the chair.
“Manageable ambition.”
The coffee is placed beside him.
It will eventually go cold.
Because once North begins, getting up seems inappropriate.
1. North ❤️
At first, North feels less like a composition than somewhere you have arrived.
There is space everywhere.
Sounds appear, hover for a while and disappear again. Prince doesn’t seem interested in dragging you towards a melody. He allows the music to unfold at its own speed, with Eric Leeds’ saxophone moving through it like another voice in the room.
And underneath everything, the rhythm keeps the piece from drifting entirely into abstraction.
It is jazz, funk, atmosphere and something slightly cinematic, but none of those descriptions quite contains it.
Marcel closes his eyes.
This is significant.
Usually he is checking whether somebody has moved his coffee.
Not today.
2. East ❤️
If North invited us into the room, East begins rearranging the furniture.
There is more movement here, more tension and a slightly stranger atmosphere. Instruments don’t so much take turns as circle one another.
Prince’s great talent on N.E.W.S. is restraint.
He could dominate the record.
He doesn’t.
Instead the pleasure comes from hearing four musicians responding to one another — Prince, Leeds, bassist Rhonda Smith and drummer John Blackwell — without anyone apparently worrying about where the radio edit might begin.
There isn’t one.
Excellent.
Marcel stretches a paw.
“This,” he announces, “is why songs do not always require words.”
Nobody had suggested otherwise.
3. West ❤️
By West, something rather wonderful has happened.
Time has stopped being particularly important.
You are no longer waiting for the next track or wondering when the chorus will arrive because N.E.W.S. has quietly taught you how it wants to be heard.
You surrender.
Little rhythmic ideas emerge. A keyboard phrase passes through. Saxophone answers. Bass shifts underneath. Something changes almost imperceptibly and suddenly you realise the music has travelled considerably further than you thought.
This isn’t background music.
It might initially pretend to be background music.
That is how it gets you.
Play it quietly while doing something else and half the album disappears.
Play it in darkness with your eyes closed and West becomes enormous.
The coffee is now cold.
Marcel considers this an acceptable casualty.
4. South ❤️
By South, the four compass points no longer feel like separate destinations.
They feel like different views of the same landscape.
And this may be the greatest pleasure of N.E.W.S. — its refusal to hurry.
Prince spent much of his career demonstrating how many ideas he could cram into four minutes.
Here he demonstrates something almost opposite:
what happens when he gives an idea fourteen minutes in which to breathe.
Nothing needs to arrive with a fanfare.
Nothing needs to announce itself as THE IMPORTANT BIT.
You simply notice another texture, another rhythm, another small conversation taking place inside the music.
Eventually South finishes.
Marcel opens his eyes.
There is silence.
“Again?”
Yes, Marcel.
Again.
Marcel’s favourites
This presents a problem.
Normally Marcel chooses favourites because standards must be maintained and somebody around here apparently has to demonstrate discernment.
But N.E.W.S. doesn’t really work that way.
❤️ North
❤️ East
❤️ West
❤️ South
For once, the album is the favourite.
Do not shuffle it.
Do not dip into it.
And preferably don’t attempt anything productive while it is playing.
Find somewhere comfortable. Lower the lights. Close your eyes.
Then let Prince, Leeds, Smith and Blackwell take you North, East, West and South for fifty-six minutes.
Marcel’s coffee will be cold by the end.
He considers this a recommendation. 🐈⬛☕️
