Prince Teams Up With A Sex Pistol To Debut Some New Tracks

ARTIST: Prince TITLE: “Crimson & Clover / Wild Thing” / “Colonized Mind” / “Wall Of Berlin” / “4ever” WEB DEBUT: Dec. 18, 2008

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: The ever-reclusive Prince invited a few people from Los Angeles radio station Indie 103.1 to talk about his new material, which he’s looking to release sans major-label involvement, and that chat resulted in four songs debuting this afternoon on the Steve Jones-hosted show Jonesy’s Jukebox. I thought the “Crimson & Clover” cover had some great guitars, and I liked the stuttery beat and innuendo (“You wanna four-leaf clover in the round?”—!!) all over “Wall Of Berlin,” but I figured I’d ask on-staff Prince expert Michaelangelo Matos to react via IM:

mynameismatos: he’s made these kinds of records (guitar, rocky, etc.) over the years and no one paid attention. Chaos & Disorder is a good example—not a classic, but a decent album with some good guitar playing and some decent songs. mynameismatos: now that he’s sort of set the table w/”Creep” and “Best of You” covers, he’s laying it out w/”Crimson & Clover” mynameismatos: which is fine mynameismatos: if the second song is any indication he’s doing the same I’m-a-prophet shtick he’s been flogging since “Partyup.” mynameismatos: except it’s nastier in tone now because since Musicology he decided he has no truck trying to rope in hip-hop fans or other young people and will stick to being an old man mynameismatos: which is good for him in some ways, though I always kind of hoped he’d pull a Miles Davis and come around to being hip again without changing a thing mynameismatos: and in a sense he has mynameismatos: but he’s kind of a sour old man mynameismatos: otherwise: pretty blues guitarist mynameismatos: the idea, btw, that Jonesy would be playing this at all if it weren’t serviced to him personally and directly is highly suspect by me

WHERE TO FIND THEM: Surely someone will rip them to YouTube, and have that rip taken down, by the time I’m done posting this. And then the cycle will repeat itself again, and again, and again, until Prince figures out just how he’s going to release this record to an increasingly purchasing-averse public. (Maybe he can hook up with the Daily Mail again?)