Album Review: Prince, Originals

Unpacking Prince’s voluminous archives may be a daunting task – but as the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles commences with the first step. Thus, after last year’s powerful collection of stripped-back numbers, Piano & A Microphone, we now have Originals, which assembles demo versions of hits penned for acts like The Time, Vanity 6, The Family and, er, Kenny Rogers.

As with Piano... listening to Prince compositions in their early stages proves riveting, even if the material here is more fully fleshed out than the previous release. As you would expect with Prince, the range is remarkable, veering from electro-funk to delicate balladry to wailing rock. Hell, there’s even proto-techno on the thundering ‘Make Up’.

The undoubted highlight is ‘Manic Monday’: virtually note-for-note the version The Bangles ended up recording, it’s a gleaming piece of Beatles-like pop genius. It’s not an exaggeration to say that for another artist, the song would be a career peak – for Prince, it was simply one more sparking gem in a catalogue packed with them.

It’s slightly disappointing to discover there’s no demo version of Vanity 6’s classic ‘Nasty Girl’, but then we should probably just be grateful to have these recordings, which were uncovered in a vault so secure it had to be drilled open. Originals is another priceless insight into the creative process of a true genius.

8/10

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