In the spirit of Beyonce and D'Angelo from recent years past, Prince dropped a new album over the weekend without any advance notice. However, his new disc is not likely to garner the attention that those two long-awaited albums did.
After all, the ever-prolific, always unpredictable Prince just released an album, "HitNRun Phase One," on Sept. 7. Then on Saturday he made "HitNRun PhaseTwo" available exclusively on the Tidal streaming service.
A press release claims that the 12-song album was four years in the making but that may be a euphemism for some tunes that have been floating around for a few years.
Some selections, including "Baltimore," "RockNRoll Love Affair" and "Stare," have been released as singles. Some numbers, including "Screwdriver," "Black Muse" and "When She Comes," have been in Prince's live sets in the recent past.
The new album features Prince with members of the New Power Generation and a 16-person horn section combining the NPG Hornz and the Hornheads.
On Sept. 7, Prince released "HitNRun Phase One" to mixed reviews. It was available only on Tidal at first and subsequently CDs were sold in stores and online.
It is not yet known if and when "Phase Two" will be available as a CD.
