Prince’s posthumous release Welcome 2 America is fantastic. So why did he leave it in the vault?
Recorded in 2010, then inexplicably shelved, the album features some of Prince's feistiest lyrics and catchiest music of the 21st century
Music Reviews Prince
After Prince left his longtime label Warner Bros. in 1996, he spent roughly the next 15 years recording a string of overstuffed albums, often with confusing titles and garish covers, released via sometimes quirky distribution methods that assured they faded into oblivion almost as soon as they arrived. The latest Prince vault discovery, Welcome 2 America, comes from the end of that run, recorded in 2010, just before he shifted his attention away from putting out records and focused more on his lucrative live act. It’s easy to understand why a lost album from this era might be a tough sell, even to Prince fans: While he produced some brilliant art in the 2000s, his curatorial skills often let him down.
Yet heard in the context of 2021, and all but devoid of the musical baggage that immediately preceded it, it’s hard to deny how alive this “new” album feels. Is Welcome 2 America a top five Prince record? Definitely not—but it may be in the top 10.
A recent oral history in Rolling Stone offers a fairly thorough look at how Welcome 2 America came to be. In a nutshell: In 2010, Prince hired a new rhythm section (bassist Tal Wilkenfeld and drummer Chris Coleman), and while jamming with them at his Paisley Park studio, he recorded several semi-improvised instrumental tracks heavily influenced by jazz and 1970s funk. By the time Prince called in some members of his touring band to help turn these vamps into songs, he’d added lyrics that were alternately playful and political, depicting a nation of shackled citizens deluded into thinking consumer choice equals freedom.
Prince—or whoever was responsible for sequencing this archival release—establishes the tone of Welcome 2 America with its opening songs. The title track is one of the artist’s semi-regular “state of the world” keynotes (like “Sign O’ The Times” or “Planet Earth”), featuring rueful lines about iPhone addicts and pathetic wannabe celebrities, set to a loose, bass-forward groove that’s been accented by sound effects, piano stings and a tight chorus of background singers offering slinkily soulful responses to Prince’s calls. “Welcome 2 America” then gives way to “Running Game (Son Of A Slave Master),” another stripped-down and softly swinging number, revisiting one of Prince’s common themes: the exploitation of creative labor by greedy, short-sighted corporations.
From there, Welcome 2 America proceeds through ten more songs that frequently combine relaxed, almost breezy music with stinging lyrics (like this arresting opening line from the punchy, poppy “1000 Light Years From Here”: “We could live underwater / It ain’t hard when you’ve never been a part of the country / On dry land”). From the blaxploitation movie soundtrack riffs of “Born 2 Die,” to the sunny vibes of the endearingly tossed-off ditties “Hot Summer” and “Yes,” to the way Prince turns the thudding Soul Asylum power ballad “Stand Up And Be Strong” into a limber self-actualization anthem, there’s a thematic consistency to this album’s sound—a commitment to casual moments of grace and joy.
In a way, Welcome 2 America sounds like every act featured in the recent music documentary/reclamation project Summer Of Soul—including the sunshine-poppers, the gospel singers and the revolutionary poets—blended together and given a modern sheen. The inspirations are retro, yet even 11 years after this album was recorded, the songs sound fresh, both in subject matter and approach. The existence and the backstory of Welcome 2 America do raise some nagging questions. Why didn’t Prince release this incredibly entertaining and vital set of music in his lifetime? And if he had, would all those critics and fans who found his late-period output so frustrating have been able to grasp just how special these songs are?
Not even people in Prince’s inner circle seem to know the answer to the first question. After finishing Welcome 2 America (assuming it was finished… some of his collaborators on the record aren’t so sure), he embarked on the two-year “Welcome 2…” tour, represented by a full concert video included on the deluxe edition of the album. The tour was heavy on Prince’s biggest hits, interwoven with some fan-favorite deep cuts and a few offbeat cover songs—but rarely anything from the actual Welcome 2 America album, which even most Prince devotees didn’t know existed.
As for the second question, well, it’s impossible to know. Assuming that Prince hadn’t sabotaged himself by releasing Welcome 2 America in some unwieldy, hard-to-access way (like putting it all on a thumb drive, or bundling it with three other LPs’ worth of half-finished outtakes of songs by his protégées), it’s hard to imagine the record wouldn’t have had an impact. It certainly wouldn’t have escaped notice that an album so full of righteous skepticism about American values was recorded during President Obama’s first term—or that it featured so many songs Obama probably would’ve put on one of his playlists.
An under-recognized aspect of Prince is that his self-taught opinions on politics, religion, business and music rarely fit into any clear category. He incorporated a lot more of those studies and preoccupations into Welcome 2 America, making it one of his most personal albums. Then he set those ideas to some of his most likable music of the 21st century. If nothing else, this record is evidence that Prince’s one-of-a-kind genius never really dimmed, even if he sometimes lost sight of how to focus it, 0r—perhaps more importantly to the quick-take internet area that Prince detested so much—how to package it.
48 Comments
jamiroquai vibes. love it
Not a bad album once you get past the messy title track. I think you nailed late Price, Noel. He was a master composer and band leader, but putting together song sequence and art for albums was not one of his skills. We were lucky to get Art Official Age in 2014. Most of Prince’s albums after 1996 are messy and uneven.
Art Official Age is one the few late Prince records that I go to as often as his mid to late 90’s period. FYI his last great album? NPG- Exodus.
Such a great, weird album. The alt configurations are pretty great too.
AOA really is something else, and doesn’t get its due! Love to see the love. I’m reposting the following from a thread a few weeks ago bc it never made it out of the greys, but:
“HUGE Prince fan here, just here to say I think his last record. HITnRUN Phase 2, is massively underrated (cut a track or two, and it might crack his top 10 for me, personally), and would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn’t dug into late-period Prince (or a relisten for those who haven’t heard it since release). The it feels warm and organic in a way his bands haven’t quite sounded (especially the horn section), the political lyrics have become more prescient if anything, and in retrospect all of the direct musical/lyrical references to his back catalog make it feel more like a fitting career capstone than throwback.”
Tal played on this? That’s all I need to know.
…trying to parse why you feel the need to say “self-taught”? Where else would he get his opinions…
There’s a variety of politics-related degrees available at most universities. I even took the subject as one of my A-levels.
same, just trying to understand if Noel is stepping around the point that Prince didn’t go to college. And why that would matter.
No, I think Noel’s pointing out that Prince’s political opinions ranged from naive to ahistorical.
Elitism and classism..lol
This is the internet – an informed or educated opinion is an oxymoron.
I think it’s a nice way of saying that as great as his music was, Prince’s political opinions were sometimes original & meaningful, and other times totally full of shit.
which is fine, but come out and say that then.
“But how can I try to make it sound more snarky and pretentious?”- The AV Club
So, the same as everyone else’s, then.
No..it’s because he was a proud black man and may have upset people’s own privileges and unconscious biases..
And oftentimes contradictory.
Maybe he didn’t rely on CNN or Fox News to tell him what to be outraged about or which holiday is under fire.
Eww… Burn…🙄
They cracked the vault? RELEASE THE DOCUMENTARY KEVIN SMITH WAS FORCED TO MAKE AT PRINCE-POINT!
As for packaging…
My favorite Prince story.
>Why didn’t Prince release this incredibly entertaining and vital set of music in his lifetime?Why even ask this question? I guess so you can be comfortable listening to art that the artist didn’t want you to hear?
That’s certainly one conclusion that could be jumped to.
Prince was notoriously private and recorded albums upon albums worth of material that were only ever intended for his personal collection so yeah, I think it’s pretty easy to assume this was one of those and not some album he recorded and produced but then just forgot to release.
Everyone knows that Prince recorded tons of music and only released some of it, the question is why he did that, and what separates the stuff he intended for release from the stuff he didn’t. It’s a question that has the potential to illuminate both the artist and the art, and it’s a common one for shelved works of prolific artists, so I’m not sure why you’re taking such issue with it.
Not to mention, there’s a difference between “I don’t want to release this now/in the near future” and “I never want the public to hear this.”
I’m actually of the philosophy that when a person dies, anything they created or amassed, including wealth, should go into the public domain.
Sure, but the question is why? I am just glad it was finally released.
I mean, you can assume that if you want, but there is no evidence to that effect. If he felt really strongly about it, he could have, for example, put it in his will.
His co-producer on the album was on NPR this morning and claimed that Prince told him when he asked that, “these records were for his kids”, implying that they were supposed to be released in the future as his legacy (not sure whether for his future kids or metaphorical kids) when he was no longer producing new stuff. Of course, even if he hadn’t said that, the co-producer would say that to justify their release.
I think that, at least with THIS particular release, the explanation isn’t so simple. The 60 Minutes piece on Sunday was enlightening in that respect. His bandmate Morris Hayes produced this album with him and they had effectively finished it. It was done and ready to go. And then Prince set it aside. When Hayes asked ‘when will that be released?’ Prince said “we will get to it later,” or something like that. In other words (and, again, at least for this album), it sounds like Prince did intend to eventually release it, and it was nearly done.
If you read Duane Tudhal’s excellent books on Prince’s recording sessions in the 80’s, you get a sense for how he worked. He recorded all the time and very quickly. He did not obsess over the technical sound of a recording; he was after immediacy. Once he was done, he moved on. Sometimes he picked things back up and reused them, but not always. So, it might be a bit of a stretch to say he didn’t want people to hear these recordings. He just moved on to something else that was more interesting to him at the time. He clearly wasn’t thinking about his legacy yet (or else he would have written a will) so we really don’t know what he thought about eventually releasing some of this music. I just hope it continues to be handled with respect and integrity
I think you might have answered your first question when trying to answer your second.
Maybe he didn’t want to bring out “an album so full of righteous skepticism about American values (that was) recorded during President Obama’s first term.”
Boom. Exactly this.
One has to remember that Prince was a serious oddball. That may well be why he didn’t release it.
I was thinking of answering yesterday with the obvious: Prince did not release some stuff because he didn’t want to and he liked to control his output and what exactly was listened or watched of him at any specific moment.
Right, lest we forget he once announced that the internet was fad and officially over.
Morris Day on NPR’s Morning Edition said that Prince told him it was for the “children,” implying his future descendants. So it doesn’t seem he meant for some of these things to “never see the light of day” or that he didn’t think they were good enough for us to hear. Just that he felt he had longer, would be a father… and now I’m sad again.
I think you mean Morris Hayes.
I MOST DEF DO! Thank you.
Yep I was just saying this above. Listening to Hayes on 60 Minutes, it sounds to me like Prince did intend to eventually release this album.
There are a lot of well-known particulars about Prince that people know about that make “awesome album in a vault” an expected kind of story, but is it possible to discuss it with less incredulity that a creator might not release all work to all people in their lifetime?I dunno, it seems like there’s a basic default of all art should be as accessible as possible as soon as possible—and as part of the “all” I certainly sympathize, but unless the reason is hoarding it for my betters or something, I think we ought to respect creator’s decisions a bit more.
The record sounds great but I really want to see that tour video. Any chance it will be released stand alone?
The way the Estate is releasing it in the US is frustrating. I would like the CD and Blu Ray, but they are only packaging the concert with the Vinyl collection…along with the CD. So, since I don’t do vinyl any longer, that’s a ‘no go’ for me. I did find a CD and concert combination in a Japanese online dealer (legit and the concert disc will play on US players just fine) named CDJapan. They actually have some good Prince stuff there, for what its worth.
I’m always curious what was Prince’s reason for the stylistic titling of albums & songs. 2 = to, 4 = for, U = you, etc. Maybe it’s just a “Nobody knows what it means, but it’s provocative” situation, but still.
I would greatly appreciate it if the reviewer could send me a copy of the album he listened to, because I’m a lifelong Prince fan who has devoured everything good and bad, and my copy of this album rates as ‘dull detritus he shelved for a reason’. This thing is awful, flat, uninspired and worst of all, boring. Which even the worst Prince albums usually aren’t.