Prince’s Estate Finally Opened the Vault. Fans Aren’t Impressed.
Hard as it is to believe, it’s been a decade since the iconic artist Prince left this Earth. While we have plenty of his musical catalogue to remember him, his estate has released his first posthumous album, “Timeless,” for fans to commemorate. The album features 10 unreleased songs, which have received a mixed reception.
Containing music produced between 1977 and 2016, the new body of work is meant to be seen as a musical representation of every major era of the singer’s career, according to a statement from his estate. But for an album of such magnitude, it didn’t get much press or promotion. And maybe that’s why for some fans, the project fell flat and did a poor job at truly capturing the essence of an artist gone way too soon.
Related: If You Thought You Knew Everything About Prince, Here Are Some Things That Will Shock You
One user took to X/Twitter to express their thoughts, writing, “‘Timeless’ is a bittersweet, disappointing attempt to showcase 5 decades of Prince. The concept on paper is a good idea, but the execution is terrible. It doesn’t feel like this album was made with love, care, or much thought. It feels hastily put together.”
“‘Timeless’ is such a dull and uninspired release and a poor reflection of the quality of music that was left in the vault. There’s a lot of filler on this album,” said another.
One other person shared: “This album is mid, and not in a disrespectful “this is bad” way, but it’s just a random assortment with no real cohesion. As somebody familiar with Tick Tick Bang, Heaven, I Wonder and etc, there’s some cool stuff here but what’s the appeal for newer/casual ears? Especially this short.”
Added another in part, “TIMELESS REVIEW—PRINCE IS TIMELESS, BUT TIME IS UP FOR THE CURRENT ESTATE MANAGEMENT. Timeless does not represent the quality and depth of Prince’s legendary vault. The concept of the album is to showcase 5 decades of material, but it is a paltry 40 minutes of second-tier vault material.”
However, there were some fans who felt the project had some positive points.
“The Music itself is a mixed bag, it’s finally amazing to hear songs like ‘Heaven’, ‘Stone’ and ‘Calabama’ after hearing lesser quality versions of them on bootlegs,” said one user in part on X/Twitter.
Billboard called the album “funky” and described some of the songs as “blitzy,” “emotional,” and “a soul jam.”
Added another listener: “The new @prince album #Timeless is such a great listen not one bad track! Hopefully this is just the beginning of more vault releases.”
Additionally, the estate also released an official music video for the track, “The Guilty Ones,” a song originally recorded in October 2007. You can watch that here.
