N.E.W.S.

Lore & Background

The album is the second instrumental album released under Prince's own name, containing four tracks of 14 minutes duration each. Recorded at Prince's Paisley Park Studios over a single day, the album was initially available through Prince's NPG Music Club website on June 30, 2003, before becoming widely commercially available on July 29. The album can be seen as a modern incarnation of Madhouse, but this time as a Prince release. Original Madhouse member Eric Leeds lends his talents, as well as The New Power Generation members John Blackwell, Rhonda Smith and Renato Neto.

The album was recorded improvisationally. The album is the lowest-selling Prince album released to date, with just 30,000 copies sold, but it did become a top-ten hit on the Billboard Internet sales chart, and garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album. The album artwork folded out into a ninja star. Produced by Prince, the album is credited as 'Directed By Prince'.

Reader's Guide

The album is fully instrumental and has been described as being new age and jazz-funk. The album received mostly negative reviews from critics, with several critics noting the album's lack of cohesion. In a 2 out of 5 star review, Allmusic reviewer William Ruhlman criticized the album as directionless. In a positive review for Jazz Times, Lucy Tauss summarized 'exploratory and evocative, N.E.W.S. is an intriguing departure for this enigmatic and unpredictable artist.' The Guardian ranked the album last out of Prince's 37 studio albums. Stereogum ranked it 20th out of 30 main Prince albums released by 2014. In a 2014 feature, American magazine Metro Weekly rated it as #36 out of 38 Prince albums.