Review: Prince Opens Up The Vaults For ‘Timeless’ – 10 Songs From Across The Legend’s Career (’77 to ’16)

Prince, or more accurately the folks that run his estate, gave us a peak inside the vaunted Paisley Park vaults last Friday and released his latest posthumous collection, Timeless. I say the Prince folks only gave us a peak because Timeless is only 10 tracks and roughly 42 minutes long. It’s actually built perfectly for vinyl.

I always loved Prince and am still bummed he’s gone. Can’t believe it’s been 10 years since we lost him.

I like to think I got in early on Prince. Some guys that lived across the hall from me in college turned me onto 1999 in the early days of 1983 and I was all in. When Purple Rain came out in ’84 I was like, “Oh, Prince, I’ve been listening to him for yeeeeears! “DMSR,” people.”

Even I’ll admit, after Sign O The Times I lost track of his prolific releases. I was more of a casual “song-here, song-there” guy… I guess I was being choosy at the Prince buffet. But the man was such a genius I always tried to keep an eye, or perhaps better stated an ear, on what he was doing. The Rock Chick kept me up on that whole NPG era… Diamonds & Pearls and 7 but after that it was hit and miss for me.

Timeless, as mentioned, is made up of 10 songs that are from across his career from 1977 to a live cut from 2016. I’d love to tell you this thing is packed with classics and reads like one of those single vinyl LP greatest hits we all used to build our record collection with when we didn’t have the dough to buy an artist’s entire back catalog. The struggle was real. I’d like to say, this is packed with essential Prince.

But no, this feels like a bit of a hodgepodge, if I can steal that word from my grandmother. There aren’t many artists who leave a “Little Red Corvette” in the vaults… Timeless reads to me more like a sampler from an upcoming box set – it’s not, that I know of – like Springseen’s Lost & Found from Tracks 2 or Neil Young’s Vol. III – Takes released prior to The Archive – Volume III. 

Timeless is different from Prince’s prior posthumous stuff. I was all in for the big box sets from 1999 Super Deluxe to Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe. Talk about an avalanche of fabulous vault material. There were a lot of classics in those massive retrospectives. I thought Purple Rain Deluxe, while not as extensive as those other two, was still a fabulous package. Great music across the board.

There’s no album or era Timeless is tied to. This wasn’t an unreleased album like Welcome 2 America or a collection of demos like Piano & A Microphone 1983. These are fully realized songs. Even Originals was built around the theme of Prince’s original versions of songs he’d given away that were made famous by other artists.

But while Timeless is a bit all over the place, it’s brought together by the brilliance of Prince. His songwriting and singing bind this thing together to a degree. I had a friend tell me he was only into Prince’s “Hendrix-y stuff,” and I’ll tell you there’s not a lot of guitar solo’ing on here, but having spent all weekend listening to this, there’s a lot to like.

There are some really great Prince tracks here. I know some of these tracks have been heavily bootlegged but they’re all new to me, so I’m experiencing them for the first time.

Right out of the gate, the first track, “I Am You” grabbed me immediately. It’s all falsetto and synth. It’s from 1977 and it takes me right back to that Controversy or Dirty Mind vibe. It’s a great start and frankly a track that should have been put out decades ago.

“I Wonder” (1989) is another absolute gem of a song. It’s a loping, upbeat track about a man in the early days of a break up… another man has stolen his woman and he wonders if she even thinks about him at all. It’s almost like he’s wondering whether she wonders about him. It’s brilliant.

“Guilty Ones” (2007) is the most guitar forward track on here. His guitar sounds almost punk. It’s fast, hard and brilliant. That one and “The Bestest Friends” (2012), which is a dramatic piano ballad, are two standout tracks. These are all Prince songs you gotta hear. I really love “The Bestest Friends.”

Beyond those stellar tracks there is a lot of really good Prince here. “Tick Tick Bang” (1981) is funny and manic and raucous… we get a little guitar noodle on that. Oh, the pain of waiting. “With This Tear” (1991) is a lush falsetto piano ballad and just a gorgeous tune.

“Stone” (1995) is a slightly more upbeat, groove tune. It sounds like the Prince I grew up listening to. I get “Take You With Me” vibes from this track.

There are only two misses here for me. “Heaven” (1985) which sounds like an outtake from Around The World In A Day, an album that ended up on my “most disappointing LPs” list. I get it, the overwhelming fame of Purple Rain was too much and he made a stylistic change in his music to avoid the pressure of the follow-up… but like the album, this song doesn’t work for me.

“Calabama” is another miss for me. It’s a rap tune. There’s nothing wrong with rap/hip hop or Prince’s doing it, it’s just not my thing… Plus there’s a lot of complaining about his record company. I get it, nobody had more problems with the record business than Prince.

Finally, the set ends with a live version of “Why Don’t U Call Me Anymore,” from 2016. It was originally a B-side for “1999.” It’s a fabulous performance. It left me thinking, “Where’s the rest of this show?” I know the Prince vaults have a ton of live shows in that safe, give us more of this, please!

Overall there is a lot to like here. It was certainly a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Oh, me of little faith. Prince was such a genius he can pull off a release like this. But I will admit, it left me, well, wanting more. It doesn’t quite scratch the itch for more Prince vault material for me… it makes the itch worse!

I still think if you like Prince, and not just his “Hendrix-y stuff” this is a great listen. It’s like finding a post card from an old friend that you never received. It’s great to hear Prince in any format.

Definitely check this one out, especially the gems I highlighted here. Definitely a fun dip back into the genius that was Prince!

Cheers!!