On August 28, the Estate of the late, great Prince will deliver an album called Timeless, featuring 10 total songs. Nine tunes are from the icon's vault, which appears to consist of thousands of unreleased songs. The other track is a live version of "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?"
From the forthcoming album, a second single was dropped this week. "Stone" differs greatly from a previously delivered single from the record, "With This Tear," in that it's not an overly sweet ballad. Instead, there is more of Parliament than Celine Dion with the new song.
The tone is set from the beginning. The vocals come in quickly over a 1990s-feel of bass and synths. It's peppy and fun. The lyrics, which weren't written by Prince but instead by Sandra St. Victor, Tom Hammer, and Jules Van Even, aren't overly creative, but that's oddly not that important.
New Prince single, "Stone," isn't exactly impressive
What matters with the tune is that if one wants to shake their butt to the beat, then the beat is created to do just that. Recorded in 1995, "Stone" isn't exactly fitting of the name of the album, as this is more of a throwaway track meant to get listens from fans of Prince who can never get enough of the icon's music.
Don't expect a guitar solo or impactful musicianship of any kind. The tune simply bounces along without any sense of being dangerous. Prince is in fine voice, and the engineering of the track is pristine. It's a fine listen, but not exactly transformative.
The song ends as quickly as it begins. The tune simply doesn't rise or have enough nuance to be memorable. This isn't a track one will be playing alongside the master's best in 20 years. More likely, the tune will not be played more than a couple of times.
More worrisome is that the first two singles from Timeless don't necessarily make one want to hear the next track immediately. Both "With This Tear" and "Stone" are fine, but not indicative of the greatness of Prince. Let's hope the rest of the previously unreleased songs are better, but if the two released tunes are the best on the record, it will be a great disappointment.
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