【ワケあり特価】Piano & A Microphone 1983 (Deluxe Edition) ［CD+LP］

そこにあるのは、ピアノとマイクロフォン、そしてプリンスだけ…。 彼のクリエイティヴィティを間近に感じさせてくれる贅沢な空間、素顔のプリンスのプライベート・セッションへようこそ。 1983年、ミネソタにある彼のホーム・スタジオで行われたピアノ弾き語りセッションを収録した貴重な未発表音源がここに!
こちらはCDとLPをバンドルし、豪華ブックレットを同梱したデラックス・エディション!

Rolling Stone - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] fascinating look at a side of his brilliance we didn't know existed at the time." Spin - "[A] couple -- the spiritual 'Mary, Don't You Weep,' most explicitly -- nearly work as standalone songs. Prince's delivery is as theatrical and farcical as it is emotionally invested, taking on different characters with each new vocal phrase."

As the first major release from Prince's vault (the 2017 expanded edition of Purple Rain was announced prior to his 2016 death), Piano & a Microphone 1983 is disarmingly casual. Its prosaic title is a precise description of the album's content -- it is nothing more than Prince sitting at a piano, playing whatever comes to his mind for just over half an hour -- yet even if the record delivers upon that promise, it's not quite as simple as it seems. For one, there's a level of intimacy on Piano & a Microphone unlike anything else in Prince's catalog. While there may have been some editing sleight of hand to make these 35 minutes appear to be a continuous performance, there's no production to speak of, yet it still bears the hallmarks of a studio recording; the music is too clear to be anything but. Despite early appearances of "17 Days," "Purple Rain," and "Strange Relationship," this can't be called a demo session: Prince plays his recent "International Lover," hauls out the spiritual standard "Mary Don't You Weep" -- a song he could in no way have been considering for inclusion on an album -- and plays a bit of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You." The brevity of "A Case of You" and "Purple Rain" -- both hover around 90 seconds -- highlights this session's informality, but that point is hammered home at the end of the record when Prince goofs through "Cold Coffee and Cocaine" in a voice he'd later perfect on "Bob George" and tries to find a concrete song within "Why the Butterflies." Far from detracting from Piano & a Microphone, these loose ends are the reason to listen to the album. The whole affair plays like the listener is eavesdropping on Prince creating, and there simply can't be a reissue more valuable than that. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine