In 2017, Universal acquired rights to Prince’s much-whispered-about music vault, assuring worried fans they were “committed to honouring Prince’s legacy and vision by creating the highest quality products and experiences”. Words to strike a chill, but so far they’ve stepped respectfully: first Piano and a Microphone 1983, and now Originals, a selection of demos given to other artists, focused on Prince’s mid-80s peak.
Ethics aside, any such release is necessarily academic, rarely an epiphany, and the vocal quality varies. Prince’s tightly controlled production style, down to his proteges’ smallest inflections – the Time’s Gigolos Get Lonely Too is a spot-the-difference exercise – also means there’s little that differs substantially from its more polished released version, delicious as it is to hear him sing Martika’s blissful Love… Thy Will Be Done.
Only Nothing Compares 2 U reveals how comprehensively Sinéad O’Connor owned the song in her cover. If there’s little in the way of revelation, though, there are little thrills, such as discovering that the little operatic trill at the end of Manic Monday’s bridge was meant to have words: “I can’t resist”, abundant charm in seeing such talent at work on witty, lewd tracks like Vanity 6’s Make-Up and Sheila E’s Holly Rock, and a killer sweetness in the luxurious Baby You’re a Trip, written for, and audibly in the voice of, his then lover Jill Jones. Prince’s notebooks, after all, are better than most people’s novels.