Prince

One Nite Alone (2001)

Prince's Piano & Voice Rarity

As brilliant as Prince routinely is, there are still a handful of his releases that are tough to penetrate. For me, this is one of those. Perhaps his rarest release, One Nite Alone was a CD freebie that was sent out to NPG Club members in 2001. Longtime fans agree that this CD is quite different from the majority of Prince's work, even though he's included elements of this kind of quiet, soul cocktail jazz on past albums. As on his "acoustic" album, The Truth, Prince finds it hard to lay off the additional instrumentation, so this isn't strictly a solo piano and voice album... and is probably better for it. Still, the basic concept comes across clearly. Some of One Nite Alone sounds live, and you can even hear P pumping the pedals in the quieter moments, driving that point home. Often, when Prince lays off the big beats, his melodies tend to adopt a dreamy, wandering vibe. Amazing when he layers on a dozen voices, but it's hard on any given songs' hook appeal. Still, Prince's seemingly endless quality and varied, multi-layered styles provide plenty of study-worthy moments on One Nite Alone (not to be confused with the One Nite Alone... Live box set). You can hear one of the LPs more melodic tunes, "Have A Heart," below. This is an ancient download, so thanks to whomever. (@192)

One Nite Alone (3:38)

U're Gonna C Me (5:17)
Here On Earth (3:23)
A Case Of U (3:40)
Have A Heart (2:05)
Objects In The Mirror (3:27)
Avalanche (4:25)
Pearls B4 The Swine (3:01)
Young And Beautiful (2:45)
Arboretum (Silence) (3:26)

RS - M/U - ZS - DF