Nothing Compares 2 U

Album review

Although Prince was never able to perform this poignant ballad on stage, which he composed in 1984 for The Family (the group and the album of the same name). Nothing Compares 2 U is still too often considered to be a song by Sinéad O 'Connor. But “we must return to Prince what belongs to Roger Nelson”, this is what is probably thought by the people who manage the patrimony of the musician under the tag “Prince Estate”. Without doubting the merit of the Irish singer, Prince probably would have had similar success, if he had released it under his name and not under one of his parallel projects that didn't garner much promotion. Just after the recording of his seventh album, Around The World In A Day, this major “musicaholic” had already laid down all the foundations for the first album of The Family, at the Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse Studio in Eden Prairie. It was the very first album of another project that he marketed on his label, Paisley Park Records, and far from a temporary whim, he saw the opportunity to give himself greater musical freedom. With The Family, he wanted more freedom to record more open pop songs that let him express his  jazz and classical influences… But, as often is the case, the group was never truely one and despite all of the talent of its members and contributors ( Paul “St. Paul” Peterson, vocals and keyboard, Susannah Melvoin, vocals, Eric Leeds, saxophone, Clare Fischer, orchestrations, Wendy Melvoin, guitar, Jellybean Johnson, drums, Jerome Benton, chorus, Miko Weaver, guitar and chorus, Alan Flowers, bass, Jonathan Melvoin, keyboard, Bill Carrothers, keyboard, Wally Safford, chorus and Greg Brooks, chorus), The Family did not last long after their first album and a single concert (August 13, 1985).

Marketed extremely "discreetly" in the summer of 1985, the album was not even reissued when Sinéad O'Connor shot to number one in numerous countries with Nothing Compares 2 U. A song that had not even been released as a single in 1985, as Warner Bros, the record label distributing Paisley Park Records, had thought that The Screams of Passion and High Fashion had much more potential commercially. Reformed briefly in 2003 and then renamed fDeluxe, the band added four albums to their discography without ever trying to capitalize on the masterpiece, to which he was the first performer. A live version recorded with The New Power Generation, duet with Rosie Gaines, was already around in 1993 on the compilation The Hits/ The B-Sides, and Prince Estate had integrated it in 4Ever, Prince's first best of, which was posthumously released in 2016.

Beyond his keyboard intro that we believe was borrowed from I am The Walrus by The Beatles, this is a studio version that we would call an "alternative" for The Family, already with its orchestral arrangements, its saxophone solo and its omnipresent choir. But more notably with the voice of Prince, as expressive and inspired as his guitar playing. A promising first taste of the famous archives that the Prince Estate has promised to unveil widely in a time frame that we hope is extremely short. © Jean-Pierre Sabouret / Qobuz