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"       Here&amp;#039;s an easy way to rack up the Facebook comments and raise your Klout score: post Prince&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Rock and Roll Love Affair&amp;quot; video. After an initial listen, I threw it out to my friends, adding, &amp;quot;New Prince. Trite phoned-in bullshit or just a near-miss at a return-to-form? I&amp;#039;m on the fence.&amp;quot; The comments rolled in and debate ensued, because, by now, we&amp;#039;ve each adopted differing expectation levels for new Prince material. For the tolerant, or anybody that&amp;#039;s endured the last decade or so, the bar is low. The camp I&amp;#039;m in can&amp;#039;t get past the groundbreaking greatness of his heyday and will forever grade on a curve. One friend wrote, &amp;quot;It lacks the signature Prince sing-a-long chorus, so it&amp;#039;s not really complete. It&amp;#039;s an unfinished Prince song.&amp;quot; Another said, &amp;quot;...smooth and solid. The strength is in the understatement and subtlety of the dynamics.... precision musicianship only a few on earth can match.&amp;quot; The more I listen, the more I suspect both friends are right. What&amp;#039;s undeniable \u2014 and perhaps gives us the first impression that&amp;#039;s it&amp;#039;s phoned-in \u2014 is how effortless it sounds. And it looks effortless, too: At one point in the video, he&amp;#039;s playing piano and guitar at the same time. I&amp;#039;d prefer a little less showboating and a lot more sweat. But the comment I&amp;#039;m slowly coming around to was so undeniable, so hard to posit an argument against, that it wound up the final comment in the thread: &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t over-think it. It grooves. &amp;quot; Indeed, it does. Click below for all the other songs of the week, and listen to a sampling of this week&amp;#039;s playlist from Spotify below that...       MUSIC MONDAY: Listen to More of Andy Langer&amp;#039;s Songs of the Week &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a17082/prince-rock-and-roll-love-affair-review-14813133/?click=news>