It’s hard to believe because it feels like just yesterday, but on Friday the 21st, it will have been one year since we lost most purple rock legend of all time, Prince. To commemorate the occasion, Vancouver, WA-based record company Rogue Music Alliance is releasing an EP titled Deliverance, which will include six previously unreleased Prince songs (via SPIN). One of the songs, the title track, is streaming on Apple Music right now.
The songs were recorded between 2006 and 2008, so around the time he was working on his 2007 album Planet Earth and his 2009 triple album Lotusflow3r, both of which were released independently through Prince’s own label, NPG Records. The songs were co-produced by Prince and Ian Boxill, the latter of whom said in a press release that releasing music independently was important to The Purple One:
“I believe Deliverance is a timely release with everything going on in the world today, and in light of the one-year anniversary of his passing. I hope when people hear Prince singing these songs it will bring comfort to many… Prince once told me that he would go to bed every night thinking of ways to bypass major labels and get his music directly to the public. When considering how to release this important work, we decided to go independent because that’s what Prince would have wanted.”
Check out the tracklist and cover below, and let us know in the comments if you’re going to scoop up Deliverance in a couple days or wait until its planned physical release on June 2. The Prince estate, managed by Comerica Band and Trust and Paisley Park Enterprises is currently suing Boxill over the release, but what is Prince’s music without some litigious undercurrents. Hopefully we can hear this one in a way that respects the wishes of the Purple One.
Deliverance track list
- “Deliverance”
- “I Am”
- “Touch Me”
- “Sunrise Sunset”
- “No One Else”
- “I Am (extended)”
Images: Warner Bros., Rogue Music Alliance
