In a message dated 1/7/2003 12:14:42 PM Eastern Standard Time, ecstasymule@hotmail.com writes:

the vault is also a pretty good record, much better than the previous
collection of studio leftovers (crystal ball) that he foisted on fans, 3
discs of blither followed by a fourth of new material that was one of his
best records of the '90s.

I couldn't agree more with both parts of this. I was expecting the worst from The Vault, and was quite pleasantly surprised. I think had not all the bad PR been flying around about it, it could have been much more sucessful for both Prince and Warner's.

The last disc of Crystal Ball is just wonderful, and definitely one of his best 90's works. Its very cool that Prince can still pull off a great trick/piece of work when he wants to. I'll take that, along with all his ecentricities.

Dale.