Crystal Ball is a box set by American recording artist Prince. It includes Crystal Ball, the artist's twentieth studio album, which is a three-disc set of "previously bootlegged" material, together with a fourth disc, The Truth, the twenty-first studio album by Prince.
The box set was initially only available through direct orders by phone and internet. The direct order edition included a fifth disc, an instrumental studio album by The NPG Orchestra titled Kamasutra. Shipment of this limited edition 5-CD version started on January 29, 1998, approximately two months before the release of the 4-CD version to retail stores on March 21, 1998.
The album Crystal Ball is Prince's second triple album in succession, following Emancipation. Each of the three CDs contain ten tracks and last fifty minutes, resembling Emancipation's 12-song, sixty-minute disc lengths.
In 2018, NPG Records released Crystal Ball and The Truth digitally on Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, and Apple Music.[6]
In 2021, a special limited vinyl edition of The Truth was released on Record Store Day.[7]
The album is largely made up of tracks recorded in two periods: 1985–1986 and 1993–1996. The only exception is "Cloreen Bacon Skin", recorded in March 1983.
No tracks were recorded specially for this album. However, "2morrow" was recorded after the completion of his previous album, Emancipation, making Crystal Ball the first album on which it could have been included. The album contains seven remixes or alternate versions of previously released tracks: "Love Sign (Shock G’s Silky Remix)", "So Dark" (a remix of "Dark"), "Tell Me How U Wanna B Done" (a remix of "The Continental"), "Interactive", "Good Love", "Get Loose" (a remix of "Loose!"), and "P. Control (Remix)".
This is the first Prince album of new material to feature previously released songs, although it primarily serves as an outtakes compilation rather than a studio album as such. Prince avoided using tracks that strongly featured the Revolution, as he intended to release a companion album, Roadhouse Garden, in 1999, containing previously unreleased Prince and the Revolution material (this album remains unreleased, however).
Copyright information on the album is given as 1997. No singles were released from the album, although "Love Sign" and "P. Control" had both previously been available as promo-only singles connected to their original albums, 1-800-NEW-FUNK and The Gold Experience, respectively. Although videos for "Acknowledge Me", "Interactive" and "18 & Over" were made a few years before this release (and not connected to any albums), they were not used as promotional tools for Crystal Ball. "Days of Wild" was released as a limited-release single in 2002, using a different live version than included here.
Prince did not tour or make any TV appearances to support the album. The album reached number 62 on the Billboard 200, and number 59 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[8]
All tracks are written by Prince, except where noted
Notes
The Truth is the twenty-first studio album by Prince. It was released as the fourth CD in the Crystal Ball box set. The arrangements are mainly based around the acoustic guitar, augmented with elaborate production effects, multi-layered vocals, and occasional percussion and percussive effects. A CD single was released prior to the album, consisting of the record's first two tracks. In 2018, NPG Records released The Truth digitally on Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, and Apple Music.[6] In 2021, a special limited vinyl edition of The Truth was released on Record Store Day.[7]
Kamasutra is an instrumental studio album by The NPG Orchestra. It was first released on cassette on February 14, 1997, and later in the limited edition Crystal Ball box set as the fifth CD on January 29, 1998, by NPG Records. The album was written to be played during Prince's wedding to Mayte Garcia in 1996. The tracks range in style from classical music, jazz, and experimentations with various sounds. For example, the track "Cutz" uses the sound of scissors snipping as its basis. Another track, "The Plan", was previewed in an excerpt on the 1996 3-CD set Emancipation.
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