WOW. @RollingStone magazine has just delivered one of the most brutal reviews yet of Prince’s Timeless and that closing line is going to sting: if someone told you Prince was the ultimate pop star and then played this collection as proof, “you’d never listen to Prince - or that person - again.” That is savage but it also gets to the heart of why Timeless has generated so much debate. This was never just another Prince compilation. It was an opportunity to reach beyond the hardcore fanbase, open the doors to the Vault and show another generation the astonishing depth, unpredictability and sheer brilliance of Prince across nearly four decades. And that is what makes Rolling Stone’s verdict so uncomfortable. Nobody doubts the greatness of @prince and nobody seriously believes the Vault lacks extraordinary music. The question is whether these ten tracks were really the strongest possible statement to make when you have one of the richest musical archives on the planet at your disposal. There is an almost painful irony here too. Only days ago, Rolling Stone published a major interview with @LondellMcMillan who was explaining and defending Timeless and the wider thinking around Prince’s legacy. Now the magazine’s own critic has delivered a verdict that could scarcely be further removed from that optimism. I want the Prince Estate to succeed. Every Prince fan should. There are fascinating possibilities ahead and an archive capable of producing genuinely historic releases, which is precisely why criticism like this should be taken seriously rather than treated as hostility. And this is important: @LondellMcMillan and @CharlesFSpicer should never see Prince fans, like me, as the enemy. We are not rooting for them to fail. We want them to succeed spectacularly because when they get it right, Prince wins, his legacy grows, the fans win and, yes, Primary Wave and everyone invested in that legacy benefits too. So bring the fans closer. Listen to them. Engage with the collectors and the people who have lived with this music for decades because there is an extraordinary reservoir of knowledge, passion and goodwill out here waiting to be tapped. Criticism doesn't have to be treated as hostility; sometimes it comes from people who desperately want the next release to be incredible. The better they do, the happier we will be. We should all ultimately want the same thing: Prince's legacy growing bigger, stronger and more culturally important with every passing year. The Vault shouldn't merely produce releases. It should produce events. #Prince #Prince4Ever #PrinceTimeless #Timeless #PaisleyPark #PrinceEstate #TheVault #PrinceRogersNelson #MusicLegacy cc @jonbream @drfunkenberry @iamslickrick01 @SlingshotAnnie @thepurplestream @Housequake @princeorg shorturl.at/79Cbf