By Jon Wiederhorn
The title track of the new Prince EP, Deliverance has been released in advance of the actual EP, which arrives Friday (April 21). The six-song EP of previously unreleased songs is being issued in tribute to the one-year anniversary of Prince’s death.
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In addition to the title track, the EP features “I Am,” “Touch Me,” “Sunrise Sunset,” “No One Else” and “I Am (Extended).” The songs were all written and recorded between 2004 and 2009 when Prince was an independent artist, freed from his recording contract with Warner Bros. music. At the time Prince was protesting what he saw as an unjust music industry, which is why Deliverance is being released by Rogue Music, not a record label, a press release says.
“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,” says the EP’s former mixing and recording engineer Ian Boxill. “When considering how to release this important work, we decided to go independent because that’s what Prince would have wanted.”
Boxill co-wrote and co-produced the ‘Deliverance” tracks and spent the last year finalizing the arrangements, completing the production and mixing the songs. A physical version of Deliverance will come out June 2.
“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,” Boxill said. “I hope when people hear Prince singing these songs it will bring comfort to many.”
Currently, “Deliverance” is not available on Spotify or TIDAL and the EP may only be available for sale through Apple Music.
The majority of sales of Deliverance will benefit Prince’s estate, according to the statement.
Listen to “Deliverance” here:
