Prince Estate Set to Reissue a Collection of the Purple One’s Early-2000s LPs

The Prince Estate and Legacy Recordings are releasing a handful of tangible Prince albums, the first phase of their “definitive Prince catalog reissue project.” The albums are set for release on April 17, and include his works from 2001 and 2002.

The reissues include 2001’s long-out-of-print The Rainbow Children, 2002’s One Nite Alone and official live albums that were recorded in between the releases of those two studio albums.

The releases wouldn’t be right if they didn’t have some Prince flair to them. One Nite Alone, One Nite Alone…Live! and One Nite Alone: The Aftershow…It Ain’t Over! will, of course, be released on limited-edition purple LP, not to mention, this will be the firs-ever vinyl release of these albums.

To throw it back even more, CDs are coming back. The Rainbow Children will be available on CD for the first time in decades, as well as a limited-edition LP that’s crystal-clear with a custom rainbow slipmat.

The Rainbow Children was Prince’s 24th studio album and is a jazzy concept album exploring all the aspects that made up Prince’s aesthetic, like sexuality, spirituality, love and so on. The album takes on a different sound than the ‘80s pop Prince is known for, and gives us a jazzy lounge vibe with live drums and expansive horns.

Another special surprise about the release is that One Nite Alone, Prince’s 25th studio album, will be released on CD and vinyl after only being available via MP3 files and rare, sought-after CDs. The album was never sold in stores, but is now being released on vinyl for the first time ever, along with the live albums, and will include a 48-page bound book and a DVD of Prince Live at The Aladdin Las Vegas.

One Nite Alone features hits like “U’re Gonna C Me” and a cover of “A Case Of U,” a song by one of Prince’s hero’s, Joni Mitchell.

Between the releases of the studio albums, Prince went on his One Nite Alone…Tour, which featured his electrifying stage presence, as well as the New Power Generation band, featuring musicians Shelia E., Maceo Parker, Eric Leeds, Candy Dulfer, Greg Boyer, Renato Neto, John Blackwell and Rhonda Smith.

One Nite Alone…Live! was Prince’s first-ever official live album, and is over two hours of The Purple One performing his biggest hits and deep cuts off The Rainbow Children and One Nite Alone.

Bonus live album One Nite Alone…The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over! will include highlights of Prince’s late-night aftershows from the tour. The show truly isn’t over, as Prince jams for another epic hour with guest performers George Clinton and Musiq Soulchild.

Legacy is also releasing music videos from Prince Live at The Aladdin Las Vegas, which will be available digitally from Feb. 20 to April 17. Tracks include songs from both the studio albums, as well as covers of James Brown “Pass The Peas” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”.

You can preorder all of the above here, though it’s worth taking a second to consider whether Prince himself would want you to.

Listen to a 1982 Prince performance from the Paste archives below.