20Ten Review: Prince Coasts Through a Newspaper Giveaway — 4/10

Prince’s 2010 album 20Ten is a strange artifact, even by his standards. It was released to coincide with a European newspaper giveaway, handed out free with copies of the Daily Mirror in the UK and several other papers across the continent. No streaming, no digital store, no conventional retail push. Just a physical disc tucked inside a tabloid.

The music itself is a 46-minute, 77-track sprawl, though that number is a trick: 67 of those tracks are five or six seconds of silence. Strip those out, and you have ten actual songs. The record is trying to be a loose, funky, late-summer party album, the kind of thing Prince could knock out in a weekend. It mostly lands as a dated, uneven snapshot of a genius coasting on autopilot.

There is no grand concept here, no Purple Rain narrative arc. 20Ten is a collection of grooves, most of them built on the synthetic, mid-tempo funk that Prince had circled for years. The opening track, “Compassion,” sets the tone: a slick, keyboard-heavy plea for empathy that sounds like it could have been a B-side from the late 1990s. It is pleasant enough, but it lacks the sharp melodic hook that made his best work undeniable. The album is not trying to break new ground. It is trying to be comfortable. That comfort is both its charm and its weakness.

Running Order: Ten Songs, 67 Silences

The track list is a gauntlet. You hit “Compassion” (3:57), then “Beginning Endlessly” (5:27), then “Future Soul Song” (5:08), then “Sticky Like Glue” (4:46), then “Act of God” (3:14), then “Lavaux” (3:04), then “Walk in Sand” (3:30), then “Sea of Everything” (3:49), then “Everybody Loves Me” (4:09). Then you hit a wall of silence.

Position	Track	Length
1	Compassion	3:57
2	Beginning Endlessly	5:27
3	Future Soul Song	5:08
4	Sticky Like Glue	4:46
5	Act of God	3:14
6	Lavaux	3:04
7	Walk in Sand	3:30
8	Sea of Everything	3:49
9	Everybody Loves Me	4:09
10–76	[silence]	0:05–0:06 each
77	Laydown	3:07

That wall of silence is not an accident. Prince was known for his battles with record labels, and many suspected 20Ten was his way of gaming the system. The most common explanation, offered by critics and fans at the time, was that by filling the disc with silent tracks, he made it difficult for the album to be counted as a standard release by chart authorities in some territories.

It looked like a middle finger to the industry, delivered with a smirk. But it also makes the record a chore to navigate. You cannot skip to the end without scrolling through minutes of nothing. It is a stunt, and it wears thin fast.

Walking the Track List in Order

“Compassion” opens with a gentle synth pulse and a vocal that sounds almost weary. It is a decent mood-setter, but it does not build to anything. “Beginning Endlessly” picks up the pace with a chugging rock-funk hybrid, and it is one of the few tracks that feels like it has a pulse. The guitar work is sharp, and the chorus has a hook that sticks. It is the sound of Prince reminding you he could still play.

“Future Soul Song” is where the record starts to wobble. It is a slow, jazzy number with a meandering melody that never quite resolves. It feels unfinished, like a sketch that was mistaken for a final draft. “Sticky Like Glue” is better. It is a funky, playful track with a rubbery bassline and a vocal that snaps and pops. This is the Prince of old, the one who could make a throwaway line sound like a revelation. It is the first track on the album that genuinely earns its place.

“Act of God” is a misstep. It is a heavy, guitar-driven rocker with lyrics about divine judgment that feel preachy and flat. The guitar solo is competent, but the song lacks the wit or the fire to make it memorable. “Lavaux” is a brief, vocal-led piece that sounds like a demo for a song that never fully arrived. It is pleasant, with a soft piano line and some gentle percussion, but it is over before it makes any impression.

Standout Tracks: Walk in Sand and Laydown

“Walk in Sand” is a highlight. It is a slow, soulful ballad with a gorgeous vocal melody and a lyric about love and loss that actually lands. This is the track that sounds like Prince was feeling something real. The production is sparse, letting the voice and the piano carry the weight. It is the closest the album comes to a classic.

“Sea of Everything” follows it and immediately undoes the mood. It is a meandering, synth-heavy piece that goes nowhere. The melody is shapeless, and the arrangement is cluttered. It is the kind of track that makes you check how much time is left. “Everybody Loves Me” closes the actual run of songs before the silence. It is a funky, self-assured number with a swaggering vocal and a tight groove. It is not a great song, but it has enough bounce to send the record out on a decent note.

Then the silence hits. And then, after nearly six minutes of nothing, “Laydown” appears. It is a slow, gospel-tinged closer with a warm organ sound and a vocal that sounds genuinely tender. It is a good song, maybe the second-best on the album, but its placement is absurd. It feels like a secret track buried under a mountain of static.

The Songs Worth Your Time

If you are going to bother with 20Ten, these are the tracks worth your time:

• “Sticky Like Glue” — the funkiest thing here, with a bassline that actually moves.
• “Walk in Sand” — a ballad with real emotional weight and a melody that sticks.
• “Laydown” — a warm, gospel-flavored closer that deserved a better home.
• “Future Soul Song” — flawed, but it has a jazzy ambition that the rest of the record lacks.

The rest of the album is filler. “Compassion” and “Beginning Endlessly” are competent but forgettable. “Act of God” is a preachfest. “Lavaux” and “Sea of Everything” are sketches. “Everybody Loves Me” is a decent groove with a weak chorus. That is the whole record. Ten songs, four of them worth revisiting, six of them padding, and a wall of silence that adds nothing but frustration.

The Newspaper Giveaway Gambit

The music on 20Ten is not the reason anyone remembers it. The release strategy is. Handing out a new Prince album free with a newspaper was a radical move in 2010, a time when the industry was still panicking about digital piracy and shrinking album sales. Prince had already experimented with giving away music, most notably with his 2007 album Planet Earth, which was bundled with a UK newspaper.

20Ten was a repeat of that play, and it worked in the sense that it got people talking. It did not work in the sense of building any lasting cultural footprint. The album came and went, and within a year it was out of print and largely forgotten.

The silence trick was the most talked-about element of the record. Critics and fans puzzled over why Prince would fill two-thirds of a disc with nothing. The most common explanation was that he was trying to keep the album out of the official charts, which had rules about what counted as a sale. By making the disc a novelty item, he could sidestep the machinery he had spent decades fighting.

It was a clever move, but it also made the album a chore to listen to. Nobody wants to scroll through 67 silent tracks to get to the ending.

Final Verdict: A 4 Out of 10

20Ten is not a good album. It is a minor footnote in a massive discography, a record that exists mostly as a curio for completists. The best tracks — “Sticky Like Glue,” “Walk in Sand,” “Laydown” — show that Prince still had the instincts of a great songwriter. But they are buried under a pile of half-finished ideas and a gimmick that overstays its welcome.

The album sounds dated, trapped in the synthetic production style of the late 2000s, and it lacks the melodic density that made his best work feel effortless. It is a Prince-by-numbers record, the sound of a legend taking a vacation.

The silence tracks are the most honest thing here. They are empty space, and the album is mostly empty space. The ten real songs could have been a solid EP, but stretched across a 77-track disc, they lose their impact. There is no argument that this is a return to form. It is a detour, a side project that never should have been a full statement.

Prince made dozens of albums, and 20Ten is not one that anyone needs to hear more than once. It is a curiosity, a snapshot of a moment when an artist decided to fight the system by handing out a mediocre record for free. The gesture was bold. The music was not. If you want to hear Prince at his best, go back to Sign o’ the Times or Purple Rain. If you want to hear him coast, this is the record.

It is a 4 out of 10.

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The record20Ten Prince77 tracks · 46 min

1. Compassion3:57
2. Beginning Endlessly5:27
3. Future Soul Song5:08
4. Sticky Like Glue4:46
5. Act of God3:14
6. Lavaux3:04
7. Walk in Sand3:30
8. Sea of Everything3:49
9. Everybody Loves Me4:09
10. [silence]0:06
11. [silence]0:05
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77. Laydown3:07

20Ten album review · album review · funk · newspaper giveaway · Prince · silent tracks