Getting a lifetime achievement award has to be a bittersweet honor for most artists, since it generally suggests you're at the tail end of your lifetime and/or everything you've done of note is in your past. It has to be an especially hard pill to swallow for Prince, who's only 52 (the dude started young!) and who clearly likes to look forward more than he enjoys looking back. Nonetheless, organizers of the BET Awards just announced that Prince will receive a lifetime achievement trophy at their 10th annual soiree on June 27 in Los Angeles. These things generally come with a commitment from the recipient to appear at the event, and Prince has always been supportive of all things BET. Here's hoping he does more than just appear.
In the looking forward department, it sounds like Prince is finished with one album and already making another out at Paisley Park. The Current 89.3 FM is now spinning a second new track that the singer personally handed to the station, titled "Hot Summer" and obviously well-timed (except for these past few dreary days). Like its predecessor "Cause and Effect," the tune has earned a mixed reaction among listeners for what can pretty fairly called a dated and semi-hokey production style (with sound effects, cheers, etc.), but the songs themselves are really quite solid and infectious, some of his most melodic and poppiest stuff in decades. Here's hoping we get to hear an entire album by year's end, and maybe with a little sonic tweaking in the meantime.
