Unreleased Prince album, 'Camille', to be issued on Third Man Records

A previously unreleased album by Prince, from 1986, is soon set to get its first release via Third Man Records.

The album was recorded by the late musician under an alter ego, Camille, which the record shares its title with. He scrapped the project shortly after test pressings of the finished album were produced, however.

In a new interview with Mojo, Third Man co-founder Ben Blackwell said the label is going to make sure the album finally sees the light of day. “We’re finally going to put it out,” he said, adding that Third Man had also got the green light from the late singer’s estate: “Prince’s people agreed – almost too easy.”

All of the songs on the eight-track album have been released in some form over the years, though never in the same package, and some of them have become difficult to track down since their first release.

Tracks such as ‘Housequake’, ‘Strange Relationship’ and ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’ appeared on classic album ‘Sign O’ The Times’, while ‘Feel U Up’ was released as the B-side to ‘Batman’ single ‘Partyman’. ‘Shockadelica’ was the B-side to the single release of ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’, and ‘Good Love’ featured on the soundtrack for ‘Bright Lights, Big City’. 

The other two tracks are ‘Rockhard In A Funky Place’, which appeared on ‘The Black Album’, and ‘Rebirth Of The Flesh’, which was recently included in the 2020 super deluxe reissue of ‘Sign O’ The Times’.

No official release date for the full release of ‘Camille’ is yet available. 

Earlier this year, a rare promo cassette copy of Prince’s ‘The Black Album’ was put up for auction.

Another unreleased album of Prince’s, ‘Welcome 2 America’, also got its first-time release last year.