24 is an unreleased studio album by Madhouse (sharing the name with an earlier aborted Madhouse album, 24), and was recorded in 1993, with a planned release in early 1994. Unlike previous Madhouse albums, all tracks feature a full band, with Eric Leeds playing saxophone and flute, Michael B. on drums, Sonny T. on bass guitar and Levi Seacer, Jr. on guitar (Prince played keyboards and added other instrumentation). Unlike the previous albums, Sheila E. was not involved in the recordings.
Unlike Madhouse's first two album, 8 and 16, only the first track, 17, is given a numerical title; the rest receive names to give them more individual character. Unusually, two of the album's tracks also contain vocals, and also contains a cover version, (Got 2) Give It Up (a cover version of Marvin Gaye's track (titled Got To Give It Up) from his 1977 album Live At The London Palladium).
The album's six full tracks were recorded during a single five-hour session on 7 July 1993, at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, MN, USA. Ricky Peterson added post-production work on the tracks in late August and September 1993, before Prince added more production and recorded musical segues with the band members.
The album was rejected by Warner Bros., but some tracks were later made available. 17 was released in 1994 on the album 1-800 New Funk (a compilation of mostly-unreleased music largely written and produced by Prince/ , recorded by other Paisley Park Records artists). Space was released in 1994 on Come, although in its original vocal form rather than the jazzy mostly-instrumental version recorded for 24.
Clips of Asswoop (using the title Asswhuppin' In A Trunk) and Parlor Games, as well as the full Ethereal Segue, were included on the NPG Records Sampler Experience cassette given to some concertgoers on The Ultimate Live Experience tour; text on the cassette cover stated that 24 was an upcoming release (although no release was confirmed at the time). Asswoop was available in 2001 as part of NPG Ahdio Show # 6 (using the title Asswhuppin' In A Trunk).
After being rejected the album was revised in 1995 for unknown reasons. This new configuration ran largely the same as the previous version, but had three tracks added following the Michael Segue: Overture #5, Overture #6 (both of which were later released on the The NPG Orchestra's Kamastura album in February 1997, albeit with drastically different arrangements. And a mostly instrumental version of 18 & Over with a prominent horn line of the (sung) chorus, but omitting the rap lyrics. The next track (Got 2) Give It Up was now edited down to a bit over half its original length. The three new tracks were all presumably recorded in May 1995.
Artwork was subsequently made (later in 1995) for a version that now omitted (Got 2) Give It Up altogether and had slightly alternate titles for some tracks. Michael Segue was titled Drum Segue now, while Sonny Segue was now featured as Bass Segue. 18 & Over was listed as 18 And Over while Parlor Games was titled Parlour Games.
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