Xpectation

Xpectation is an album by Prince, only available for download on his website, NPG Music Club. The album was made available for MP3 download on January 1, 2003 and all the songs are instrumentals. The album was originally intended to be called Xenophobia, and NPG Music Club had previously advertised the album as one of the "4 CDs" club members would receive in the mail during 2002 for their paid $100 subscription fee.

However, after mailing the first of the promised discs in March/April 2002 (the One Nite Alone... piano set), the club decided that they would technically fulfill the club's promise by giving paying club members the One Nite Alone... Live! 3-CD set, which was simultaneously released to retail. The original title track for the instrumental album ("Xenophobia") was never released in a studio version, but a live rendition is one of the highlights of One Nite Alone... Live!. The downloadable album was renamed Xpectation after one of the other tracks. All nine of the tracks start with "X", using Prince's trademark of abbreviating song titles and lyrics with letters, numbers or symbols.

The album is one of Prince's most sophisticated jazz compositions, far outstripping the musical depth of the various incarnations of the Madhouse project. This is largely because the album was mostly composed in conjunction with one of his best band configurations - the core of the "One Night Alone" group, including Candy Dulfer (sax), John Blackwell (drums) and Rhonda Smith (bass). The band is also joined by classical violinist Vanessa-Mae. 

专辑副标题为"New Directions in Music By Prince"，是Prince以自己的名字发行的第一张器乐专辑。此前未经宣布，于2003年元旦以MP3下载形式面向NPG会员发行，没有正式艺术作品，2004年通过 NPG Musicology下载商店发布。封面由Sam Jennings制成，2015年9月正式发布，当时通过Tidal提供了数字无损版本。