A CELEBRATION: O(+>

After the high of the Prince Diamonds & Pearls tour and the hysteria that swept through Australia right along with it, it seemed straight away the album was released. Our first taste was hearing Sexy MF live and the cd single got rush released. By this stage I was working at the record store that had been my Prince mecca growing up and for the first time I was getting unpacking a new Prince album and placing it on the shelves… not to mention blasting it every chance I got.

Thankfully, I got an advance copy and took it home to listen to it. With the CD primed, the speakers buzzing, I pressed play and got hit with the rough funk that is My Name Is Prince (I always found it ironic that such a song would lead an album that featured the symbol that would be his moniker for the next few years). Spitting out the lyrics like venom, Prince in all his cockiness preens as he state’s his credentials. I always laughed at the amount of what I was hearing as Michael Jackson knocks – even down to the MJ dah at the end of every line and of course the “you must be a prince before you are king anyway” (shame that in 1982 MJ was touted as the Prince of Pop, lol – but that’s another story). While a mix of ego stroking and maybe a fact of peer pressure – I mean he was backed by the “we the $hit” NPG posse – Prince hits this track hard and fast.

What can you say about Sexy MF? Sounding as tight as it did live, the song struts along with a cool that makes the cussing almost acceptable. The kind of song you could hear Samuel L. Jackson get into, the semi-rap lyrics and 1,2,3 hit ending the verses that made this song a guilty pleasure for many.

Ohhhhh! Love 2 the 9s was an instant classic in my books, with its smooth verse and continuous lyrical chorus this was the perfect antidote to the whole grunge formula of pensive verse and explosive chewed out chorus. Upon hearing it I knew I would be hitting my drums as soon as the album finished and drumming along with this track. There is a sweetness in this song that is contagious, and the witty questionnaire replies always make me smile. And how cool is the line “would you hug me on a crowded street”!!! It should have been a single.

Speaking of singles, The Morning Papers was an interesting choice. Pop appeal aside, it was a song that when I first heard the album I didn’t really get into. It wasn’t until seeing the video that I got a new appreciation for the complexity in the arrangement and the layering of sounds I must have missed the first, second and 7th time around.

First time I heard The Max it seemed like a bit of a mandatory, to match the housey dance grooves that were floating around at the time. Not a great song in my opinion, thought I did like all the little samples littered throughout the track even the fax machine on speed sound. There were better songs on the album so often I would find myself reaching for the >> button. Ooops it happened again.

Originally designed as a rock opera with many many more segues to detail the reporter, illusive star pursuit, several were cut to make space for more music. Personally, cut the Max and give me more segues.

Blue Light with its reggae Jamaica blue crystal waves vibe is a sweet summery song. Not one that immediately grabbed me but a track that has revealed it’s beauty over time. Countering Prince’s reputation as a hypersexed lady killer, BL gives a tongue in cheek perspective of a guy wanting a hypersexed relationship rather than living it. But I’m sure one flick of the blue light and everything would be alright. My fave line – “double heart attack couple both die in a fight”. Prince humour at his best.

With it’s techno bass line and inviting “I’ve got seven hours baby so what you wanna do” I wanna melt with U got me from the first beat. Even now listening to it, it seduces you in with its hard beats and flowing vocals. Put on the strobe and watch the colours burst forth, and I loved the sneak peak of 7 included in here (2:35), something you didn’t notice it until you listened to the CD for a second time.

Sweet Baby unfortunately shook the faith I had in Prince being able to write a sublime ballad. After when 2 r in love, scandalous, and insatiable, I had come to expect more from Prince than this simple ballad. Another song I would find myself skipping over and over.

Thankfully Prince followed SB with the killer groove of The Continental. With it’s two killer hooks for the price of one offering, TC is one of the stand out tracks on the album. I love how Prince plays your typical dance bass line of the “white lines” ilk on the guitar instead and seems to reinvent this classic groove. And just as all of Prince’s arrogant posing seems too much he breaks it down with “how you wanna be done” at 3:09 with all the smoothness of Prince’s finest funk grooves – with it’s sweet as sugar vocal delivery and teasing guitar lick everything is just too cool, especially the build up and pause of “til you tell me to stop…”, it’s just infectious. Also note the second allusion to 7 with the sing song ABCDEFG.

Damn U – a sweet enough song, but like Sweet Baby I just wasn’t feeling the ballads on .

Cocksure to boot, Arrogance is a hurricane of funk. Hyper and bursting at the seams, I love the confusion inspired breakdowns that reminded me of The Revolutions cacophony end to epic funk grooves.

The Flow with it’s Public Enemy inspired groove and rap still gives the thrill. And it seems every time I listen it I hear another sample I had missed last time, like the “Minneapolis Minneapolis” call outs.

If The Flow was the NPG, then 7 is pure Prince. The vocal layered intro is too beautiful for words, the eastern influenced groove and sitar like guitar melody harkens back to the Around the World in a Day era complete with finger cymbals. With its 7 signs of the apocalypse lyrical allusion, it’s one of Prince’s finest moments on record. A worthy single that still sounds as fresh today as it did the first time I heard.

With its bass line from heaven opening (accompanied by Rhodes piano) God Created Woman is without a doubt the most underrated track on here. This should have been a single in my opinion. A beautifully crafted song with those to die for Prince backing vocals (“shall we touch”) this is one of the songs I would have loved to have heard live. If people ever ask about Prince’s skills as a songwriter, I present this song as Exhibit A.

With it’s rock opera feel Three Chains of Gold initially struck me as Prince does Queen – a royal meeting of the minds if you will. Grandiose in it’s arrangement the song sweeps from powerful rock to light and airy melodious verses to hurried almost panicked midsection to return to the power of the main song and then builds and builds and builds to that wondrous solo at the climax. Self-indulgent? Maybe. Killer? Oh yes.

What is sacrifice? With its gett off inspired groove, The Sacrifice of Victor is more spiritual than sexual. With many critics reading waaaaay too much into this song, many felt that Victor was the new moniker of Prince, when actually the answer was staring them in the face whenever they looked at the cover.

And as the choir sang Amen, I sat back and reflected on what I had just heard. A more musically adventurous album than Diamonds and Pearls, held up under my heavy expectations. And sure enough I went downstairs to where my drum kit was, and loaded up Love 2 the 9s and Sexy MF. Years later those songs still do it for me.

And as far as the debate goes whether to call it the Love Symbol album, I always thought of it as the Prince Symbol which when said aloud sounds a lot like Principle – something Prince would stand on in his dispute with Warner Bros. In fact, after this album the Hits/B-Sides came out and when a new Prince album arrived it would elude to the death of Prince (1958 – 1993) and the birth of .

Tomorrow we look at the album that some fans love and others tend to overlook, the much maligned COME release.

Swa

tomorrow COME..
..mzsexybaby

I love Symbol ! But if his name was a symbol then why did he sing his name was Prince???
[Edited 6/30/09 18:00pm]

I've been listening to And God Created Woman a lot lately. Probably thinking about some non-existing woman I'm in love with.

From the minute My name is Prince comes on, you're hit in the face by his "swag" as it would be called now..machismo all over the place..just some great songs..by now im producing tracks and engineering and when i heard "melt"..i was stunned..I just made a track like that!..oh shit!..we wont talk about "the blood..u must've been a virgin"..lyrics..the fact that i heard 2 tha 9's with my woman at the park actually "listening to grass grow"..still is a nice memory..just a great album and all the mess about chasing an underaged girl as the theme to the album...we'll just let that pass "wink"

Dayclear said:

I love Symbol ! But if his name was a symbol then why did he sing his name was Prince???

I quite like the album, not as strong as D and P, but it was enough to keep my 16 year old mind amused at the time. I remember when Sexy MF came out, it was on the news being presented as "Has Prince gone 2 far, new song has swear word title) in New Zealand it seemed swearing was still a novelty and we got treated to images of feminist women screaming it would rot childrens minds (This is the country that in 1994, tried to ban Doggystyle as pornography, and described Snoop Doggy Dogg as an obscene and depraved Negro rapper, searched Delthafunkeehomosapiens anus for Marijuana (Singer of Bobdobaliner hit). So my Mum saw it and said you are not buying that single (Well I did, and didn't think the whole new jack pimp thing worked anyway. Did love Morning Papers, Love 2 the 9s, Damn U, The Max, Seven, The Continental, Blue Light and Three Chains of Gold tho.

Sweet Baby

Huggiebear said:

didn't like it at all much-then I heard the live versions and-i loved it. The energy is lost on me with the cd-but they really come alive on the act I and II tours-and i really wasn't into his 'look' at all at that stage-except he added princess Mayte which i really can't complainn about

i think im one of the only ones that dosen't like seven too-though sexy mf is a classic

I haven't heard that album for so long-i'm gonna have a listen when i get home. Neighbours beware-its too hot to close the windows and my stereo has one level-loud

SavonOsco said:

Thnx for that..American Negro Rap blamed for violence overseas huh?..LOL..well that another story for another day...Thnx again

Great album.

Love 2 the 9's...

Probably my favorite Prince album of the 90's. "Come" is a close second though.

still remember the 1st time listening 2 this album and how i was reading the lyric book while bobbing my head listening 2 this "rock opera" until i got 2 the song 7. I THREW THE LYRIC BOOK UP IN THE AIR just totally amazed at the layerd vocals of that track.

the only song on this opus i still can't get in2 is 3 chains o gold

L4OATheOriginal said:

I've always thought of o(+> as a very messy album. When I say "messy" I don't mean it as an insult. It's just that Prince tries so many different types of music that I don't think it holds together as an album very well. For the most part I think this is a fantastic album, for me his best of the 1988-1993 era. I'll start with the bad. I've never really enjoyed "Arrogance" or "The Flow." I don't think that Prince's strength is in those types of songs. "Sweet Baby," much like "Don't Talk 2 Strangers," just barely stays on the acceptable side of sweetness. Otherwise I love almost every track. "Damn U" is a fantastic ballad. "The Morning Papers" is arguably the first of a new, "rock" type of ballad from Prince. Future examples being "Strays Of The World," "She Gave Her Angels" and, much more recently, "4ever." "3 Chains O' Gold" is unlike anything that Prince had ever attempted before. The first time I heard it I was a bit taken aback but it quickly became a favourite. "The Continental's" two differing musical passages complement each other extremely well and it is another fantastic track. And the album closes with the extremely funky "The Sacrifice Of Victor." Really, there is a lot to love on this album.

I think with o(+> Prince regained a sense of musical adventure that had been lacking in his post Sign 'O' The Times albums and for me it was very welcome.

I dubbed the album from my cousin. It was the only cassette I had through beauty college, which was a rough period for me (not school, just other things). I grew to love every song on it at the time. It's a rich album, where D&P sounds thin and lacks in production.

Swa said: