The (real) Prince is back: Long live his new sound

By Jim Abbott | Sentinel Pop Music Critic
Posted April 22, 2004

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"Boy, I was fine back in the day," Prince cackles in mock geezer voice early in the solid, funky and occasionally illuminating Musicology.

At a time when Prince's best work, now almost 20 years old, is being claimed as a major influence in the new R&B resurgence, Musicology succeeds because Prince does more than conjure his own history.

Instead, he infuses these dozen tightly constructed songs with revitalized nods to the icons that shaped his sound, from P-Funk to James Brown.

At its heart, Musicology is a disciplined exercise in production, songwriting and performance. That's a relief after the expansive but ultimately disappointing foray into free-form music on last year's N.E.W.S.

The real Prince is back, and he's ready to get down.

He plays most of the instruments here, but he's no exhibitionist. The opening track sets the tone with its lean, effortless combination of restrained drums, bass and guitars. Warm, skin-tight horns wrap around the edges of the groove, while a solitary thread of organ hovers like a UFO.

A Prince imitator would settle for sticking to the groove, but Musicology also executes the impeccable slow build. The effect is a party-groove crescendo that crashes headlong into an a cappella gospel flourish, some radio static and Prince's angry exhortation "Don't you ever touch my stereo."

Musicology is alternately fun and funky ("Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance"), gloriously poppy ("A Million Days"), dance-oriented ("Life 'O' the Party") or jazzy ("What Do U Want Me 2 Do?"). Tucked within even the more conventional-sounding songs are enough sonic touches to reward repeated spins.

For instance, there's the strange-sounding percussion instrument that stands out among the polyrhythmic vamping at the end of "What Do U Want Me 2 Do?" It sounds almost like someone running a finger over a tightly sealed plastic wrapper.

When Prince revisits his sexy side on songs such as "Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance," the slashing guitars and percolating rhythms are measured with remarkable precision. Gone is the singer's penchant to shock, a casualty of his new Jehovah's Witness faith, but he's sassy nevertheless.

It's not what Prince is saying that communicates the most in Musicology. It's twists such as the right turn in "If Eye Was the Man In Ur Life" (the spelling quirk is still intact) that takes potentially ordinary R&B into hard-driving jazz.

That's the revelation of Musicology, that Prince at his best isn't capable of the ordinary.

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Prince is back?!?! Huh?!?! He never went away in the first place, and this is not a comeback. In fact, maybe I just haven't read every posting, but I can't believe nobody has figured this album out. It's absolute genius without moving an inch from anywhere else from his style.

This is Prince's NPG sound at its finest, and there are elements to each of the songs on the album that can be found since the name-change time period. It's so, so clear to me. If you have all the albums from the "Symbol" catalog, go back and thumb through Chaos and Disorder, Emancipation and New Power Soul, especially, and you'll hear it. The stop-n-go style on The Marrying Kind/if Eye Was the Man In Ur Life, as well as the detour in A Milliion Days generate from this sound exactly! (Also, the end of If Eye Was...sounds like it could be yanked right out of The Rainbow Children, for it's jazzy-rock fusion sound.) If you can't hear it, reply here and I'll suggest where to look.

So, all these fools that have bashed the purple man for not keeping true to his signature style, but are buying this album and not hearing it, ya'll need to go back and check yaself!

Eric

poetbear68 said:

I agree with you Prince has never left nor will he eve leave - at least n my world he won't .
But, now comes the reason for the reply i'm not quite sure of what you're refering to when you refer to something else just like Chaos and Disorder- which in my opinion was his worst album followed by very few after that but i digress- can u plz clear up this confusion for me. Thank You.

People weren't Aware cause he Really Wasn't doing as Much Press and he wasn't do as many Performances on T.V. Prince is All Over The Place and well this is looking like a Comeback to Non-Fans. But we all Know ....He never left the Scene. Isn't It Wonderful? And ya Know he's got the Hook All Right. He's got the Right Vibe,Right Look, Right Moves. Just he is doing it so Right. So Perfect. He's Really ,Really Making the Scene and being at All The Right Places. And I think that Now People Are Being more Open to Prince as are the Music Channels. Critics are Abuzz. It's GREAT MARKETING!!! HATS OFF.... This should have Always Been for YEARS. Someone Didn't Have a Clue to Promote Him Right....

eye hate to br8k it 2 u, but it is a comeback.

Prince was flatlined in the music world. I was a non-stop Prince fan from the time I was 11 until I was in my 4th year of college...He fizzled. I would buy his stuff, listen to it and be embarrassed(for him). It took about 3 lousy albums to finally throw in the towel. Musicology is a very welcomed comeback into the real world. He's great. I'm glad he's showing us just how great he is again.