Pop CD of the Week: The Artist: Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.



If Prince -- let's just forget that unpronounceable planetary glyph -- wanted to
remind us what all the fuss was about in the first place, he's succeeded.
The title track of his latest album, a taut dance floor number that harks
back to "Kiss," and "So Far So Pleased" is evidence of his rediscovered
focus. Even the obligatory funk slam with smutty lyrics, "Baby Knows," on
which Prince struts with Sheryl Crow, is a superior example of the genre.
But the ballads are the high point here. The mix of romance, heartbreak and
melodic falsetto soul that runs through "Sun Moon and Stars" and the lovely
"Man O War" has a genealogy that goes back to the Fifties doo-wop and Curtis
Mansfield, but "Love you but don't trust you anymore" is pure Prince. Sung
in a cracked, sky scraping falsetto to a stark piano backing, it oozes
pathos. More than an overdue return to form, Rave affirms what we've known
since 1982 when Prince first sang "1999": It's His year.