From The Globe and Mail - November 18, 1999 - Page C8



Prince returns to mass-market groove

POP

RAVE UN2 THE JOY FANTASTIC

Chris Dafoe



Thursday, November 18, 1999

Prince

Arista

Rating: ***



Call me a shallow sugar-pop junkie with an attention span that clocks out
at six minutes -- you wouldn't be the first -- but I've always preferred
this guy when he deigns to play the pop star rather than aspiring to be
Duke Ellington or, ahem, The Artist. It's not that he can't make the
stretch, but his most memorable moments -- songs like Kiss, When Doves
Cry, Sign 0' The Times and I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man --
seemed aimed at the top of the charts, even if not all of them got there. And while there's much to be said for releasing five-CD sets over the
Internet, as he did with Crystal Ball, it's a move that alienates all but
the most fanatical followers.



It's a pleasure, then, to announce that Prince, a name he has once again
adopted, at least as producer of this album, looks to be going mass
market with this one-off effort for Arista. He denies it of course --
"Heavy rotation never made my world go round," he sings in Undisputed --
but the grooves and the array of guests that runs from Public Enemy
rapper Chuck D to Sheryl Crow, suggest otherwise. He's packed 15 songs
into 70 minutes, from string-heavy sophisto-jazz ballads to gospels
workouts, but there are also plenty of things that might make their way
to the radio. No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani chirps along on So Far, So
Pleased, a bouncy bit of pop-rock fluff that's spoiled only by an
overlong guitar solo. The Sun, the Moon and Stars, a strangely
hyperactive tale of seduction, shimmers and glows with sweeping strings
and Prince's sugary falsetto, while the piano ballad I Love You But I
Don't Trust You Anymore offers an aching beauty and vulnerability. The
guest stars don't fare especially well, but the world's most prolific
songwriter does toss in a cover of Crow's Every Day is a Winding Road that turns the rock tune into a sleek funk workout. Then he invites Crow
back for Baby Knows, a lecherous little rock jam that harkens back to
something Prince might have done in the late 1980s. In the end, that may
be a reflection of Rave Un2's only real weakness; most of these tunes,
instead of breaking new ground, revisit territory Prince has covered
before. That said, just because I've been to Paris, doesn't mean I don't
want to go again.