This is the latest installment of "Audiophile," the music-related column I write for Q-Notes, a bi-weekly newspaper serving gays and lesbians in North and South Carolina. (Accessible online at www.q-notes.com)

Peace, David
-----

Return of the royal rockers (yuck, not my headline!)

by David Stout
Q-Notes staff

How "back" are the '80s? Consider: VH1 recently unveiled a new, five-part documentary on the decade, the producing team behind That '70s Show have an equivalent '80s-themed sitcom greenlighted as a midseason replacement, and the King of Pop, His Royal Badness and the Material Girl all have new releases in record stores. Face it, the '80s are once again like totally cool, fer shure!

In its time, the era was dismissed as the "Disposable Decade," but the pop hits of the day have proven to be anything but throwaway. It's not really surprising since those songs were usually driven by memorable melodies and strong hooks -- a winning combination in any period.
Some rock critics were just too consecrated to the '60s to see through the purple haze of their own nostalgia and recognize that artists like Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna were reeling off classic singles on pace with any notable artists in history.

In fact, between 1982 and 1984 alone the triumvirate charted with pop staples like "Billie Jean," "Beat It," "Wanna Be Startin' Something" and "Thriller" (Jackson); "Little Red Corvette," "1999," "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" (Prince); and "Holiday," "Borderline," "Lucky Star" and "Like a Virgin" (Madonna). But only in retrospect has the impact and influence of the three indisputable superstars of the Reagan era been properly acknowledged.

Since their '80s heyday, each has fought to remain relevant through the tides of changing musical tastes and the simple fact that popular music is a youth-driven entity. On the whole, Madonna has navigated the waters best, while Prince and Michael Jackson have been hamstrung by an array of record industry wars, personal scandals and an inability to read and translate the trends as well as their cagey counterpart.

Artistically, Madonna made her "comeback" in 1998 with the heralded release of Ray of Light, then sealed the deal with Music two years later. Her new greatest-hits package -- simply titled GHV2 and featuring several tracks from those albums -- is only meant to tide fans over until she drops her next market-savvy project. But what of her compatriots; will their new albums return the luster to their respective careers? Commercially, it's too soon to tell. But the artistic merits of each release are reviewed here.

[Review of Invincible snipped.]

The Rainbow Children - Prince (NPG/Redline) The release of The Rainbow Children is significant for several reasons: it's the first album Prince has released since reclaiming his given name after nearly seven years as a symbol, it's at once the most spiritually-minded and least commercially-minded collection he's ever produced (besting 1988's Lovesexy for each of these distinctions) and, most importantly, it's one of the greatest works he's ever created.

The album's narrator -- Prince with his voice slowed down so much that he's nearly unintelligible at times -- gets things underway by intoning, "With accurate understanding of God and his law, they went about the work of building a new nation...the Rainbow Children."

Thus begins an epic 70-minute cycle of narrative songs and segues recounting the Rainbow Children's struggles to do "The Work" necessary to destroy the "Digital Garden" that keeps us from God and, instead, birth "The Everlasting Now." (In a move that seems appropriate, the song titles are dubbed "chapters" and these comprise three of the 14.)

The album is unabashed in its Christian theology ("In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son..."), but its clarion calls for love and tolerance can be embraced by listeners of all stripes ("...we need to come together as one"). Still, even those who aren't interested in Prince's soul-full pursuits should give the album a chance because The Rainbow Children is the joyful noise of a master working at the peak of his powers.
Obviously recorded live in the studio, the album features some of Prince's most inspired electric guitar playing combined with the amazing drumming of secret ingredient John Blackwell. It's a marvel to behold as the pair effortlessly peels off dense jazz structures, butt-shaking funk, theatrical rock and feathery soul ballads -- all while tackling some pretty heavy issues.

Rollicking cut "Family Name" examines the loss of identity suffered by African-Americans as a result of slavery. Prince lays it out for those who don't understand: "You might say 'what you mad about?' But you've still got your family name." Along the way he also speaks out for indigenous Americans, challenges money grubbing preachers and ties the whole thing up with a sample of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous call for unity. It's a funk-rock tour-de-force.

By the time The Rainbow Children closes with the gorgeous "Last December," one can't help but wonder if Prince was merely coasting these last few years, waiting for his contentious contracts with Warner Bros. to expire. We'll likely never know, but whatever caused those musical missteps, his ship is now fully righted and sailing toward musical adventures unknown but pregnant with brilliant possibilities.