TRC review in Q magazine

A review of the album by Gareth Grundy is featured in the January 2002 issue of the magazine on page 106. Accompanied by a colour photograph and titled: 'Bizarre Inc. - The house of weird is trading again.' - it reads:

Prince - the Rainbow Children.

Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince: once pop music's holy trinity and now a regular source of unintentional hilarity. Jackson's a zombie. Madonna's so desperate to become landed gentry she may well have swallowed the entire works of Jane Austen, and Prince, well, he's still loopy, isn't he? Otherwise he wouldn't be making space-jazz concept albums like this one.

It's excellent, though - and his most consistent work since 1991's Diamonds and Pearls, although you'll need to ignore the peculiar narrative episodes in order to fully enjoy it. Intrinsic to the "concept", they're a mind-boggling spiritual free-for-all, skimming from the Old Testament, Egyptology and the cover of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew in order to make unspecified points about race and religion. What's underneath leans on bracing funk (1+1+1=3), jazz flourishes (Muse 2 The Pharaoh)) and, in the case of the gospel epic Last December, sees Prince locate an entirely new gear. Drums and bass aside, almost everything's played by the man himself and it's been ages since he's worn his talents so lightly rather than wallow in them. Sci-fi nonsense apart, he's back on form.

Four stars (out of five)