A review of "If I Was Prince" in the San Francisco Chronicle...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...type=music

"The little English record company that compiled this tribute album asked each of its contributors to complete the title phrase. None of the responses are remotely witty. ("If I was Prince, I'd look up Carmen Elektra again, and spend a bit of quality time with her," says one hopelessly romantic participant.)

But the experimental pop and dance acts gathered here bring a novelty to the tired tribute formula that raises "If I Was Prince" a notch or two above its counterparts. A depressing proportion of Prince's recent music doesn't stand particularly tall, and the man himself is tiny. But so much of the stuff from the purple Minneapolite's first decade still towers above all the R&B and dance pop that has come since.

Music from the pre-glyph period dominates the collection. The English band Hefner offers a slow, sexy take on "Controversy"; fellow Brit band Simian extracts an early Pink Floyd-does-Mardi Gras dirge from "Under the Cherry Moon. " Broadway Project submits a typically melancholy version of "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker," with white soul man Jeb Loy Nichols supplying the understated vocals.

All these under-the-radar acts steered clear of "Purple Rain," "1999" and the rest of Prince's blockbusters. It's probably just as well. When Prince was right, there was no improving on him."-- James Sullivan