http://enjoyment.independ...351666.ece


Album: Prince
3121, UNIVERSAL
By Andy Gill

It seems like only yesterday - well, April 2004, to be exact - that Prince was unveiling his Sony debut Musicology. Now here he is, just a couple of years later, unveiling his Universal debut, and frankly, only the deeply committed fan would be able to tell the difference between the two. While 3121 is marginally more satisfying, it is in effect yet another retread of the standard Prince formula, mingling bare-boned, brittle electro-funk and sumptuous romantic balladry, with rather too many cheesy Eighties synth tones spoiling the party.

Apart from the title track, where Prince plays mine host welcoming us to his gaff, a place where you wear Japanese robes and "drink champagne from a glass with a chocolate handle" - surely the most impractical vessel devised by man - the funk grooves serve mostly to remind one of their superior inspiration in the work of Sly Stone ("Black Sweat") and James Brown ("Get On the Boat"). Better by far are the slower numbers like "The Dance", "Te Amo Corazon" and in particular "Satisfied", a sensual Southern soul outing on which he tries to "discover the land beyond expertise and chastity". A filthy job, one presumes, but he's clearly the man for it.

Pfffft! I think the album's only so-so but this review still rankles with me. Maybe I shouldn't read these reviews.

p.s. Is 'rankles' a word?

Fauxie said:

No, but wrankles is.

You read this review, they love the ballads, you read another, they hate them. All the reviews go to show there is no real consensus on Prince's music, that the only really good advice a critic could give is, go see for yourself. I wonder if critic read other critics reviews? It would be cool if some critic reviewed another critic taking it apart - critic wars!

Fauxie said:

Yes

http://dictionary.referen...h?q=rankle

ran·kle ( P ) Pronunciation Key (rngkl)
v. ran·kled, ran·kling, ran·kles
v. intr.
To cause persistent irritation or resentment.
To become sore or inflamed; fester.

v. tr.
To embitter; irritate.

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[Middle English ranclen, from Old French rancler, alteration of draoncler, from draoncle, festering sore, from Latin dracunculus, diminutive of drac, dracn-, serpent. See dragon.]
Word History: A persistent resentment, a festering sore, and a little snake are all coiled together in the history of the word rankle. “A little snake” is the sense of the Latin word dracunculus to which rankle can be traced, dracunculus being a diminutive of drac, “snake.” The Latin word passed into Old French, as draoncle, having probably already developed the sense “festering sore,” because some of these sores resembled little snakes in their shape or bite. The verb draoncler, “to fester,” was then formed in Old French. The noun and verb developed alternate forms without the d-, and both were borrowed into Middle English, the noun rancle being recorded in a work written around 1190, the verb ranclen, in a work probably composed about 1300. Both words had literal senses having to do with festering sores. The noun is not recorded after the 16th century, but the verb went on to develop the figurative senses having to do with resentment and bitterness with which we are all too familiar.
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HORSES 4 COURSES FOLKS

langebleu said:

Yes, I was wrong. Thought it was a silent 'w' like wrinkles or wrangle or wrapping etc etc...

Wow, I hate getting things rong. That really rankles.

metalorange said:

Yeah, but I'm a geeky anker for pointing it out.



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