The Black Album – A review by AsianBomb777



Throughout Prince’s undeniably prolific career, he’s given us brilliant gems preceding quirky letdowns, some near misses and some just completely awful. Two albums come to mind when I think of being released in the shadows of a greater album : LoveSexy (which was released) and The Black Album (which was..erm..aquired). Both albums are great albums—some would even argue that LoveSexy is right on par with Sign ‘O’ The Times, the triumphant masterpiece of Prince’s late 80’s career; however, I remember picking up both albums and listening to them, and liking them basically because I was an obsessed Prince fan, and not because they were masterpieces in and of themselves.

Prince’s popularity in the public eye, despite having released the critically acclaimed SOTT, in the U.S. was starting to decline. Moving beyond synthesizers and drum programming towards more complex song arrangements and – gasp – traditional instruments and horn arrangements, even his more experimental songs started to take on a James Brown meets Steve Wonder aura they didn’t exhibit so plainly before. Having flirted with Heavy Metal, and Jazz combined with trademark funk, Prince was facing a more quizzical musical force—Hip Hop. Lord knows anyone who heard Prince’s rap numbers in his earlier work and during the early 90’s period gets a sense that this poor man just didn’t know how to incorporate that into his palette.

The Black Album was one or both of two things: A return to form (I hate it when people say this), and an attempt to answer his critics. Rumors surrounded the album prior to it’s non-release as “A really funky black sounding album” and in all respects, it really is. Not since Dirty Mind had Prince laid on the funk so thick, gritty, and dirty, as he does on The Black Album. From beginning to end, with the exception of the wonderful ballad, When 2 R in Luv , Prince evokes a kind of funk that feels like it seeped out of a dark, seedy laboratory and spilled onto a dance floor of a crowded, sweaty nightclub where the patrons had many hours ago shed their clothes.

The weekness of the Black Album though is that unlike Dirty Mind, which feels just as raw and funky, the Black Album lacked cohesiveness and purpose. It sounded like a demo tape or Jam session, which ironically was kind of the original design of Dirty Mind, in need of a little polishing. This of course, doesn’t make the album a “bad” album by any means. In fact, it’s a great album. But following Sign of The Times with the Black album would be like Radio Head following OK Computer with Pablo Honey.

He starts the album off with a funny and playful Le Grind and gets things really funky with Cindy C. a song obviously about Cindy Crawford, one of many obsessions of the young Prince. But things really start getting interesting with the sparse and spooky BOB George, in which he digitally alters his voice several octaves below his normal range (a total opposite affect of Camille), and like the preceding songs, he takes jabs at Rap Music and Music Industry personas/critics. The Jazzy arrangements from SOTT are in The Black Album with ferocity, sounding less “pretty” and more “Grimy” this time around. I think it would have really been nice if songs like “Rebirth of the Flesh” and “All Day, All Night” made their way into this really brief album. The vibe of SupacalifragiSexy(sp?) takes the “All Day, All Night” theme and takes it up a notch. The instrumentation is chaotic—kind of like John Coltrane meets The Prodigy. He then ends the album with Rock Hard In A Funky Place a great, quirky jazz/rock/funk tune that has just enough of a riff to keep you interested and melody to make the song somewhat sweet. But it also leaves you feeling as if the album abruptly ended. Like there was a song missing or something.

Overall, I think the album was great. Not his best, but a classic album. It suffered most from being released in the shadows of an album considered by many to be his best.

Imago said:

who tf is Asianbomb777?

2the9s said:

idiot!

Imago said:

Ooohhh baby.

Now I know why fauxie is always trying to chase you down.



I agree that the "return to form" line is the most played out line about P., though I think he has used it in recent years even more than the media...

Don't call it a...whaaaaa??

Nobody was calling it shit!

Dayum!

2the9s said:

I think you're confusing him with the other bad rapper, LL

Imago said:

Who got da party, who got the party, who??

Who got da party, who got da party, who??

2the9s said:

crying over here.

That's a whole lot of words. What I want to know is, is this the album with 'Careless Whisper' on it?

angelfishseven said:

No, I think it had "Rythim of the Night" or "Who's Johnny"

Imago said:

You're funny. But seriously, is it? I got into a big squabble with some club members about this. I downloaded it along with 'Work That Fat' from Kazaa and I'm pretty sure that's his voice on it. It's very high-pitched and gay sounding.

I've read that some of the tracks for the Black album were created purely for a party for Shiela E, believe it or not, not intended for an album. I think it's been shown Prince has a habit of recording a few tracks he's really into, then suddenly going "I know, I'll compile them into an album and it'll be a concept album and and..." basically getting excited about an idea for a project for a few months, but then going cold on the whole idea and setting off in a new direction instead. That's why you get so many non-released projects such as Camille, The Dream Factory, Crystal Ball, The Flesh, The Dawn etc. The only difference with The Black Album to those projects is that it actually made its way all the way to first pressings. Prince didn't release it at the time because he simply didn't think it representated his best side or the best work he was capable of at the time. In that sense it is like an artist not wanting to publish his preparatory sketches, and it's kind of harsh to critique an album that the artist decided he didn't even want out there (although of course it was later released around '94 or whenever).