This was posted on yahoo.com. Prince was on the list.....

THE COMEBACK OVERHYPE MACHINE


Prince: Musicology (2004)

After changing his name from "Slave" to an unpronounceable symbol and making more than a few questionable albums (The Rainbow Children anyone?), the world was ready for a solid Prince album. So even though he never really went away (the three years between albums was the longest in his career), Musicology was billed as his great return, an album that brought him back to his Purple Rain greatness. An album to make everyone remember that Prince is the greatest musician on the face of the planet. And on and on and on...

My verdict? It's a hell of a lot better than most of his '90s output, but it's no masterpiece.


[Edited 1/9/09 7:47am]

i never understood how people could hype that album so much and call it
a return to his 80s greatness. the album is filled with cheesy tracks,
horrible attempts at rap/hip hop sounds and only about 3 great songs we
could safely place among prince's memorable output.

most of his 90s albums, although much dogged by critics and many orgers
alike, contain a much higher ratio of cool, memorable tracks or songs i
consider much more "classic prince" than most of musicology.

and return to what form anyway? when diamonds and pearls was released i
started reading that the first time "best album since..." or "return to
form".

every album released since 1991 has first been dogged and then labeled
"return to form" or "best album since 1987's sign o the times". even in
recent times albums have been trumped as being "best album since 1991's
diamonds and pearls".

but that's beside the point of this thread, imo musicology is an album
i like even less than "bad" albums like rave or nps. at least those cds
contained some weird tracks and some classic prince tunes ("come on",
"wasted kisses", "the one", "beautiful strange", "i love u but i don't
trust u anymore" etc).

musicology is weak at best and despite everyone hammering on the fact
that it's a real cohesive well flowing album, i fail to see exactly how
or why? it feels like a bunch of semi-decent tracks with a couple of
horrible cheese moments and only 3 truly prince worthy compositions.

3121 was a much much better album although it still felt like a mixtape
of good tracks pulled from various projects.

planet earth felt like a mixtape of leftover tracks.

and yet everyone is raving about a "return to form" since 2004. i don't
get it, i really don't.

hold these discs up to Gold, Come, The Truth, heck even Emancipation and
tell me why those albums are all forgotten or signed off as junk when he
gets so much props for musicology?

I think of 2004- to the present of its own era and as stated above a general disappointment. These three albums are about the same. 1/3 horrid, 1/3 mediocre and 1/3 good enough to be played to friends. Not a "return to form" at all but rather just a "return to being called Prince" and touring.

Oddly enough I find PE the most "princey" of these post TRC albums but to me something changed with the evil TRC album. (perhaps it started with Rave) but Prince is being very cynical and as someone stated "artistically dishonest" in alot of this.

Musicology wasn't a return to "old prince" or "hip-hop."

It's old-style R&B. The Al Greene, the Otis Redding, the Marvin Gaye.

And at that, it's fantastic. I love this album.

bleutuna said:

agreed, songs like Call my name are simply amazing

Lovesymbol2 said:

What about On The Couch? That songs such a good "original" sounding tune that its like ur being transported back 2 the 60s

bleutuna said:

"call my name" is, yes, "reflection" is, perhaps. altho whatever "reflection"
is, it's great.

but the other songs? "illusion, coma, pimp n circumstance", "life o the party"
and "cinnamon girl" are amongst the worst stuff he's ever done. they are so
incredibly lame and incompetent that you wouldn't even expect to find them on
a prince b-side. let alone compare them to the greats like Otis Redding or
Marvin Gaye.

i know that's not what you were doing, i know what you meant. it's just real
weird to me how he could have some such incredibly beautiful songs on his cd
and then put those other horrible horrible songs between them. why oh why?
we all know he's got at least 20 other songs from the musicology sessions.
and not all of them are horrible shit hop rip offs. a lot of them must be in
the same vein as "call my name" or "reflection" or even "a million days".

it's a conscious decision he makes and he's the artist so he probably does
know best and who the fck am i to doubt or complain about that. but still,
it baffles me how he can put out such utter shit sometimes when at the same
time he gives you a glimpse of this other universe inside of him where the
most beautiful and intricate stuff emmanates from.

IstenSzek said:

I agree. Those 3 songs are crap on what's a fantastic album. But I can't think of a single Prince album I've ever owned where there weren't songs that I thought, 'yeah, this doesn't live up to the rest of the material.'

Hell, Purple Rain has 'Computer Blue' and to a lesser degree, 'Take me With U.' The Gold Experience has 'Animal Kingdom,' 'Dolphin' and 'We March.'

The vast majority of Musicology is fantastic R&B music - something we hadn't heard from Prince that often. HE didn't change his style, he was just dabbling in something he wanted to play with. That's how he works. 3121 had already moved on to some degree, and LotusFlow3r very much has gone into a different direction.

I don't get why those tracks are on the album. They don't fit thematically or quality wise. But again, that's just what I come to expect from Prince. There will always be a couple of songs on his discs that I don't love.

While others will - I've read many people here saying they *love* 'Cinnamon Girl.'

bleutuna said:

yeah, i know. and like you said, stuff i don't like might be something that
someone else says is their favorit song on the album so it's all subjective
at the end of the day.

but still, "life of the party" and a few weeks after that he puts the
bside "magnificent" on his website and all i could do was cry because here
was a cool song in shitty quality on his website when he could have put it
on the album instead of LOTP.

bleutuna said:

The Gold Experience has 'Animal Kingdom???

prime said:

On no! I thought that was "The Truth"?

I said this at HQ and I wanted to say this here too, so here it goes.

There's no such thing as an "overhyped" Prince CD. Now, "underhyped", yeah I can get with that completely but overhyped, that's funny as hell right there!

As for Musicology the CD, I like the CD but it's not my absolute favorite and I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. With that said, it was perfect for the time cause it was good enough to remind people that he wasn't dead and that he could make a consistant and solid pop album again. Add that to the RRHOF induction and the Musicology tour, Prince did his job and did it well in 2004.

Musicology is a decent Prince album with some fantastic tracks. To say it is a return to his 80's output is a bit of a stretch. Having dusted off Purple Rain (Album) recently along with Computer Blue 12" and some other tunes from the same era, I really have a knew appreciation as to how timeless and innovative those tracks are and were.

prime said:[quote]

bleutuna said:

You're right - I got it mixed up in my head :p That period runs together.

I think "Musicology," is a fantastic album.

IstenSzek said:

My feelings exactly