Throughout his career Prince has worn many faces. A fearless artist, his knack for reinvention was unrivalled throughout the first half of his career. Constantly challenging himself and his audience, Prince was the ultimate fringe artist—one who could write and say whatever he wanted to and still each of his releases was an event—a hit. One could say anything they wanted to about his artistic excesses, but one could never accuse him of being normal. Not our Prince.

His rivals simply paled in comparison to him. Madonna, the ultimate media queen may have grabbed her crotch and simulated masturbation on stage, but years before her, Prince was singing about oral sex, incest, lesbianism and anything else you could throw into the mix—Where Madonna was flashy, Prince was that and lyrically more daring than she’s ever been. Supposed peers like Michael Jackson were even more vanilla than Madonna on record when compared to the Prince of old.

But where Prince truly shows his colors as a maverick of pop music is his ability to marry any two (or 3 or 4) genres into one cohesive sound and always throw his own signature on top of it. He took Jazzy R&B, funk, pop, dance elements and threw an Asian vibe on top of them and gave us Hot Thing from Sign ‘o’ The Times, for fucks sake! That’s hot!
This of course is one of the reasons his album, 3121, seems so safe and tame. It by and large didn’t really throw anything terribly clever at us. Of course, the decade preceding 3121 was, at best, a bit spotty, so nobody should have been surprised by 3121. I listened to it for a couple of months and then shelved it

But sometimes distance heals all. Sometimes, distance allows one to look at something with a brand new perspective and realize the beauty of it all. It is with this experience and mindset that I am writing this review of 3121. As an old friend who’s come back to reexamine what made the friendship so special to begin with.

First off, I’m just going throw this out there regardless of the ramifications of such a statement: 3121 is the perfect pop album unlike anything Prince fans have seen since Diamonds & Pearls. This doesn’t mean that it’s an artistic achievement, a milestone in his creative development, or an expansion of his musical palette—but, it does mean Prince tapped into his pop song writing muse again. What it lacks in the afore mentioned qualities it makes up for with personality—it’s a zippy party album….ain’t nothing wrong with that I say.

The album kicks off the party with 3121, a song that I can’t really compare to anything from his previous albums. 1999 is the closest thing I can point to in terms of vibe and intent, but it lacks the instant likeability of 1999. I know folks will disagree but as far as I’m concerned it sticks with you just as easily as 1999. “Don’t U wanna come? 3121! It’s gonna B so Much Fun! 3121!” Prince belts over the party music. It sets the tone for much of the rest of the album.

Just to reinforce the fact that this is a celebration—a party album with no pretentious intentions otherwise, Lolita kicks in with a cheesy-chic synth line that bumps along until Prince concludes with his silly but humorous, “Lolita? How bad R U Girl?” dialogue.

Next comes Te Amo Corazon, a song I really disliked when I first heard it. Upon listening to it now, I actually quite like the song—it’s not boring or lazy—it’s just laid back. The problem is that it was the wrong lead single for the album, especially a party album. Its Spanish vibe is interesting enough, and it fits the album well. But not by any means a lead single.

Black Sweat was the next single (I recall), and it was slightly more deserving. It’s got a good beat, a nice minimalist track that just let’s the groove take over. Prince doesn’t attempt to fight the groove or do anything terribly noticeable to enhance it vocally. He just coast along letting it carry itself along. The video for this song was just dreadful. If he had gone into it with the same energy accorded to the Kiss video from PARADE, Prince would have possibly had a minor hit on his hands.

This is so embarrassing but I feel his next track , Incense & Candles was probably worth being a single. It’s a paint-by-numbers track with dated production, but I still feel it was quite well done. And it fit the album perfectly. Its also, dare I say it, quite catchy.
Some say that his next track, Love, was the obvious single for the album. Sadly, I disliked this song when I originally heard it worse more than Ellen with a mouth full of cock. I remember never listening to it all the way through and just forwarding. This time around, I’m happy to say I like the song. But, no—I still don’t agree it would have been a great single, especially with the current music scene.

Prince follows this up with Satisfied, another paint-by-numbers slow jam. It sounds like any number of slow jams he’s sung before and isn’t as rememberable as some of them. It’s no Adore or Insatiable. But remember, this is a party album, it offers a great slow break in between more vibrant uptempo tracks.

The song white folks were born to love comes next: Fury. My god, this a great song. It’s Hendrix. It’s Bob Seagur. It’s Lenny Kravitz—all rolled into one. It was the perfect single, but sadly failed to capture an audience. The only qualm I have with the song is that the studio version isn’t nearly as edgy or fierce as his Saturday Night Live performance of the song—if he had given it the treatment he gave ‘Dreamer’ from lotusflow3r it would have rocked my socks off. That being said, the toned down studio version probably fit better into 3121 as it was.

Next comes The Word, a gospel/jazzy/sensual song that only Prince could do. I know folks who hate this song, but it’s one of my favorites on the album. I only wish is that he didn’t rely on the multi-track backing vocals so much—the song didn’t need it. But it was a great track none the less.
Beautiful, Love & Blessed is the perfect song that , had Tamar’s Milk & Honey been released, it could have been her lead single. It’s not my type of song, but it had potential to be a hit song. It’s executed well, and the vocals are catchy if not overwhelming. (Again, remember—this is a party album. All the songs fit into that mold).

We now come to The Dance previously released through his music club. The beat is different this time around I think and the beginning very different. This song sounds like the hazy afterglow of Te Amo Corazon initially. If 3121 (the album) is hot sex, The Dance is a rough, dry, sand-paper-tongue blow job on your recently circumcised penis—it just hurts to hear it. He then screams the grand finale of the song, but it threatens the derail not just the party vibe of the album but any iota of a notion that Prince is indeed not a raging rainbow-skittles drag queen. It’s just so over the top and hilarious. I had to listen to the ending a few times just to get over my impulse to laugh myself to tears.

He ends the album with Get on the Boat, a song that I didn’t like originally and still don’t now. But I understand the purpose of the song. As I’ve said a million times like a broken record, 3121 is a party album—not an artistic statement. Get on the boat reinforces this fact, in closing, that the purpose of this album is for it to be played over cocktails and good times. I can’t help but picture Rickey Martin doing this live one day. And Maceo Parker’s contribution is just lovely—not too flashy, and certainly not dull.

Overall 3121 is the perfect antidote for a dull day. It’s not Sign of the Times or LoveSexy, but it does to some extent feel a bit like The Gold Experience’s homelier sister. I personally really think it’s quite a strong album despite. I believe it’s going to viewed in a more positive light as time goes by. A good effort


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[Edited 8/10/09 20:32pm]

Imago said:

dude, ur avatar is not one of them.

DanceWme said:

My avatar is the greatest DIVA ever. I call it Sasha Prince.

This thread will *not* take off without the Princie Dearest picture.

ThreadBare said:

I'm under Prince picture posting probation right now

Imago said:

You're kidding.

Imago said:

"First the Fat Boys break up. Now this..."

DanceWme said:

Imago said:

but seriously, this is a nice review.
u write so well.


oh and.....
dan, if that is ur dick in sirpsycho's picture, i want to fuck u!

DanceWme said:

OK, but you have to promise to make me cry while we're fucking. I'm into that.

Imago said:

Wrong.

Imago said:

Fauxie said:

If that's your dick in Sirpsycho's picture, we need to talk

I just listened to this album too! It's a very strong sequence. And the title track is in my top eschelon of Prince tracks.

Also.... a lot of Lotusflo3r/MPLSsound (is that what its called?) must might have the same sessions

and on a sidenote....

Pheremone and The Pope are from the same elements in part. Just noticed that.

Imago said:

ufoclub said:

Holy Crappolla

Now I need to listen to both.


3121 is a groovy album and song.

Imago said:

This running joke I don't get clearly means I've missed something important on the org.

Lovesymbol2 said:

Imago said:

[Full frontal nudity pic snip - luv4u]

MY EYES

DanceWme said:

OMG

Imago said:

Take your hands from your eyes. It's safe to look now.

luv4u said:

That was fierce, but

Imago said:

I know. That was deadly

Fauxie said:

Oh come on, NaNa's got all that shit in ....in daylight.

...