I will listen, and have listened, to Musicology many many more times than Rainbow Children.

I think it's a great album, except Life of the Party. 'Call Me' has super sexy vocals by Prince and is a great song to listen to with a glass of wine late at night.He really evokes the longing we can feel for someone else brilliantly in that song.

Cinnamon Girl and A Million Days brought back the Pop we love so much from Prince.

I loved Muciscology when it came out, and I still do.

[Edited 6/6/11 1:00am]

This album was for me the beginning of the end.

I hated it as soon as I heard it but little did I know I would like the following albums EVEN less.

7 years after that, I've long lost the hope for Prince to do an amazing album ever again unless he freed some UNTOUCHED old stuff, which is NOT happening.

TRC was marvellous enough to forgive him his 1996-2000 output but it would take him some doing to release something that allowed me to forgive him what he did since 2004.

vitriol said:

This album was for me the beginning of the end.

I hated it as soon as I heard it but little did I know I would like the following albums EVEN less.

7 years after that, I've long lost the hope for Prince to do an amazing album ever again unless he freed some UNTOUCHED old stuff, which is NOT happening.

TRC was marvellous enough to forgive him his 1996-2000 output but it would take him some doing to release something that allowed me to forgive him what he did since 2004.

That's exactly how I felt about the last decades, although I was kind of disappointed with his artistic direction way before 1996. His music became much too easy on the ears from 1989 upwards IMO.

OzlemUcucu said:

Why does he have to be weird all the time? Why does he have to sing about sex all the time? I don't care what he sings about, as long as the music is funky.

Well it's not funky, so now what?

Also Musuckology is just blah. There are a couple of decent-ish tracks but they don't do anything I couldn't get from another Prince record that did it better.

I will say, it's better than Rave and MPLSound, but then so is getting brutally raped by giant invisible demonic entities, so that's not saying much.

I love the title track, but the album really does nothing for me. It's pretty boring. Not awful or embarrassing, but just really dull. Favorites would be "Musicology", "Illusion Coma PImp and Circumstance" and "Call My Name".

herrherr said:

Don't care much at all for this album, but "Reflection" does do it for me--and I feel it's one of his most sincere songs lyrically within the decade.

"Remember all the way back in the day, When we would compare who's afro was the roundest" ..... Really?

Eye realy like Musicology with the xception of on the couch & i loved life o the party from day one and still do 2 this day!.A million Days is a peach of a song as r Cinnamon Girl/The Marrying Kind, Eye do find the more eye watch the Musicology Tour the more eye want 2 listen 2 the cd but its a great album.

^EYE am getting a headache...

Its a typical mixed bag of a recent Prince album, can go from the sublime (Reflection) to the ridiculous (Life Of The Party). The only songs I think are decent now are - Million Days (starts well but fades badly), The Marrying Kind/If I Was The Man In Your Life, Dear Mr Man and Reflection.

I liked it when it came out and still do. In fact I like it better than 3121 or Planet Earth.

vitriol said:

^EYE am getting a headache...

good

vitriol said:

This album was for me the beginning of the end.

I hated it as soon as I heard it but little did I know I would like the following albums EVEN less.

7 years after that, I've long lost the hope for Prince to do an amazing album ever again unless he freed some UNTOUCHED old stuff, which is NOT happening.

TRC was marvellous enough to forgive him his 1996-2000 output but it would take him some doing to release something that allowed me to forgive him what he did since 2004.

^even bigger headache & i can go sleep now 2 that was like a tamazepam!

I like Musicology, despite the awful cover artwork, font type etc.:

From the bad-triple set Musicology-3121-Planet Earth:

I rank Musicology the highest 7/10.

I really like the first half of the album (minus Life O' The Party)....

The title track is excellent when played live, e.g. on Jay Leno, a little sterile on the album/ the studio version.

Illusion Coma Pimp and Cicumstance - Excellent

Call My Name - lovely ballad

A Million Days - great pop rock song (to me a bit like Dinner With Delores, which is a good thing IMO),

(3121 and PE - very weak, I rank both 5/10 only).

[Edited 6/8/11 12:01pm]

Not a bad album

MOST OF IT IS GOOD

APART FROM 2 TRACKS

I agree with u on A MILLION DAYS

It kinda comes across as not very sincere an like a studio operation

doing what he had done before ..but when he did it before it was natural

this time it was planned an contrived ......

CALL MY NAME

musically an vocally its nice

LYRICALLY ITS WAY TOO PREDICTABLE ... an not a song i would put in any best of collection for that reason ... its ok boyz to men. or a boyband singing songs like this ... but we expect better from a credeble artist like PRINCE .... He did UNTIL YOUR IN THESE ARMS OF MINE an THE ARMS OF ORION aswell ... so guess he likes these kinda songs ... problem is sometimes with love songs they can sound cheesy .... an most of the time PRINCE has managed to write songs about emotive stuff in a non cheesy way .... but on the above tracks an maybe just one or others he failed

great songs

MUSICOLOGY

REFLECTIONS

DEAR MR MAN

CINIMON GIRL

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?

ILLUSION,COMA,PIMP anCIRCUMSTANCE

ON THE COACH

good songs

LIFE O THE PARTY

IF I WAS THE MAN IN YOUR LIFE

'A Million Days' is the song I like least.

'Life O' The Party' doesn't bother me.

'Musicology' and 'Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance' would go into a best of collection that was at least 3 discs.

"If Eye Was the Man In Ur Life' is a personal fave.

Overall, I like '3121' better. '20Ten' and 'Musicology' are much better than 'Planet Earth.'

SUPRMAN said:

'A Million Days' is the song I like least.

'Life O' The Party' doesn't bother me.

'Musicology' and 'Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance' would go into a best of collection that was at least 3 discs.

"If Eye Was the Man In Ur Life' is a personal fave.

Overall, I like '3121' better. '20Ten' and 'Musicology' are much better than 'Planet Earth.'

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes

MIRvmn said:

I didnt like Musicology when it came out and its still a bit boring but I enjoy a few songs on it like A million days (should have been a single), Dear mr.man, Cinnamon girl and Call My Name. But its his most lame album in the 00s followed by 3121.

I think A Million Days must have been intended as a single, because there is a video for it. I just saw it within the last six months though

beestonpoet1981 said:

Not a bad album

CALL MY NAME

musically an vocally its nice

LYRICALLY ITS WAY TOO PREDICTABLE ... an not a song i would put in any best of collection for that reason ... its ok boyz to men. or a boyband singing songs like this ... but we expect better from a credeble artist like PRINCE .... He did UNTIL YOUR IN THESE ARMS OF MINE an THE ARMS OF ORION aswell ... so guess he likes these kinda songs ... problem is sometimes with love songs they can sound cheesy .... an most of the time PRINCE has managed to write songs about emotive stuff in a non cheesy way .... but on the above tracks an maybe just one or others he failed

Yes, I originally hated Call My Name. It seemed like there literally was no idea behind it but he felt some kind of obligation to show his love through writing a song for her. And the chorus claming he can't stop writing songs about her...do the other ones have any more identity to them? I can imagine "I am singing a song that I wrote/for the woman that I sleep with/I am a musician/this is what I do..."

But I have grown to like the lazy slice of life lyrics a bit more. The whole thing is kind of random, mentioning the war "they can bug my phone peep around my home they'll only see you & me making love inside" but it feels genuine enough. That's the kind of political statement I can take from The Artist.

First of all, it's funny but, for me, the W.Bush years (2001-2008) are still incredibly fresh and current... the early-90's were a completely different beast than the late-90's, but the whole 00's decade was like a looooong single year; I can't see any difference between 2003 and 2007, for example; that said, I still think of Musicology as a "new" album, lol

and hell, it IS a fine album. Not the kind of album that the TRC/ONA/NEWS wackos wanted, but surely the album that MANY fans were expecting, specially those disappointed with Emancipation, pissed with NPS/Rave and completely puzzled with the jazz/JW thing.

Musicology is a solid pop/mainstream rock/modern funk/organic R&B album with ONLY one weak/unlistenable/embarrasing track -edit - (hallelujah!!) and featuring 3 NEW INSTANT CLASSICS: title-track, Dear Mr.Man and despite the vitriol against it, Cinnamon Girl, one of his best recent melodies...Also, this was his first album since D&P where he truly wanted to deliver a tight album, focusing more on the songwriting and the structure of the songs (hence the low-key production), which was refreshing and relaxing. It's probably his first "mature" album.

4/5 stars, solid "comeback" (I'm talkin about a comeback for his 80s/90s mainstream fans; I know that Musicology didn't please the folks who want Prince doing bizarre, baroque music); of course, 3121 was even better...

truly, the only weak spots of the 04-10 era have been PE and MPLS, the rest was solid B+ or even A- material for me...

EDIT: I forgot about Life ' the Party. That song sucks beyond redemption. So, yes, there IS one weak (awful) track...

[Edited 6/11/11 12:29pm]

[Edited 6/11/11 12:34pm]

^Comeback? Commercially maybe, but people don't really like what they bought. That's the impression I got from friends who went for the album just because of the tricky album-sales-hype!

BTW: It's not about bizarre, baroque music! It's about listening to something exciting instead of the same old boring stuff you've already heard before.

funkomatic said:

^Comeback? Commercially maybe, but people don't really like what they bought. That's the impression I got from friends who went for the album just because of the tricky album-sales-hype!

BTW: It's not about bizarre, baroque music! It's about listening to something exciting instead of the same old boring stuff you've already heard before.

Musicology was, at that point, completely different than anything he had done before. You know, the whole pop/rock/"almost" organic R&B stuff...

for me, the "same old boring stuff you've already heard before" is Emancipation, Rave, NPS, Chocolate Invasion/Slaughterhouse, MPLS, etc. Of course, 3121 and 20Ten could fall into that cathegory but I still think they are def stronger than the rest of his "safe/been there-done that" albums...

[Edited 6/11/11 16:15pm]

^

Musicology: another James Brown hommage funk groove

Illusion, Coma, Pimp etc.: borrows from "Sex"

A million days: TGE outtake

What do you want me to do: derivate of TBODP instrumentation

etc.

Not completely different. Just different to the things you compare it with.

[Edited 6/11/11 22:24pm]

Loved it then, and love it now.

I quite like this album. Its definitely my favorite post-TRC Prince album by a long shot. Not even sure there are any songs on it that I really dislike, which hasn't happened since the 80s.

funkomatic said:

The album doesn't do anything for me. Although I'd say that "The marrying kind"/"If eye was the man in your life" and "Reflection" are a little bit better than the mediocre rest of recycled ideas on this album.

[Edited 6/5/11 13:10pm]

I have to agree. "Musicology" is a pretty forgettable album overall. There aren't many tracks that stand out and as you said the album was stuff we'd all heard already. It was just bland. I wasn't too impressed with it when I bought it and i'm not impressed with it now. Of his later works from the past few years, I still say "3121" is the best. I love that album!

"Musicology"? Not so much.