"Where Y' At" - New Orleans Review: MUSICOLOGY

**** out of 5 Editor heads....

Prince is a victim of what i call the Bowire Effect: an artist who has has such a sustained streak of brilliance early in his or her career that all subsequent work, regardless of quality, will be found lacking in comparison. Granted, it will be well nigh impossible for Prince to top the heights of his 80's work, but strong albums like 1997's New Power Soul, 2001's The Rainbow Children, and now Musicologyshow that the man is far from washed up.

The new album takes a step further in the right direction by abandoning by abandoning the ill-advised rap florishes that marred many of his otherwise decent 90's efforts.
The title track kick things off with an instant reminder that no one has ever been better at melding hardcore funk with mainstream pop, a theme that the album bears out. The rauciouus Life O The Party proves Prince can still sing about patying down without sounding silly, the strangely eerie Illusion Coma Pimp & Circumstance features a scratchy vocal over a strikengly sparse arrangement, and the lovely Cinnamon Girl would fit just right on Around The World In A Day. Musicology has got nothing on that album, but a pretty good slab of pop-funk from the genere's reigning royal. - Ira Brooker

new power soul was a good album?

Yes. If it were anyone but Prince who put it out people would love it. If Prince put out "The Love Below" people wouldn't give it the props that they do.
[This message was edited Tue Jun 1 9:06:17 2004 by skywalker]

New Power Soul was a strong album like Apolonia was a great singer and Graffiti Bridge was movie deserving of an Oscar.

RainBow children on the other hand was brilliant though non-comercial, and only flawed by that stupid ever-present constipated sounding narrative.

And why shouldn't his new albums be compared to his older ones? If the Williams sisters spent years at the top, wouldn't it be natural to feel a little bumbed that they've just been upset?

You know, I never really considered myself gay in any way, but if Prince asked me, I would sleep with him.

NPS was a good album in it's concept. A very Funkadelic type album made in the vien of "The Electric Spanking of War Babies". I could feel where P kinda got his inspiration. And again this is subjective and i'm glad this writer mentioned NPS.

skywalker said:

Oooooo.... good point Skywalker. I'm with that wholeheartedly. Part of it is, as the little review mentioned, expectations are such that people know Prince is capable of doing "The Love Below" without breaking much of a sweat. Although, in some ways he could never do it the way Andre did b/c OutKast established themselves in hip hop before he busted out and threw the boomerang.

Hmm. Prince said back in the day "...i've played La Cross (Wisc.), I can DO that... but can they do __ ?" I wonder if he could really summon his inner JB, Gil Scott-Heron, and George Clinton and put out an album of sparsely arranged (think Bob George or It maybe?) funky tracks with nothing but spoken word/rap that would have Questlove from The Roots, and Common, et al saying 'daaaaayummm!' ??

Could he DO that these days? For some reason, I think the challenge would have him sneakin off into the studio with a sinister smirk and bela lugosi eyes.. lol...

JumpUpOnThe1 said:

I'm feelin u my brutha!