Granted rolling stone is somewhat of a rag these days, but they know how 2 review an album!!! Four stars, f@$%'in A right!

Read the review @ www.rollingstone.com

Told ya This album Is FANTASTIC!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE how well I ADORED RAINBOW CHILDREN..He JUST TOPS HIMSELF. I Will ALWAYS and this Girl Knows he is The MOST TALENTEd MUSICIAN in the WORLD.. NOBODY is Like PRINCE. This is the Only Performer who Emotes such Emotions,IMPACT in Me. He just Always kinda Slayed me ya Know he just is this AWESOME PRESENCE. The MAN is and since the first time I watched him on Tv on Solid Gold. Well, Prince has Always Been this TREMENDOUS MESMERIZINg FORCE. Prince is well Genius Always. Why..ya Think I've Practically had a Coniption Fit Over Him? He is Just Sooo A Dream... I will ADORE him FOREVER . I Always KNEW GREAT STUFF ya KNow..Miss FUSS POT....Ya Know he just is how ya say this??? The WORLD! I Will Gush like a Teenager Forever,Swooning and Screaming and Losing Control over him..He's so Damn Hot! The Most Gorgeous Man under theSun. Oh,the Feelings of INTENSE JOY he Makes ya FEEL. Oh the Feelings of Such ,well of being COMPLETELY SPENT. He TOTALLY Does Ya MIND into ENDORPHIN HEAVEN..Oh MY ...What he DOES 2 U!

pretty sure this is just the first of the raves too...i don't usually like mr. decurtis, but i think he nailed this one.

Ive always dug DeCurtis...even on VH-1

I can't help but think that Prince's Grammy and HOF performances have caused certain music critics to allow themselves to like/enjoy Prince's music again...almost as if Prince had not performed at either ceremony and reminded so many out there just how bad a mf he still is, RS would have given Musicology a 2 1/2 star rating.

Byron said:

Maybe, but 2 me that just says they needed a little mental knock 2 open they earz up again!

Byron said:

Thankyouverymuch! Along with the fact that the album is being pushed by a can-do-no-wrong major label. PHUCK rolling stone. Phuck it upwards, down the middle, on top, and diagnonally.

Starting somewhere in the early Nineties, he seemed to disappear into his own bizarre obsessions -- the muddled jazz-fusion spirituality of The Rainbow Children (2001) and the instrumental meanderings of N.E.W.S. (2003) being only the most recent excesses. But then, late last year, his election to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame made you remember just how potent, irresistible and groundbreaking a force he once was. Then, his commanding performance with Beyonce to open the Grammys proved that he could still thrill in such a high-pressure spot. And that solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony? Devastating.
Now comes Musicology, as appealing, focused and straight-up satisfying an album as Prince has made since who can remember when. It's open, easygoing and inclusive, the sort of album anyone might like. Most notably, Musicology restores a refreshing sense of songcraft to Prince's writing. Rather than seeming like mere sketches, as so much of his recent work has, each track on the album is distinct, coherent and rigorously uncluttered -- whether it's a bluesy lament such as "On the Couch," a lovelorn meditation like "A Million Days" or a stop-time jam such as "If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life." And the singer makes it clear that he has learned that rigor from the masters. "Wish I had a dollar for every time you say/'Don't you miss the feeling music gave you back in the day?' " he sings over an insinuating bass line on the title track. Then, like Arthur Conley calling out to the R&B pantheon in his 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music," Prince names names: " 'Let's Groove,' 'September' -- Earth, Wind and Fire/'Hot Pants,' by James/Sly's gonna take you higher."

Now forty-five, Prince realizes -- and repeatedly declares -- that his tastes are "old-school." On "Reflection," one of several ballads that float by on a sweet musical breeze reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, memory sweeps Prince away: "Remember all the way back in the day/When we would compare whose Afro was the roundest?" Moments like this rescue Prince from his eccentricities and make him recognizable again. On the sizzling funk track "Life 'O' the Party," he wryly mimics his old rival Michael Jackson ("My voice is getting higher/I ain't never had my nose done"), as if to emphasize his distance from the only pop-culture figure perceived as weirder than he is.

Its relative clarity aside, Musicology is still a Prince album, so it hardly lacks bold ideas. "Cinnamon Girl" borrows a title from Neil Young and a deft hook from the mid-Eighties to explore racial and ethnic differences in a post-9/11 world. Other songs sprinkle offhand references to the Iraq war, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Bible, numerology and the corrupting power of greed. Prince -- who is now a Jehovah's Witness -- has dialed his trademark sexual explicitness way down. But that restraint works, too. With its sinuous grooves and effortless swing -- not to mention Prince's seductive vocals -- Musicology simmers with a submerged erotic tension.

Finally, of all things, the album is a hymn to marriage -- not the frisky fantasy stuff of "Let's Pretend We're Married" but the real domestic deal. "Did we remember to water the plants today?" the singer asks on "Reflection," Musicology's closing song, finding the secret life of love in a quotidian detail. That's an example of how Prince, who claimed that Musicology would take everyone back to school, is really the one who has understood an essential lesson: Less can be so much more.

ANTHONY DECURTIS
(RS 947, April 29, 2004)

Right... which one of you has written the first readers review and started it "This album is wonderul. . .and I am not even one of Prince's faithful Paisly Park fans."
Then later on "If you were like me and thought Prince had fallen off to never return to form, listen to this album fully before making final judgement."....
Hmmm... could you sound more like a fan in disguise? I think not.

Great article.[b]

http://www.rollingstone.c...id=2048479

For those wishing to go to the site on their own.

I am looking forward to hearing it.. didnt manage to get tickets at the presale so will just have to wait until the album is in stores.. I can say., I downloaded musicology from itunes.. heard it on leno previously.. and to say I was underimpressed, is to say a bit of an understatement. Especially having snippets of previous songs towards the end, I would much rather listen to either of those songs that were sampled in than Musicology.. I do appreicate the message.. and sounds like it is a solid soundtrack, but not a memorable single... sounds more like a concert jam.. .. so long story longer.. i LIKE the song.. but didnt LOVE it.. and dont think it is a strong single... Prince of late seems to struggle with picking out a single.. so I am looking forward to hearing the rest of the album. .. (anna stesia is playing in the background now at my place.. damn thats a good song.. man i love ipod random play.)

antoon said:

Im loving it,


great review
[This message was edited Tue Apr 6 5:20:38 2004 by andykeen]

Supernova said:

... normally, i'd be down with f'kin' rolling stone, but recently they've been paying a lot of attention to buddy guy... he's been in 3 of the last 4 issues i've gotten... and so has prince actually... so, i'm gonna give 'em props on that...

From where I sit the review reflects more on RollingStone than it does on the album. The Rainbow Children is hands-down a top-shelf Prince album, one of his most ambitious, most fully realised albums ever. That RollingStone, then and now, dismisses it as inconsequential jazz noodlings just shows that they couldn't split shit from clay.

Now, Musicology is growing on me. At first I was as disappointed as I have ever been with a new Prince album (and that's saying something, given the competition provided by NPS). It sounded so much like a retreat to the chart-chasing days of Rave and the High Album. It seemed to undo all the progress of the last few years. It seemed to lack any of the heart and soul that he had poured into The Rainbow Children and that minor gem, One Nite Alone... I haven't changed that opinion dramatically yet; Musicology is still a disappointing direction for Prince as far as I'm concerned. Reflection stands out like a beacon at the end of the album as the sort of music Prince could be making with his newfound rich vein of creative inspiration. But it could well be the solid pop album he has been trying to make for years now. My hope is that this record sells well so that Prince finally gratifies his ego and gets back to making the sort of music promised by that great run of albums from TRC to ONA to NEWS.

Whatever, Musicology isn't even in the same ball park as TRC. One suspects that RS ratings have more to do with the money behind the record than the quality of the music these days.

Who gives a shite what RS says about the album. I don't. I am not saying the review is unjust, but I am saying that RS has dissed some great material in the past, and in very negative ways. What the fuck would they know, anyway? TRC did get a rough deal from them, did it not? Yet it was, as is to many of us, one of P's most creative efforts and slickly polished. RS reminds me of this popstars crap that we have going on here at the moment in Australia with the judges being comprised of some people who actually think they can sing well themselves and who believe they have had a great impact on the industry in some way....that they are important in their own right.....(at least Molly generally knows what the hell he's talking about when it comes to 'music')....they are not even in the same league as Paula Abdul as a judge....yet they have dissed some great singing, and talent in general.....they didn't even aknowledge 'Nothing Compares 2 u' as P's song.....

fairmoan said:

It's all politics/money these ratings, awards etc

fairmoan said:

couldn't agree with you more! what is wonderful about being a Prince fan is we are as contradictory as our fav artist can be---we want him to do ground-breaking music that just doesn't give a shit about charts and reviews, yet we secretly want it to be a smash hit and critical success---maybe some validation of our love for this guy's music.

Perhaps that's why we are fans of him, just like i would imagine prince is never fully satisfied with his music, either are we. we're made for each other.

whatsurname said:

Let's all funk then. Great 2 b P's fan. Luv his work.

this is awesome.. althought i dont give them much credibility.. how can they just blow off the rainbow children.. obviously trying to draw a line and open peoples minds to this and show it as a new phase prince return to form album...

regardless its good he's starting to get respect... this is just the beginnign of a whole new prince era...

The ass kissers at RollingStone....won't they ever stop!?!?!!

EllisDee said:

You a Buddy Guy fan, Ellis? I just saw him in Chicago in February at his club and it was so fucking sweet.

Even the critics have turned into fams.

getwild007 said:

Man, FUCK Rolling Stone and anyone that takes that fucked up mag seriously. They'd jump on anyone's dick if it meant more sales. There's no integrity in the world anymore. So again....FUCK EM"!

whatsurname said:

Now THAT'S a sharp observation, LOL!

If NPS was released right now they would have given it 4 stars.

It's not that Musicology is that good (because IMO, it is not), but Prince is in vogue right now again, so here we go

EllisDee said:

You go right ahead, Mr. Dee. But Rolling Stone lost its relevance as a musical and social issues magazine more than a decade ago. The fact that it's worth reading once every blue moon doesn't make up for the fact that Wenner & company are just jumping on a popular bandwagon because the zeitgeist has once again caught up with Prince.

Wenner is running the People magazine of music magazines, and for serious fans of music the Olsen twins, and various Backstreet/N'Sync/Timberlake cover stories over the years not only alienates many, it's the epitome of the antithesis of what that publication once represented. This is NOT to say that during its best days they never had cover stories about those performers who weren't as important as others and just popular in the short run. But it's more for the teenybopper set nowadays. This is the same magazine that has recently given those aforementioned performers better reviews than they gave TRC.

At least in its first 20 years it had more of an overall adult disposition and didn't pander to bandwagons. It was once worth my subscription money. Prince is on everybody's radar now, and Rolling Stone feels as if they have to be in on it. Their integrity is lacking. FUCK ROLLING STONE.

Supernova said:

Here's a link I found to an open letter to RS about their Women of Rock issue a while back. It's hilarious.

http://www.crcradio.net/i...etter.html

Im sorry but i thought my fello Fam where Intelligent!
im starting to think they are just as worst as the teenyboppers
Any Expert in music Knows RS is Full Of shyt! they ride with whats popular
they gave 1999 2 stars! but when PRince was gaining more popularity they considered 1999 a classic
they're a bunch of morons
as my fello fam said FUCK Rolling Stone!
Now i liked Musicology but saying P topped the TRC is Gassin him up too much
i can admit when P makes a sucky album lol
like those of you who actually liked Chaos and Disorder! lol
not saying Musicology is sucky , just an Average Good Prince Album
Nothing really inspiring

Well, rather than pile on to the (well-deserved) RS-bashing, the actual author of the review, Anthony Decurtis, is fairly well-respected as a music critic and has interviewed Prince on at least a couple of occasions. He tends to be in the 82-87 club when it comes to Prince, so the fact that he likes this album may mean something. Or maybe it doesn't, after all it's just one man's opinion.


p.s. Don't pay too much attention to RS's reviews of past albums. They have this funny habit of "updating" the reviews to reflect a more popular assessment. Now, they list SOTT as a classic prince album, but Kurt Loder's original 1987 RS review of SOTT was not exactly glowing.

the inevitable edit..
[This message was edited Tue Apr 6 14:55:35 2004 by Universaluv]