Prince is on form once again with this album. The only minor flaw I found with this album was that it was a little short. Here's my track by track review:

Musicology **** - Tight soulful funk a la James Brown; the first single, guaranteed to keep your body movin'. Prince has never really done funk this understated before. It's great.

Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance **** - Bangin' little funky number, the kind only Prince can do so well and it will remind many of us who OutKast owe a lot of their recent sound to. Great lyrics which detail an unfunky older lady who's "hipped to the funk in exchange for the finance".

A Million Days **** - A classic Prince rock ballad about how much he misses his girl. "You've only been gone for an hour, but it feels like a Million Days". Beautiful. Reminiscent of "Into the Light/I Will" from the "Chaos and Disorder" album.

Life O the Party ***1/2 - Candy Dulfer on vocals in the chorus (one of Prince's sax players and an artist in her own right). This track could be a club hit, possibly the next single. Sounds great live, too.

Call My Name ***1/2 - A great ballad in the tradition of "Scandalous", but without the "raciness". Another song, like A Million Days, presumably about his wife, Mani. "I just can't stop writing songs about you, I love you so much". Sweet.

Cinnamon Girl **** - Starts off like the Pixies with the strummed barre chords on acoustic guitar and drums and includes a tasty little solo in the middle. Details the plight of girl with cinnamon-coloured skin in the wake of 9/11. Catchy, but with Prince's trademark social awareness.

What Do You Want Me To Do? ****1/2 - Brilliant. Let it be known - the Linn-drum is back (Prince signature drum machine used during the 80s)! Sweet little number about a girl who wants his affections, but he sings back "shame on you girl, can't you see this ring?". Great stuff.

The Marrying Kind **** - More uptempo rock with the Prince's wonderful little guitar quirks. There's some pomp in here, a la "Three Chains Of Gold" ("Symbol" album), but it is restrained thankfully and blends nicely into...

If Eye Was The Man In Ur Life **** - Some great piano staccato reminiscent of "The Beautiful Ones" ("Purple Rain" album) and a smooth jazz workout at the end. Almost like a modern-day r&b song, but with a rockier backing.

On The Couch ***** - This song is just great! A return to the soulful Prince promised in the first song, it harks back to Aretha and James in its approach. Horn lines are sung in a doo wop style, the guitar softly churns underneath a lush bluesy piano bass drums setting with some nice organ toppping it all off. Genius.

Dear Mr Man ****1/2 - Another slice of genius, and another socially aware lyric (often the best combination with Prince). Stevie Wonder is a reference point here, but really it's Prince all the way. Turn this one up and FEEL it. Half a star omitted only because it fades out; again brevity is the only problem with some of these songs.

Reflection ***** - This is one of my favourites...a daydreamy, Joni Mitchell sounding song about, well, reflection on a day in the life of Prince. A great way to sound off a great album which reflects on a brilliant career. And as Prince himself said at his recent induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "It Ain't Over!".

All in all a suberb album, not quite ranking with his best 80s work, but definitely some of the cream of his 90s-00s output. Highly recommended!

Rated **** out of 5

For those interest in how I rate other albums by P, here a few of the best:

Purple Rain: *****
Sign O the Times: *****
Parade: *****
1999: *****
The Gold Experience: ****
Lovesexy: ****
The Black album: ***1/2

Very nice review.

Dont you think that the last 4 songs on this album finnish it off just about as well as any Prince album ever has?

I like the whole thing but the last bit is just sublime imho.

This is actually re-assuring. I hadn't heard any of the new album until I caught the Musicology video on TV last night. I must say, I was disappointed. It's an okay song but for a comeback song I think he could have pulled something better out of the hat.

adoreme said:

I find Musicology to be the waekest track of the album also, but it's a very reassuring song in terms of Prince's playfulness and ability to mix live band work with the perfect amount of sampling. But be assured, adoreme, the rest of the album is fantastic.

A Million Days is my favorite, and though I agree with most of what you say mrdespues, I think it sounds more like Dolphin than any track from C&D, but this is ofcourse personal. It has really nice and original instrumentation which makes it more poppy than Dolphin however. Love this one!

The nice thing about the syrupy Call My Name, is that even in this track we get to hear a socially aware Prince, singing about a 'voice on the news saying people want to stop the war/ if they had a love as swet as you they'd forget what they were fighting for" and "the land of the free?... somebody lied/ they can bug my phone and people 'round my home/ they'll only see you and I making love inside". Brilliant mixture of romance and protest.

As for the rest, I agree with you all the way !

The marrying kind, Dear Mr Man and A million days are the songs I like on the new album. The rest reminds me to much of songs he wrote between 96 and 2001. I don`t like that period. But Come on, The One and When U love somody from New power soul are closer to the Prince I became a fan of than anything on Emancipation, Rave.. and his newest effort.

probably a little too positive review for my tastes, but
I still think there is some great material on this album

The Black Album - 3.5 stars?!?!

It's all about taste after all.

Great review!

Here are my two cents. I don't think an album can be reviewed after a day or two. AFter repeated listenings, I can say that I really really like this album. I agree the title track is not the strongest cut on this album. Although, I like it a lot more now then I did when I first heard it.

'Illusion Pimp and Circumstance' is a standout track. Imaginative and the story line is really funny! I'm glad he's showing his funny side more now and not just hidden away on a Time album or something like that!

'A million days' - I like it but it sounds a bit to plastic for me. I wish he had stripped it down more. In fact, there seems to be a plastic wrap feel to other parts of the album too, like 'cinnamon girl'. I love that track too... it will be a single in my opinion but I would have liked it with a bit more rawness.

'Call My name' - I've been waiting for him to acknowledge his home in Toronto. Finally, he mentions the street he lives on, "the Bridal Path door", he sings in the song. That's the street he lives on here in Toronto. Great song... could be another single.

"Marrying Kind' and 'if i was the man in your life' are also superb but I really would have liked to have heard them without so much gloss. I've read other reviewers describe the problem as Prince 'coupling' the guitar lines with synth lines. To me, it just sounds over-done.

However, the songs are so good that I find myself putting it one every night.
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What bothers me is all the great reviews he's getting that make light of his recent output. They call 'Rainbow' a soft jazz muddle, 'news', painful to listen to, and dismiss 'Xpectation' and 'one nite alone'. Give me a break.

of course this is a review only a P fan would give. it's on okay record with okay tracks.

you gave both this and "gold" 4.

nothing on this disc is 1/2 as good as anything on "gold".

except for maybe those godawful rap tracks.

you sure you don't work for rolling stone?

Sounds good!

I'm trying to hold off until I go to the concert and get my free copy, but I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN GO BEFORE I

Nice review. I'm not gonna bother making a whole other thread, so I'll just post my own review here.

Musicology-I'm not a fan of the JB funk, so I've never liked Prince's JB cuts. Though this song's lacking more of a hook, it's still a solid funk groove. One of the weaker songs on here, but inoffensive and still worth hearing. 3/5

Illusion, Coma, Pimp, & Circumstance-This is some of the funkiest, most fun music I've heard from Prince in a while. His sense of humour shines here, his voice sounds incredible, and it really is an entertaining, charming, quirky song. Very raw sounding and immediately enjoyable. Quite the interesting message in there too. 4.5/5

A Million Days-Sounds like a more mid tempo version of Dolphin. Great rock ballad about romantic turmoil; genuine sounding and sweetly melodic. Flows beautifully and could be a great single. 4.5/5

Life 'O' the Party-It's not that it's a particularly bad song, but just that it comes off really weak after hearing the last two awesome tracks. I'm not a fan of guest vocals in Prince songs, but at least the beat is somewhat infectious. Still a disappointing song though. 3/5

Call My Name-If you're like me and have always been a sucker for Prince's love ballads, you'll love this one. Honest, sweet, touching, and even fused with some political awareness to showcase the way times have changed since songs like Adore and Do me Baby. I love the way he's touched upon the positive impact of both being Prince again and being in a happy marriage. You can sense how in love he is in this one. 4/5

Cinnamon Girl-A nicely flowing, wise and perceptive Prince rock song. It's accessible without having to be superficial the way some other Prince rock songs like So Far, So Pleased were. 4/5

What Do You Want Me To Do?-Prince broadens his mature exploration of love by delving into the issue of women who fall for him despite him being married. More mature sounding, melodic rock. Easily enjoyable. 4/5

The Marrying Kind-Great uptempo rock with a wonderful haunting tint slightly reminiscient of 3 Chains 'O' Gold. Short but addictive. 4/5 Segways nicely into..

If Eye Was the Man In Ur Life-Almost like a continuation of the last song, only with more shades of that wonderfully haunting piano heard in The Beautiful Ones. Interesting rock/r&b mix with this one, but it didn't quite hook me the way Marrying Kind did. 3.5/5

On the Couch-I love the bluesy, soulful feel to this song; it's just great. The organ adds to this song a lot, and the lyrics are incredibly sexy in a subtle way. Yet another song off Musicology where Prince maturely and charmingly explores relationship issues. Very effective. 4/5

Dear Mr. Man-This song sounds like an introspective stroll through the ghetto. Easily relatable concerns explored in an intelligent way before a backdrop of a simple but incredibly enticing mid tempo beat. I'm not sure I liked the way it just faded out, but that's a minor complaint. 4/5

Reflection-A nice closer in the way it simply but effectively reflects on the past. Full of touching sentimentality and heartfelt lyrics. 4/5


Overall Score: 4/5

It's not quite a work of art, but I don't think it's meant to be. It's just great, stripped down Prince music that grows on you with every listen.

Funky, fun music balanced out very nicely with some of the most coherently romantic, mature music exploring relationship issues I've heard from him in a while.

It's romantic, mature, easily accessible, fun, and politically aware all at the same time. An album that shows everyone that Prince, a 45 year old JW, hasn't really lost a thing.
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Taureau said:

Just curious....how would you rate the Black Album? Seems to get a bad rap by orgers. I think it's in the VERY GOOD category, personally.

The Black Album is the funkiest P has ever been. Not the overly labored, glossy and

impenetrably layered fake P-funk of NPS. Not the sparse, airy, and deliberately popfunk

of Musicology. Not the spiritually infused overproduced funk of the weakest tracks on

Lovesexy. Not the glam funk of Diamonds and Pearls or the radio friendly funk of

Symbol. On the Black Album P does not sound like he’s reaching for the funk – also,

while on Musicology and NPS, P’s sound is heavily derivative (Dear. Mr. Man uses a

Curtis Mayfield/Marvin Gaye template with a straight Sly sounding vocal, On the Couch

is a amalgamation of several different Al Green Melodies, etc. and the entire NPS record

with the exception of Come On and Waste Kisses is wiggity wack. Just P-funk wannabe

bullshit.), on the Black Album all of these forces come together seamlessly to produce

the rawest and, barring a couple tracks on 1999, and funkiest music Prince has ever

delivered. Really, the Black Album is one of the few (along with 1999, Dirtymind, and

Controversy) Prince record that has the raw sweetness of classic funk records like

“There’s a Riot Going On” or “Sweet Exorcist” not too mention that the music on the

Black Album is straight up incredible. Cindy C, le Grind, Rock Hard in a

Funky Place are classics of 80’s funk. I strongly disagree with anything less than four

stars for this record. And personally I give it five.