2 stars out of three.

All but the dedicated and the delusional had given up on Prince after his past decade of underachievement. Yet there have, this year, already been signs of a recovery. He has rejoined a major label and is currently touring the US to rapturous receptions. Could this, his first non-internet release in five years, prove to be the 45 year old eccentric's long-dreamed-about return to form?

As the thrillingly insistent James Brown funk of the title track kicks in, that dream seems to have been realised. Immediately afterwards comes the fabulous Illusion, Coma, Pimp and Circumstance, a dancefloor-crushing slab of stuttering electro. Life O'The Party is even more fun, with its crunching hip hop drums, an exhuberant chorus sung by Candy Dulfer and even a joke at the supposedly self-important man's expense ("He don't play the hits no more, plus I thought he was gay").

There is none of the heavy handed expounding of his religious beliefs, as on 2001's The Rainbow Children, although Dear Mr Man tries to address all the world's problems, from war to Aids to the ozone layer, through the medium of mediocre jazz-funk. The excellent Cinnamon Girl, superficially a catchy rocker in the style of Little Red Corvette, turns out to be about the war on terror. A few other tracks, such as A Million Days and Call My Name, are smooth ballads about his romantic struggles.

However, as Prince fans will have come to expect, Musicology is by no means perfect. The lack of quality control so painfully evident on his internet-only releases is still a slight problem here, and rather than pushing the boundaries, the former innovator seems at times to rely on the safe, reliable musical forms of the Seventies. But there are enough powerful reminders here of the time when Prince was King.
[This message was edited Tue Apr 13 9:39:45 2004 by funkyfine]