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Prince grabs the stage again

04/16/04
MARTY HUGHLEY

Stars burn out. And they also, perhaps much more often, fade away. Regardless of which one Neil Young thinks is better, both mean lights going out in the pop firmament. It happens all the time.

But Prince is different. True, he didn't manage to keep painting the world purple with hit after hit into the 1990s, but no artist stays too long at the kind of peak Prince hit in the mid-'80s with "Purple Rain." He's been less visible over the past decade because he's, in effect, turned down his own dimmer.

Prince hasn't made any masterpieces lately, though he's hardly made bad records. But he's marginalized himself by a series of confounding choices. He painted the word "Slave" on his face. He ditched his name for that glyph that wasn't unpronounceable, it was entirely non-phonic; not a name at all, but a logo. Worse still, he was churlish about anyone who sided with logic and still called him Prince. He gave up the major-label world to release cheaply packaged albums on his own, focusing on fan-club sales over the Internet.

But lately there have been signs that the Marvel of Minneapolis is ready let his light shine again. For one thing, there was his prominent appearance on this year's Grammy Awards show, ostensibly to mark the 20th anniversary of "Purple Rain." Then last month he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's recently started his biggest tour in some time (Regal Cinemas simulcast the opening night show from Los Angeles to theaters, including Lloyd Cinemas). And he's signed with traditional industry powerhouse Columbia Records. It's kind of like Michael Jordan tiring of baseball and returning to the NBA. Prince appears ready to retake his position as one of the brightest mainstream stars.

His new release, "Musicology," isn't part of the Columbia deal, it's another from his own NPG Records. But it sounds like the break away from the cultishness of his last several releases -- there's more energy, more hooks and, most importantly, less filler and arcane thematic conceits. The Purple One announces his intentions from the outset. The song "Musicology" (the new video for which has landed him back on MTV) opens the disc with an "old-school joint for the true funk soldiers," ready to confer a "Ph.D. in advanced body moving" on whoever can get with this latest take on James Brown's immortal lessons about the potency of drums and rhythm guitar. As the background singers pronounce in "Life o' the Party": "We ain't down with nobody who don't party like we do."

More disciplined by far than George Clinton and his minions, Prince runs the funkiest ship on the planet these days. And he knows it. But though he no doubt celebrates partying as an end in itself, he also knows how to use it to warm you up for his varied interests. In a manner reminiscent of his 1987 masterpiece "Sign o' the Times," Prince blends groove and gravity in "Dear Mr. Man," a soulful state-of-the-world lament and an indictment of the political powers that be, in the powerful tradition of Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothin'," among other songs.

Elsewhere, love is ever on his mind, but it's more complicated now than simply finding someone with a "Little Red Corvette" or a "Raspberry Beret." There's a bluesy cast to the ballad "Call My Name" and especially to "On the Couch," in which he has to wheedle with his lover to keep his spot in bed. For the paired songs "The Marrying Kind" and "If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life" (one telling a woman that her lover's not committed, the other recommending an alternative), clipped guitar chords give an emphatic feel to his sweet imploring.

But perhaps the clearest sign that Prince is back is "Cinnamon Girl" (no, not the Neil Young classic), the most radio-ready Prince song since "Diamonds and Pearls." It's such a fine example of his knack for ultra-catchy bubble-gum soul that the anti-war message tucked into the verses might slip past modern radio's thought police.

Kind of like they'd been blinded by a star.