Sunday, April 18, 2004

Prince courts mainstream without sacrificing creativity

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"Musicology"
Prince

(NPG/Columbia)***

"Sometimes I just want to go sit out on the stoop/And play my guitar, watch all the cars go by."

These are the last lines Prince sings on his new album, "Musicology," and they provide the perfect cap. Prince has rarely sounded more down-to-earth and less eccentric than he does here. After 25 restless years, he finally seems comfortable in his own skin, and happy to give the people more or less what they want.

This doesn't mean that "Musicology" -- which coincides with an arena tour that finds Prince emphasizing hits, and downplaying his experimental side -- is lazy, or crassly commercial. It just reaches out to the mainstream in a way that most of Prince's recent albums haven't.

The hooks are strong, the dance beats are buoyant, and the lyrics are rarely mystifying. Pointedly non-daring themes include the sanctity of marriage, and the eternal appeal of "old-school" music.

One of the most distinctive songs is the title track, which has the kind of slippery, slinky funk arrangement only Prince can pull off. "Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance" is a story-song as weird as its title suggests. "Dear Mr. Man" is a low-key but powerful Curtis Mayfield-style protest song.

"Cinnamon Girl" (not a cover of the Neil Young song) is a lean rocker that expresses chagrin at the War on Terror by focusing on one innocent victim. "Cinnamon Girl of mixed heritage/Never knew the meaning of color lines/9-11 turned that all around/When she got accused of this crime," Prince sings.

It's depressing to hear Prince lower himself to the tired slow-jam formula of "On the Couch," and resort to clichés on the dance-floor anthem "Life 'O' the Party" ("Once we get it started, we got to go all night") and the steamy ballad "Call My Name" ("Nothing about you is false, that's why your love is real"). But at least half this album is prime Prince, and if he wants to hit cruise control for the other half, he's earned that right.