This review was published in the Friday 16th issue of "Il Venerdì di Repubblica":

Prince is back and he begins again starting from himself

The new cd is beautiful: it's a pity that (apart from the James Brown homage) it's something that has already been heard

No, there must be a mistake: you can already hear it from the beginning - that guttural shout and then goes that guitar - that this is not Prince -what the hell did they write on the record's cover?- because this is James Brown, let's stop talking nonsense. But yes, right, Prince is the biggest heir of the father of funky, it goes without saying -but can't you hear this Musicology?- this is pure James Brown, without re-interpretation like it was for example in Kiss, this is 70s funky - oh no, let's take a better listen, here, there are indeed other instruments that are coming in, and these backing choruses, oh my God, could it really be Prince, the return of the big small Prince?
What's happening, what's this sampled song? Yes, that's really Kiss, that's a fine and good quotation, it's as if the Minneapolis genius (that's what specialized magazines used to call him, isn't it?) wanted to build a bridge between yesterday and today, between grandpa' James and himself. Well, sure if after so many battles against his former major, Warner, the Prince after many years went back to recording for another major, this time Sony, only to deliver a re-interpretation of James Brown, like the one he's still doing with Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Cirtumstance, you can ask: was it really worth it? Let's try: here comes A Million Days and, no, it really does sound like the old Prince, the one of Purple Rain straight away, and now the record lifts off, listen to Call My Name, it's one of his classic blues songs, just like Slow love in Sign O' The Times. And what about this Cinnamon Girl? It's beauitful, it sounds like it's directly coming from Lovesexy...
But, wait a minute, what if this were the trap? I mean, even the sexyblues On the Couch, isn't it something we've heard before and always by him? In short: alright with the return, alright with the unexceptionable style, alright with quoting the fathers (Brown, Marvin Gaye) and alright with self-quotation, but the step from self-quotation to repetition is short, too short. Or isn't this maybe that old, damned rule that says that from a genius you should expect something more everytime?

-written by Angelo Aquaro-

I wonder why everybody finds the title track so derivative? In my opinion, its unmistakably Prince.