Fit to wear purple again

Kitty Empire
Sunday April 18, 2004
The Observer

Prince
Musicology, (NPG/Sony)

It's good. No, honestly: Musicology is, approximately, Prince's twenty-third album and a copper-bottomed, no-caveats return to form. Granted, it will take a leap of faith from most to invest valuable ear-time in Prince. When he's been good, Prince has been virtually peerless, but when he's been inconsistent, well ... doves have wept.

It's been so long, too, since Prince was worth a damn. He hit what many thought was a terminal decline in the mid-Nineties. Labouring under the alias of an unpronounceable glyph, he retreated from his record company contract and released a series of increasingly self-indulgent records independently.

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic , his major label pop comeback album of 1999, was a damp squib. Since then, Prince's last two independent releases - NEWS last year and The Rainbow Children in 2001 - confirmed that he preferred to hide his light under a very dense bushel. There were long-winded spiritual allegories; there was a lot of masturbatory jazz. To add absurdity to injury, the sex-mad imp had become a Jehovah's Witness.

Although his intimate tour of last year reintroduced the notion that Prince might please a crowd, his rehabilitation began in earnest with his recent induction into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, and continued with his Grammy turn alongside Beyoncé. Now, his latest album - another pop comeback, released through Sony this time - proves beyond doubt that Prince isn't fit only for a mausoleum.

Musicology is a delight from funky start to contemplative finish. For such a baroque producer as Prince, it's also a strikingly simple album, stripped of all superfluous elements, and confined to a spartan 12 songs. Even the political songs - 'Dear Mr Man', the Neil Young- referencing 'Cinnamon Girl' - sit lightly.

The James Brown funk of the title track sets the tone: 'We got a PhD in advanced body moving,' Prince quips on this celebration of party music. You can tell he's got his mojo back by the titles alone: 'Illusion, Coma, Pimp and Circumstance' is as sublime a title as he's ever dreamt up. The song, meanwhile, tells the story of a relationship of convenience in a style reminiscent of 'Gett Off'.

Prince's new devoutness means his sex drive has taken a cold shower. But it's still there, squeezed into more intriguing forms that recall the best old soul records. 'I knew we agreed to be married,' he aches in 'On the Couch'. 'U shouldn't let me unzip your dress...' 'What Do U Want Me to Do' sees Prince - Prince! - chastising a girl who fancies him.

'Life "O" the Party' continues the good-time imperative, with vintage funk joining forces with old R&B. It seems he's found inspiration in his deepest musical roots. Prince's sense of humour is back, too. 'He don't play the hits no more/ Plus I thought he was gay,' he mocks at one point, before noting cattily that he's never had surgery.

Only Michael Jackson was ever a stranger fish than Prince; Musicology's sense of ease and fun suggests Prince may not have lost touch with reality on such a grand scale as his rival. He's certainly had his ear to the ground: Musicology is littered with lyrical nods to Sly Stone, Chuck D, Missy Elliott, Dr Dre and others - quite a gesture from a musical megalomaniac. But Prince can't resist quickly running through a radio dial where all the stations are playing his old hits. It's a fitting move: 'If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life' rewrites 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' with a little light jazz. It would be a crime, too, if the charts didn't welcome singles from Musicology with open arms. For this is a pop album the likes of which we haven't heard from Prince in a decade, that puts efforts from young pretenders like N*E*R*D in the shade.


Bright and breezy, Musicology might not be remembered as an epoch-defining heavyweight like Purple Rain or Sign O' the Times. Against all the odds, though, it's good. Really good.

Yeah it's a positive review, but I'm sick of Journalists dissing NEWS and The Rainbow Children as "indulgent" wasted records. The Rainbow Children is without any doubt in my mind one of his best albums in any decade.

Its what journos like top do....

having said that trc is pants!

news is pretty good tho

Theres no accounting for taste

toejam said:

Exactly, which is why they like "Musicology" so much. It's as familiar as an old shoe. Most music journos are lazy, deeply conservative types.

Already posted:

http://www.prince.org/msg/7/89805

.

toejam said:

I agree - I don't even see what's wrong with making self indulgent records. Shouldn't an artist make records HE thinks are good and challenge himself rather than just trying to come up with something marketable that attempts to pre-empt the market? (like wot Madonna does).

By suggesting 'self indulgence' is a bad thing, the inference is that a musicican must make music that fits in with everything else around, that they must make music that makes everyone but themselves happy, or else they are a failure. How can music move forward if no one experiments and pushes back the boundaries?

toejam said:

N.E.W.S. was self-indulgent . . .

TRC, no. Xpectation? No. N.E.W.S.? Yes.

i remember she reviewed The London ONA shows and she gave him a great review.