(via e-mail from KoolEaze... not my post!)

Translation of German Musicology review from „Der Spiegel“.
I´ve translated this enthusiastic review published in the most important ‘German news magazine, comparable to Newsweek or Time magazine.

When the cake speaks, the crumbs take a break.Welcome to another lesson in musicality by Prince, who seems to have cured himself from his musicbiz mistakes since the release of his phantastic concept album The Rainbow Children and his jazz experiment N.E.W.S.
More than that, the little genius is in rare form on his latest album, which , as an exception to the rule, is being distributed by major label Sony- a big concession to make for this notorious record-company hater.
But those expecting Prince to sell out after years without hits couldn´t be more wrong. With Musicology, Prince shows his supremacy once again.
Funk, rock, pop, jazz and gospel merge into a transparent, perfectly produced but nevertheless down to earth groove.
Cleverly the multiinstrumentalist spices up new compositions with tiny ingredients from his own past. Some of it sounds like Around The World In A Day, some of it like The Black Album.
This is more like casting snippets of memories before his fans than indulging in the good old days. Prince even gets political by criticising the god of confusion, G.W Bush, in his song “Dear Mr.Man”, a Gil Scott Heron-like funkblues and on the airy rocker Cinnamon Girl ( no relation to the Neil Young song).He even goes so far as to sprinkle politics into the most beautiful ballad on this album, Call My Name.
All in all it´s a very nourishing musical meal with only one song leaving a bad taste in the mouth , A Million Days, which sounds too much like one of those unfocused, self-admiring songs off of Crystal Ball.
But other than that , bow down and adore the little Prince, who´s actually a king.

Pretty positive review, huh? This critic seems to be a fan, plus it´s in Germany´s most important news magazine. And he praises The Rainbow Children and even N.E.W.S !!!

ben said:

Yeah, "The Mirror" likes Prince. In the same magazine "The Rainbow Children" was the "Album of the year" in 2002.

How? He called 'em mistakes!

ben said:

I like the review, but i disagree with the critic about Amillion days.

"All in all it´s a very nourishing musical meal with only one song leaving a bad taste in the mouth , A Million Days, which sounds too much like one of those unfocused, self-admiring songs off of Crystal Ball."


This motherfucker is nuts!!! A million days is DA JAM!!! WTF?!? I do realize that this guy gave P a good review, over all, but for the motst part, these band wagon riding critics miss the mark by a million miles.

Reece

My humble thought on Prince these days.

It seems that everyone is 'willing' to accept that Prince is back. There is no doubt about it, he is back, back in the media and in the (pop)news section. Why? i think there ain't much selfmade flamboyant major artists around these days from the eighties and early nineties. That's one point. And Prince is highly liked by a lot of respect paying rappers and other pop/soul/r'nb musicians, in fact, he always was and will be repected. He's hardworking, he's always musicaly hungry, and he's strange. And everyone remembers him as being very very different all the time when he was 'fine back in the days'. But he actually never stopped being so. Even in the nineties, when he barely had a hit, he is/was remembered for his namechange, the word 'slave', recordcompany disputes, lolipops and cut-out pants, and his JW believes, etc. But not so much his albums or his music from that same era. At least not with the major crowd and the older fans who knows the popstar "Purple Rain-Prince."

But music in general changed since then. The whole concept of popmusic/rockmusic and it's consumers changed. Big names these days are not so much selfmade, but rather discoverd by the music industry. Also, music isn't something you need to buy, and wait for it to be released. You can get it everywhere. ALso that changed. Even radiostations are with thousands. So major radiostations and television music channels are looking carefully why the smaller ones get so much attention, dispite theyr 'different' quality of presenting things.

But did Prince changed or remained the same old Prince today? Is his music good again? Is his new album worth while? etc.
No he never changed. People in fact never do really. Yes he did change a bit, but in the expecting directions. He got older, lost some wild edge, got more into his believes, and kept on playing live and still pleasing the crowd, without having a hit.
But dispite all that, i have to say, the man makes lots of music. But the qualitity is different. Prince doesn't need to prove himself anymore. And the new album is ok. But not all that great i think.

At least the people will know about the 'come-back of Prince', because they know him, they know his name. The sales of his latest will rise probably. Don't know for sure if the real young ones will pick up the new Prince again.
So i think, Prince will always be Prince, and people will know who he is. But they will always remember him for his earlier days, rather then for anything new to come. The fact that he tells the media that he 'changed' and became a 'better person now', makes him last 'nasty' then people expect him to be. At least for a little bit.

Still, i heard "A Million Days" on the radio this morning, and it fits in well with radio sound these days. (In fact, they are playing every day 2 new songs of the Musicology album, a whole week long.) But i'm also sure as an old time fan, that Prince is capable to write far more better stuff as well, if he would only be more open to others, and to the world next to believing, and try to work nonconformistically with other musicians, dispite theyr background, swearing or believes.