by Ben Greenman
Issue of 2004-05-03
Posted 2004-04-26

Prince has been the subject of comeback talk all spring, thanks to rousing performances at the Grammys (where he enlisted Beyoncé’s help to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of “Purple Rain”) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony (where he trumped every other rock star in the place with a blistering solo on the Beatles’“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”). His new album, “Musicology”(Columbia/NPG), should help to reëstablish his reign over the rock, soul, pop, and funk kingdoms. The title track, which is also the first single, moves along on a loping, Sly Stone-style groove punctuated with understated horns. “Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance” stretches its slick gigolo narrative over five minutes of skeletal funk. “Cinnamon Girl,” a compact pop-rock confection, may be politically naïve (it’s about Arab identity after 9/11), but it’s melodically irresistible. And ballads like “Call My Name” and “Reflection” are quiet without being soft, a distinction that has eluded Prince for a while. The album is also mature—a number of songs celebrate the joys of monogamy—without being dull, and the whole enterprise is suffused with nostalgia for what the title track calls “the feeling music gave you back in the day.” (As usual, there’s a bit of a contradiction: Prince invokes a live-band spirit, and album photos show him surrounded by other players, but on the record he performs nearly every instrument.)

“Musicology” is not a revolutionary record. None of what’s here will surprise Prince’s faithful fans, and some of it may even be disappointingly familiar, although it’s hard to imagine being disappointed by a pop song as well constructed as “What Do U Want Me 2 Do?” In the past decade or so, Prince has lost control not of his music but of his tone. The triple album “Emancipation,” which announced his freedom from Warner Bros., was ostentatious. The star-studded would-be comeback “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic” was cynical. And the musically expert “The Rainbow Children,” with its Jehovah’s Witnesses agenda, was sanctimonious. This time out, Prince has reviewed his vast collection of unreleased songs and assembled a solid, likable album that is an exercise in the possible, a reminder that, however Prince feels about pop stardom, he can still wield it effortlessly.