this was in last month's issue of echoes, a monthly black music magazine.

Prince
Musicology
(Columbia)

After years of fixating only the diehards, Prince has his eyes on the charts again. Thanks to the medley of Purple Rain hits at this year’s Grammys with Beyonce, an induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, interviews on several prime time American TV chat shows and a sell out tour (allegedly the last time the hits are played) in the states, it seems like everyone wants Prince to succeed. If the hype is to be believed, the goodwill has been paid back by his best record in years, also his first major label release in half a decade. It’s hard to get too excited though as the words ‘return to form’ get wheeled out every time Prince inks a new deal, the last time being 1999 when Arista were touting the largely forgotten Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. And like that album, this finds Prince at his most accessible and commercial, but anyone still hoping for a return to his earlier dazzle this late in the day should probably prepare to shrug. The title track is little more than tepid JB-by numbers funk for Norah Jones fans (it’s been spun repeatedly by Radio 2), containing the first of many, many banal lyrics while songs like Life O the Party and Illusion, Pimp, Coma & Circumstance are tuneless attempts to keep up with R&B trends. It all seems half-hearted, full of fantastic touches but missing much effort in songcraft, as tossed off as his worst work in the last decade. Which would make this easy to dismiss, if it wasn’t for songs like Cinnamon Girl, On The Couch, Reflection, each as spontaneous and natural as the best from that same period. So another album of halves then, but it’s a shame that we can’t expect more.
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Sunil Chauhan