New Prince album = Really good

I've only heard "Musicology" live (on leno), when I had no problems with the rhythm section, just the Jamiroquai top & "What Do U Want Me 2 Do?" - which sounds like a return to SOTT period material but with Prince coming to terms of what being a Jehovahs Witness/marriage costs him, "you mean I can't have sex with eveybody who comes on to me?"

Wait, so is John Blackwell not in the band anymore?

Btw, it was some other dude who played drums on The Work.

Agreed about The Staples Center show. Becuase I am a Prince geek The NPg Music Club hooked me up with thrid row seats-- and since it is an "in the round" show my view was often obscured by bass player Rhonda Smith which wasan't such a bad way to spend the evening-- peep the photos at http://www.rhondasmith.com if you doubt it. And for what is allegedly a hits show, he was still rocking out relative obscurities like "Shhhhh," "Sometimes It Snows In April" and "The Question of U."

Dan speaks my mind.

bbbut aren't you and Dan the same person?

The Beautiful Ones
Nothing Compares 2 U
Insatiable
Sign 'O' The Times
The Question Of U
The One
Let's Work
U Got The Look (Short version)
Life 'O' The Party
Soul Man
Kiss
Take Me With U

Forever In My Life
Real Playas
Nuthin' After Midnite
On The Couch
Little Red Corvette (Which was one of the highlights hearing it acoustic...Prince CRIED after it was over!!)
Sometimes It Snows In April
7
Purple Rain

*Again, God was instumental at the show, but it was the "Vocal" version on wax.

It sounds like a brilliant show. Shame I won't get to see any.

that setlist is amazing!! sometimes it snows in april indeed.

*deep breath*

though I didn't think about it at the time, it was definitely more JC but I'd prefer folks imagined it was like the one that opens "Gett Off."

A) It is my favorite Prince song, period.
B) It reminds me of my dead brother.

i almost changed my ilm pseudonym to starfish & coffee the other day.

I hope that Purple greatness will be unleashed on the UK soon. I'm gonna see Stevie Wonder this Saturday to make myself feel a little better.

It's all about timing. Now is exactly the right time for a major Prince comeback - it's just one of those things, people are just ready for him. He's been "gone" long enough that people miss him and genuinely want to see a kick ass Prince show and have a new Prince record that is as good as the old stuff. The same thing happened to U2 - that POP record and tour wasn't quite what people wanted and it came at the wrong time, but All That You Can't Leave Behind and its tour was perfectly timed.

Also, Prince called Michael's Bad album 'Pathetic' once, didn't he? What prompted that (slightly honest) bitching?

I'm sure Madonna will have more good hits in the future. This is weird time for her, I'm sure, as she settles into middle age.

Were it not for his legal problems, Michael Jackson could do amazingly well if he did a big hits tour and made a record that was as much like Thriller and Off The Wall as he could rather than attempting to mimic current (and not-so-current) trends.

No.

How is this good.
Fuck prince. He's supposed to suck now so I don't have to buy any new Prince albums.

Fuck him.

This is good.

Rolling Stone Review

Prince - Musicology Review

4 Stars

Starting somewhere in the early Nineties, he seemed to disappear into his own bizarre obsessions -- the muddled jazz-fusion spirituality of The Rainbow Children (2001) and the instrumental meanderings of N.E.W.S. (2003) being only the most recent excesses. But then, late last year, his election to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame made you remember just how potent, irresistible and groundbreaking a force he once was. Then, his commanding performance with Beyonce to open the Grammys proved that he could still thrill in such a high-pressure spot. And that solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony? Devastating.
Now comes Musicology, as appealing, focused and straight-up satisfying an album as Prince has made since who can remember when. It's open, easygoing and inclusive, the sort of album anyone might like. Most notably, Musicology restores a refreshing sense of songcraft to Prince's writing. Rather than seeming like mere sketches, as so much of his recent work has, each track on the album is distinct, coherent and rigorously uncluttered -- whether it's a bluesy lament such as "On the Couch," a lovelorn meditation like "A Million Days" or a stop-time jam such as "If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life." And the singer makes it clear that he has learned that rigor from the masters. "Wish I had a dollar for every time you say/'Don't you miss the feeling music gave you back in the day?' " he sings over an insinuating bass line on the title track. Then, like Arthur Conley calling out to the R&B pantheon in his 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music," Prince names names: " 'Let's Groove,' 'September' -- Earth, Wind and Fire/'Hot Pants,' by James/Sly's gonna take you higher."

Now forty-five, Prince realizes -- and repeatedly declares -- that his tastes are "old-school." On "Reflection," one of several ballads that float by on a sweet musical breeze reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, memory sweeps Prince away: "Remember all the way back in the day/When we would compare whose Afro was the roundest?" Moments like this rescue Prince from his eccentricities and make him recognizable again. On the sizzling funk track "Life 'O' the Party," he wryly mimics his old rival Michael Jackson ("My voice is getting higher/I ain't never had my nose done"), as if to emphasize his distance from the only pop-culture figure perceived as weirder than he is.

Its relative clarity aside, Musicology is still a Prince album, so it hardly lacks bold ideas. "Cinnamon Girl" borrows a title from Neil Young and a deft hook from the mid-Eighties to explore racial and ethnic differences in a post-9/11 world. Other songs sprinkle offhand references to the Iraq war, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Bible, numerology and the corrupting power of greed. Prince -- who is now a Jehovah's Witness -- has dialed his trademark sexual explicitness way down. But that restraint works, too. With its sinuous grooves and effortless swing -- not to mention Prince's seductive vocals -- Musicology simmers with a submerged erotic tension.

Finally, of all things, the album is a hymn to marriage -- not the frisky fantasy stuff of "Let's Pretend We're Married" but the real domestic deal. "Did we remember to water the plants today?" the singer asks on "Reflection," Musicology's closing song, finding the secret life of love in a quotidian detail. That's an example of how Prince, who claimed that Musicology would take everyone back to school, is really the one who has understood an essential lesson: Less can be so much more.

ANTHONY DECURTIS
(RS 947, April 29, 2004)

This album is not very good. Too much of it sounds like Gold Experience and Emancipation outtakes and retreads of stuff he's done in the past ad nauseam (the preachy number, the slow grind love ballads, the "hey, the party's hoppin', ?uestlove-Common-Rhonda-blah blah will be there" number - seriously, hasn't he made this song like 5 times already?-) but done with very little flair, boxy production and just too much corny slang. Plus, he's brought back the dreaded "DJ scratching vinyl" sample that I thought was buried back in '99. If I wasn't so psyched for his shows I wouldn't care. This album is not a return to form by any means.

--john blackwell must be drowning in women. he is a beast of a drummer. plus, this being DC, the entire crowd went nuts whenever he even hinted at a go-go beat.
--maceo parker did a nice interlude cover singing 'georgia on my mind'. he can also play some.
--the bassist is kinda hot.
--maybe i've seen too many indie rock shows, but it's kind of disconcerting how prince makes playing a guitar look easy. it's like he barely even touches it, let alone wrestle with it.
--it was a little medley-ish--cutting out verses and such--but then you kind of realise how many fucking songs he has to get to
--the solo acoustic part was surprisingly great
--very little off the new record (which was included in the concert ticket price)
--they covered 'whole lotta love'?!?!?!? prince's guitar work killed, but the non-funkiness of the beat made it seem out of place.
--i was slightly disappointed that there was no shriek of 'take me away!'
--pretty fuckin impressive. musicianship, showmanship, everything. i probably need to read matos' book now.

the new album is still rubbish though.