Musicology [ECD] - Prince (CD 2004)

In the beginning, it was 1978, and the music was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And it came to pass in the place called Minneapolis, that a young man - a very, very short one - signed a record contract with Warner Bros. and set out to become the Savior of the Funk, known to all the world as Prince.

But the Pharisees in the House of Warner did not have faith, and they were afraid and said unto Prince, "You are too young. You are too much of a risk. We have hired a producer to work with you. His name is Maurice White, and he is good and wise, and well-versed in the way of the Funk." But Prince was stubborn. And he refused the authority of Maurice White. And he said unto the Pharisees, "Maurice White may be wise and good, but his music is old, and mine is a Revolution." And there was "Controversy", and there was "1999", and there was "Purple Rain", and "Sign O' The Times", and "The Gold Experience". And it was all good.

And in the year 2004, Prince is giving Maurice White his propers, when he shouts out White's band Earth, Wind, and Fire in the title track of his latest album "Musicology".

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For too long, it has been too easy to dismiss Prince, to shrug him off as an eccentric has-been, churning out a rapid-fire series of albums to an increasingly indifferent critical audience like a funkified Father Mackenzie. But the thing about Prince is that he never got bad. And he never got his nose done. He just never stopped doing damn near anything he wanted to do in the studio.

Sure, not everything he released in his career's post-relevant phase has been brilliant. His triple-disc 1996 release "Emancipation" might have seemed like a monument to his own hubris at the time, but give those discs a second listen nearly ten years later, and you might find yourself in the grips of an uncompromising groove. "Chaos and Disorder" might have been a toss-off, but it was a mighty, rocking toss-off, and a heckuva lot better than, say, Michael Jackson's "Invincible."

And so what if "The Rainbow Children" is the approximate musical equivalent (at least in concept) of the movie "Battlefield Earth"; if you could sift through the weird Jehovah's-Witness-Comic-Book narration of it, you might stumble upon something like "The Work", which could, in four short minutes, make you believe that a funky horn chart can change - and maybe even save - the world.

Listening to these albums, it's hard to believe that we overlooked them in favor of the inferior output of so many artists that have come and gone since then. Are we really ready to hand the crown to the Neptunes and Timbaland? Sure, they can twiddle nobs and program beats, and loop nifty samples like no one's business, but can they rip a guitar to shreds the way Prince did at the end of "Let's Go Crazy"?

Maybe what turned us off of Prince's music was Prince himself.

And it came to pass that after years of success, the Artist believed the Message was Him. And he called himself a "Slave", and he spent many years fighting the very people who would support him.

But somewhere in all this, Prince rediscovered the real message. And it had nothing to do with dirty dealing record companies, or bizarre epics about the "Sacrifice of Victor", or the Dawn, or "Last Decembers", or "Emancipation," or 14 minute jazz instrumentals.

In the immortal words of Kool and the Gang: "Music is the Message". And love. And that's what "Musicology" is all about.

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"Musicology" is just about the most modest album Prince has ever given us. By that I mean, it doesn't try to bowl us over in high cryptic, vaguely religious, but mostly hokey concepts. Even before the Symbol Years, Prince had experimented with different personae, producing records under the name Jamie Starr, and creating characters like Victor and Bob George in his songs.

That's not what "Musicology" is about. This is Prince being Prince. This is Prince reclaiming his position in the funk canon, but with humility and respect for all those that carried the Message before him, some of the very people he dissed when he was just starting out: Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and, perhaps most importantly James Brown.

There are no corny narrative bits here. Just straight up funk, delivered with Prince's potent wit, his seemingly effortless virtuosity, and an irrepressible sense of showbiz. It's substantial, but it's also relaxed and fun, and bursting with love. If, for the last 10 years, Prince has been making records strictly for himself, writing the words to sermons no one would hear, "Musicology" is the album he made for us - and, for those that are seeing him on his latest tour, that he literally gave to us as we entered the venue.

I believe that constitutes an act of faith.

But I'm guessing it's going to pay off. Because after listening to this album solidly for the better part of the last 24 hours, I can confidently declare that I will be first in line to purchase the "legit" release when it hits stores (April 20). And I won't be surprised if hundreds of thousands of others don't do the same. And I won't be surprised if songs as exuberant as "Musicology" and "Cinnamon Girl" find themselves on the radio. And I won't be surprised to hear the jammy "Life o' the Party" playing over the loudspeakers during my volleyball league games this summer.

And I won't be suprised if this album re-launches Prince's career in a big way for a new power generation.

This is a short, simple declaration of all that is good about Prince, from the gritty morality play of "Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance" to the wistful retro-keyboard balladry of "A Million Days", and the bluesy sex tragicomedy that is "On the Couch" (one of the great highlights of his live act). "The Marrying Kind" - a song about a man and a woman who don't deserve each other - is the hardest Prince has rocked in ages. And if "Dear Mr. Man" doesn't quite match the power of "Sign O' The Times", it plays like that song's worthy sequel, offering of a shopping list of pointed questions to our Obfuscator-in-Chief.

But finally, in the closer "Reflections", Prince seems to find the Gospel in the mundane, the supposedly meaningless details of a shared life: "Did we water the plants?"

God, I love it when he talks dirty.

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"Musicology" is a great album, and that shouldn't come as a revelation to the folks who never stopped paying attention. Prince never stopped making great albums. He just started filling the gap between those albums with esoteric indulgences. "Musicology" is on par with 1992's "[symbol]", and 1996's "The Gold Experience". Except it's better than those: it's heart is in the right place. Finally.

A new Prince album you don't have to be afraid to love.

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"Musicology" by Prince
NPG-Sony Records
Released 4/20/04

Produced by Prince

SONGS: Musicology - Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance - A Million Days - Life O' The Party - Call My Name - Cinnamon Girl - What Do U Want Me 2 Do? - The Marrying Kind - If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life - On the Couch - Mr. Man - Reflections