Crystal Ball [Box] - Prince (CD 1998)

With next to no promotion (the only time I saw it advertised was in an add by Best Buy), and little notice outside of the occasional website hit, I began to suspect that there was new Prince music out there, so I began to call around the local chains to find out if this was true. Sure enough, there was, so I immediately reserved a copy and scrambled to get it together to go down and pick it up.

I got to the store, picked it up in the headphone sample booths and listened to the title track, and I was instantly sold. I was disappointed that it was only available on CD, however, and had to go to a friend's house to tape some of the songs that I wanted to listen to until I could give it a listen from start to finish. This brings me to point one - this album was not the original version of Crystal Ball, as I saw when I opened it up and looked at the liner notes. Crystal Ball is a mish-mash of music from different period's in Prince's/The Artist's career, so you can pretty much skip around wherever you want to and not have to worry about concept or statements the artist is trying to make - here, there is only one statement - get up off your a*s and jam.

There are basically two periods that this album comes from. First is the post Around the World period, when Dream Factory was being made. The title track and several other trademark Prince songs and sounds come. The title track is a complex, operetta-like 'statement' that takes about a year to fully understand, but when you get there, it quickly becomes one of the best songs he's ever written.

Dream Factory is a great Parade-era dance track that would have been better for that album than Boys and Girls was. Movie Star, originally written for the Time, is a 'hilarious rarity' that could only be included here - it is a rather popular bootleg, and you can usually find it included as such a recording. Sexual Suicide can also be categorized as a typical bootleg, but this version is cleaned up and sounds great.

Good Love, the song given to the Bright Lights, Big City soundtrack is a playful song with a great place in my heart for being a Camille-type strut, and Last Heart, AKA If You Break My Heart One More Time, could have been a chart-topper because of its storyline, catchy hook and typical 80s song length. Make Your Momma Happy, the Sly/Family Stone cover is a great James Brown clone song, and would probably be better suited as an end to this collection.

Second time period - 1993-95. This was when we just didn't know what to call him, though there were certainly enough jokes about it. The battle with his record company was the hot topic and there was speculation that 'The Artist' had recorded seven albums during this time. Some of the songs, such as the raggae-feeling Ripopgodazippa (Rip pop go the zipper), and 2morrow, which talks about one fan's crush on one of the band members, sound very post-Come.

Then Tell Me How U Wanna B Done and Interactive would probably have made great singles but were two rare instances of ambivalence for me. Acknowledge Me, which was later replace by P Control on The Gold Experience is a just-as-well opener with a good dance beat and average Prince lyric, and much the same can be said about 18 & Over, which is just a looped beat gone live. All of these songs were probably best left as taken away from their respective albums.

On the other hand, many of the songs from this period are absolute must-have classics. Da Bang shows just how quickly a Prince-song can be written. Calhoun Square is a song about the NPG store at the mall that once existed and packs a wallop of positive energy. It's a hippie song, for sure. What's My Name is another quick romp through the identity-crisis issue and is dedicated to all the 'lollipops' trying to steal the flavor.

Days Of Wild and The Ride, two live numbers from The Dawn (I wish this album would one day be released in ITS entirety) make you get up and dance your fool head off. From the chant of "Free the slave-play that motherf*ckin' bass" to one of the best guitar solos I've ever heard from the man, these two are classic jems.

Strays Of the World would've made for a great musical, and holds a special place in my heart because of its inclusive message. Goodbye, also intended for inclusion on the Emancipation project, works much better here, and though the lyrics could surely be rewritten, if you ever get your heart broken, listen to it then and you'll truly appreciate it.

Poom Poom is an odd little song that doesn't go much further than a funny lyric to a rock-hard beat (the screaming Prince here is absolutely hilarious!) She Gave Her Angels is a tender ballad dedicated to Mayte that is probably more personal than any of us realizes.

Finally, my favorite song from this collection - Hide the Bone. When I heard the opening chords of this song and then the huge beat the followed, I had no problem playing this song many times in a row. If this song had been released as a single or even a B-Side, it would have been one of those dance-floor monsters that you heard from him in the 80s. It's such an irresistable song, and it showcases an amazing backing band. Possibly one of the best SONGS he's ever written.

There are some (dare I say) throwaways contained within, like the remix of Lovesign, and So Dark, the re-make of Dark from Come. In both cases here, the new versions are good, but not better than their originals. Cloreen Bacon Skin must also be considered in this category, just because it's too long and also because I don't thinks it's really necessary to listen to Prince and Morris Day rehearse for 15 minutes (however, there's just something about THAT BEAT!!!). An Honest Man, an vocal version of the song heard in one of the love scenes of Under the Cherry Moon, should have been completed. Instead, it sounds like it was thrown together at the last minute to fill space, and Prince is almost never the type to write 'filler'.

There are enough gems on this album to consider it an essential Prince listen. You also get to hear some rare, off-beat moments of humor and well, monologue. Crystal Ball is like an amusement part - it's got it's Vipers as well as a Small world or two.