Lovesexy - Prince (Cassette 1988)

"Lovesexy: You either had a mind-blowing experience or you didn't." - Prince

Lovesexy is possibly Prince's best LP and definetely one of the greatest albums ever recorded. Unfortunately, this album recieved more attention for the controversial semi-nude cover than the music itself, and was mostly a commercial failure. If you can work up the courage to put this one down on the counter and face the weird look from the salesgirl, you'll never regret it.

The story behind Lovesexy is somewhat of an old chestnut now, but perhaps it deems retelling. In 1987, after releasing the incredible tour-de-force Sign 'O' The Times, Prince began work on The Black Album: a collection of dark, raunchy and at times disturbingly violent funk, packaged with a solid-black cover.

This was all queued up for release, and a few copies were distributed to DJ's. Legend has it that around this time, Prince had a dream where he realised that he could die at any moment, and he did not want The Black Album to be his last release.

He had the album withdrawn from release and all copies destroyed at the last minute. In replacement, he came up with Lovesexy: in contrast, one of the brightest, most hopeful and deeply religious things put to record.

As the legend spread, those few intact copies of The Black Album got in the wrong hands. It began to circulate underground and went on to become the biggest selling bootleg of all time, shifting more than 200,000 copies. Warner Bros released it officially in 1994, but it's now out of print. If you can pick up a copy, it's quite interesting to listen to both albums in context. But that's another review.

What is "Lovesexy"? He explains it as "the feeling U get when U fall in love, not with a girl or boy but with the heavens above". This is an album full of eccentricities. Prince had undergone some kind of spiritual rebirth and was insistent that his work be heard as a whole.

Lovesexy was released on CD as one giant 45 minute track. The LP and cassette are also marked with with "Songs should be played in a continous sequence". You might think this is crazy, but get to know the album and somehow you never want to skip a track. Yeah, he's insane, but most geniuses are.

We open mysteriously with the cute voice of Ingrid Chavez, (Aura in Graffiti Bridge) who whispers about rain, sugar, and love over eery atmospherics, giggling slightly. At this point the listener has no idea what to expect.

Prince's voice enters and declares, bizarrely, that the reason why his voice is so clear is cause there's no smack in his brain. With a scream of "Hundalasiliah!" we are launched into the messy, glorious eargasm of Eye No.

Eye no, there is a heaven,
Eye no there is a hell
Listen 2 me people
Eye got a story 2 tell
Eye no there was confusion, lighting all around me
That's when eye called his name
Don't U know he found me!

This wouldn't feel out of place in a black church - "Testify, brother!". "Funky" is a somewhat intangible thing, a word thrown around a lot, but I think if there was a song that was quintessentially funky, that defines it, it is Eye No. Makes you want to scream, dance and pray all at once. It's very hard to dance about architecture here.

The horns come to the big climax at the end, and we descend into crowd noise at a party, or perhaps at a bar. Dubbed over all kinds of discussion ("I got dibs on those sandwiches", "My name's Andre Crabtree III. I got more holes than a golf course") is a solemn priest's voice, droning "Let us pray to God...". Prince interrupts: "NO!". Perhaps this is to contrast the way the Church teaches religion to the modern, relevant way that he is getting the same message across with.

We've now arrived in Alphabet St., the most famous cut and the best charting single from the album (#8). You'll probably know this from Very Best of Prince or The Hits. Great track!

I'm going down 2 Alphabet St.
I'm gonna crown 1st girl that I meet
I'm gonna talk so sexy
She'll want me from my head 2 my feet

Once described as "an aural cartoon, an easy-to-swallow dose of Flinstones vitamins", Alphabet St is a nonsensical, sorta minimalist cut which is rumoured to be about oral sex and has hit single written all over it. Check out the car-surfin' video for one of the most loveably tacky things to ever come out of the 80's.

Glam Slam is a tremendously underrated cut that bombed on the singles chart but remains a cult favourite with fans. Nothing whatsoever to do with the lesbian term "clam slam", Glam Slam is an ode to a lover who refreshes his life. "Glam, slam, Thank U ma'am
U really make my day". I love the breakdown bit in this song: "Heavy feather, flick a nipple, baby scram, water ripple", "I don't understand...", "It means I love U".

Anna Stesia is the album's dark and reflective midpoint. Here, over an eery piano chord sequence, we hear about the period of depression and loneliness through which Prince apparently found God. This is a very religious album, and he makes no attempts to hide it: the rap includes lines like "Save me Jesus, I've been a fool/How could I 4get that U R the big rule" and the climax of the song is a choir singing "Love Is God/God Is Love/Girls and Boys Love God Above". The more contemplative side of the album.

Flip the record over at this point for the paranoid techno of Dance On. Sorta like Sign 'O' The Times meets Loose!. Social commentary rants abound: "Grenade launcher roars in a television sky", he spits out to an intense tempo. "Tell me how many young brothers must die -- Dance On, Dance On!". Perhaps he is suggesting that, as with most things, the unity of music is the key to peace. I love the closing line of this song: What colour is your money today?.

Now we're onto the anthemic title track, Lovesexy. Apparently this is the feeling you get when you find God, and he wants to share it with the world.

This feeling's so good in every single way
I want it morning, noon and night of every day
And if by chance I can not have it - I can't say
But with it eye no heaven's just a kiss away, kiss away

You can feel the joy emanating from this song. Towards the end, he declares "Tonight, we make love with only words. Girls first." A rambling, urgent female voice, constantly sped up and slowed down, responds with "Okay, well like first I'll start by telling U what an intelligent curve your behind has, and then I'll can tell U that I just smell U and race cars burn rubber in my pants..." It's terrific fun.

"Sweet dreams", he says, and we find ourselves in the ballad When 2 R In Love. This was the only track that was included on both the Black Album and Lovesexy, and somehow it seems to fit well on both discs. This is gorgeously seductive, and kinda naughty at times. There is a sort of dark, intimate, 2am amour feeling about it.

When 2 R in love
Their bodies quiver at the mere contemplation
Of penetration
Let alone the actual act

When 2 R in love
The thought of his tongue in the V of her love
This thought; it leads the pack...

I Wish U Heaven is the brightest thing he's ever written. Another total flop on the singles chart, but it's just pure gorgeousness all around. Over Sheila E's persistent drumming and an undercurrent of short power chords, he sings about wishing the best for his lover. There are only two verses and a one-line chorus, but it's all that the song needs.

4 your every touch I
Thank U so much
4 your every kiss I
I wish U love, I wish U heaven

And in the end, it all comes down to Positivity. Rather dark despite the title, and yet somewhat hopeful at the same time. It's a sort of continuation of Dance On, set to a dance beat that you can do a slow grind to.

Positivity -- YES
Have U had yo plus sign 2day?
Positivity -- YES
Do we mark U present, or do we make U late?

The final line of the record is Hold on 2 yo soul/We got a long way 2 go. And so ends one of the most worthwhile listening experiences you'll find. You need to accept a lot of Princentricities to listen to this one, but I think you'll love it. Open your mind to new musical and religious experiences with Lovesexy.