|
|
|
» The Archives
|
:::Music Review:::
|
 |
Prince – "Musicology"
by William Ashanti Hobbs
author and co-owner of Meroen Press
May 2004
"Ughh!"
the first ad lib in the title song "Musicology".
Who’d have thought that the first utterance of
Prince’s title track could possibly represent his
disappointment in what is supposed to a comeback album
(via a BET interview).
Be that as it may, this album,
along with last year’s N.E.W.S. (a worthwhile
experiment in jazz), further establishes the
high-heeled one in the exclusive company of his fellow
Hall of Fame legends.
|
|
The album is one of the first major label releases in
some time and compliments the occasion with its title
track. "Musicology" is a light-hearted lesson about
the soul of music past, a lesson that teaches without
becoming annoying with too much preaching. The James
Brown-like breaks and live horns are so authentic they
seem naked without the pop and crackle of a needle
over a record. It seems strange coming out of the
playlists of most keyboard-and-drum-machine-centered
R&B stations. If there was ever a jam that you could
sneak in on your grandmother as an old song she just
never caught up on (besides mostly everything by
D’Angelo), this would be the one.
|
|
The interesting turn within the album is the way
Prince’s Jehovah’s Witness faith has continued to
blossom in his music since the exceptional 2001’s
"Rainbow Children." Political theorist Hannah Arendt
once said that a radical is a person who becomes
conservative on the day after the revolution. Well,
Prince’s Revolution is over (though many pray they
return) and I’ll be damned if he hasn’t tossed his
lurid sex subject matter out with it. "What Do U Want
Me To Do?" is Prince’s low-key plead to a young woman
to chill with the promiscuous groupie vibe and just
enjoy his music. Yeah, Prince, actually turning down
some!
The thing of it is, because everyone else is getting
their vulgar on, this approach seems – I daresay it –
radical. What’s more the music is still compelling.
Many artists have tried to mature their music along
with their lifestyles and have lost their audience.
Prince has succeeded in being palatable to an even
wider audience. "The Marrying Kind" goes along this
route as well.
"On the Couch" saves our wonderkid from being too
wholesome to believe. The song captures post-argument
moments in which the man is supposedly out on the
couch. Though it employs, ironically, gospel-like
undertones, Prince goes into standard R&B begging man
mode, pleading that he wants to "go down south."
"Dear Mr. Man" is a funky lament about the state of
the world today. It grooves in the same
sociopolitical- conscious fashion as the title track
to "Sign o’ the Times" and songs in "Rainbow
Children." Biblical passages, section one of the 14th
amendment and environmental concerns bejewel the
thumping, brooding atmosphere in a way that’s totally
germane to an artist who’s fought a valiant battle
against corporate exploitation. Exemplary
musicianship, now coupled with a heightened
socio-political awareness and a newfound spirituality
makes "Musicology" the ideal introduction, or
reacquaintance, with this musical mastermind.
|
|
|
