Prince – Musicology

I don't know if every copy is like this, but my copy of this European pressing, with "5171659000" printed at the bottom of the back cover and "COL 517165 9" printed as the catalog number on the spine, uses a digipak tray with a center hub that easily releases the disc when you try to remove it. To be clear, it securely holds the disc very well, but it doesn't have a "death grip" on the disc.

I bring this up because I have a U.S. pressing that uses a different tray, the kind some of you may be familiar with because it indeed has a "death grip" on the disc and can very well crack the hub in your attempt to pry out the CD. This is exactly what happened to my copy of the U.S. pressing, which is why I bought a second copy that turned out to be this European pressing.

My least favorite Prince album hands-down. Between the jazz/fusion muzak and desperate hip-hop dance numbers and the extremely shallow and predictable lyrics I really can't say I find anything remotely enjoyable in this album.

First, the lyrics are, as I said, predictable. You can pretty much guess each song's message via the title; for instance, 'Dear Mr. Man' is about writing a rhetorical letter to authority; 'A Million Days' talks about waiting for a lover; 'Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance' is perhaps the most interesting lyrically, but it's a stretch for me to say it's up to Prince's usual level of quality songwriting.

As far as the music goes, it's extremely bland. Jazz fusion worked pretty well I think in The Rainbow Children, but here songs like 'What Do U Want Me 2 Do?' and 'On The Couch' sound like the soundtrack to my local weather report channel. But what's worse, what I feel is the worst song Prince ever wrote, is 'Life O' The Party', a vomit-inducing dance song where the female's opening into the song with 'This is the life o' the...PAWTEH, We gonna do it right' already make me wretch. The lyrics are truly awful and bland, I'm embarrassed for Prince... 'We gonna have us a party, All r welcome 2, We ain't down with nobody, That don't party like we do'... is all I have left to say about it.

What confuses me most is how during this time period Prince actually released a number of albums, though only NPG club got them, and the rest of us had to settle for this.

At least 3121 and Planet Earth have reclaimed his musical glory for me.