Vintage Pre-Angst Prince
The Modernaire | Philly, Penn | 06/06/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Honestly - for those who had the good sense to stick with Prince after he broke the commercial barriers and won an Oscar for 'Purple Rain', this is one of those albums that deserves a second, third, and fourth listen. As a teenager when this album came out, I had the LP which came with fancy artwork and an LP sleeve that had the song lyrics (in different fonts!) so I could be as close to Prince's message as possible while memorizing the lyrics and melodies.
'Condition of the Heart' is to this day one of the most romantic and heartfelt love songs ever written. A classical song on a Prince album? Yep. This is the one. That '3 Chains of Gold' so called opera on the 'symbol' album has nothing on this. Gave up trying to interpret that one.
'Paisley Park' of course later proved to be the inspiration behind Prince's Paisley Park Studios where he does most (all?) of his current recordings. 'Raspberry Beret' was the breakout hit - complete with his head to toe cloud print suit for the video - but there are definte standouts here (in addition to the ones mentioned above) that were overlooked. 'America', 'Pop Life', and the irony that is the placement of the last two songs- 'The Ladder' ('everybody wants salvation...of...the soul..') and then 'Temptation'(purple electricity whenever our bodies touch...') is pure vintage Prince. Party like it's 1999, but be sure to go to church and repent on Sunday."