last month, prince released a 3-cd set. two of the albums--lotusflow3r and mplsound--are his and the third, elixer, is by his latest muse bria valente.
i was most skeptical of valente's work but the more i listen to it the more i realize it could've stood on its own. perhaps prince linked it to his work to win over the hesitant folks. that's smart and it works. valente's vocal range is more breathy than breath-taking, but her songs are incredibly soothing.
"immersion" and "everytime" are perfect stress relievers after a rough day at the office. her tone on "here eye come" and "kept woman" reminds me of the superb and underrated singer lisa keith. "all this love," "2nite" and "another boy" will get your hips moving.
my favorite song is the title track "elixer." it's a duet with prince. there's a great left speaker-right speaker thing that happens with their voices. the effect is as powerful as the teedra moses/raphael saadiq duet, "take me." both songs use clare fischer's string arrangements, too. "elixer" proves prince is still nasty despite his being a jehovah's witness. it sounds like he's singing "he licks her" most of the time, not "elixer." but he'd probably argue i'm the one with the dirty mind.
lotusflow3r and mplsound are prince's most inspired albums since 3121. lotusflow3r is my favorite. it's the more focused work than mplsound. i always appreciate when he experiments with sound and lotusflow3r is full of lab work! over the course of four songs he goes from trippy ("from the lotus...," and "boom") to poppy ("the morning after" and "4ever"). he gets all dancey, jazzy, funky and political then goes back to being trippy again and it works. the track order solidifies such broad strokes. his camille alter ego makes a welcomed appearance on "$" his witty take on the current economy and his old nemesis, the music industry. he still finds a moment or two to be vulnerable like in the telling lyric of "the morning after": now i'm sleeping on the side you slept on.
mplsound would've been a perfect dance record without "chocolate box." that song upsets me. it contains q-tip's worst rap ever and is so ill-fitted and uncomfortable to listen to. it's too long and full of old slang. the hook uses "rock the socks..." and in the first verse, prince sings "what's the deal, why you frontin'? keep it real if you wanna get funky wit' me." ugh! he used the worst of '80s and '90s colloquialisms in a matter of seconds and didn't even add a clever spin to it. maybe prince thought he had such a great hook that the rest of the song became filler. it's a failed attempt at what every other songwriter is doing these days! that's a real disappointment after mplsound's opener, "(there'll never b) another like me." i usually enjoy the prince songs that are swollen with braggadocio and "there'll never b" is easily a part of that canon. he even shares part of his beauty routine: he puts olive oil in his hair!
"dance 4 me," "valentina," "ol skool company" (ooooh, this my song!) and "no more candy 4 u" more than make up for the shortcomings of "chocolate box" and i can't wait to hear him perform them live. camille is present on some of those tracks, too, like "ol skool company" which could've been a better song if prince hadn't spent three minutes name-checking his celebrity acquaintances and friends (maxwell, cee-lo and christina milian are mentioned). it's an annoying element he added to songs during the rainbow children/one night alone era, when he started having parties for hollywood people. look prince, we don't know these people and it's too much work to substitute our ordinary friends' names for those of penelope cruz, salma hayek 'n 'em!
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