By M. Solis If you've ever lived in the Twin Cities, particularly MPLS, Prince has never left you. Minneapolis has always been the lavender one's paisley fortress of solitude, and its frozen denizens have stuck with him when most of us bounced - you know, right around the time you watched Under the Cherry Moon for the first time or shortly after he literally became a symbol. Few can dispute Mr. Nelson's genius both on and off the guitar and it's tough to argue against "Let's Go Crazy," "Little Red Corvette," "1999," "Adore," and "Nothing Compares 2 U," but somehow, most of us outside of the land of 10,000 lakes forgot him. The best Prince album of the '90s belonged to a corn-rowed, Pentecostal Virginian by the name of D'Angelo. Within the liner notes to D's Voodoo, poet Saul Williams mused on how such a storied musician could become so irrelevant, so quickly: "My opinion, over the years as I've sat in countless conversations about why the Artist puts out half the shit he does (and you know the half I'm talking about) is because he lacks any new inspiration. Once again an artist is
Musicology is easily the most inspired Prince album we've heard in a while, but don't get it twisted; this isn't Sign 'O' the Times. Musicology leans closer to his better moments as the Artist, both sonically and thematically, which is still a lot better than the hardcore Jehova's Witness fusion of recent vintage. The album is stacked with vibrant tracks such as "A Million Days," "Illusion, Coma, Pimp, & Circumstance," "If Eye Was the Man in Ur Life," and the title cut, where the royal one roll-calls his aural ancestors. Even his social commentary is on point. Whether you call it a comeback or an advanced music tutorial (Prince's preferred take), it's good to have him back. By M. Solis
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