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Full Review | User Ratings (1) |
| Tracklist:
1. Rebirth Of The Flesh
2. Housequake
3. Strange Relationship
4. Feel U Up
5. Shockadelica
6. Good Love
7. If Eye Was Ur Girlfriend
8. Rockhard In A Funky Place
Release Date: 1987 | |
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| Summary: Guess whos back with yet another Prince album review?! While given a Catalog Number for an official release, Prince instead took the songs and sprinkled them onto other albums. Essential stuff if you dig Prince |
1 of 1 thought this review was well written
1987 is the absolute Golden Standard for Prince’s insanely prolific output throughout the years. After the so-so response from fans over 1986’s Parade, Prince was in a recording frenzy. Literally, hundreds of songs were produced for Jill Jones, Sheila E, The Family (The latter being fronted by Susannah Melvoin, Prince’s fiancée and most important muse of his career. Also worth notable mention that The Family was the first to record the infamous “Nothing Compares 2 U”), The Bangles, and well, you get the point. Songwriting-wise, this man could really do no wrong. Prince was so proud of this material that he envisioned a triple LP set entitled “Crystal Ball” in which Warner Brothers flat-out refused to release. As the story goes, Prince and the Executives had very harsh arguments, and Warner subsequently won and Prince was forced to trim all of this material to a two LP set. This set is, of course, Sign ‘0’ The Times, and while the latter album being Prince’s Magnum Opus, some songs from 1986-87 that didn’t make the final cut deserved to be on it more than some of the songs that made it to the final version. These songs are easy to obtain, and strongly recommended (Google “Dream Factory”. Unbelievably cool recordings.)
Before Sign was materialized, Prince was experimenting with his voice, and out of nowhere, a Protégée was born. A few years before this, he did something similar with his voice, in which the cool-as-ice “Erotic City” was born. See, Prince rolled the Analog tape to a faster speed, and he spoke extremely slow to create this funky, feminine voice. This voice, dubbed “Camille”, Prince put together a total of eight songs, sequenced them, and sent the tapes to Warner Brothers, in which he was granted a Catalog Number. Unlike The Black Album, no copies were pressed and Prince took these songs and released them randomly. Since the Catalog Number was given, this record stands firmly as in the top 5 best Prince albums, even though it was never released in the standard album format. However; the songs are easy to get, and if you were to burn a disc with the tracks in the order Prince intended, you have an album that works so well, and flows even better. In short: One of, if not the most consistent Prince album ever written.
Things start off with a bang with “Rebirth of the Flesh”, a funky Hodge Podge of distorted guitars (I personally wouldn’t be surprised if Prince used a Death Metal guitar pedal to get the dark tone), funky sax licks, and sing-along-verses. This track sets the overall tone of the record in which nothing serious is to be thought, and the fun you find is the whole point. Strangely, this is the only track that has never been officially released from this album. Right out of nowhere the sounds of a record being scratched and Camille shouting “Shut up, already! Damn.” hits you, and off we go with Housequake, one of Prince’s funkiest tracks, and rhythmically explosive to boot. Originally released on Sign 0 The Times, it is sort of a James Brown rip-off, but Prince (or Camille) certainly makes it their own by using JB as the inspiration. Even my harshest friends that make fun of me for liking Prince straight-out love this song, dubbing it a “foot tapper”.
“Strange Relationship” comes up next, and this is absolutely one of the best songs written from this period. The songwriting itself is superb, and it’s very surprising how underrated it is. Two versions of this song exist on the internet. Co-written by Wendy and Lisa, one version was intended for the triple LP set I had mentioned earlier (with Wendy and Lisa’s vocals) until Prince took it over and added the Camille vocals and a few arrangement changes. This is also one of the rare occasions where Prince and Camille duet with each other and it surprisingly sounds awesome. This track also made its way onto Sign 0, and for good reason as this is one of Prince’s best written tunes ever.
“Feel U Up” made its official release a few years after it was recorded as a B-side to Partyman, the infamous single from the Batman album. Equal parts funky and filthy; the song is a fan-favorite and is easily accessible to the casual or non-fan. “Shockadelica” is a story in its own right. Jesse Johnson had recently completed the recording of an album entitled Shockadelica and Prince asked to hear the title cut. JJ said there was no title cut, and as a joke, Prince made a quick single with that title, and released it before JJ even released the album itself! So in other words, people initially thought JJ had stolen that title from Prince when in reality it was the exact opposite. So because Prince did this song as a joke, it is a rather mediocre song, and is the reason this album will not get a 5 star rating. Hilarious story, though.
Up next is the artificial sweetener track “Good Love”, a track that is saved by the unbelievably cool song arrangement. Originally released on a soundtrack (which for the life of me I can’t find any info on), and later released on the 4-disc Crystal Ball outtakes set. A good track, but it falls short compared to the other sheer quality songs on this album. Good, but not nearly the best on here.
One of the most talked about songs in Prince’s career, “If Eye Was Ur Girlfriend” is usually wrongly received. Since Camille was a “feminine” voice Prince created, he messed with a gender switch. The lyrics deal with his girlfriend, and how he’s jealous and misunderstanding of how women as best friends are more open to each other. Prince, it seems, badly wants to be a part of what women get from each other. Supposedly the song was written about Susannah’s relationship with her sister, Wendy, and how they were inseparable and talked on the phone for hours and did everything together. It takes a while to actually get what he is saying. But (to be a jerk for a second) most people would think that Prince is gay and that he wants to be a man’s girlfriend after hearing this song, which is pure ignorance. Prince’s brilliance really shines here as he challenges the listener for open thinking. Nonetheless, it is a brilliantly written song which boasts a fantastic line (would you run to me if somebody hurt you even if that somebody was me). Prince seemed to like this song so much that it made its way to Sign 0, and he released it as the second single in which it flopped. However, it has become a cult favorite, and Jay-Z and Beyonce used a sample of this song for their duet together back in 2002.
Alas we end with “Rock Hard in a Funky Place”, which is my personal favorite from the Camille project. Released on The Black Album, I won’t go into detail about it as I did already in my review for TBA. I like the song so much that it is my Myspace URL, and the title of my Blog (I’m kind of a dork, just a little).
While the average person wouldn’t really know about Camille since he or she randomly makes appearances on a few of Prince’s albums, Prince basically used Camille as an outlet for his funkier, more questionable material, much like he did for The Time. Since the Camille album was never officially released, Prince used Camille as a special guest of sorts to randomly pop out of nowhere to make his albums that much more interesting. Since the Camille album is treated as an official album to fans, most hold it in the highest regard, much like Purple Rain and Lovesexy. His creativity on this album is astonishing, and this album as well as the other two proposed (Dream Factory, and Sign 0 of course) are fine examples of how great Prince can be when he’s in the zone. One of the best albums of his recorded output, Camille leaves you wondering what it would have been like if he actually did release this without people knowing it was Prince all along. But since Prince does things his own way, Camille is like an Easter Hunt and once you find all of the tracks, the results are absolutely genius.
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Good review although I don't like Prince at all. You mentioning "Nothing Compare 2 U" reminded me of the article about Prince and Sinead O Conner getting in a fight over that song.
Here's the link if you're curious:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16627_6-most-certifiably-insane-tales-rock-star-behavior.html
This Message Edited On 09.26.08
Digging: Void Of Silence - Human Antithesis
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How can you not like Prince at all? That's crazy!
Digging: TV on the Radio - Dear Science,
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I hear he's pretty good at basketball
Digging: Wintersun - Wintersun
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
^^^ From what Ive heard, Sinead totally over-exaggerated it. I highly doubt Prince physically threatened her. Besides, shes totally mean-spirited, and will do anything to get press. Anthony Kiedis said the same thing in his autobiography.
Digging: Depeche Mode - Construction Time Again | | |
Quote:
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How can you not like Prince at all? That's crazy!
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Ok, that might be too strong of a phrase. There are some songs that aren't bad like that "Doves Cry" song (I don't know the real title). Quote:
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I hear he's pretty good at basketball
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Funny I heard the same thing 
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^^ You came close with the title. You just forgot to put "When" lol.
And besides Dave Chappelle making fun of the basketball thing, it actually is quite true that Prince rips at B-ball. Small in stature, consider him Mugsy Bogues (did i spell that correctly?)
Also, the album isnt showing up in the database for Prince, is there a way i can change that?This Message Edited On 09.26.08
This Message Edited On 09.26.08
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Quote:
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Also, the album isnt showing up in the database for Prince, is there a way i can change that?
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I don't know why and no one else could probably do more than guess, but I reported it to the Mods so hopefully they'll fix it.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
^^ Thank you!
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I wonder if anybody cared to notice I put "Strange Wilderness" as a track title. lol Im gonna change it, but I was only playing haha.
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