Prince released the “Diamonds & Pearls” album, his overall fourteenth long-player, in 1991 via his Paisley Park record label. It was the first ever album which was attributed to “Prince and the New Power Generation,” as opposed to “Prince & The Revolution” or simply just “Prince” on his own. It also had a holographic cover. Some of the musicians in this particular line up included an old childhood friend of Prince’s on bass called Sonny Thompson, a drummer by the name of Michael Bland, keyboardist Tommy Barbarella, guitarist Levi Seacer Jr and two male dancers by the name of Tony Mosely and Kirky Johnson, known collectively as The Gameboys. Prince had actually met the pair back in 1984 while he was making his “Purple Rain” album, but he never really had a need for them until he did this album. Tony “M” as he was also known provided a few rap verses on this album, which is something that a lot of fans out there were not too happy about. I’ll discuss that later on, though. “Diamonds & Pearls” went on to become one of his most popular albums, spawning three very big hit singles in the form of “Gett Off,” “Cream” and the title track “Diamonds & Pearls.” Other singles followed, including “Insatiable,” “Money Don’t Matter Tonight” and “Thunder,” which I believe was only ever released as a limited edition picture disc on 12inch vinyl. As such, these singles were only very minor hits. Speaking of polyvinylacetate, this album just so happened to stretch all the way out to two great big LP records. Shame I never picked it up on wax, though. Oh well, here’s the album review for you:

Thunder: As we all know, Prince was one of those artists, along with Marvin Gaye who compared sex to something very spiritual and in this here opening cut for his thirteenth studio album, he does exactly that. He sings about how love first came to him with the radio on. It kissed him wildly on the mouth and commanded that it take him to his leader. Princey claimed that it was “like thunder all through the night, like a promise to see Jesus in the morning light.” Musically the song has a programmed drum pattern, but don’t let that put you off, because the guitar solos in this song will absolutely knock you unconscious. He was definitely throwin’ down when he made this song. Even his voice sounds incredible on this cut – check out the way he multi layers his harmonies in the intro and later on in the chorus. I mean Prince always did that anyway and it always sounded cool as hell. I can see why he chose to put this on the album first, it’s definitely that kind of song: one that’s terrific enough to kick off an entire album.

Daddy Pop: This song begins with a woman rather orgasmically saying “Oh, daddy!” I’m guessing that this is Elisa Fiorillo, who is indeed credited in the liner notes as being one of the other vocalists on the cut. Prince then delivers us a somewhat funky type of song, which actually samples Aretha Franklin’s “Rocksteady.” He begins the song with the phrase “See my brother talkin’ plenty head.” I guess that’s another way of saying “talking a lot of crap” or “smack” or whatever you choose to call it. Aside from that he’s just talking about folks living in the past, while his critics waste their time saying bad things about his list of songs, which he claims to be “long as history itself.” Actually he’s telling those critics to stop their crying. Generally speaking, this is not a bad song, which, as you can see is filled with plenty of ego, attitude and bragging. Everything you can ever imagine about a Prince song is featured right here. And it’s all good. Unfortunately things go horribly pear-shaped when Tony M starts screaming his head off towards the end of the song: “As I step to the mic….we ’bout to turn this mutha out blah blah blah blah. NPG is like……ouuuuuut!” Yeah, thank God for that. I wonder if Prince looks back on this song and says, “Wow, that Tony M guy really fucked my song up didn’t he? What was I thinking?” On the other hand, maybe he doesn’t feel like that at all. Nobody is a mind reader after all…isn’t that right, folks? “Daddy Pop” was also one of the songs that appeared on the B-Side of the “Sexy MF” 12inch single in 1992. It was on the CD single as well.

Diamonds And Pearls: When Prince does a rock ballad, he really really gives it his all and what we’re left with is something that’s quite similar to an anthem. Or at least it’s quite an overpowering type of song with incredible guitar work or an unbelievable rhythm from whichever drummer he’s chosen to utilise for the composition. With this this song, he certainly deliverd all of those things and a hell of a lot more – including some incredibly soulful vocals from a lady by the name of Rosie Gaines. A lot of folks out there will probably forever associate her as being “the girl who sang “Diamonds & Pearls” with Prince.” Why wouldn’t she be okay with that? Anyways, this song, as far as I can see is really just about Prince sending all his love out to everybody listening. That ranges from his hardcore fans, to little kids and everything else in between. Although on the “Diamonds & Pearls” video collection, a reporter says that the main message on the album is racial harmony. If that’s what he was trying to say in this song, then…I guess he did pretty well. Best lyric, “There will come a time where everything will shine, so bright it makes you colourblind.” Nah, for real? I never thought I’d hear such a proclamaition. As I said in the intro, this song was released as the third single and it was quite big. By the way, speaking of Rosie Gaines…..apparently Prince once said he would never sing the song without her, but he did it anyway. When I listen to this song as an adult, I hear a very beautiful ballad, but as a child I could’ve sworn I heard him say “Martha we can man cuz I understand.” Of course he was really asking his woman “Am I the weaker man?” And I say his WOMAN because some idiot out there once told me that he wrote this song about a bunch of gay men. Hell no I didn’t believe him! I thought it was the most ridiculous shit I’d ever heard in my life. It was almost as dumb as some other stupid Ecstacy poppin fool telling me that Prince is fucking a man in the video clip. I was like “No! That’s a woman.” “Well it’s a pretty ugly chick then,” he replied. For real? Man….. this guy must’ve been blind, too, not just high.

Cream: The second single lifted from the “Diamonds & Pearls” album was something of a rock/pop based affair whose chorus ran: “Cream, get on top, cream you will cop.” I’m quite sure that many listeners out there heard that very lyric and thought to themselves: “Prince has a new song out and he’s talking about “get on top,” I guess that can only mean that once again he’s talking about sex….right?” As a matter of fact, on the maxi single there’s a remix that ends with a prank call where Prince is asking a middle aged black man what he thinks of this very song. It also just so happens that the man actually raised Prince, so it’s probably his step father or a friend of the family. The man he says, “I don’t like anything that Prince has ever released. With Prince it’s always sex, sex sex – it sends out the wrong message to the youth,” to which Prince responds with: “Sounds like you have a personal problem, right?” Then an argument breaks out, which Prince actually provoked, because he asked the man: “What’s wrong with you, n*gga!??!” Yes, Prince dropped the “N bomb.” And he did that quite a lot back in the 1990s.

Now, you might hear this song and think to yourself, “he’s moaning at the beginning of the song and he’s talking about “get on top,” so what else could he be suggesting other than sex?” And you would certainly have a point. However, it should be noted that what Prince is actually doing here, is literally looking at himself in the mirror, flicking his hair back and saying “Yes. I’m pretty. I’m beautiful. I’m the best. I’m not gonna let any of that crap out there get to me, cuz I’m gonna rise above it all. Hell, I’m even gonna make my own rules, break ‘em and then I’m gonna say “look up in the air it’s your guitar” and I’ll play that yellow cloud guitar all up in ya face. Know why? Because, bitch, I’m Prince. And you ain’t.” That’s basically the whole point of the song. It’s Prince just being arrogant, cocky and loving himself with an overall passion, cuz that’s exactly what one Prince Rogers Nelson does. And he doesn’t care what you think of his music, his appearance or anything else associated with him. That’s why you hear lyrics like “You’re filthy cute and baby you know it” and “Baby there ain’t nobody better.” He wasn’t talking about some woman he really loved, he was talking about his own damn self. Although when he sang it live in 2004 as part of an acoustic medley he encouraged all the women in attendance to sing that particular lyric and he demanded them to sing it with much confidence.

On a personal note, I kinda dug this song when it first came out back in 1991. I was nine years old at the time, so I really didn’t comprehend its meaning. For the most part I thought the chorus was kinda strange, although by the same token, like everybody else I incorrectly assumed that there could’ve been something sexual about the “get on top” lyric. Although it is a sexy type of song and the video’s kinda sexy too. Then from the time I was thirteen, right up until I was seventeen, I had a plethora of ignorant fools in just about all of my classes in high school singing the song to me in a supposedly “gay” manner. I really don’t know what the hell the whole point of that was, but if it was to make me hate the song to some degree, then….I guess they did pretty well for themselves, because for the longest time, I couldn’t bring myself to listen to this fucking song at all. If it was done in an effort to tease me, then…..that was a pretty dumbass way to go about doing that. But anyway, those fools are no longer in my life – thank God, so I guess now that I know the true meaning of this song I shouldn’t let any of the ignorant shit that bothered me in the past bother me in the present, cuz what exactly would be the point of all that?

Finally, let’s take a very brief look at this song’s video clip…….

We’re in a train station where folks are buying themselves tickets to Minneapolis. Some of those folks include members of the New Power Generation. Eventually you see Prince walking out with two sexy women on both of his arms. They then go into a caffeteria where, basically every other woman who’s not with Prince is ordering servings of cream. Then we cut back to Prince and his two women, whom he renamed “Diamond” and “Pearl.” They order strawberries with whipped cream. One of the women takes the cream off the dish with her finger and as soon as she does that, Prince puts the girl’s finger in his mouth and he sucks the cream off her fingertip. Later on in this very same video, Prince is grinding all over these two very same women, who are all decked out in black hot pants and overall sexy attire. So what does that tell you? That Prince is gay? Honestly if this is your attitude after seeing this video, then…..what can I say? You are incredibly ignorant. On so many levels.

By the way, anyone who says that Prince is gay for calling himself “pretty” may as well be calling Mohammad Ali gay, too. He used to say he was pretty all the time…..but then he’d kick your ass all the way into next year. So just bare that in mind.

Strollin’: If you know anything about Prince, you’d know that his parents were in a jazz trio and that he was named Prince Roger after his father who went by this very name whenever he performed on stage. So in that respect, you could say that Prince has always had a bit of jazz in him. This song is just a nice little jazz strut with a cool little jazzy guitar riff and incredibly high falsetto lead vocals from the man himself. The lyrics seem to be on the humorous and/or tounge in cheek tip, with lines like “We can rent some rollerskates, we can skate all round the lake, if we don’t know how we’ll fake it” and “See the man with the blue guitar, maybe one day he’ll be a star.” Seemed like he was rather sarcastically talking about himself, either that or Levi who was indeed playing the guitar in the video clip. Not really sure who it was that played on the album, though. Still, I find this song to be quite a joyous piece of work….even if it was really intended to be a cynical snarl of some description. Ten years later he dusted this song off and played it live at the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas. You can find that performance on DVD. This was one of those Prince songs that I always loved from the start. Brilliant work.

Willing And Able: Just how do you go about describing this song? I’m not really sure. I guess you could probably say that it’s acoustic soul. Mind you this was about 10 years before India Arie would release an album with the same title. The reason why I’d call it acoustic soul is because, obviously there are some acoustic guitars on the track. Aside from that, it has some really great, soulful vocals from Rosie Gaines as well as an incredibly high falsetto from Princey Nelson himself. Also joining them are a Gospel group called The Steeles, whom Prince was working with quite a bit in the 1990s. Once again they bring forth something of a soulful vibe to the song. Although this is a really great song, I think the version on the “Diamonds & Pearls” video collection is much better. Prince’s shrieks are a lot louder which therefore gives the song a lot more oomph if you will. Kicks it up the ass, basically. Again this is one of my all time favourites from Prince. Indeed, Tony M is featured on this cut, but…..surprisingly, he doesn’t bother me. Maybe that’s cuz he’s doing a spoken word piece this time around, as opposed to shouting at the top of his lungs like a maniac. This song also proves that Prince, when he really wants to, can write some pretty imaginitive lyrics. In particular “Like a child lost in the wilderness, til I reach my destination, I won’t rest.” Speaking of lyrics, another reviewer out there claimed that Prince stole a few words from the Bob Marley song “Is This Love.” Specifically, the lyric which says, “I’m willing and I’m able, I’m ready to place my cards on the table.” Well, actually, Bob said “I am willing and able. So I’ll throw my cards on ya table,” which is not quite the same….. and even if he was inspired by Bob to write that lyric down, then….cool. Music is supposed to inspire, right?

Gett Off: The first single lifted from the album was first brought to my attention while I was watching MTV one night back in 1991. At the time, the video and the song itself were unreleased, which is why the presenter claimed that “a little bit of it fell off the back of a truck.” Obviously was pre-internet days. As far as the song is concerned, it’s a hard hitting, hip hop influenced type of track whose lyrics are incredibly explicit. Prince begins the song by asking “How can I put this in a way so as not to offend or unnerve? But there’s a rumor goin’ all around that you ain’t been getting served.” Other words, this girl that Prince is singing to, hasn’t had sex in a very long while, hence the following line “they say that you ain’t you know what in baby who knows how long.” Then in the second verse, he sings of a woman who became unbelievably aroused when a friend of hers told her about “a little box with a tongue and a mirror inside.” Prince got so horny that he fucked her. He says it a little more politely, though: “What she told me got me so hot I knew that we could slide.” More proof that you don’t have to swear to be sexy. Once again Tony M has contributed some vocals to this song and this time it’s more like a very brief spoken word piece with only two lines: “Twenty three positions in a one night stand. I’ll only call you after if you say I can.” In 1999, Prince changed the “Twenty three positions” lyric to “Twenty three scriptures in a one night stand.” I had only ever heard of him doing that through other fans’ reviews of the concert in which he made that specific change. I thought it was a joke for a while, actually. However, once I saw it for myself, my jaw hit the floor in absolute disbelief. Now that’s a joke! Going from “Twenty three positions” to “Twenty three scriptures.” I mean, are you really gonna go grab your Bible and be like: “and the Lord said unto Moses…..thou shalt part thy legs…..I mean red sea.” Actually, maybe Prince would be inclined to do such things.

The year before Prince came out with this song, he released another one with the same title – actually it was “Get off” with one T, as opposed to two and it was basically a remix of the song “New Power Generation,” but at the same time it was a completely different song all together. If you listen carefully to this version of “Gett Off,” you’ll notice that, towards the end, Prince actually plays a guitar riff from the other version of “Get Off.” Also, it was another song – “Horny Pony” that was supposed to go here, but obviously Prince changed his mind and came up with this song instead. “Horny Pony” on the other hand, appeared on the B-Side of “Cream.” I think it was on the flipside of the “Gett Off” single in other parts of the world. The song title remained in the tracklisting, though. It says “Horny Pony” in red type face – right over “Gett off.”

Walk Don’t Walk: Sounds like this next one was a solo composition by Prince. There’s nothing here but an acoustic guitar, a programmed drum beat, his vocals which are nice n’ big and the odd sample of somebody beeping a car horn. I used to think that it was Rosie Gaines on the backing vocals, but the credits say that it’s actually Elisa Fiorillo. Each and every lyric ends with a question mark: “Walk on their side of the street?/Don’t walk where it feels the best?/Walk away from people you meet?” I’m guessing that Prince did that because the phrases didn’t really make too much sense to him, or maybe he was just questioning the whole notion that we aren’t supposed to walk however we choose to walk, wherever we choose to walk. He also reminds us not to walk too confidently, or else we’ll get walked all over. But when we finally choose to walk the way we want to walk, that’s when the sun will shine in our direction. It’s a really great, melodious, upbeat type of song. On the follow-up to this album, he made a song called “7,” which was very similar in structure. Then he did another song called “The Word” in 2006 on his “3121″ album, which was almost like a Jehovah’s Witness advertisement.

Jughead: So, how do you follow an incredibly melodious song about….walking the way you choose to walk? Hmmm….the possibilities are endless. Ooh! I know!!! Let’s create a brand new dance….what can we call it? Oh!! How ’bout “The Jughead!” Damn…that sounds fonky. So, how are we gonna do this dance? Let’s start by calling on Tony M to bust a rhyme. All righty. Tony, curse the mic!: “Kickin’ the jughead! We gettin fonky in the house tonight Kickin the jughead. Yeah, get stoopid!!! get stoopid!!” Pretty funky, right? Yeah!!! Really hyped…..all right, let’s get Prince to start rapping now: “Don’t worry if you’re looking silly, Look at me over here, I’m working for Willy.” The guy’s name is Willy, right? I guess that means he has to be a bit of a dick. Is that what Prince was implying? Maybe it was. I think this song actually got Prince into a hell of a lot of legal troubles with his ex-managers Ruffalo & Cavalli, who worked with him on “Purple Rain.” At the end of the song, Tony M can be heard arguing with his manager and slapping the hell out of him after he gets incredibly angry with him. What could possibly be the verdict here? How ’bout Prince shouldn’t have put this crap on here in the first place? That sounds great! Know why? Cause he’s a magnificent musican and he can do a thousand times better than this.

Money Don’t Matter Tonight: Once again we’re back to a much more organic sound and this time Prince is actually saying something serious and valid, as opposed to something downright stupid and infantile like dissin’ his ex-manager or whatever. But anyway, this song basically talks about how folks run into financial problems and can’t really support their families because they gamble all their money away, or they wind up getting ripped off by really bad real estate agents and what not. Also he sings about little kids being sent off to war and being killed by poisonous gases, which is obviously quite a disturbing reality. I’ve always thought that this was a really great song, which unfortunately wasn’t a very big hit. Two video clips exist for this song – one featuring footage of folks gambling, and a family more or less struggling while eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner. There’s also footage of Prince singing the song in that particular version of the clip. The other version doesn’t feature Prince at all – it just has the footage of people gambling and what not. Both were directed by Spike Lee.

Push: Now it’s time for another funky hip hop inspired type of track. This one features Prince singing in falsetto while Rosie Gaines and Tony M back him up. Lyrically the song’s all about not allowing folks to push you around and just how important it is to stand up for your rights, not to criticise other folks and what not. Eventually Tony M busts a rhyme and so do Prince and Rosie Gaines for that matter. Prince is actually quite hesitant to rap cuz he says “You don’t want me to get on the mic!” Basically the verse that he kicks appears on the back cover of the album and he more or less names all of the songs on the record. Sometimes I don’t mind this song, other times I wonder what the hell Prince was thinking when he decided to go into one of his Paisley Park studios and lay down a rap verse. I guess he was really trying to touch base with a younger audience. I’d be more inclined to press the skip button, though.

Insatiable: And here it is, what we’ve all been waiting to hear – that sexy seductive Prince ballad with soaring falsetto vocals. Prince begins things by instructing his woman to “turn the lights off, strike a candle,” because only she knows how to handle his body. He’s like a wildcat in a celibate rage. He wants to have her all to himself in his “dirty little cage.” You can only imagine what these lyrics must have done to each and every young female in his fanbase – even the ones that were married with children probably went all kinds of buckwild when they heard him say that stuff. If that’s what happened, then Prince would’ve been very happy with himself and I’m damn sure of that. The video clip was directed by a woman by the name of Randee St Nicholas and it featured Prince surrounded by a plethora of sexy women who were crawling around all suggestively. One of ‘em damn near showed her boobies to the camera. Whew! Now that was a sexy ass video. Back in 2000, some mumbling soul singer who calls himself D’Angelo copied this song’s style in the form of a Prince tribute called “How Does It Feel.” That was a pretty big hit in the States, actually.

Live For Love: Prince concludes the album with a robotic voice counting down 10 to 1, which was something that I never really liked about this song. What follows is a tune all about a young man who has no choice but to drop a whole bunch of bombs on innocent people and obviously he doesn’t really feel like he wants to take innocent people’s lives for no apparent reason. The character in the song wonders how he can possibly live for love when all he’s doing is a whole lot of harm to a whole lot of people that he doesn’t even know. Personally speaking, “Live For Love” was a song that I was never really a huge fan of. I’m not saying it’s a bad song, because it sounds really great – especially when you’ve got Michael B pounding the hell out of his drum kit. I guess what you could say, is that I never really paid this song very much attention. Why? Well that’s just how it is. Sometimes you love a song, other times you……don’t really give it much thought and kinda leave it alone.

Verdict: For the longest time, I couldn’t really bring myself to listen to this album, thanks in part to memories of ignoramises who constantly informed me that Prince was a faggot. Yeah, right. And so because of that, I really felt like this album wasn’t really all that good. However, when we cast aside moronic comments and morons in general, we are left with a relatively solid album from Prince and his band. Although if he had’ve done the album without Tony M, I think it would’ve been even better. Other than that, the album’s pretty good.

In early 2005 Prince won an NAACP Award, which is the National Association for the Advancement of Colour People. It was after winning this award that he dazzled the crowd with performances of James Brown’s “Don’t Give Me Nothin I’ll Get It Myself,” Aretha Franklin’s “I’ll Never Love A Man the Way I Love You” and of course classics such as “Housequake,” “The Bird” and “Jungle Love – both of which were performed by Morris Day himself. When this performance was over and done, he turned his back to the crowd and revealed four cryptic numbers: “3121.” It turned out that this was to be the name of his next album, which was pronounced “Thirty One Twenty One” and officially released a full year after he had made this particular appearance. As you can imagine, it was absolutely insane trying to wait for this album. In fact, right before it was due for release down here in Australia, I was pretty much tortured by not being allowed to actually purchase the disc for myself, despite the fact that practically every retailer in the country actually had it behind their counters. One of them even had it playing over their speakers, but they still wouldn’t give it up. Bastards! Turns out that retailers get fined if they sell albums the day before they’re supposed to be sold. The next day I went and bought it and then I wrote a review on rateyourmusic.com which was really just a whole bunch of ramblings…..similar to what I’m doing right now, actually. I did a proper one after that, but I think I was just too excited at the time, which is why in 2009, I decided to re-write my review. Here it is, for all to see:

3121: This absolutely electrifying title track saw The Purple One reuniting with two of his ex band members – bassist Sonny Thompson and monster drummer Michael Bland. He’s distorting his vocals, therefore creating somewhat of a quirky type of vibe – the likes of which are quite typical of Prince. The bottom line is that he’s being all kinds of innovative with this song, so I personally don’t have any complaints at all whatsoever. I know some fools out there were a bit confused by the lyrics in this song, but I personally believe that they in fact directly refer to the house parties that Prince was hosting at his house in Los Angeles, which he of course dubbed “3121.” From what I understand there was a huge chocolate fountain at this place, and you could literally drink beverages from glasses with chocolate handles, which is why he said exactly that in the song. Also the lyric, “It’s goin down like the wall of Berlin” was probably used in order for Prince to say, “It’s all happening just like an historic event.” Perhaps he was even trying to create some kind of hype for his parties. A few copies of this album actually included a “Purple Ticket,” which gave certain fans out there the chance to see Prince do his thang in his home in L.A., which he alledgely rented from a basketball player called Carlos Boozer. Apparently he wasn’t too happy with Prince for re-decorating his house and calling it “3121,” so he sued him. I don’t know what the outcome of all that was, or even if Prince still resides there, but it doesn’t really bother me too much.Obviously nobody had any idea what 3121 was all about. However it was later revealed by Prince during a live performance at the BET Awards in 2006 that it was actually a reference to a Bible verse (Psalms 31:21) “Blessed be the Lord, for He hath shewed me His marvellous kindness in a strong city.” Prince is a Jehovah’s Witness now, so his version says, “Blessed be Jehovah, For he has rendered wonderful loving-kindness to me in a city under stress.” It’s pretty much the same quote, save for the name “Jehovah” and of course the very last line of the verse, which also appears in a later edition of the King James version of the Bible – not just the 1965 edition that I’m looking at right now.

Lolita: One of my own personal faves off the “3121″ album sees Prince reclaiming that whole Minneapolis Funk sound that he made ever so popular back in the 1980s, in particular with a band of his by the name of The Time, which was of course fronted by one Morris E. Day. Yaiss. This song has it all – funky synth lines, a tight beat and a chant of “Fellas! How bad is this girl? BAD! Then what you wanna do?! Whatever you want! Then come on, let’s dance!” Indeed this was something that Morris did quite a bit, especially on songs like “Wild & Loose” and “Jerk Out.” The only difference is that it’s not quite as funky as it was back in the day, but I’m not exactly one for complaining and I’m definitely not still stuck in the eighties. Fans on PrinceOrg and what not are absolutely perfect at doing such things, so I’ll leave all the bitchin’ to those folks. Oops, I cussed….and Prince almost did the same thing in this very song: “Long time ago, we’d be the shhhh…… uh-oh!” Although when he sang it live in Las Vegas the crowd managed to holler back: “We’d be the SHIT!!!!!,” Prince was so taken aback by what they’d done that he practically forgot the next lyric. I laughed my ass off when I heard that for the first time.

Te Amo Corazón: This was the first single lifted from the album, which again, a lot of fans were complaining about because it was so mellow compared to anything else that Prince had ever released. They were all like: “Come on, Prince! Where’s the funk?” I really don’t know why those fools were moaning and groaning all day long. Personally speaking, I found this song to be nice & breezy, almost bossa nova-like in its structure, perhaps a little George Benson influenced what with that jazzy guitar riff. The song seems to be all about how Prince is constantly missing his woman, especially whenever he’s on long flights and that he’s generally afraid of losing her all together. I’ve no idea who he was talking about, but again I really couldn’t care less. It’s a nice song to me and that’s the bottom line.

Black Sweat: Prince initially debuted this song back in 2004 during one of the “Musicology” shows in the US. It was one of the tunes in the acoustic medley. As you can imagine many women out there were going all kinds of bananas when they first heard him singing the opening lyric: “I don’t wanna take my clothes off, but I do.” The studio version, however, featured a much more stripped down funk sound very much in the style of songs such as “Kiss” and Vanity 6′ “Nasty Girl.” Basically it was him and his beloved drums and synths. So, in essence, if “Lolita” was Prince reclaiming the classic Minneapolis Funk sound, then “Black Sweat” was a result of Prince doing exactly what he did best back in the good ol’ eighties: funkin’ it up in a stripped down style and gettin’ nasty as hell. Of course, there were a few other folks out there claiming that Prince was copying Lil John with this song, while somebody else thought it sounded more like a Prince parody as opposed to a serious Prince song. How ridiculous! This was the second single lifted from the album…..although it never got released in Australia for some unknown reason. Actually none of the singles from the album ever came out locally. Either that was Prince’s fault or Universal’s. Who the hell knows? The video was kinda cool though….it was all black & white with Prince just chillin out while some woman was trying to get his attention.

Incense And Candles: Once again, Prince mellows things out. This time he’s joined by a girl by the name of Tamar, who was his protege at the time. There were rumors that the two of them were a little more than just working buddies and that he’d even written the song “Lolita” all about her. In hindsight, when you listen to this song it’s pretty easy to see why folks would see things in such a manner. I mean, if Prince was doing her, then….cool, whatever – that’s his business. By the same token, it wasn’t cool at all, ’cause he was actually married to another woman at the time, which is probably why the both of them were trying ever so hard to resist the temptation. There’s even a line that says, “I know you want to take off all your clothes…. but please don’t do it.” That’s quite an unsual lyric for somebody like Prince, especially when we all know how freaky he used to be. This guy once said he wanted to “do it anywhere, everywhere, on the stairs….all right.” He had nothin’ but sex on the brain – sex, sex, sex and here he was saying “Oh no!! I gotta keep it in my pants because I’m married…..and even if I wasn’t it would still be a sin.” Overall I don’t think this song is anything special. Also the vocoder still gets on my nerves. Hell, it always did.

Love: Prince brings us another upbeat type of track. It’s kinda funky in places and it has a really great hook. He’s joined by Tamar once again, who provides backing vocals. Lyrically he seems to be responding to someone or something that’s been bothering him for a while: “Stop telling me what you want me to hear, stop telling me what you want me to fear…..” I guess you could say he sounds kinda aggitated when he sings those particular lyrics. The main message, though, seems to be that love will conquer all….or rather that it will always win no matter what. By the way, the chorus actually features a Bible quote (Luke 6:45), which is “From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Although in my own personal copy of the Bible, the passage is just a tad bit longer. It says “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasures of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil; for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” By the way, it says exactly that in the New World Translastion as well, so again…..no real differences there. He follows that Bible quote up with “Love is whatever you want it to be.” I don’t fully understand what he means by that. I think love can only be something good, not evil. Still, it’s a great track that certainly had potential to be a huge hit. Unfortunately it never worked out that way. He later had an acoustic version of “Love” streaming on his old website 3121.com.

Satisfied: Prince always seemed to have somewhat of an affinity with that heavy soul sound, which almost borders on the Gospel side of things. As we all know, Prince pretty much never failed to seduce his female audience with such numbers, as they almost always turned out to be sexy ballads with big bass drums and high falsettos from the man himself. The only difference is that in this particluar song he “ain’t talking about nothing physical, cuz foreplay starts in the mind.” Again, this is somewhat of a peculiar lyric coming from the likes of Prince Rogers Nelson. Normally you would expect him to be all over his woman, but unfortunately not this time. Still, that doesn’t necessarily take away from the fact that it is still a sexy song. He played this song for the very first time at the NAACP Awards back in early 2005.

Fury: Speaking of Prince debuting new material, he first played this one on an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2006. I didn’t really know what to make of it, as I sure as hell wasn’t expecting him to come with something new (same goes for the performance of “Satisfied” that I just spoke about) but I do know that many other fans out there were absolutely floored by what he had done with this song. It was a hard rockin’ Jimi Hendrix influenced type of track which seemed to suggest that it was all over for Prince and his second wife Manuela Testolini. I personally never picked up on that, but again other fans online seemed to work it all out. I guess Prince is far too cryptic for me. Either that or maybe I’m too much of a simpleton, I don’t know. This studio version, however, was slightly different. It featured him adding in some acoustic guitars along with a few licks from his Oberhiem synthesizer. Many fans had the shits, but I couldn’t have cared less. Also, if you listen very carefully to this song, you’ll hear a very sly sample of a woman coming right when he sings the line: “Y’all must have dug it, when you did your thing.” Although in the booklet he spells that sentence like “U’all must have dug it when U did ya thang.” There are also plenty of cute little heart symbols, eye logos, “C’s” “Us” “4U’s” “2s” “b4s” and dollar bills that litter the lyrics sheet. I just wish he’d stop spelling like a little kid – it’s so annoying!!!!! On another note, 2 different video clips were filmed for this song – one with a straight performance from Prince and another one combined with a “storyline.”

The Word: This song always reminded of a tune called “Walk Don’t Walk,” which of course was featured on his “Diamonds and Pearls” album in 1991, so I always thought of it as a really nice tune. I was never really sure about what he was actually singing about though. However, I soon came to the realisation that what Prince seems to be talking about is wanting to go and get saved by God and in order for us to do that, we all need to sit down and read the real word of God, which according to Prince is the New World Translations. Other words he wants us all to go out and find Jehovah. Once we do that we’ll always be protected by Him and together we will “safeguard against the forked tongue and the treachery of the wicked one.” Other words, God will save and protect us from Satan. That might be nice, but if you’re not a Jehovah’s Witness, who by the way reject the whole notion that Jesus is God and “disfellowship” whoever does them wrong, then…..I’m sorry Prince, but I have to disagree. I don’t see that as being “The Truth” at all. Interestingly, the lyrics sheet says, “There’s no reason to feel uneasy,” yet he replaces it with “No reason to feel such pain.” I wonder why he decided not to say what he originally wrote. I know that happens all the time in songs, but still I am still somewhat intrigued by the ommission of the original lyric.

Beautiful, Loved & Blessed: One more collaboration with Tamar Davis, although this one is more of a straight up duet between the two of them. It was also the original title track of her album which was scheduled for a release on NPG/Universal Records not too long after “3121,” but it wound up getting changed to “Milk And Honey” and then “shelved,” which means it never came out officially. I’d imagine Prince initially included this song in order to showcase Tamar’s talents, but now that it’s all over, it just seems to be another song on the album. I think the song’s okay…maybe not the greatest in the world, but decent enough. It’s certainly another one of those spiritual types of tunes, what with references to creation, the blood of Calvary and eventually finding “the truth” after begging for it for so long. Looks like Jehovah made His way into this one, too. Not that I’m entirely bothered by that. Although somebody else out there once told me that “Beautiful Loved and Blessed is a turd,” which is what he thought of it. Good for him….actually that comment kinda distorts my own opinion at times, but that’s to be expected I suppose. It’s better not to listen to others, though.

The Dance: Now it’s time for Prince to get all sad n’ lonely on us. I would even say heartbroken to some degree. He’s talking about how he doesn’t want to give his woman any love and that if he can’t be her lover he doesn’t want to be her friend, cause he’s had about enough of that. Actually he even sounds a bit scared of falling in love all over again, because he feels like he’s gonna always follow his woman around and just generally be…..I guess obsessed with her to some degree. Either that or he’s just letting her get to him. This song was actually released on another album of his called “The Chocolate Invasion.” The album was digitally released through his NPG Music Club about two or three years prior to “3121.” The older version of this song is dominated by a much more programmed type of sound, ie drum machines, synthesizers whereas the version on “3121″ has much more of a Latin type of sound and is dominated by an acoustic piano. Seeing as how this song is seemingly quite a personal one, he’s decided to cap it all off with a scream similar to the one he let out back in 1984 on a song of his called “The Beautiful Ones.” Only this time he’s not screaming out “Do you want him or do you want me.” Instead he’s saying, “It’s just not fair!!! It’s just not fair!!! Oh baby, baby baby baby……” For some reason, that scream didn’t seem to be as intense as the one I described earlier, which is probably why I perfer the original version just a little bit more. This one’s OK, not great though.

Get On The Boat: James Brown was always a huge influence on Prince and this song more or less has James’ name written all over it. There’s even a sax solo by Maceo Parker. They’re definitely bringing us that vintage JBs sound from back in the day on this cut. Lyrically it’s all about bringing folks together and just having one great big party. That’s what it may be saying if you’re not paying very close attention. If you are, however, you will notice that Prince is indeed singing about a whole bunch of people of all different races and creeds who are all “looking for the truth y’all.” Indeed that’s another reference to the Jehovah’s Witness Bible, but it’s only very slight. For the most part I have absolutely no problems with this song, or any other song where Prince is chanelling James Brown for that matter. If you didn’t know that music was supposed to inspire and that Prince was always into the Godfather of Soul, then…..I really don’t know what to tell you. Sheila E even plays percussion on this track, so like…..what are you complaining about?! It’s a great closer for the set.

Verdict: Obviously everybody sees things differently and that’s cool. I might not agree with that other person’s opinion, but at the end of the day, who the hell cares? No Prince is not gonna do “Sign O The Times” again, nor will he ever do “Lovesexy” or “Purple Rain.” Those days are well and truly over. Prince is all about evolution, so if you don’t like what he’s doing, simply move onto something that you do like. Now, as a whole I think this is quite a good album from Prince. No it’s not his best, but it’ll do me just fine. I’m just happy the man is still out there making records and that he’s fortunate enough to actually share that music with us all.

Even though his fourth album “Off The Wall” still managed to become a worldwide success, Michael Jackson was simply not content with the fact that it failed to become a humungous, worldwide smash. As a matter of fact, it has even been reported that when he didn’t receive a whole slew Grammy Award for all his troubles, he was so mad that he actually broke down and wept. Obviously it was after experiencing such emotions that he decided to start thinking outside the box. He knew that this time around, he absolutely had to do something that was going to make the world stand back in complete and total awe. And that’s exactly what he did. He went into the studio with Quincy Jones, allegedly recorded about 300 songs and then they both cut them all the way down to the strongest nine. However, the album was still not quite ready for a release. Michael and Quincy thought that the album sounded far too clenched together, so they took a couple of weeks off, went back into the studio and remixed the record. Eventually they got it right and the album was released towards the end of 1982. I think it was about November or December when it finally hit the stores. That means I would’ve been about 10 or 11 months old.

I was later given a copy of the record (yes the LP), which I pretty much played the hell out of throughout my entire life. Then at age 22, I rather stupidly threw it down on the floor and smashed to smitherines in, as Samuel L Jackson would say “Fuuuuuuuurious anger!!!!” Not too long after that I went out and bought myself a copy of the remastered edition, which was originally released in 2001. Yeah, it was nice to hear the album in fantastic quality along with a few bonus cuts, but it wasn’t the same as hearing it on vinyl.

Someone else gave me a copy of their LP version several years later, but there was a big muthafucka of a scratch all the way down Side One. Needless to say, I wound up selling that copy, at a garage sale in 2008. What a shame. I kept meaning to find a much better version on wax, but I never did. Although I did buy myself the picture disc shortly after he passed. By the way, I think it’s a pirate copy. Guess I might have to settle for the 25th Anniversay Edition LP with the Will.I.Aint remix of “The Girl Is Mine” and the Akorn remix of “Wanna Be Starting Something.” God help me. Anyways, life stories n chit aside, here’s my review of the biggest selling album of all time:

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’: Michael kicked off his second album for Epic Records with one heck of a killer dance number. In some ways, you could say that its structure was very close to “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough,” which of course was the first song on “Off The Wall.” If this is what you thought then you wouldn’t really be too far off because the song was actually written some time in the late ’70s anyway….at least that’s what a few biographies are saying. The only difference is that with this song he completely brought the funk…..in so many ways. The African chant of “Mama say mama sa mama coo sa” was absolutely freakin legendary and it still is to this day. Aside from that it has some of the most memorable lyrics which, as a child confused me. In particular: “Someone’s always trying to start my baby crying……” I thought he was referring to a baby, as in Gaga-goo-ga. Gaga-goo Ga. Gaga-goo Ga Ga. Obviously as an adult I know better. I don’t think this song makes very much sense, although it was apparently quite a personal one for Michael himself. In fact, lines like “You’re a vegetable, you’re a buffet, they eat off of you” apparently reflected the way in which he was being treated by the media and what not. Pretty sad now that he’s passed away. Song meanings aside, this is still one of those songs that’s gonna really rock da floor at any house party or dance party. It always kicked ass to me and it was and still is the perfect opener for an album every bit as classic and timeless as this one. Everytime I listen to “Wanna Be Starting Something” I always picture Mike decked out in his now legendary white suit, just totally rockin da house with a gang of Africans behind him chanting, dancing traditional African dances and thumpin away on bongo drums. Of course, Mike woulda had the jheri curl in his hair. That woulda been a killer video, I think. Unfortunately the one they wound up releasing was lame. Michael wrote this song all by himself, by the way. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

Baby Be Mine: Next up is another classic from Michael Joseph Jackson – the legendary King of Pop. It’s a funky little dance number with plenty of chicken scratch guitars and very minimal eighties drums and synths. Vocally it’s exactly what you would expect from Michael Jackson, he’s singing in that beautiful soulful voice of his and the harmonies are nothin short of legendary. I’m not quite sure what or who inspired Rod Temperton to write this song, but if Mike was somehow dared to record his own personal version of, say “Blame It On The Boogie” then, he most definitely hit the nail on the head, cuz this song is absolutely drenched in that classic Jacksons sound. If it were featured on the “Destiny” album back in the day, it wouldn’t have been too out of place. That never registered with me whenever I’d listen to this album as a child, but then again, I never really heard anything that Mike did with his brothers, so I guess I never really knew what they all sounded like as a group. It’s definitely a very joyous song that’s perfect for dancing.

The Girl Is Mine: Although this song was a duet with Paul McCartney, it was actually written by Michael Jackson entirely on his own. It’s a midtempo R’n'B number which is basically all about two guys fighting over the same woman, but they’re doing it in a very playful type of manner. At one point during the song, Paul turns to Mike and says, “Michael, we’re not gonna fight about this, okay?” And of course, he responds with possibly the most memorable quote in pop music history: “Paul, I think I told ya, I’m a lover not a fighter.” Even Prince said “Michael’s not a fighter he’s a lover” when he was asked who would win in a punch up between the two icons. Prince was quite amused by that question, but I sure wasn’t – I thought it was dumb. On so many levels. Then in 2009, an artist by the name of Cherokee released a song called “Michael Told Paul,” in which she said “I’m not a fighter, did you hear the song? When Michael told Paul long ago.” I suppose the song was her own personal tribute to the man, seeing as how she spoke of being influenced by his music in interviews. On another note, I used to think that this song was all kinds of corny…….but who the hell was I foolin’? It’s an instant classic and absolutely nobody on this Earth will ever be able to sing like Michael Jackson. Ever. Not even two female singers called Brandy and Monica who released a female version in 1998 called “The Boy Is Mine.” Some folks out there missed the point of that one, but I knew better. Turns out that “The Girl Is Mine” was actually the first single off “Thriller.” And all this time I thought it was either “Billie Jean” or “Beat It.”

Thriller: Doors creaking open, evil dead folks coming out of their tombs, wolves howling. Just what was all of this…..madness?! It was Michael conquering the world, that’s what it was. And he did it with a whole bunch of scary movie noises and lyrics about running for your life while the big scary alien’s jaws come down to chomp on you. There was also another fellow standing under the full moon and suddenly becoming something other than himself. Michael then went on to make his own personal horror flick, which was more or less the video clip for this very song. We all saw him taking his girlfriend out on a date, then turning into a werewolf and later on in the flick, he became a groovy, jazzy, pop lockin zombie who turned back into Michael Jackson and sang the legendary chorus: “Cos this is thriller. Thriller night and no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike, you know it’s Thriller. Thriller night…..girl I can thrill ya more than any ghoul/ghost could ever dare try.” For real? Damn, so what are you suggesting, Mike? That you’re a scary dude? Nah, we all knew that nothing was further from the truth. Mike even said that whenever he looked in the mirror while he was dressed up a zombie, he would even be scared of himself! One thing’s for sure, this video clip scared the ish out of me when I was little. Not only did Michael make his own little horror flick with the help of John Landis, his producer Quincy Jones also got Vincent Price to come in and contribute a “horrific” spoken word piece. Or a rap if you will, which was very frantically written by Rod Temperton. Mind you, he wrote all the other verses in the song as well – not just the “rap verse.” Although, in the original demo, Michael was actually singing: “We need some starlight, starlight sun” but he and Quincy weren’t too thrilled with that (no pun intended) so they started throwing other ideas around: “What if it was, like…….a scary movie……..” and the rest was history. Something else that just popped into my mind……when I was 12 years old, these people came to my school and put on some kinda…..I dunno…scatter brained performance where some dude was reciting the Vincent Price rap, y’know “Darkness falls across the land…..the midnight hour is close at hand……” I had a couple of fellas sitting next to me laughing. Not sure if that was cuz they thought that it was funny, or if they were unfamiliar with the piece, but deep down inside I was like “That’s Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” you bunch of ignoramises!!!!!” Oh well, I can’t help it if I’m a natural born music fanatic…….unlike some people out there who were deprived of such brilliance. I also recall these same people performing the Prince song “Kiss” in an acapella style. Again, several ignoramis muthafuckas were lookin all kinds of confused.

Beat It: Michael once said that he was watching TV one day, and he saw an advertisement for McDonalds where the jingle featured a hard rockin guitar riff, so he went into the studio and started throwing some ideas around. Eventually this is what he came up with. Quincy Jones then called on Eddie Van Halen to add in that very guitar part. However, Mr Van Halen thought that it was somebody pulling his leg, so he cussed Quincy out several times before he realized that it was actually no joke at all. Michael sings about a gang of youths who are walking around town acting all kinds of tough and picking fights with everybody that they run into. They’re just trying to be as hardcore as they possibly can. Michael, on the other hand, feels that you can still be a man by not having to fight at all, which is why he’s seen breaking up the fight between the two (real life) gangs in the video clip. Yes, this is the clip where he wore that legendary red jacket and perfomed that freakin INCREDIBLE dance sequence towards the end of the video, which was apparently inspired by Westside Story. I remember seeing him do that very same dance during the Jacksons reunion special back in 2001 and I was damn near crying. Seriously. I mean….can you dance like that? If you can, then you’re very lucky. I know Jamie Foxx can – he did it on an episode of his short-lived sitcom back in 1998 or so. This song was later covered by a fella called Señor Coconut. Trust me, it was supposed to be funny.

Billie Jean: One of the most recognised songs in the entire Michael Jackson catalogue is also one of the most legendary and iconic pop songs ever written. Although from what I’ve read online and in biographies, Quincy Jones didn’t exactly like this song very much when he first heard it. He felt as though it wasn’t ambitious enough and that the intro was far too long. On the Special Edition of “Thriller,” he remarks that “you could shave off of that intro!” Michael made him eat his words, though, when he simply said “But that’s how I dance, man!” I’ll bet he ate his words even more when this song blew up all over the globe. Actually what’s worse is the fact that they were even gonna elimininate the song all together. Or so Wikipedia says. As far as the subject matter is concerned, Michael had originally stated that the song was about some crazy fan who (literally) jumped over his fence and claimed that he was the father of one of her twins, which…..as you can see, does not make the slightest bit of sense. He later came clean and stated that there never was a real Billie Jean and that it was actually a few of his brothers who came across such nutjobs. Of course the video clip blew everybody’s minds to smitherines, what with him strutting down the street and each tile lighting up. After Michael passed away. Philadelphia-based rap band The Roots recorded a Bossa Nova styled cover of this song, with their drummer Questlove on lead vocals. Quirky songstress Erykah Badu also dropped by to say her piece on the track, meaning that she, rather humorously responded to the lyric “the kid is not my son” with such comments as “Yes he is!!!! Look at his chin!! Look at his nose!! Look at his forehead!!” At first I was quite insulted by their cover, as I thought they were making a mockery of this iconic tune as well as Michael and his legacy, but after a few listens I realized that they were just having a laugh and celebrating the man’s music, rather than being all sad about such a tremendous loss. Although another artist called Caetano Veloso covered the song in the same manner. However, there was no response to him claiming that “the kid is not my son.” It was just him and an acoustic guitar.

Human Nature: This song’s music was composed by Steve Porcaro of the group Toto. One of his bandmates, Steve Lukather played guitar on it, while the lyrics were written by a fella called John Bettis, who has apparently written over 800 songs. Among them “Crazy For You” by Madonna, “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes and the theme song to the eighties sitcom “Growing Pains.” I’m not really sure what his voice sounds like, or if he even sings at all, but one thing’s for sure, when Michael Jackson got on the mic to sing that other man’s lyrics…..he completely made them his own. If you take a look at the lyrics sheet, you’ll notice that those are some absolutely stunningly gorgeous words and who better to interpret them than Michael Joseph Jackson? I mean, who else out there had a voice as beautiful as his? Nobody! Best lyric: “If this town is just an apple, let me take a bite.” Wow. Miles Davis played this song in concert quite a bit. At one stage Chaka Khan joined him and sang the lead vocals. He also included a studio version of it on his album “You’re Under Arrest,” while female R&B group SWV (Sisters With Voices) sampled it for their 1992 hit single “Right Here.” I thought that was very cool at the time. Originally a song called “Carousel” was supposed to go here, but they replaced it with “Human Nature” instead. In a way I’m glad they did that cuz I find that song to be just a tad bit nauseating.

Pretty Young Thing: At first this song was a much more chilled out, mid tempo type of R’n'B number, which, once again featured Michael singing in that soulful voice of his. I’d say they decided to bump up the tempo most notably because of the fact that they had just done a song in that very same style, so why not come with something new instead? What they wound up giving us was, to my mind quite an Earth Wind & Fire influenced type of groove, which I believe was quite heavily influenced by such songs as “September” and “Let’s Groove.” I’m not really sure if the fellas who wrote this song (James Ingrahm & Quincy Jones) were actually going for that type of vibe, but hey…..I’m always reminded of those two EWF jams whenever I hear it. Mind you I never really picked up on that till I was about 18, 19….maybe 20 at the latest. The reason why I think it’s quite EWF influenced is because first of all, the song’s overall vibe is happiness and upliftment, just like a great EWF tune should be. Also the harmonies remind me quite a bit of what Maurice White & Phil Bailey were doing back in the day. Finally the vocoder in the bridge: “Pretty young thing…..ooh!” reminds me of the intro to “Let’s Groove.” Speaking of which…..the “pretty young things” in this song were actually Michael’s sisters Janet and Latoya. Another thing that I noticed about this song when I got older was the fact that Michael was pretty much gettin his mack on: “I want to love you, pretty young thing. You need some loving. Tender loving care. And I’ll take you there.” He even sings about “We can dim the lights.” This was definitely something different from Michael Jackson…..although “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You” were kind of like that, too. At the end of the day, though, this song is a freakin CLASSIC!!!

The Lady In My Life: One more Rod Temperton composition to cap things off. The message is pretty straight forward – it’s just about a man who will love his wife unconditionally. It might not even be his wife – could just be a woman he’s completely committed to, but even so it would make for a perfect wedding song. As you can imagine, Mike sings it ever so beautifully just like he should. I always used to hear this song being played over the speakers at my very EX place of employment and occasionally I’m quite unfortunately reminded of that whenever I put it on. Oh well, at least they had a great taste in music. I mean hearing Michael sing in that voice of his is bliss anyway. Really soothes the soul. Anyhow, in 1995 LL Cool J & Boyz II Men released a song by the name of “Hey Lover” which sampled the opening bass riff from this particular song. The chorus ran: “Hey lover, this is more than a crush.” I guess that’s why they used “Lady in my life” as a backdrop. Although LL apparently once claimed he “never cared for Michael or Prince” in one of his earlier rap crap songs. I guess he changed his attitude pretty quickly cause when Mike won a lifetime achievement award in 1993, he was patting him on the back and hugging him. Hypocrites aside, this is a really nice closer, although it’s more or less grown folks music, which is probably why I paid it very much attention as a child.

Verdict: When I was little, I used to listen to this album along with the “Bad” album…..and I used to think that Michael had made this music JUST for me. And nobody else in the whole wide world ever deserved to hear the stuff that he was releasing. NOW have you got enough proof of exactly how much I loved this man? The fact that somebody else out there had actually sent me a pretty little note at the tender age of five or six with the words “To Adam Love Michael Jackson” only intensified the feeling that Michael was singing to me alone. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one either.

Oh, I loved Michael Jackson all right. I was just never one of those people who dry heaved or passed out and yelled out “MICHAEL I LOVE YOU!!!!!” at his concerts. Actually, I never even saw him live. In fact, right before he passed…..I was sort of going back to that whole realisation that I totally adored him as a child. I was listening to his music all over again and I was almost about to start buying his stuff, but I’d always stop myself. Why?!

But anyways…back to this album…..I mean…..if you sit down and listen to it, you’ll notice that practically every song was a hit single all over the world. And even the songs that weren’t hits are still classics. There aren’t too many other albums out there like that….well….except for maybe Prince’s “Purple Rain” from 1984 which had the same amount of songs on it and bore the same amount of singles. I want to say, every single person should go out and buy themselves a copy of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album, but I don’t really want to stick my opinion down everybody’s throat. I think everybody should make up their own minds. Also now that Michael’s passed away, folks have probably already bought the album in bundles anyway. Michael may have physically left the Earth, but his music will live on forever and this album will continue to sell like hotcakes. A classic album is a classic album. God bless Michael Jackson. End of review.

I wrote this review back in 2007.. I thought it was already on my blog, but…..obviously not. There could be a few errors in the review for all I know. Also I’m betting that a few of my opinions may’ve changed since writing the review, but I’m gonna just leave it all in there. Sure, why not? Check it out.

This album was Rahsaan’s second offering and was to be his final album for MCA Records. Originally released in 1999, there were two different versions of “Love In Stereo” available in stores – a standard version with a blue cover, and a reddish brown one (that was a little in-joke for all of the Prince heads reading this review) which featured an enhanced portion.
Personally I never bought this album until early 2002 at a CD & book sale mostly because the album was far too expensive for me at the time of its original release, and so grabbing it for as low as ten bucks was certainly very cool with me.

Anyways, this disc sat in my collection for a while gathering dust until one day I decided to give it a spin. I’ve been addicted ever since. For those of you interested the one I have in my collection is the ’standard’ version with the blue cover. All right then – Here’s my review:

Treat You Like A Queen: This track has a very Timberland inspired type of beat behind it….which means it has that, sorta….jittery type of beat behind it, which was a very popular sound when this album was released back in 1999. Perhaps a lot of Rahsaan’s listeners may have been put off by that when they first heard it, but I of course took no such issue. Lyrically it’s all about a woman who’s been physically abused by her partner. Rahsaan is just telling her to get away from the situation. Pretty sad way to begin an album but it’s also a harsh reality.

Sure Boy: Track 2 was one of those tracks that I kept going back to when I first bought this album. This time around it’s more of what you would expect from Rahsaan Patterson – laid back funk/soul. “Sure Boy” is also one of the many songs on this record which was produced and co-written by a fella by the name of Van Hunt. Strangely enough he put out an album several years later which featured a song on it called “Hello Goodbye,” which sounded an awful lot like this one as far as the melody was concerned. I really like the chorus on this track: “I’m a sure boy with an open heart, down to finish what I start, can’t nobody change my tune.” Those are definitely some spot on lyrics that I can relate to.

Digging Your Scene: For a long time I thought that this was an original song of Rahsaan’s, but actually it’s a remake of an incredibly wack eighties song originally performed by a bunch of extremely unfunky, big haired white fellas who called themselves The Blow Monkeys. Even their name was wack!! Rahsaan definitely made this track his own then if that was my reaction. It’s soulful as hell cuz Rahsaan sings his ass off.

Do You Feel The Way I Do: Once again we’re back to the Timberland beats, and once again I really don’t mind cause it’s a really nice track. He’s just asking his girl if she feels the same way that he does – y’know, smitten, infatuated, all that kinda stuff. It’s another track I always keep going back to & it’s very well done.

The Moment: “Sometimes that’s all it is desire and sex appeal.” Ah yes. This is one of my favourite cuts on the album. Some may describe this track as very slow & seductive…..are those the right words? Not even I know! But what I do know is that once again it was produced & co-written by Van Hunt and also it samples a Bootsy Collins track called “Physical Love.” Thank God for liner notes! If it weren’t for them I’d be totally lost….this disc introduced me to that particular jam.

Friend Of Mine: For some reason I feel like this track has much more of a “dark” kinda sound to it than perhaps the other songs on the record might. I also felt that when it got to the strings at the end of this cut, it was as if there was some kind of a sunshine coming out of the darkness….. if that makes any sense to anybody out there. Anyhow, it seems to be all about how his girlfriends have cheated on him and/or his friends have dumped him. He’s asking these people why they did what they did.

This song also gives me the impression that Rahsaan might like it both ways. In the first verse he sings all about a woman, then in the second verse he comes out (no pun intended) with, “He struck my heart with a cord.” How many straight guys have you heard say something like that before? Maybe it’s just my mind workin’ overtime again. I mean I really don’t care if he is gay, and at the end of the day it’s nobody else’s business except Rahsaan’s, but even so it has me wondering. Van Hunt was behind this one too.

The Day: I quite like this track myself. Musically it sounds a lot closer to “The Moment,” which is probably why it is where it is on the album. Lyrically, Rahsaan is “looking for the day when everbody lives for love.” Not too sure when or if that day will come along, but that gives me the impression that he has a positive outlook on life, so it’s nice to know he feels like that I suppose.

It’s Alright Now: Before Rahsaan steps to the mic to sing this song, he ignites a cigarette and sucks on it like his life depends on it. Other than that it’s a very classy soul ballad which was most probably influenced by Rufus and Chaka Khan. If so, good choice.

Humor: Rahsaan didn’t write this track at all – Van Hunt did. It’s a great slice of funky soul, which features Rahsaan sounding an awful lot like a young Stevie Wonder. Yeah, he does tend to sound like that most of the time, but this time he’s really sounding a lot like Stevie. It’s a bit scary actually….but in a good way.

Any Other Love: While Rahsaan is usually lumped into the so-called “Neo Soul” category, I personally would describe this track as having a typical R&B/Soul sound…it’s one of those real smooth type of cuts.

Get Here: If you’re familiar with your eighties house you would have heard of a guy by the name of Steve “Silk” Hurley. Back in ‘87 he had a huge hit with a track called “Jack Your Body.” More than a decade later he returned to pen this great slice of Prince-styled electro funk for Rahsaan Patterson’s second album….yep, he certainly did a great job too.

So Right: I wanna say that this track has a very gospel influenced type of sound to it, but….I’m not too sure if I would be right with my description or not. Whatever category you decide to throw it into, it’s still a good track.

It Ain’t Love: It seems kind of ironic that Rahsaan would begin the album with a song about a woman being physically abused and then end it with a track about how a woman is abusing him whenever he’s giving her nothing but love. I guess musically it’s a typical funk/soul type of song, and…..it’s not a bad track to end the album with.

Verdict: This is definitely one of my favourite albums of all time. It’s very laidback, very classy & overall very well done. Every single song on here is listenable & nothing really makes me wanna press the skip button. Definitely worth checking out if you dig funky soul music.

On Wednesday October 7th 2009, an Australian variety show, which I watched religiously as a child called “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” aired their second reunion special. Both episodes were aired after the show was taken off the air in 1999. One of the segments in the show is a mock talent show called “Red Faces,” which sees amateur entertainers trying to receive a high score from a panel of celebrity judges and also trying to avoid being “gonged” by Hey Hey’s very own, spiteful judge Red Symonds, who is also the guitar player in the house band on the show. He also used to play guitar in the Aussie rock band, Skyhooks. Hence the name – “Red Faces.” It’s basically a send-up of an actual real-life talent show called “New Faces.”

During this particular episode of “Red Faces,” an act who called themselves “The Jackson Jive” decided to pay tribute to the recently deceased Michael Jackson and his family of brothers by performing the song “Can You Feel It.” The act began with five men walking out wearing black face paint, sky blue suits and one glittery glove. They were all shucking their hips Jackson style until another man eventually came out wearing white face paint. He then began to sing Michael Jackson’s part of the song. The audience members were all geninuely loving the performance. However, it wasn’t too long before Red got up and gonged them once and for all. Then it was time for the panel to speak on what they’d just seen.

The first judge on the panel was the American jazz musician Harry Connick Jr who scored them a zero out of ten and said that their act would not have gone down very well in the States, claiming that it would’ve been more like “Hey Hey It’s No More Show.” Obviously he was quite disgusted in their act. It was written all over his face. The next judge was another “Hey Hey” regular, Jackie McDonald, who had been missing from the show for many years. She actually rated them pretty high. I think it was a six. Red, on the other hand “chastised” the audience: “Oh! Come on! What would YOU have given them?!” And he held up his score sheet. “1.”

Towards the end of the episode, the host of the show Darryl Sommers made a public apology to Harry Connick, who informed him that “In America, we’ve been trying not to make black Americans look like buffoons, so when we see something like that, we take it really to heart.”

Of course, the next day it was all over the news. It was also posted on YouTube where folks made such comments as “Harry Connick is a retard” and “Maybe the real racist is Harry himself, what’s he trying to hide?” Some of these comments came from the States, others from Ireland and Australia.

Now, from my side, I didn’t think this “tribute” was a very nice gesture at all. In fact, from the very moment I heard the name of the group, I was immediately put off, especially considering the fact that the act before them was a very poor excuse for a human being who burped in rhythm. That’s another story all together, but let me get back to what I’m actually discussing here…..let me start with a little bit of background:

All the way back in the ’20s, white folks in America used to put on variety shows where they would take a cork, burn it all the way down to a crisp, take the ashes from it and paint their faces black. Either that or they’d just use some kind of face paint…perhaps shoe polish, but anyways, they would then get up on the stage and pretend that they were black. Now, what that means is that, they would stand up there and act really slow witted. They would speak in a “dopey black” voice, they would become quite excited at the mere thought of chicken and watermelon and they would run like hell from the white men. Or their slave masters, if you will. And it wasn’t even white folks who would paint their faces black, it would even be black folks. So, really, you had people making a mockery of their own damn selves. Yes, this was how people got entertained all of those centuries ago. When you look back on Minstrel shows, you realize that they were created in order to degrade, dehumanise and overall humiliate all of the black folks in America.

Hence, Harry Connick Jr turning up his nose and scoring them a big fat zero. Obviously Harry’s white, but he grew up in New Orleans. After judging on Red Faces, he performed a song from his latest album and it was revealed that his drummer just so happened to be a black man. Kinda made me wonder what he had to say about that shit. Yes, the man who performed as “Michael Jackson” was Indian, but that’s no excuse at all.

The whole reason why this performance has caused so much controversy throughout the entire universe, is simply because of the fact that unfortunately we Australians don’t know anything about minstrel shows at all. Obviously I know about them, but I’d say if you interviewed a whole bunch of people off the street, a lot of ‘em would probably be hard-pressed to give you a response. It also just so happens that 20 years ago, these very same guys performed exactly the same routine right there on Red Faces and they actually won the segment. I guess they figured that since it was a reunion show, they would’ve been able to pull it off again. Maybe if Harry Connick wasn’t on the judges panel it could’ve been an entirely different story. Even so, I hate to break it to ya, fellas…….but….. life’s about changes. Just like Amp Fiddler said. Cause if things were exactly the way they were 20 years ago…..I’d still be a seven year old kid and all of those people born in 1989 would still be babies. Sounds pretty silly, doesn’t it? Well there ya go.

Speaking from the perspective of somebody who absolutely adored Michael Jackson as a little kid, whenever I see a supposed “tribute” like this one, it makes my blood boil like you wouldn’t believe. Honestly, if you want to pay tribute to a LEGENDARY performer like this man, then all you need to do, is get some dude who can mimic that beautiful, soulful voice of his, along with his legendary dance steps. Then get ‘em to throw on one of those “Beat It” leather jackets and you’re off. Now obviously you’re gonna look like a stiff board compared to the King of Pop himself, but hey, at least you aren’t belittling him and degrading him like these guys were.

The newspaper alleges that Harry Connick “almost” walked out of the studio, but if I were in the audience that night, I would’ve done exactly that. Oh, and by the way, with the exception of the very last act, ALL of those clowns would’ve received a big fat zero from me. I know that sounds really cruel, but when I see crap I see crap. End of story.

This album was released in 1988 and was the follow-up to Sade’s third album “Promise” from 1985. It was after this album that she took one hell of a longass pause and more or less got on with her life. Then she released “Love Deluxe” in 1992. Ah, these artists….and their fart-assery. Nah, I shouldn’t say that, they’re artists, they’ve got to get it right. Instead of just throwing anything together and then putting it out. OK, back to the review..we’re gettin’ just a little too sidetracked here. About as much as I can tell you, is that I had Sade’s “Stronger Than Pride” in my record collection pretty much since it first came out all of those years ago. It originally belonged to my uncle, but since we never gave it back to him, he was like “just keep it.” Sure, why not? I never really listened to this album, though, for some reason or another. I guess you could say I never really made it past the first two songs or so….don’t ask me why, but that was the situation. Come to think of it those were the first two singles lifted from the album….at least if my memory serves me correctly they were. But anyway, here’s a full on, track for track analysis of this album. Check it out:

Love Is Stronger Than Pride: It never really occurred to me exactly what this song was all about. In fact, I felt this way for many years. You can’t really blame me, though, I was all of six years old when this album came out, so I guess there’s that, but anyway I now think it’s quite obvious that this is a break-up song, where Sade has basically penned an open letter to her ex-lover. She’s more or less looking back on the situation and telling the man that she’s not going to pretend that she’s good at forgiving him and that she’s even thought of suicide, along with outright hating the guy’s guts. But now she realises that it’s not worth doing any of that stuff. Likewise, it’s not worth sitting around, dwelling on the past, so she’s just gonna get on with her life, but at the same time she understands that she still loves her ex-boyfriend regardless, because love is stronger than pride. That’s a very mature way of looking at it, I think. The beat behind this song sounds rather African influenced. It’s definitely a bongo drum of some description, along with a few acoustic guitars and what not. It’s quite a stripped down type of tune in that respect. Rahsaan Patterson later did a re-make of this song in 2005 or so and Prince called it “one of the most beautiful tunes ever” during an interview with Tavis Smiley in 2009.

Paradise: Now, on the flipside of things, we have a Sade happy song. Yay!!! Let us rejoice. Matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve even heard her doing this type of song before, which is….kinda interesting, I suppose. But anyway, what we’re more or less her being told here is that her man is absolutely fantastic! And she wants everybody in the entire universe to know just how good this fella truly is….like Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. OK, maybe not to that extent. Anyhow, let me give you all a small sample of such compliments: “I’d wash the sand off the shore, give you the world if it was mine. Blow down you right to my door.” Shit, that’s a double entendre and a half if I ever saw one. But yeah, this song’s pretty much the opposite of what we’ve just heard. Towards the end, she and her band croon the words “ooh what life,” followed by “gonna share my life with you.” Sounds good. I’d imagine she’s no longer with this man, though – that was all the way back in 1988.

Nothing Can Come Between Us: As you can probably imagine, the title of this next song pretty much speaks for itself. So do the lyrics, for that matter. Basically what she’s saying here is that her relationship is all about faith and trust. Absolutely nothing in the whole wide world can stand between Sade and her man. Or as I’m sure a lot of women have said to their men in the past, present and future: “Nothing can come between us.” What Sade and her man had was quite strong at the time…or so she thought. But like I said previously, that relationship is probably done right now. She always sings about heartache every other time, so I could be right for all I know. Also, for a split second, I thought this song and “Paradise” sounded somewhat similar. Don’t ask me why.

Haunt Me: Ah, the Epic Records logo…….see how beautiful that thing looks spinning around on that big ole player of mine? It’s a wonderful merging of the colours blue and yellow. Vinyl Records…..they’re a wonderful thing. Truly. As for this song in particular, it’s yet another one of those acoustic ballads that Sade loves to throw onto…..basically all of her albums. Every once in a while. This woman says she wants to be haunted by a certain person…..and that if that person ever needs help, she’s always there for them. She’s encouraging this person never to doubt her, either. Ummm…..I think it’s time to lift the needle off this LP and move onto the next song.

Turn My Back On You: Time to bump up the tempo once again. I think I read somewhere online that a lot of hip hop heads were really diggin this song when it first came out. Or was that a lot of DJs? Anyways, the song’s pretty funky and it consists of only a few very simple words, which therefore gives us a message that is quite simple to understand. Sade never wants to turn her back on…….who?…..her boyfriend? Could be…..but then later on in the song she says “you are my religion.” So, I guess that could be God that she’s singing about for all we know. On the other hand, maybe it was just a dude she was referring to. Who knows? Basically, that’s the whole song, whose chorus is repeated over & over again: “To turn my back on you. Now would I turn my back on me……” I guess not. The video for this song featured Sade looking sorta like a dude. She had one of those woman suits on with her hair slicked back. I’m not saying every girl’s gotta be frilly or whatever – it just looks wrong to me when a woman wears a suit like that. “Turn by back on you” closed Side One of the album.

Keep Looking: The first song on Side Two is your typical slice of Sade funk. It makes you move, but the bassline’s kinda sexy at the same time. Or at least I tend to think so. This song isn’t about sex, though, it’s more about not sitting around and letting all of the bad things hold you back, or not lying awake at night doing pretty much the same thing. Instead, hold your head up high and move forward. Or keep looking as she says. Most of all, don’t show your weakness and don’t let folks get you down. I never really noticed that she was conveying such a positive message in this song, but I do now. Great stuff. Even if it does sound kinda like “Paradise Pt3.”

Clean Heart: Next up is another ballad, which is acoustic based. Sade sings of a young man who was treated just like a grown up by his family. She says that he “loved his mother like an Italian.” Just what the heck are you impying here, Ms Adu? That we love our mothers just a tad too much? Or that we are great lovers? I hope it wasn’t meant to be anything too overtly disgusting. Anyways, I’ve heard that one of the songs on this album is supposedly about suicide. Could be this one, cause she says that the night is so hot it makes you feel like dying. If that is indeed the case, then it would be contradictory following up a song about encouragement with one about somebody who kills themself. I could be wrong about this song’s meaning though. I hope I am incorrect in this respect. Anyhow, the song’s pretty decent. It sounds even better with the record crackling under that stylus.

Give It Up: For track three on side two, Sade is backed by a bongo drum, a hi hat, a bass, perhaps a Rhodes piano and some very minimal sax licks. That’s all it is. Pretty stripped down, I think. It still manages to creates something of a danceable groove, though. Lyrically she’s just talking about how she’s ready to give all of her love to her man and that she would even die for him. Some folks say some extreme things when they’re in love, don’t they? I guess that’s a part of life, though. That’s as best as I can describe what I’m hearing. It’s a pretty good song overall.

I Never Thought I’d See the Day: Here we go again with another one of those ballads. This one pretty much only features Sade’s vocals along with a bass and a keyboard based instrument of some kind. Seems to be all about a break-up that she went through. She basically never thought she’d see the day when her man would just get up and leave her behind. He supposedly took the shelter out of her life. Yeah, I know these songs are supposed to be deep and meaningful. Beautiful. And actually if I had’ve been through his kind of situation, I would probably be weeping bucketloads of tears, but since I’ve never felt that way and probably never will, I shall remain bored by Ms Adu’s piano ballads. Next song, please.

Siempre Hay Esperanza: That’s Spanish for “There Is Always Hope.” Perhaps they decided to go with that particular title because there are some pretty dark and depressing songs on this record…..like the one we just heard, for example. There are actually no vocals at all on this track – it’s all instrumental and as you can probably imagine, it’s quite seductive. Very sexy. That deep bassline and those saxophones only emphasise my point. The beat doesn’t sound like anything we’ve never heard before from Sade – band name or otherwise. I’m not complaining, though it’s a nice closer for the album. Sort of like the song “Mermaid” on the follow-up record “Love Deluxe.”

Verdict: There was a time where I didn’t think this album was all that good. Right now…..I don’t seem to mind it very much. Although I still don’t like those boring ballads of hers. I mean, some of her ballads are nice, but the ones where she’s backed by nothing but a piano or acoustic guitar just make get my snore on. At the time of writing, there’s supposed to be a new album coming out in November 2009. I hope she delivers. I know there’s gonna be a few ballads, though. Oh well.

In 1992, Sade decided that it was time to release another album, something she hadn’t done since 1988. Yep. It took her four freakin’ years just to make that difficult fourth album of hers. Why it took so long, I don’t know. I’d imagine she was just plain old getting on with her life and….I suppose in order to write heartfelt songs like she does, you need to really get out there and see what’s happening. Otherwise, how are you gonna write in the first place? I guess you’d have to ask her for yourself, though. Although it was a pretty long time ago now, so it’s possible that she may’ve even forgotten whatever the hell it was that she was doing when she was finished making this disc. Personally speaking, I was always under the impression that the album actually came out in 1993. Maybe I was wrong about that. I will say that I never really heard the album for myself until maybe about 1999. Up until then I’d only ever heard the song “No Ordinary Love” and nothing else. I guess you could say I never really appreciated her music until I was maybe about 18…..possibly older, even though I was quite aware of her eighties songs throughout my whole life. Obviously “Smooth Operator” was her biggest hit. Like….ever! Folks will forever associate her with that song. Her style was certainly quite different, though, compared to all of that other stuff that was coming out in the eighties. Anyways, here’s my review of Sade’s “Love Deluxe” album:

No Ordinary Love: This, as I recall, was the first single lifted from the album. It’s a very seductive type of song as you would expect from Sade. The only difference is that she’s all heartbroken, as opposed to being in the mood for some sex. “I gave you all the love I got I gave you more than I could give. Gave you love. I gave you all that I have inside and you took my love. You took my love.” This song was used in the film “Indecent Proposal.” It’s in the scene where Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson are making love on a bed full of cash money. Considering the storyline of that particular flick, I’d say they definitely hit the nail on the head when they used this song. The video featured Sade playing the part of an incredibly depressed mermaid who goes out to a pub wearing a wedding dress and drinks a great big tall glass of saltwater. I kid you not. I remember there being another clip featuring scenes from the movie as well. Overall, this is a great way to kick things off.

Feel No Pain: “Mamma Bin Laden….Daddy Bin Laden…..” isn’t that what Sade just said? Or was it something about Osama Bin Laden? Hold on…let me check the lyrics sheet……looks like I was wrong, it’s actually “Mamma been laid off, papa been laid off….for more than two years now. Can’t get a job…..” She could’ve fooled me, though, I thought she was singing about terrorists and shit. Anyways, this is yet another smoothed out type of jam where, as you can see, Ms Adu sings of her family being laid off and how it’s affected them emotionally. She’s encouraging us to get them to smile so that they can generally keep their heads up and move on with their lives, instead of just sitting around and dwelling on the bad stuff that’s happened to them. Or rather, as Sade herself says: “Don’t let them stay home and listen to the blues.” In case you didn’t know, this song takes its tempo from the Fred Wesley song “A Toot To You A Blow For Me.” I never knew that until many years later. She’s naked in the video for this one. Just like she is on the front cover of this album…..although she’s covering herself up with a sheet in the clip so unfortunately you don’t get to see any, um…. “interesting” parts of her anatomy. Oh well.

I Couldn’t Love You More: This next song is slightly more uptempo….at least, compared to what we’ve heard so far. Don’t know if you’d want to get up and dance to it, though, it’d probably be more for your budior, given that sexy sax that you hear towards the end of the song. Combine that with Sade’s sexy voice and you’ve got a great tune…..don’t cha think? Yeah I do too. Lyrically it’s pretty easy to understand, talking about how she couldn’t love her man anymore than she already does, how she’s always going to stand by his side and how she doesn’t want him to change in any way, shape or form. That’s a beautiful thought, actually. Very nice indeed. I guess it’s one we can all relate to in certain cases as well. Onto the next track.

Like A Tattoo: Song number four (I originally wrote five. Guess I can’t count) on Sade’s “Love Deluxe” is acoustic based and features her singing about how she’ll forever wear the wounds from her former relationship like a tattoo. That’s a unique way of putting it if I do say so myself. For some reason, I’m reminded a lot of Maxwell’s “Til The Cops Come Knocking” whenever I hear this song. I guess that’s probably because of the fact that her musicians are also his musicians. I think he’d be able to do a really good cover of this song, especially with Stewart Matthewman backing him up on acoustic guitar. Looking at the lyrical content, I’m now realising that it’s a pretty deep song, but if this disc were playing on its own, I would probably skip over this track. That’s just a habit I suppose. Her guitar and voice songs usually tend to put me to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I’m just being honest, though.

Kiss Of Life: Sade and her band bring us an absolutely stunningly gorgeous ballad where she borrows a line from Annie Lennox (“there must have been an angel by my side”) and sings about how special her boyfriend is to her because he gave her the most incredible kiss she’d ever received. She calls it the kiss of life. That may sound like a nice thing, and……actually, yes it is. However, on the flipside of things, nobody is ever that happy in their lives. It’s not always love and happiness 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You’re gonna have a quarrell every now and then. You might even break up! I’m not implying that this is a bad song, just that it’s not all that real. But y’know, this is just music that we’re listening to. I think this may’ve been one of those songs that Miles Davis was talking about when he said: “Those loves songs, I mean they’re nice to listen to, but it’s not true!”

Cherish The Day: After a straight up love ballad, Sade and her crew get back to doing what they do best: seducing their audience. First they start off with a real smooth, sexy beat, then they throw in some boomin basslines which compliment the beat ever so brilliantly. Finally, they add some guitars to the mix, which are the icing on the cake. No doubt. By the way, speaking of guitars….why is it, that in the video for this song, Sade is seen supposedly “playing” that very instrument? Not once have I ever looked at the inner sleeve of one of her albums and seen the words Sade: Guitar and Vocals. It’s always “Sade: Vocals.” That’s it. She sings in that sexy, soothing, exotic voice of hers, which at times can unfortunately also be quite monotoned. Especially when she sings live. That reminds me, check out her performance of this song on the “Lovers Live” DVD – even she gets sexy as she sings the line: “You showed me how deep love could be.” That dress she was wearing really hugged her booty, too. I like that. This song’s pretty good too…that’s what we’re discussing, right?

Pearls: Once again we’re rewarded with another one of those deep and meaningful types of songs from Sade. It tells the tale of a woman in Somalia who scrapes for pearls on the side of the road. Generally speaking, she lives a pretty awful life where the blazing sun burns the hell out of her skin. For all I know, this could very well be a song about that whole Sierra Lione thing, which I guess is cool, seeing as how Sade herself is African born. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with paying your respects to your mother land: it’s all gravy. Musically it’s just her voice and a whole bunch of stringed instruments…..I’m not talking about guitars and what not, I mean cellos and other orchestral musical instruments. In other words – this song bores me beyond belief. Sorry, but I gotta be frank in my reviews.

Bullet Proof Soul: Poor old Helen Folasade Adu, seems like her heart’s been broken to smitherines. She even said so back in 2000: “Somebody already broke my heart. So be careful and be kind.” However, in the case of this particular song, she seemed to have loved some dude out there like her life depended on it. She says that it literally felt like a bullet from a gun had hit her, but in the end, this love affair did nothing but shatter her precious emotions. So sad. The best lyric in this song is, to my mind quite reminiscent of Bob Marley. It says: “I came in like a lamb but I intend to leave like a lion.” She used this very same lyric in the live version of “No Ordinary Love,” I believe. It would make sense for her to do something like that being that both songs are slow and seductive, yet they deal with heartache and pain, as opposed to just sex and love. This is another one of those songs that I can picture Maxwell doing a cover of. The beat kinda reminds me of “Suitelady” Off his “Urban Hang Suite” album. Apparently Max first got together with Sade’s backing band around the same time they were cutting this album, which is probably why some of the songs on it sound so much like the stuff that Max was doing. It could also just be a coincidence for all I know.

Mermaid: It says in the credits that Sade had a hand in writing this song…but there aren’t any vocals on it. Maybe she is a bit of a musician after all. Either that, or she wrote some lyrics and they thought it would’ve been better as an instrumental track. You never really know these things, though. Not unless you’re the artist themself, or you were there to actually witness what was goin’ on when they were working on it. I’m not really sure why this song was called Mermaid, either, but that’s all right because what we’re left with is a very nice, calm, cool, relaxing type of tune. I don’t think it would sound too out of place in the bedroom, either. It’s definitely that type of song.

Verdict: I think in order to fully appreciate Sade’s music, you need to be of a certain age. Maybe about 18 or so. Either that or you’ve got to be female or just plain in love, because if you’re neither one of those things, you’ll probably miss the point. I think you’ve also got to be a fan of her voice – some folks out there will say it’s quite flat. Each to their own on that one! My point is that when I first bought this album, I wasn’t really all that impressed with it. Save for “No Ordinary Love.” But now that I’ve matured a little and been able to fully absorb the entire album for myself, I can honestly say that overall it’s a pretty good album. That said, though I still can’t get into those acoustic ballads! Oh well, maybe one day I’ll say that I like ‘em.

In 1984, Billy Ocean decided that it was time for commercial success, so he decided to leave his old home, Epic Records and sign up to a brand new record label all together, called Jive. He then decided to get together with a songwriter and producer by the name of Keith Diamond who took his trademark laidback funky soul sound and injected some rock and pop elements into the mix. Soon after, Billy issued his first ever hit album “Suddenly,” which was actually his fifth album overall. The album spawned such hit singles as “Caribbean Queen,” “Loverboy,” and “Mystery Lady,” while the set itself peaked at number nine on both the US and UK charts. It shot straight to number one on the Billboard charts. Billy Ocean had finally crossed over and become a huge star all over the globe, although he’d already had a few hits before then, such as “Love Really Hurts Without You,” “Love On Delivery” and “Nights I Feel Like Getting Down.” In 2009, it was announced that Billy was going to be touring Australia for the very first time in his career and…..either before or after I saw the show, I decided to buy myself a used copy of this very album. I spent a grand total of three dollars and ninety eight cents. Hey, at least it’s better than forty dollars for a copy on CD. Now that I’ve given you all a well thought out introduction, here’s the review in its entirety….check it out:

Caribbean Queen: One of the biggest hits by the man born Leslie Sebastian Charles in Trinidad. It’s quite a danceable song which tells the story of Billy meeting up with an incredibly exotic young woman, who said he was the tiger she wanted to tame. Wow, that’s pretty impressive! Sounds like ole Billy done rocked her world. Sounds like he’s a bit of a playa anyway, ’cause he says he was “just running my game,” which is something that I never picked up on until recently, even though I heard this song pretty much my whole life. By the way, the “exotic woman” in this song was originally a European Queen, but it was suggested that it got changed to Caribbean. The original appeared on the flipside of the 12inch single of the song “Suddenly,” alongside another version called “African Queen.”

Mystery Lady: I understand that this was yet another hit for Mr Ocean. I don’t think I ever heard it on the radio or anything like that, though. Maybe I was just too young to remember it. Throw that aside and you’ve got one heck of a cool ass track where Billy is in full on Mack Daddy mode. It’s kinda funky at the same time. I guess you could say that it’s almost like a slightly more uptempo version of “Nightshift” by the Commodores. Billy begins the song by simply asking the mystery lady if she can spend the night with him. Much later on, he tells her that he’ll keep her warm and that “you need to be loved by me, mystery lady.” Billy, you ole smoothie! One heckuva ladies man.

Syncopation: Up next is a midtempo tune with funky basslines and an overall laidback type of vibe. He compares the syncopated rhythms of a song to love. Says that he misses that syncopation and that his woman “gave no indication that she was loving any other man.” Billy took love for granted!! Oh, no!!! Now he’s crying and his image has been completely tarnished. It’s all good, though, later on he’ll dust himself off and try again. And once again, everything will be fine. I don’t think this song was ever a hit, though. It’s a really great song, though. In a way it sort of harks back to his earlier days where he sang over a smooth Fender Rhodes piano and what not.

The Long And Winding Road: Yes, it’s the old Beatles classic. Apparently Billy was very heavily influenced by the fab four and was quite a huge fan of their stuff when he was a small boy growing up in Trinidad. Billy has decided to give this song some soul, so it’s basically a much more R’n'B styled version. He really takes his time and sings the song very slowly. Sometimes I can’t stand it when they sing like that, so I guess I take or leave his version of this song. Again, I don’t recall it ever being a hit. However, it did appear on an eighties compilation called “The New Age Of The Beatles,” which I think only ever came out in Australia….maybe the UK as well. I wonder what the surviving Beatles thought of it.

Loverboy: Yes!!! This is classic Billy Ocean. Straight up. One of the best gotdamn songs he ever released. Maybe I’m just biased cause I’ve had it on seven inch single ever since I was a little baby, so I pretty much always heard this song growing up. It’s a really great meshing of rock, pop and soul. The chorus is dope, too: “I wanna be your…. lover….lover….. Mmmmm. Wanna be your…lover…lover…. lover boy.” Those programmed drum beats are punchy as hell and the guitar solo is definitely killer. I wonder if he or Keith Diamond were inspired by Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” when they wrote this song. I know that I myself am always reminded of that particular song by His Royal Badness whenever I hear this tune. The 12inch version was produced by a fella called Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who also worked with AC/DC and Bryan Adams among others.

Lucky Man: As far as I know, this song was only ever featured on the flipside of the “Suddenly” single, but it never actually became a hit song on its own. If the statement that I have just made is accurate, then that would be a shame because this is also a really great song. Definitely makes you wanna get up & dance. It’s funky with eighties production, but I don’t think it sounds all that dated at all. The drum and synth programming seems to be kept to quite a minimum which seems to be the case on all of the songs on this record. Lyrically Billy is just telling us how lucky he is to have such a great woman in his life. She always sticks by him no matter what. Yep. That’s bliss. If I were a DJ I would play this song at my club….or on my station if I were a radio DJ. It’s another one of those songs that makes me think back to the earlier days of Billy’s career.

Dancefloor: On the other hand, this song would definitely be more appropriate for a nightclub situation. It’s all about getting out on the dancefloor and gettin’ funky. And Billy certainly does that right here on this track, with lyrics like “I wanna ride the rhythm into the night, sign away from yesterday” and “I wanna dance all night, don’t wanna stop!” Yeah! You tell ‘em, Billy. Of course with a nightclub comes a slew of beautiful women…..and Billy is most definitely attracted to a certain she out there on the dancefloor and he’s not afraid to let us know that he’s diggin’ her scene. And why should he shy away from such feelings? Again, it’s great stuff.

If I Should Lose You: One more midtempo funk jam for the road! The basslines are once again on point on this cut. Lyrically this song is all about how Billy doesn’t really want to lose his woman because if he did, he would be in all sorts of strife. He’d be tossing and turning and night….no pun intended there and as a whole he would “be nothing at all.” So while he still has this woman in his life, he wants to snuggle up to her & be her man……and all that good stuff. Pretty cool.

Suddenly: When I saw Billy in concert in June 2009, there was some jive ass turkey sitting a couple of rows away from me who kept calling out for him to perform this song. I really don’t see the fascination with it myself, but hey, if it’s that guy’s personal favourite, then so be it. Basically, this tune is all about how folks fall in love. You start to feel like you can appreciate life a lot more and that you begin to notice things that you normally wouldn’t have. He says you wake up and suddenly….your dick is all hard. Nah that’s not it is it? It’s more like…..you wake up….and suddenly you’re in love. Obviously this was a pretty big hit for him, too.

Verdict: I think if Luther Vandross were still alive, he could’ve probably covered a lot of the songs on this album and really made them his own. I think George Benson could do a great job with the songs, too because even though Billy crossed over with this album, he still managed to maintain the whole laidback, seductive, sort of…..playa persona that he displayed on his previous outings. Overall I think this is a really great album, which needs to be heard by lovers of R&B, pop and rock. Also if you’re looking for some good, wholesome dance music which isn’t too “in your face,” then I suggest you check out Billy Ocean’s “Suddenly” album.

This is the fifth, fully independent album by the artist born Andre Marcel Wilson. It was originally released in 2004 but brought to my attention back in 2005 while I was buying myself some 12inch singles in an independent record store down here in Sydney. One of the songs instantly caught my ear because of the fact that it sounded so much like an old Prince song from the ’80s, so I asked the guy at the counter what CD it was. He said “I think he’s a Prince fan” and proceeded to show me the rest of the songs on the album.

About a week later…..maybe even a couple of days later, I was back at the store making that purchase. Then I wrote about my experience on rateyourmusic.com and before I knew it, my words (albeit edited) were plastered all over Marcel’s page over at cdbaby.com. Pissed me right off. Turned out that it was somebody at Marcel’s record label who had decided to do the honours. I got over it, though.

Anyhow, after he released this album, he decided that he was going to officially change his name from Andre Marcel Wilson to Andre Marcel Ajamu Akinyele in order to reflect a much more African heritage. Eventually he dropped the whole Marcel name. Now he goes by the African name and works as an instrumental jazz/fusion artist with a group called Gemini Soul. I kid you not. However, I also noticed that on his website he was still calling himself Andre Marcel, so….basically I’m not gonna sit here and play silly name change games with this dude either. All right, let me get into this album review:

Password: “What?! Say the password, onion head! The Password is what! What? Exactly. What? You got it. I got it?! The password is what. What?!” So said Morris Day and Jerome Benton in “Purple Rain.” Unfortunately we don’t get to hear such hilarity on this record. Instead we’re treated to the sounds of Marcel logging onto a certain program on his computer so he can conquer hate and bring folks love and what not. I’ve got to be honest with you here: Minute-long, spoken word introductions on albums never fail to bore the crap out of me. This one is certainly no exception. Next track, please.

Secret Weapon: The liner notes for this album claim that most of the songs on it were inspired by Prince and his albums “Sign O The Times,” “Around The World In A Day,” “Dirty Mind” and “Lovesexy.” This song, however, makes me think that Marcel had the Prince song “Girls & Boys” off his “Parade” album on repeat while he was all cooped up in his recording studio recording it. The chorus runs: “My secret weapon, you are my mainframe, you know you want it, I know you want it too.” But honestly, he may as well be saying: “I love you baby, I love you so much, maybe we can, stay in touch…..” He’s basically taken the whole melody from “Girls & Boys” and made up his own personal lyrics. I always used to be quite amused by such behaviour. However, I later came to find out that Prince has actually done the exact same thing with his influences! So I guess it’s not too bad. Prince ain’t the only one, either. Anyways, aside from the whole “Girls & Boys” thing, he’s also thrown in a few sexual references, such as “you say you want to give me head,” while multi layering his vocals and singing in….what appears to be a falsetto lead vocal. Prince inspired it is. Indeed.

Cosmopolitan: Now here’s where the “Sign O’ The Times” and “Around The World In A Day” influences come into play. The bassline sounds quite a lot like “Pop Life” and his vocal delivery, especially in the verses sounds very much like “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night.” Although it sounds like the beat (which is also, sorta….”ripping off” “Pop Life”) is supposed to be hip hop influenced. Lyrically he’s talking about going out to a nightclub and seeing a sexy woman with red lipstick plastered all over her lips. She immediately attracts him. This woman claims that “a cosmo makes me feel dirty. Get it?” Err….no, not really. I think he might’ve been talking about the alcoholic beverage. Either that or the magazine which also covers some pretty dirty topics. I must admit, though, this is kinda funky….in certain places….even if it does sound like he’s aping Prince too much.

Come On Baby: “There comes a time, in every man’s life, when he gets tired of fooling around, juggling hearts in a three ring circus…..” No, it’s not “Forever In My Life.” Not by a long shot. It sure as hell sounds like it, though. Check out the drum programming and the bassline for more information. Sounds like he had this one on repeat, too while he was working on some new music. Vocally it’s quite Prince inspired as well. Lyrically, this song is all about having sex, for lack of better words. The first thing he says to this woman is: “Come on in, take off your clothes and open your legs.” He wouldn’t want to be discreet, would he? Oh well, whatever floats ya boat.

Spoken Words: In my eyes, this song is a combination of both Meshell Ndegeocello and Prince. It’s Meshell influenced in the sense that he’s doing the whole spoken word thing. Meshell does that quite a lot on her albums – speaking the verses in that deep voice of hers. The reason why I think it’s also Prince influenced is because of his multi layered, falsetto vocals, the guitar part that he’s laid down and the overall sexy vibe that he’s given the song. According to Marcel himself, though, this one is completely Me’shell inspired. In fact, it was her “Comfort Woman” album that did the trick…or so he says. All in all, it’s not a bad track. I don’t know if this song would get you any draws, though. Maybe for some it might work, who knows?

Body Electric: This next one sounds a heck of a lot like one of those seductive Prince ballads from back in the day, complete with slapped basslines. I wouldn’t really know what to compare this song to…..perhaps “When 2 R In Love” or “Scandalous.” Maybe that would be far too sacreligious for some fans out there, but it does say in the credits that he was inspired by “Lovesexy” among other albums, so….maybe that was what he was trying to go for after all. He’s most definitely in a horny type of mood, though. At one point he says, “to my surprise you were as naked as the day you were born.” Never heard a lyric like that before!

Music/Afterparty: If I were reviewing this album back when I first bought it, I probably would’ve said….”this song doesn’t sound very much like Prince at all.” However, that wouldn’t be entirely true as the vocals are definitely Prince inspired. No doubt. I’d have been right about the music, though, cause I don’t think it’s Prince-like at all. It’s kinda funky, actually, which is cool. What I didn’t pick up on until this very moment, though, is the fact that this dude “ripped off” another song from the ’80s. Funnily enough, it actually wasn’t Prince! It was the S.O.S Band: “Baby you can do it take your time do it right.” That’s exactly what the chorus sounds like. Trust me on that. The song itself is just about going out to a party, or something to that affect.

The Number 69: This next song reminds me quite a lot of one of those really laidback funky soul songs from the ’80s. Sort of like “Shake You Down” by Gregory Abbot, but with Prince-like vocals. It’s quite possible that he would’ve been inspired by that particular song, though as it was quite a big hit back in the day. The song itself is quite sexy as well, so there’s that, too. Obviously he’s talking about the sex position 69 where……hell, I’m not even gonna sit here and describe what it involves….this is a family blog, right? I think Marcel has some kind of obsession with the number that, umm….. appears (I didn’t wanna say “comes”) before 70, because not only is this album peppered with supposedly “explicit” sexual references, he also calls himself “0069″ on the album cover. I’d say he was meant to be making fun of James Bond. I mean, you can’t be serious about calling yourself that….can ya? I’d be worried if he was!

There Is A Love/Melody: The intro to this song always reminded me of “Little Red Corvette.” I’m not saying that it sounds exactly like it, but I will say that it sounds kind of like he was trying to re-create that same type of atmosphere that Prince created with his somewhat cryptic ode to casual sex. Then the beat kicks in, which sounds more like “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” I guess you could say that I never really listened to the lyrics cuz I was always so caught up in the fact that it sounded too much like a Prince song, but I think this is really just a love song at heart. Nothing too sexual at all.

Got 2 Get Up: I concluded my original review of this album with the words: “if you want some seriously Prince-influenced grooves and an artist reaching for a much more positive high, then this is definitely the album to check out.” Just so you know, it was this song in particular that I was referring to. He’s telling us not to let things get us down, even though the world is so full of hatred and what not. At the end of the day we need to let love rule. He just so happens to mention those very words in this song. It’s quite a different song compared to the other stuff on the record, not only because of the message but also because it’s a much calmer type of song overall. And!!….Believe it or not, it sounds absolutely nothing like Prince at all. Not even in the slightest manner. Not as far as I’m concerned anyway… somebody else out there might tell you otherwise, though. It’s not really all that original because he references Lenny Kravitz for a start. Also, as far as I know, the phrase “Got to get up just to get down” has been around for several years. But that’s all right because music is supposed to inspire…..right?

You Blow My Mind: Frequency: Marcel breaks out his bass guitar, his Linn drum machine (or something which sounds similar to it) along with his Prince-influenced vocals and he brings us some incredibly Prince-like funk. Come to think of it, this one sounds kinda like “Pop Life” as well, except it’s all about how some girl blows his mind. There also just so happens to be a Prince reference in this song, which is “strange but true.” Maybe that was just a coincidence. He talks about being this woman’s slave as well, which….I do believe I’ve heard Prince doing exactly the same thing in at least one of his songs – “The Continental” off the Symbol album for example. This song also features a rap verse from…some dude called Jarrod. Oh yeah! I know that bloke, he’s a good mate of mine. Yeah, right. Uh-huh.

Explicit: One more Prince influenced ballad to cap things off. Guess what this one’s all about, folks? I’ll give you a hint, it’s three letters long and it rhymes with vex and hex. No it has nothin’ do with cursing….come to think of it, there’s actually none of that on this record. However, this song, and a few others, comprises of many “discreet” sexual references. Inuenndos if you will. Something that Prince also did quite a lot of. I think he’s made it pretty obvious that he’s singing about wanting to stick his dick inside the girl and how he wants her pussy or her ass or whatever in his face. You’d probably have to be incredibly naive not to understand what he’s talking about. He ends this song with “before you go, I want you to come…” to what? What do you mean you want me to come? Where are we going? For a drive? To the shopping centre? Where? What do you mean “come”?……Oh! That’s what you mean! Well you’re just yucky!

The Secret Weapon: Here’s where the album officially ends. It’s yet another spoken word piece. This time it’s all about how everybody needs to unify, how women need to be treated equally, how Native American Indians need to be thanked and respected and how they need an African American running the country, instead of some goofy white dude. Well, that’s already happened, so I guess they’re making some kind of progress over there in the States. But yeah, this is really just Marcel saying a whole lotta things that have, in essence, already been said before. As I said, I’m not really a big fan of Intros, Outros and Interludes. This one’s kinda valid, though.

Verdict: Initially, I thought that this album was nothing but a bunch of Prince rip-offs and yes, that may still be true to some degree. However, if musicians were never inspired by one another, we wouldn’t really have any music at all…..well….maybe all we’d hear would be native chants or folk songs or something like that. I don’t really know for sure, though. You may even think that Prince needs to go after this guy and sue the f*ck outta him, but if that were the case, then Prince wouldn’t be friends with Larry Graham anymore, they would be battling each other instead cuz he ripped of Larry on “The Rainbow Children” album. That’s just one example. Overall, this album is worth checking out if you want to hear something different, as opposed to the same old crap that’s being played on the radio. I’d also like to recomend this album to all Prince fans, but I’m not gonna sit here and force you to buy it. Go over to CDBaby or iTunes, listen to samples and decide for yourself. Nobody should have to be forced to do anything! End of review.

The first time I’d ever heard of Lewis Taylor was on the internet some time in the late 1990s. I believe it may’ve been on iMusic.com’s old forum, or perhaps even the old Prince discussion board that I used to frequent around that time. Either way, folks were raving all about this artist, saying that he was just brilliant. Eventually I saw a video clip of his for a song called “Whoever,” which was your typical soul number…..very Marvin Gaye influenced and what not. Although he claimed not to like that song very much at the time, as it was quite a dramatic departure from his other songs, which were much trippier sounding efforts and therefore quite rock influenced. I came to understand that he had released two albums under the alias “Sherrif Jack” in 1986, which are apparently much more rooted in the whole psychedelic rock sound. Ten years later, he reverted back to his real name and put out two more records for Island Records, “Lewis I” and “Lewis II” respectively. Although I’ve heard that Lewis is actually his middle name. In 2003, he released his third album “Stoned Part 1,” which was a totally independent release. Seeing as how that were the case, the album never got any attention, although it was hyped up by, among many others, Elton John. I wound up hearing a good portion of the album…….in a certain store down here in Sydney, which…….I’m not even gonna state what kind of store it was, but about as much as I can tell you is that the suburb in which it’s located shares the same name as the place where The Beatles originally hail from. On that note, let me give you another one of those track for track reviews. Check it out:

Stoned, Pt. I: Taylor begins his third album by serving up a great slice of poppy rock with elements of soul thrown into the mix for good measure. He tells us the tale of a woman who “stoned” him and as a result of what she’s done to him, he will remain that way forever. She didn’t “stone” him in the sense that she threw a gigantic rock at poor old Lewis’s head, it was more a case of, she got together with him and smoked a few fat joints or something to that effect. He’s using drug use as a metaphor for heartbreak, which is something that I’ve never really heard in a song before, so I guess it seems somewhat creative. Towards the end of this song, he lets out a scream which was apparently influenced by the way in which Paul McCartney’s did the same kind of thing in “Hey Jude.” Sounds pretty cool.

Positively Beautiful: This next tune tells us the tale of a man called Lewis who first met a certain female out there, whom he was quite attracted to. However, he never really showed her exactly how much he cared for her…..or any other type of feeling for that matter. The woman later showed him exactly how to express himself emotionally, so now he’s completely fallen for her and doesn’t really want to let her go. Great stuff. Musically I would describe it as a great meshing of pop and soul. Just imagine a Curtis Mayfield styled rhythm combined with acoustic guitars and soulful harmonies. That would probably be a good description. Why this song never got played on the radio, I don’t know. It should’ve been a great big hit all over the world.

Lewis IV: If you’re familiar with Lewis Taylor’s music, you’d know that every album always has a song on it that’s named after him. The title is usually followed by a Roman numeral, to signify something of a series of songs that are supposed to tell some kind of story, I guess. My own personal favourite is “All of this and Lewis II.” I haven’t really been following the story, but apparently this is yet another episode, if you will. This particular song is definitely quite a moody piece of work with lots of heavy guitar work. Lewis is talking to some girl out there, asking her to talk to him and help to “relieve the tension.” From what I understand, Lewis battled with drugs quite a lot at one stage, so….maybe this has something to do with that as well? I’m not really sure. It seems to have somewhat of a druggy feel to it….kinda trippy. Then again a lot of his stuff is like that anyway.

Send Me an Angel: Here’s a nice, breezy song from the man who once called himself Lewis Taylor. The lyrics basically deal with his heartbreak (once again) and how he wants somebody out there to send him an angel whenever he begins to feel that particular sense of sadness. He also realizes that he needs to change his ways in order to get himself involved in better relationships in the future. At least that’s what I think he’s goin’ on about, I could be all kinds of far off for all I know. I remember Lewis talking about how he originally recorded this song on tape and then when he played it back, the machine chewed it up. That then caused him to literally break down crying. This song (along with all the others with an asterix beside them for that matter) was co-written by a lady called Sabina Smyth. According to Wikipedia, she was his girlfriend at one point. Don’t know if they’re still together. Don’t really care, either.

Til the Morning Light: Once again, Lewis is presenting us with quite a poppy type of tune. It’s a bit rock influenced in places and….it sounds kinda like he’s in an amorous type of mood, stating that he wants to lay down with his girlfriend until the sun comes up. Whether or not he’s implying sex, or simply just lying there and snuggling with her is something I have yet to discover. Either way it’s a pretty decent song.

Shame: Lewis has decided to use the most sampled beat for this next track. It’s been used on countless records, among them “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss” by PM Dawn, “Paid In Full” by Erick B & Rakim. Hell, even “Don’t Forget My Number” by Milli Vanilli used this very same break beat….backing beat, whatever the hell you call it. The only difference is that Lewis is not talking about some kind of strange, wacked out spiritual utopia, nor is he telling his girl not to forget his phone number – he’s singing about feeling quite a sense of shame because he’s just broken up with his girlfriend. It’s now over and done. He doesn’t care about her being angry with him anymore, but worst of all, he “just can’t seem to get over” feeling this particular sense of shame. And he delivers his message with one hell of an ear splitting guitar solo. PM Dawn combined rock riffs with hip hop on their third album, but it was never anything like this. Nope. Definitely not. You’d better watch out when Lewis Taylor breaks out his oversized Gibson Les Paul guitar. Just like Prince he’ll fuck you up with it. Guaranteed.

When Will I Ever Learn, Pt. 1: One of the best damn songs on the entire album. Lewis is singing directly to an old flame, with whom he fell absolutely head over heels in love. Although that doesn’t exactly seem to be the case anymore, as he continually tells her: “From the day we met, you never should have let me fall for you. You know that it’s true.” Again, this song was co-written by Sabina, so um….yeah I’d say they’re not together anymore…..well….going by this song, that certainly seems to be the case. Maybe they still are an item? Who the hell knows? Lewis doesn’t even record anymore and…..I’m presuming that he kept his private life private. So, exactly how are you gonna prove that they’re still together? Anyways, in this particluar song, it’s as though he’s telling her: “Why did you fuck me up like that?! Gotdamn! Just get the hell away from me and let me grieve over this relationship in peace!” And even though he knows he’s going to get his arse hurt, he keeps going back to the girl anyway. Hence the question of “When Will I Ever Learn?” On another note, when I first bought this album, I thought he was saying “My mind is all fucked up,” which I think would’ve been a great lyric. However, it’s actually: “My mind is all undone.” This song concludes with a very short grab of another song of his called  “Back Together 2.” You can find the song in its entirety on the US edition of his “Limited Edition” album from 2004.

Lovin’ U More: For now, we’ve put all of that shame and what not behind us. This song begins with Lewis telling us about how he’s at a party where he knows each and every one of the guests who have been invited. However, they can tell he’s not quite acting like himself, so they start to get on his case. But then, he notices his girlfriend has just walked into the room. Suddenly he realizes that he’s totally himself. The woman completes him, so he’s going to continue to give her all the love she deserves. What’s more, he’s never going to stop loving her. At all. Umm…..wasn’t he just talking about how the girl shouldn’t have let him fall for her? Yeah, he was. I guess people change pretty quick. Great song, though.

From the Day We Met, Pt. 2: Lewis! What are you talking about “Part Two”? Did you run out of ideas or something? Part of me doesn’t really understand why he decided to revisit this song. He does that quite a lot on his albums for some reason or another. Just to take a stab in the dark, though, I think he might’ve done it again because if you listen to the other version of this song, it’s almost like there’s this dark cloud sort of looming around under him as he sings the song. It even sounds like there’s gonna be a huge storm. This version on the other hand sounds a bit more…..I don’t know…..happier, I guess. Maybe that’s why he went back & re-cut it? I really can’t say for sure, though. Both versions are nice, but I think I like the other one just a tad bit better, he’s really captured that whole sense of vulnerability, sadness, shame…. and ecetera.

Lovelight: Although this song is somewhat upbeat, it seems to be lyrically quite opposite. It’s about a man who’s attracted to a certain woman out there, but she doesn’t really seem to want “love” from him. This is pretty much messing with his head, yet at the same time he’s asking her “Who do you think you’re fooling? Turning your lovelight down again.” Great question……of course, no particular answer is given. That’s to be expected. This song was later recorded by Robbie Williams, who of course made it a hit song all over the world. I’m sure Lewis got paid very nicely for that. Personally speaking, I can’t picture anybody else singing this song except Lewis. Not to mention the fact that I always abhored that Robbie Williams fool.

Sheneverdid: “After all is said and done, she never did for anyone.” I have absolutely no idea what the hell that even means, but that shouldn’t really bother me too much because I think that this is a really awesome song and it’s an even better way to close the album. One of the best album closers ever. Actually I think this song is all about getting hurt by love….or something like that. I still don’t know what he means by “she never did for anyone,” though. She never did what? And who is “she” anyway? When I was a kid, I was always told that “she is the cat’s mother.” Who the fuck’s the cat’s mother? I don’t understand. Still, I’m gonna put this song on my favourite album closers compilation alongside Macy Gray’s “Rather Hazy” and a whole host of others. Both of those songs go together nicely. Dunno why I never burnt that compilation though. Hmmm….all righty then, time to wrap things up.

Verdict: If I recall correctly, this album was my first ever introduction to Lewis Taylor’s music. After that I went back & bought some of his older albums and I found them somewhat harder to get into. Most probably because the music was just so unconventional and experimental….y’know, really out there like that. I think that this album is for the most part much more accessible and easier to get into. Overall it’s very well done. The sad thing, though, is that this guy has completely given up on making music. What a shame, he had so much to offer to the world. Oh well, that’s what happens when fuckery pollutes the airwaves and all the real shit gets pushed over to the wayside. What a shame indeed.