rpk@mit-vax.UUCP (Robert Krajewski) (07/15/84)
If you've been within five miles of a radio in the past month, chances are you've heard the new Prince song. You've probably also heard that there will be a movie starring Prince coming out at the end of the month. There will actually be three soundtrack albums accompanying it: one by Prince, one by Apollonia (formerly Vanity) 6, and one by a new group headed by Prince's old lead guitarist, Dez Dickerson. Anyway, if ``Purple Rain'' (the movie) is half as good as the Prince album, it will be pretty good indeed. As mentioned above, Dez has left the band, and there is new guitarist, Wendy (no last name given). This is interesting because guitars figure in very heavily in the new album. This is the first album Prince has done with a large portion of the recording done with his band, with whom he appears live, and members of which sometimes appear on the albums Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999. Purple Rain is by far the most rock-oriented album that Prince has done. His voice and the characteristic bounciness of the upbeat tracks is still there, but there is also a clear rock influence. The first cut, ``Let's Go Crazy,'' features a concert-like heavy-metalloid ending, complete with searing guitar lines and false stops. The next song, ``Take Me With U,'' is a Beatlesque ballad featuring droning acoustic guitars and a delicate string arrangement. ``Computer Blue'' shows of more of the band's chops, and ``The Beautiful Ones,'' another slow song, is more like something of 1999. The side ends with ``Darling Nikki,'' yet another song about sexual misadventure. It ends with a weird snippet that sounds like a cross between ``Oh Superman'' and gospel. Side 2 opens with the new single, ``When Doves Cry,'' which reached number 4 in the Billboard charts in four weeks and is reputed the fastest-selling single in Warner Brother's history. It's a very haunting expression of dislocation, and gets better with each listen, even though it is the starkest song on the album. Then follows the majestic ``I Would Die 4 U'' and the strutting ``Baby, I'm a Star.'' The title cut closes the album. It's slow and what one would expect from a movie-ending type song. Overall, it's a very good album, and at least four of the cuts are memorable on first listen. I hope it sells billions.-- ``Bob'' (Robert P. Krajewski) ARPA: RpK@MC MIT Local: RpK@OZ UUCP: genradbo!miteddie!rpk or genradbo!miteddie!mitvax!rpk
9232cws@hou2f.UUCP (C.SIMMONS) (07/19/84)
<> > It ends with a weird snippet that sounds like a cross between >``Oh Superman'' and gospel. I have not bought the album yet but while listening to one of the local radio stations ('Z-100' Z Morning Zoo for those of you in the NJ/NY area) I heard them discussing this ending to side 1. They had it taped and when played backward the words were something to the effect of: "I know some day soon my God is coming for me..." (the quote here is not exact, but I don't remember the wording). C. W. Simmons