kenr (01/07/83)
I am seldom moved to recommend music to people, but I am so completely taken by Prince's iconoclastic double-lp "1999" that I just have to tell you all to go out and buy at least two copies, so you can have a spare when your turntable melts the first one down after the billionth play. This album is the best thing to happen to music since dinosaurs started dying to allow the creation of vinyl. Prince, in case you're unaware, is a decidedly funk-oriented synth-pop practitioner whose songs invariably contain strong sexual content and present a "party-time" message that is almost blistering in its sincerity. Some of you may question the credentials of a black neo-hipster from Minneapolis with a history of album covers featuring himself in his underwear, and others of you may question the artistic integrity of a person who would allow his masterpiece to be wrapped with graphics that look like they were produced by the third runner up in a special education art fair, but don't let that distract you from the music. The music is, as I said, synthesizer enhanced funk (albeit not in the Parliament sense) with enough musical and lyrical twists to keep any reasonably sentient person interested and satisfied. Its subject matter is provocative, to say the least--I don't think I could bring myself to have as much fun as Prince suggests--but the presentation is so slick that I just might try, someday. Ken Rhodes