Prince & The New Power Generation - [Love Symbol]
Prince was at a crossroads in the 1990s; he was a behemoth of an artist in the 1980s, but the 90s were a time where music was changing. A lot of new styles of music were being created and popularized, such as hip-hop and new jack swing, and a lot of popular artists either got with the times or became irrelevant. Prince was an artist that never stayed in one sound for too long, and when new sounds got popularized, he tried to utilize them and experiment with them. I’m not the biggest fan of Prince, but if there is one thing I could respect and admire about him, it’s his ambition. That’s why I picked up a copy of 1992’s [Love Symbol] at Half Price Books recently. I was curious enough, especially for $3.99, but I haven’t listened to much Prince from decades other than the 1980s. I didn’t totally know what to expect, but I had a good feeling.
Prince was always one to modernize his sound with the times, and just as Michael Jackson did the year before with 1991’s Dangerous (which I’ll be talking about soon enough as well), he went into new jack swing, hip-hop, and modern R&B, versus keeping with 80s sounds, so these albums brought these artists to the modern era. This album isn’t just a Prince album, either, it’s the second to feature his backing band The New Power Generation. Because of that, there are a couple more vocalists here, namely another rapper, as well as a singer that ended up being married to Prince for a few years. Truthfully, I kind of tune out when Prince isn’t doing his thing, because the other vocalists aren’t as interesting. Prince sounds great, but this isn’t totally a Prince album, for better or worse.
I think I mainly like the music here, as it has such a diverse style of sounds and ideas, but everything else comes second; the vocals are good, especially Prince, but a lot of the lyrics aren’t great. Apparently this album is a rock opera about Prince as a rock star, and that’s all I know. From what I read, the album had way much segues that explained the lore of the album, but the album would have been insanely long, so he was forced to cut them all but two. They don’t explain much, but you get some kind of backstory. It’s just a confusing story, but the album itself is more or less standard fare when it comes to Prince. In that respect, I appreciate the consistency, but I’ve never been a fan of his lyrics, at least outside of certain songs or albums. Here, they don’t offer anything I can’t get on other albums, but they’re not horrible.
This album is mainly just way too long, as well as too stuffed with ideas. The diversity is cool, but it’s 75 minutes with 18 songs (two of them are segues but still), so there’s a lot of music to sink your teeth into. The album did relatively well, especially having a top ten hit on it, so if anything, Prince wasn’t irrelevant or out of touch. A lot of artists ended up falling to the wayside, but Prince kept going. He kept making music until he passed, and that’s insanely admirable. I like this album, but I don’t love it. I might need to dive into it more, but it’s a cool album, nonetheless. It’s interesting to hear, as it’s a 90s Prince album, and by this point, a lot of the 80s bands and artists were starting to lose popularity for new genres and artists. I’d recommend this if you want to check out Prince stepping into the 90s, so it’s cool in that respect.
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