Publication: New Jersey ? [US]
Date: December 1, 1994
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Title: "With New Album, Prince's Crown Continues To Slip"
Reviewed By: Chuck Campbell

"The Black Album"
Prince
Grade: 3 stars (out of 5)

As Prince struts down the road to oblivion, he's leaving a curiously weak trail of releases behind. In August he dropped a sorry compilation of previously unreleased tracks, "Come," and the album quickly slid off the charts. Now he's dispatching the notorious "Black Album," a record made during his '80s heyday.

The album was allegedly too obscene for domestic release, and it became one of pop music's most infamous bootlegs. Now anyone can buy it - at least until Jan. 27, when for publicity's sake it'll be pulled off the shelves.

The pressure of possibly missing the chance to buy "The Black Album" might sell a few extra copies, but those who don't buy it won't be missing Prince in his prime.

Not that "The Black Album" is as bad as "Come"; it just isn't a product of the humming music machine Prince had going in the '80s - a machine that resulted in such masterful works as "1999," "Purple Rain," "Around the World in a Day" and "Sign O' the Times."

"Black Album" buyers will be rewarded with a few premium tracks - namely a showy "Superfunkycalifragisexy," a wild, mostly instrumental "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" and a slamming precursor to gangsta music, "Bob George."

The saucy, but rarely obscene, album also includes a springy come-on to Cindy Crawford ("Cindy C.") and a taunting "Le Grind" as well as the previously released ballad, "When 2 R in Love." All three are Prince-ly songs, but not standouts.

The remaining two tracks on the eight-song album are the tedious "Rockhard in a Funky Place" and the deadening "Dead On It," which includes such words of wisdom as "All the sisters like it when you lick 'em on the knees."

Perhaps "The Black Album" was withheld earlier because it wasn't up to snuff. But with Prince's stock falling, the album suddenly meets standards.