Publication: The London Sunday Times [UK]
Date: March 22, 1998
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Title: Crystal Ball Review
Reviewed By: AS

THE ARTIST (PRINCE)
Crystal Ball
NPG BTC9871CD, £44.99

OVER THE past few years, it's been easy to forget why the mere mention of Prince's name once drew sighs from the lips of music lovers. It's not just that he lost his way, or fell out with his record company; his music became obscured by the "anything-goes" rush of pop in the 1990s, which he more than any other single artist helped to bring about. This is why anyone who ever marvelled at Prince's musical imagination will want somehow to get hold of the four Crystal Ball CDs. Originally intended for release in 1987, the first three discs mix material from the mid-to-late 1980s with work recorded right up to last year. The fourth consists of an entirely new album, The Truth, which is pared down, tending towards the acoustic (from visceral blues to lingering, piano-led pop), and something of a revelation in itself. But the older work is the real point and, from the paranoid electro-funk of the opening title track on, we're transported right back to a time when the word "genius" was regularly used in connection with him and, whether you agreed with it or not, you couldn't fail to understand why.