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Publication: NRC Handelsblad [?]
Date: November 22, 1996
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Title: "New Triple CD By Former Prince: The Music Wants To Do What It Wants To Do"
Reviewed By: Bernard Hulsman

[Translated by Kevwe Scott Emuakpor] The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, nowadays better known as The Artist, has been quarrelling for years with his record company Warner Bros. They had a unique conflict: The Artist wanted to put out more records than the record company could handle. Now he has freed himself from Warner and immediately released a superior triple-cd: 'Emancipation'.

As usual the package of Formerly Prince's triple-cd is ugly and pompous, but it is perfectly clear. Against an orange background two chained fists have just released themselves - parts of the chains still flying in the air. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, or The Artist as he wants to be called nowadays, is free at last.

For years The Artist has agitated against Warner Bros., the record company he has been with since his debut-album in 1978 and of which he officially was vice-president. No effort was untried to get out of his contract with Warner. Everyday he wrote the word 'slave' on his cheek to point out how he was conceiving his relationship with Warner and he spread around lots of slander and nonsense about his record company. In English newspapers, for instance, he claimed that Warner owned the publishing rights of all of his songs. However the company only owns the mastertapes of his 16 albums. And during his last tour in 1995 he fooled his audience into believing that his new album The Gold Experience would never be released because Warner didn't want to do so. A few months later The Gold Experience was to be found in the stores.

Because of these untruths, critics weren't taking The Artist too seriously. His ongoing complaints about Warner were mostly disposed of as typical whims of a superstar. The heart of his dispute with Warner Bros. was nevertheless not only very clear but, more importantly, a matter of principle: Former Prince recorded more compositions than Warner wished to release. Warner felt that the public could cope with no more than one cd in every one-and-a-half year, while The Artist, who continuously writes and records new songs, wants to be able to release four, or even five albums a year.

The conflict between Warner and The Artist was a unique conflict. Usually it takes big popstars more and more time to produce enough material for a new record, as their carreers evolve. U2, for instance, has been promising their fans a new album for years now and time and again the release has been postponed. Former Prince, however, doesn't cease bringing forth music, music the public is entitled to, he believes: a record company has nothing to do with 'sombody's soul or his needs to express himself'.

George Michael

At first glance the argument of The Artist with Warner resembles the fight another big star, George Michael, was having with his record company. But in Michael's case there was no question of alleged overproduction: the former teenage-idol felt that Sony wasn't taking him seriously as a singer and didn't put enough effort in promoting his new cd.

For the time being it seems The Artist has won his battle against the music industry. A month after the release of the cd Chaos and Disorder in July of this year, The Artist announced he had closed a new contract with another big record company, EMI, and that as early as November 19th not one, but three new cd's would be in the shops under the title Emancipation. EMI had no say whatsoever in both the quantity and the nature of the new material and would only take care of distributing the record, that's all, he promised.

In the meantime Warner doesn't seem to be too regretful about The Artist's departure. The company gets to keep hundreds of previously unreleased songs, but it is uncertain if they will ever be released. The last couple of cd's by Former Prince weren't too succesful and it's not very likely that Warner will use the old songs of (Former) Prince to compete with the new.

Due to mismanagement, Paisley Park, the studio's and record label of Former Prince, is making losses. But that doesn't discourage The Artist: He is planning to overwhelm the market with his music, among which are unreleased recordings he made with jazz-trumpeter Miles Davis. 'I want the biggest shelf in the recordstore with the most titles', he recently said in an interview. 'I know they're not all going to sell, but I know somebody's going to buy at least one of each, that's enough.' Moreover, The Artist believes it won't be long before selling one piece of music becomes profitable. It's a question of very little time before record companies become obsolete even for the distribution of music. 'Once the Internet is widespread, it will be over and done with the music industry', The Artist recently claimed in an interview. 'What's the use of the music industry, if I can send my music directly to you through the Internet? I already don't have a manager anymore. Why should I feed people from my work?'

Symbol

The liberation from Warner is a logical continuation of the change in identity Prince underwent three years ago. On June 7th 1993, his 35th birthday, Prince announced he would continue to go through life as an unpronouncable symbol. This was likewise a liberation from himself and from his past. 'I make music because without it I would die. I record because it is in my blood. I constantly hear sounds. It's almost a curse', The Artist said when he was still Prince. For (Former) Prince his music is something metaphysical. 'My music wants to do what it wants to do', he said two years after his identity change. 'It's my task to get out of it's way as much as possible.'

This liberation was also hardly taken seriously. Some critics saw it as a cheap way to get out of his contract with Warner. Others thought it was a somewhat childish publicity stunt. But also this time it was about an essential issue in popmusic. Every popmusician whose career lasts longer than five years carries his past with him like a lead burden. As years go by, public and critics, of which the latter are always burning for something new, will increasingly compare his latest work with his earlier works. And almost always this comparison works out to the disadvantage of recent works. Before, the artist used to be fresh and innovative, now he is starting to repeat himself, goes the cliche opinion about the careers of almost all well established popstars.

Even Prince was confronted with this type of criticism, when his career was about ten years old. Since then reviews of new cd's from The Artist have been completely predictable: It's excellent music, so much is true, but it has been an increasingly longer time ago when (Former) Prince was innovative, provocative or disturbing. Different from most other established popmusicians, however, The Artist didn't respond by dying a gentle death, but he chose a different answer: He became a new person without a past, so he, his public and his critics weren't bothered with the burden of the old music anymore. Prince's identity change was a call to listen to the music on it's own without considering himself or his past.

Needless to say, Prince's answer was as original as it was ineffective. Everybody kept calling him Prince and every new record by The Artist was to be compared with the works of Prince. Even he himself couldn't see through his identity change completely. Although The Symbol had declared loudly and clearly never to play Prince's songs again, he performed 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' from Sign O' The Times (1987) amongst others at his concert in Minneapolis on the occasion of the release of Emancipation, 'I may not own Prince's songs, but I do know how to play them', he told dozens of journalists after the concert at Paisley Park .

Liberation

The liberation of The Artist goes hand in hand with an unprecedented publicity-offensive. In his old days (Former) Prince used to be a mysterious silent workaholic, but with the release of Emancipation, magazines are filled with 'exclusive' interviews with The Artist in which he talks nineteen to the dozen about his new start.

Still it will be of no avail: reviewers will compare these three cd's, each of them containing 12 songs and one hour of music, with his work from the eighties only to find that they are not as innovative as Dirty Mind or Controversy. It's strange though that the criticism always concerns (Former) Prince, the innovator, because this certainly isn't his most fascinating quality. There are quite a few long-winding songs on Dirty Mind and Controversy, which today sound dated exactly because of their innovative nature. No, the best (Former) Prince is the eclecticus who first reached maturity on Purple Rain (1984) and hasn't changed substantially since.

Likewise, Emancipation offers three hours of brilliant eclectic music. The album is filled with superior light songs ('Jam Of The Year', 'Sex In The Summer'), superior rhythm 'n' blues ('Soul Sanctuary'), superior dance music with disitinct house-influences ('New World', 'The Human Body'), superior rap ('Mr. Happy', 'Da Da Da'), superior funk ('Emancipation') and superior pop ('My Computer', 'One Of Us').

In a way Emancipation marks the return to Prince's early work: Just like his predecessor in his early days, The Artist plays almost all instruments by himself. That's why the three cd's sound less intense and demanding than previous ones, but still, as always, there's a lot of refined details hidden in almost every song. Likewise, The Artist calms down in his lyrics. Although the cd-box contains a sticker with the usual warning that Emancipation again contains language that might shock some people, there's a very small amount of explicit portrays of sexual acts to be found. On Emancipation The Artist prefers to sing about love, the everlasting and best subject in popmusic, and about his personal liberation ('Slave' and 'Emancipation').

Not all 36 songs are superior. 'Courtin' Time', for instance, proves that swing is a genre that is better left untouched by The Artist. But on the other hand The Artist shows he is an excellent interpreter of somebody else's songs. Live, The Artist has been playing soulclassics for a long time, but this is the first time he has actually recorded covers: two popsongs, Bonnie Raitt's 'I Can't Make You Love Me" and Joan Osborne's 'One Of Us', and two soulclassics, 'Betcha By Golly Wow!' by The Stylistics and 'La La La Means I Love You' by The Delfonics. With the latter song, The Artist gives new meaning to the concept cover. An important part of the music is taken from the original version and is completed with his own instruments and voice. The Artist has been taking the concept literally: the original is 'covered' with his own version.

The Artist: Emancipation (3 cd's, NPG Records 7243-8-54982-2-0).
The concert The Artist held on November 12th, will be shown on MTV on Saturday November 24th.

(Photograph of The Artist during his concert at Paisley Park on November 12th. He's sitting on stage while playing a minimoog, which rests on his knees. The subscript reads: Free at last: The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (TAFKAP))