Publication: Vibe [US]
Date: October 1995
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Title: "The Gold Experience"
Reviewed By: Staff

Before he became a symbol of ego trips that kept missing their exit ramps, the artist formerly known as Prince was a symbol of another kind. Creatively eclectic and artistically rebellious, he symbolized the dark side of black-boy musical genius. Ever eager to do more than merely scratch the surface of his craft, he was always willing to delve into the funk and bring back an identity that defied all expectations.

He did what was not allowed. A modish, naughty boy who played fluid mind games, it was sad to watch him fall off his perch back in 1990 with the abominable Graffiti Bridge. It was sadder still to watch him gamble only on the mind games-instead of the mind-blowing songcraft and skill that kept the stuff afloat.

C'mon, face it: The so-called great "Sexy M.F." was a sonic bust that passed gyrations off as song structure. The album had only a couple of cute songs buried in the mix. And frankly, nothing on Come came. The thrill was gone. Complaining about Warner Bros.' ineptitude or greed was not the point-which seemed lost on him. His records weren't selling because they weren't any good.

And even as good as The Gold Experience is, some of it at first seems a tad retreaded, a combination of previously released stuff with some smart new tracks. But no. "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" finds new energy alongside "Shhh," the sexy mid-tempo ballad Tevin Campbell recorded in 1993. These two songs fit right in between the sexy, guitar-hyped "Endorphinmachine" and "We March," a funky faux-political bit of dazzle that sounds like a throwback to 1981's "Let's Work."

The coy "Dolphin" ("If I came back as a dolphin / Would U listen 2 me then..... / Would U let me in?") is a lush pop masterpiece drenched in multitracked vocals and a sliding guitar. It sounds like a psychedelic love letter from cyberspace. "P. Control," a nasty rap-style joint that opens the record, has a playful naoveti that just sounds and feels right somehow. If anything, has suffered lately from a too-jaded point of view: All flash 'n' trash with no real feeling to hold it down. So the high school high jinks of "Shhh" pressed up against the subversive buoyancy of "P. Control" feels new, like the "virgin white" he refers to in an acoustic piece of beauty called "Shy."

Like an outtake from a get-high Rufus album, "Shy" floats by on waves of soft, hymnlike rhythms. With strings glistening and street sounds punctuating this sad urban romantic narrative, "Shy" is one of those head-turning moments of magic that Prince used to do so well. As with 1980's "Gotta Broken Heart Again" or 1990's "Joy in Repetition" (the lone star on Graffiti Bridge), you wanna cry when "Shy" plays, and then play it again, just so you can cry some more.

The beautiful songs just keep on coming. "Billy Jack Bitch" is an R&B sing-along full of call and response and a pumping organ pushing up through a busy mix. It operates as a sly prelude to "I Hate U," a ballad as simple as its name implies. "I love U so much I hate U," he sings, and it becomes poetry through his use of dramatic pauses and a vampy lover-man monologue that threatens to overtake him at every turn.

More than that overstated, sacred-meets-profane thing he supposedly does so well, "I Hate You" is what he actually does better: a slick pop-meets-hardcore R&B blend that leaves you breathless. When he asks, "Did U do 2 your other man the same things that U did 2 me?" you hear pain, pleasure, cruelty, and charm. It hurts to know he still does this stuff so well-and that he does it so rarely.

But-and as usual-he gets the last laugh, because The Gold Experience is a Prince experience par excellence. And yes, I said Prince, no disrespect intended. I say it because The Gold Experience has songs on it-not just ideas for songs stretched into overlong tracks or fleshed-out grooves with silly lyrics poured over them. These songs have beginnings, middles, and ends. They sound like they belong together on the same CD. The Gold Experience wants to take you higher. You may never come down. This is 's best complete record since 1987's Sign `O' the Times-his best effort since the '90s almost happened without him.