PRINCE - s/t LP

An amazingly accomplished, super smooth selection of songs from the ever burgeoning Prince-meister. 2 albums in and Prince has already gotten to the stage of penning, performing and producing all of his own material. Compared to his debut it sounds fuller yet more restrained. I Wanna Be Your Lover is a clean, funky soul number which spares away into a sultry, spaced-out jam. The classic Prince sound unearths further with the stirring, defiant Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? The song has a bit of everything and showcases some brilliant guitar heroics towards the end. Sexy Dancer is efficient disco. The next two tracks are soft and sensual but somewhat snoozy. Bambi is an example of blistering hair-metal way before the genre even took hold. The album flips back to fantastically dreamy R&B with Still Waiting. Compared to the ridiculously over-the-top Chaka Khan remake, the I Feel For You here is comparatively reserved and only lets go towards the end with that familiarly frantic stabbing of chords. The album expertly closes with the bountifully bittersweet It's Gonna Be Lonely. A very complete set of songs, this record only lacks that bit of excitement or slimy, dirty rage in comparison to his later work. If this was his last album he would still have been heralded as a great.