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Musicology | 
 enlarge | Artist: Prince
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy Used: $0.14
You Save: $13.84 (99%)
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Rating:  323 reviews
Sales Rank: 12189
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 92560
UPC: 827969256022
EAN: 0827969256022
ASIN: B0001XTRCI
Release Date: April 20, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Musicology | | • | Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance | | • | A Million Days | | • | Life 'O' The Party | | • | Call My Name | | • | Cinnamon Girl | | • | What Do U Want Me 2 Do? | | • | The Marrying Kind | | • | If Eye Was The Man In Ur Life | | • | On The Couch | | • | Dear Mr. Man | | • | Reflection |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
After a decade and a half of only making records that tickled his own eccentric fancy, Prince has returned with a rather high-minded agenda to educate listeners in the science of music--or at least take them back to school--make that old school, bragging on the title track that "We got a Ph.D. in advanced body movin'." But his braggadocio is not without merit. The Purple One has reconnected with that deep vein of funk after experimenting with his splendid and messy excesses since the cusp of the nineties, and turned out his best album since 1987's Sign of the Times. Lean and minimal but with pronounced airtight grooves, the musician once again fuses the spiritual with the carnal, but has turned down the heat quite a bit since becoming a Jehovah's Witness. Instead of a dirty mind, Prince extols the joys of wedded bliss (he married Manuela Testolini on New Year's Eve 2001) on the slow, seductive "Call My Name," displays a sardonic sense of humor when he skewers his old 80s rival Michael Jackson on "Life O The Party" (My voice is getting higher/I ain't never had my nose done), and shows a rather tart and anxious social conscience throughout the disc; most eloquently articulated on the arch and acerbic "Mr. Man" where he not only references the gospel but the U.S. Constitution. "Cinnamon Girl," which borrows its title from Neil Young's infamous seventies anthem comes closest to the inscrutable musician's former high water marks, and shows that Prince well deservedly is able to reclaim his thorny crown. --Jaan Uhelszki
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| Customer Reviews:
(3.5 stars) Length is its downfall December 9, 2007
finulanu (Here, there, and everywhere)
It wouldn't have killed Prince to chop a couple songs off of this, but it's worth it on a whole. For once, Prince the Guitarist shines through here. Listen to "Cinnamon Girl" (which also has a superb chorus, and awesome protest lyrics. And no, it's got nothing to do with Neil Young), "What Do U Want Me 2 Do Girl", and "The Marrying Kind". For another, Funky Prince is funky as ever: the funk title song, a tribute to Prince's musical heroes, is probably the best song on the album. For a third, Prince the Purple Eccentric is as lovably odd as ever on "Coma, Illusion, Pimp & Circumstance", and is also clearly in charge of those kooky keyboards you hear on "If I Was the Man in UR Life" and the low-key "Dear Mr. Man", with a steady groove, occasional interesting horn blasts, and a delicate wah-wah. But I think that Prince is still a big-time victim of CD era indulgence. It's like he sees these shiny new 80 minutes, and goes, "Ooh! Now I can toss that song on here! And that one! And that one! That one, too!" That's why... well, a lot of these songs made the cut. "Life `o' the Party" ironically has no life, and it's supposed to be a rip-roarin' party "joint", so it quickly deteriorates. And while Prince ballads are usually quite reliable, from "Adore" to "Purple Rain" to "When You Were Mine" to "The Beautiful Ones", I think the ship containing them sunk and they were forced to swim to shore, waterlogged and nearing death. None of them really merit mention, but I'll throw their titles out there just the same; "A Million Days"; "Call My Name"; "On the Couch"; and "Reflection". Despite the many complaints I have, I still think Musicology is really worth a look.
 Another "going through motions" album from Prince... June 27, 2007
MATTHEW MCBRIDE (Nashville, TN United States)
While commercially "successful"...mostly due to his ingenious idea of including a copy of the CD with every concert ticket, "Musicology" is nothing more than a throw-away Prince album. Nothing here seems inspired or up to his lofty standards...these seem more like songs he can write in his sleep. Do yourself a favor and pick up "The Rainbow Children" which finds him and his muse at a rare peak.
 One of the best albums in my collection! June 10, 2007
Anthony Marray (Ohio United States)
Many call this the Prince "Comeback Album". I really don't know where he had went, I guess his studio in Minneapolis or something. And why does eveybody have to compare is new albums to his older ones? He's an artist, and true artists change (hopefully for the better). While he'll never make an album to the effect of "Purple Rain" or "Sign O' the Times" again (in terms of influence on popular music), he still has a lot of talent in him left. This man probably has written enough songs to make 30 more albums for all we know. But I'm glad he made some good ones for this set. "Cinnamon Girl" is a fun song, which is strange considering its serious subject matter, but I can't help but smile and sing along. I love "What do you want me 2 do?", which is a chill-groove type song. I could write a small review for all the songs but to cut to the point, they all sound great. I can't really think of a negative. All the songs are listenable. He deserved the two Grammys he got for this album (But he should of got more. And where is his Grammy for "Album of the Year"?). Anyway most Prince fans probably has heard or got a copy of this but for people new to Prince (And they are out there!) definitely get this album for his newer work.
Transcend Old vs New Prince by listening to this, and then again if necessary May 8, 2007
asumms (MN)
Nobody would say this is better than the old stuff - at first I thought the sound was too thin and songs weak but on successive listens there are songs that can't be dismmised. Recording style drops the effects and gives you the realness of the instruments - no drum machines in evidence. Bass and drum work (Rhonda Smith and John Blackwell) is perfect for the songs; Prince's guitar and synth contributions are great but don't take over completely either. Album sequencing is a plus: songs are made to go in album order in the vein of Parade (obviously not on that level) and to that end Prince has crafted several impressive segues.
**Musicology: Funkiness on its sleeve yes but its not bad music. Very memorable keyboard line.
Illusion, Coma, etc: Great guitar playing - listen again. So good but you almost don't notice it because the singing and lyrical gimmicks are so distracting.
A Million Days: corny rocker yes but the open high-hat and the sweeping guitar chorus line make this more than it appears to be.
**Call My Name: a standout, impressive slow R&B tune than transcends old Prince vs New Prince - great chords and build-ups and breakdowns. Hard to think of many other tunes like it - most slow R&B is too cheesy for me but this is real good.
What Do You Want Me Do? The production makes it sound "lite" but the song has a lot of depth and moves, with a catchy chorus and nice bass playing.
Marrying Kind: hard to go wrong - sweeping vocal hooks, chunky guitars, nice bridges/breakdowns, and a perfectly done segue into
Man in Ur Life - classic synth/keys/horn line over the chorus. Song also flows nicely, via a little jazz drum workout, into another very solid slow tune,
On the Couch: having 2 non-chessy slow R&B tunes on one album is very impressive to me - again the musicians are playing real music here. Also has a classic multi-octave descending-vocal part.
**Dear Mr Man: mellow but driving tune with a very pleasurable descending bass-line and spare but perfect drumbeat - vocal, backup vocals are sweet and the keys and guitar and horns are perfectly laced together on top.
Reflection: does sound a little like something off Parade - a dreamy, acoustic song with rim-shot drum part. Nice vocal build-ups.
Since nothing can be 1999 or Parade again why compare? How about comparing this to other funk / RB of right now to see how it stacks up. A lot of the music world has gone stale so to me this is a surprisingly well-crafted set of songs that can appeal to Prince and R&B fans alike.
WHEN YOU SEEN PUNK FUNK GROOVE QUOTE MATTHEW 5:5 AND THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT? October 25, 2006
C. Scanlon (among us humans)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Prince always been a whole lot better than he ought to be. You think he be another little clown like Jagger mincing around. Then you hear the killer groove. And those words, poetry only the first Shakirah hit, punning playful parodic word play like something out of Mr. James Joyce pen. And all that singing and virtuoso playing and then you remember: hey, isn't that all just that one little skinny man doing it all by his own little self. With attitude? For a generation now, while others got burnt out long long ago. How he still move his body? Hit those guitar frets? Put a verb to a noun and do it in ebonics and rip his own soul out for your entertainment.
When you hear him trying to sound angry, or serious, on that first killer cut, shouting at some kid keep his hands off his records and off his stereo, you hear what baby Prince must have heard from his dad: the great sixties beat and the anger. And we remember his album Come when last under contractual obligation to his former slavemasters at Warners (the same ones that killed Jimi) he ripped out his wails about domestic violence, and getting beat. And we hear that anger here and now: keep your hands off my records; back aawaaay from my stereo, more like a high angry dad than a mean big brother, ending with that soft Prince trademark lisp, and you remember . . .
Get this album. Gots to. For just three or four or more killer cuts ("25 years to life the judge sentenced me to hard labor with a knife making cuts 4 y'all keepin' the party packed") that you keep rep'ing on your CD player: Musicology, Mr. Man, and then a few ripped from the heart ballads (Call my name and On the couch) that you better have your loved one nearby to hear with, cause she will come to you in a high school prom dream smelling of perfume in her hair anyway and you will remember how to dance real slow and long like you sposed to. You remember how to love and to tell her just how much you love her and always did and always will and never forget it baby.
On the Couch. Nothing but pure slow Gospel ballad complete with impossible falsetto and slow slow organ with that old time spinning organ wheezing abd whining. Leave you shivering and grinning. Gospel pure and simple. Old school. Preach skinny little man. No couch tonight, please. A true cry for love, truly expressed. Learn to cry. For Love. Again.
And it Prince teach you to remember, and to speak.
No fear. No violence. Peace. and Love. say it again. Love. Don't be afraid. Say it. Love.
Where this little man come from.
Musicology, the album a lesson in music a generation ago. So you got white boy filler like Cinnamon Girl, a remake of the Neil Young anthem urbanized and showered up some, asking why Neil write a song about a black girl and then you remember his original front man and bass player he got all his licks and on-time beat from was not north Ontario country but Toronto Rick James, the late funkmaster hisself. But only a PhD in American Musicology would know that and only a student of James Joyce would connect those unspoken dots.
Sure, you skip the Foreigner style cut and the Devo style cut that are just Master Prince touching what was in Musicology and doing it better. HEal your ear listening to that title cut again. And Again. again. Again.
You be looking for your P-Funk Maggot Brain album, the original before they cleaned up the mix for re-issue. You see Mr. James Brown rise and moan from on the One. You remember how music made you feel. Good. You knew that you would.
Then you slip ease into Call my Name and hear Melvin and the Bluenotes again featuring Teddy Pendergast and ask yourself: this that same little man doing all that noise? But forget the prophet who proclaims and hear the sounds and remember. Remember. Oh. Remember. Oh. call my name. You hear that at the end: his name Prince, again. Play that one again. and once again. Again. Please. Let me hear it again just one more time.
Did he really just growl like Teddy P. that people on the news want the war to stop (hear the choir) and if they had a love as sweet as you they forget what they fight about? and then in the middle of this killer declaration of love he jumps in to sat something like this the land of the free somebody lie but if the tap my telephone and put people around my house they only find me making sweet love to you. But bush's domestic spying increases and gets more "legalized" and acceptable every day. and this cut got cut in 2004 and nobody listening and that fool stole the elections AGAIN? make no kind of sense. Remember.
You might think it trite his claiming to work day and night to buy a big home in the hood, only to find cigarette ads on every corner. Like, so what? Aren't there worse things? But this, as in Mr. James Joyce is an incident of metonymy, letting something small indicate a profound whole. The more you think about it the more you think about it. That cigarette ad campaign isn't seen in the wealthy neighborhoods, and represent socio-economic discrimination, multi-national corporations targetting the most poor for harmful and deadly unbeatable addictions. All those cigarette billboards are in the ghetto, and why? A profund message lurks here.
It also tells us the lie behind the American dream. Why slave night and day to buy a house which is set deep in the heart of a corrupt and corrosive economic system which really holds no future promise for our children ind families? What is trite upon reflection becomes profound.
Then listen to this: Mr. Man, an ancient ancient ebonic phrase for the slaveholder, and gentle yet as deceitfully damning as any surreptitious Irish phrase for the English tenant landowner.
Mr. Man is bad. Mr. Man. Hear that one until your CD wears out. Mr. Man got more to say with a badder funk groove than anyone should ever be allowed. Tired of y'all. Say it again. When did so much get write in one little punk funk song? With FOOTNOTES included. Hear what that little man say- that skinny little man looking like nothing but killing them all with peace and groove. That groove got you trying to pace the room in time, letting those long tense hands swing out loose around behind you again, in time, like Prince taught us to hear his record in the first cut: Let your mind unwind. Hear it again. And again. Remember.
And those killer horns cutting, like hearing Janet Jackson ask What you do for me lately out of a little transitor radio in the mountains of Nicaragua twenty years ago, cutting like a knife. THose horns. And here, hear this little old man, after therapy and getting out all his demons and all growed up now, preaching, preaching truth to power and saying what need be said, Mr. Man. You gotto hear this and hear this again. And again. And remember. "Ur thousand years are up, Mr. Man. Now you got to share the land." Don't fence me in.
Hear it again. Only Dixi Chix and first Shakira and this one little man remember: ROck and ROlls gots to be POLITICAL and revolutionary. And hip. And cool. And funk. Where JOe strummer go? The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron. James Blood Ulmer at Electric Lady. Mr. Marvin Gaye when he was good, before the lounge act, all over this one, baby.
Sorry, I can't tell you anything about the final cut. I'm certain it is killer, but I want to hear that Mr. Man once again, or twice, and On the Couch, and Call my Name, and of course a hundred thousand million times: the title cut Musicology. All the heroes in there cooking. More you hear the more you hear, like James joyce.
It's all like just so witty. And when we see that anymore? He's joking the whole time. Except when he's serious. He's cracking jokes. Like JAmes JOyce. Last resort of an enslaved people like the IRish. Or the American. Crack jokes nobody gets. especially not the anglo slavemasters.
Do you remember how music used to make you feel? Back in the day?
Get this album, remember. And feel. Peace.
Play it again. Make you think. Make you feel. Why the GOP condemn passionate love like this: just good old straight talking man loves a woman like he going to do a crime to steal her back again, he love her: don't put me out on the couch not tonight, baby. Just good old when a man loves a woman stuff. GOP fraid to say that four letter word everyone knows: Love? tell a woman Love be too risky?
Why the GOP condemn this Love but look the other way without a blink at a million dead iraqis for their oil fileds? Huh? Why petroleum piracy, they cool with that?
And this all came out BEFORE the elections. This here PROOF they stole those elections. Again. Hear it again. What? Nobody voted after people die for the vote?
It's winter in america, baby, its cold. Don't put me out on the couch, baby, again, please, please, please, not tonight of all nights, baby.
It's cold.
Play it again. Warm up. Peace, baby. Remember. And Love
Again.
One more time
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