Come (1994)


  
  

 1. Come
 2. Space
 3. Pheromone
 4. Loose!
 5. Papa
 6. Race
 7. Dark
 8. Solo
 9. Letitgo
 10.Orgasm

 

As far as I can tell, this was one of those “contractual obligation” albums. It had been over a year since Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, yet when this one was released, it featured the name “Prince” on the album cover. What gives? Of course, the picture on the cover was of a cemetery showing that “Prince” had died. So….

Anyway, the music on this record feels as though Prince is simply cleaning out his closet. Although he had one of the largest closets in music history, most of the material here seems rather subpar. It’s almost as if he was sticking it to his former record label by giving them a bunch of mediocre material.

Although I would argue that this album was his worst to date, one can find a few bright spots. The groovy Pheromone followed by Loose! is quite a significant one-two punch, and the track Letitgo has a lot of likability as well. Sadly, the rest of the record is one big misfire. The opening track Come has a couple of bright spots, but with a song length at over eleven minutes, it simply kills what little there is about the track to enjoy. The song Papa about an abusive father almost sounds as though it could have been reworked into a decent tune, but much of the song is Prince simply speaking (screaming, actually) about a little boy being abused. It’s simply too much to stomach. Speaking of too much to stomach, the album closes with a track titled Orgasm. At one minute and forty seconds in length, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what this “song” is about. Skip the song. Please, just skip the song. The rest of the songs sound like he simply doesn’t care. Some good ideas intertwined within the tunes, but they’re never really developed to any type of fruition.

Sadly, from this point on in his career, many of his releases would be of the experimental nature, and they would be hit or miss in terms of quality. This was the beginning of a downward spiral. The fact that he really wasn’t trying doesn’t really make the experience much better.

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