Prince And The N.P.G. - Diamonds And Pearls

YOURZ

Prince is responsible for writing The Cross, one of my all time favourite songs.  While I don't mind the original version, it is the cover version done by Aussies Died Pretty that blows me away.  And I've only ever seen them do it live.  (You can hear it here)  Still, sometimes great songs need to be covered before you realise how great they are.  But I've always had mixed feelings about Prince.  Some of his songs, as far as I'm concerned, are near genius while others are, well, I'll be polite and say less so.  Way less...

Diamonds And Pearls, unfortunately, falls in the latter realm.  Most of this album, released nearly 20 years ago now, makes me cringe and want to stick my fingers in my ears.  But there are a couple of cool tracks, though, like Gett Off, which is sticky sex turned into music and Cream, which is foreplay put to music.  But then, he has always had a way of being able to turn the sensuous into music.  But the pay off for this is having to put up with the schmaltz as well, something I'm not prepared to do.  Two songs does not make an album, as far as I'm concerned, so, sorry babe, but I'm gonna vote to...

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

MINE

Getting this album out of the drawer just made me angry.  Not because of the CD - it's OK, I guess - but because it revealed to me that for the THIRD time in my life I'm going to have to buy 1999.  Because it's gone, to who knows where.  Did I leave it at a party?  Did I lend it to someone who hasn't returned it?  Whatever the reason, my favourite Prince album is gone - again.  I lost it the first time in the infamous Surry Hills robbery that lost me Neneh Cherry.  And it was replaced pretty soon afterwards, as I recall.  But it's been a while since I dragged it out of the drawer and now it's not there (sob).

But all of this isn't telling you what I think of Diamonds and Pearls.  Prince's sex album.  Really, if you're playing Gett Off to anyone, you better be ready to get at least semi naked and get busy right then and there - that song isn't sexy, it sticks its hand down your pants and makes you jump.  And a lot of the other songs are either about getting it on, or of staring lovingly into someone's eyes.  Hip-hop fans will like Jughead and I generally only enjoy a couple of other tracks - Thunder and Cream.  It's not his best - but I'd vote we also get his greatest hits albums (YourZ sez: sounds good to me), because his Royal Purpleness has done some damn fine work over the years.  Not including movies, I hasten to add.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP if you're in that kind of a mood (wink wink)

For more information: http://www.last.fm/music/Prince (dude doesn't have a site - how cool is that!)

Bangles - Different Light

YOURZ

Blech...  Girly guitar pop.  Yeah, Susanna Hoffs was hot, okay.  And she played a cool Rickenbacker guitar and looked fuckin' awesome in mini skirts and long boots.  Still doesn't mean I liked the music she was making.

It doesn't help that their biggest song, apart from ergh... Walk Like An Egyptian and Eternal Flame, wasn't written by them but by Prince.  Now, I don't have anything against the pint-sized purple-clad popster (check out that alliteration) but no wonder he gave Manic Monday away.  I probably wouldn't ever have admitted to writing it.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

MINE

I was a bit disappointed when the pointy stick landed on this CD rather than All Over the Place, as that (in my opinion) is by far the better Bangles album.  I had to save my pennies to buy the first album, after I saw Going Down to Liverpool on a late-night music TV show called Rock Arena.  At the time I was an unemployed army wife living in a country town, and I had to get the record shop to order it in for me - on cassette, as we were spending a lot of time in the car driving to Melbourne and back. 

I played that cassette to death, and was delighted to hear the band had a new record out in 1986, when I was living in Brisbane.  Still an army wife but no longer unemployed, I called the city's eclectic record shop (Rocking Horse Records, it's still there) to find they had it - on import from the US.  So I paid through the nose for it, and brought it home.  About three weeks later, Walk Like an Egyptian hit the airwaves, and the Bangles became a household name.  Which of course distressed me no end with my indie-cool.

Listening to it for this exercise, there are songs I like - Return Post and Walking Down Your Street in particular - but it still leaves me feeling a wee bit cheated.  Oh, and please, please do not mention their later hit Eternal Flame - the very thought of that sweetly, syrupy piece of fluff makes me throw up in my mouth a little.

As a side note: these girls owe me for concert tickets I bought in the early 90s for a tour they later cancelled.  I was so depressed I never got a refund - just stared at the tickets for days before throwing them away.  They're touring Oz with Pat Benatar right now... but I just couldn't bring myself to fork out for it.  Hmmm, is that regret I hear now?

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN and put the other one on

For more information: http://www.thebangles.com/

In our collection, we also have All Over the Place

Beck - Midnite Vultures

MINE

I must admit I was never much of a Beck fan before YourZ came along, and I'm still not really, although I do admire his musicianship. It's mostly because I don't really like his voice.

YourZ calls this "Beck's disco album" and I kind of agree, but I think I'd call it "Beck's annoying album" because it's just a bit too clever for me. Not that the tunes are bad or anything, but there's so MUCH in there! So many instruments, multi-tracking, sound effects, bells and whistles, you can't really get to grips with the music. In fact, it's like he snorted a whole bunch of coke in the studio and didn't know where to stop.

It's no Mellow Gold or Odelay - so I'd mark it as the album only for completists.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

YOURZ

Bek David Campbell, aka Beck, is a musical pixie who sprinkles weird-ass instrumentation, samples and stream-of-consciousness lyrics throughout his releases like nose-candy for a drug-free generation. Personally, he's been a source of inspiration ever since I heard his first major release, Mellow Gold, 15 years ago. After this, there was the Grammy-winning Odelay, which saw him become one of the biggest artists in the world at the time.

Three years on from that, he released Midnite Vultures, his 7th studio album, where he channelled disco grooves by way of Bowie and Prince, tossed these with his eclectic instrumentations, assembled a massive crew of musicians, including Johnny Marr, Beth Orton and his producers of choice, the Dust Brothers, and came up with an indefinable musical melding as only he is capable of doing. A typical example of his eclecticism happens at the end of the first song, Sexx Laws, where he drops a banjo line into what's otherwise been a horn-laden piece of white soul.

I saw him live a few years after this album was released and he included a number of tracks in his set. He played up the disco elements of these tracks with some hokey b-boy dance moves and a lot of cheek. It still has to be one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

Not one of his best albums, but certainly not one of his worst, Midnite Vultures is still a great example of the eccentric world of the artist called Beck.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (and boogie down, y’all)

Click here for more info: http://www.beck.com/

In our collection, we also have Mellow Gold, Stereopathic Soul Manure, One Foot In The Grave, Odelay, Sea Change, Guero, Guerolito, The Information and Modern Guilt.