Prince

It make me dance, it make me cry," Prince purrs on the title track of his tenth album, "and
when I touch it, race cars burn rubber in my pants." Longtime Prince fans (you know, the
kind whose eyes mist over when recalling the Minneapolis Wunderkind's funk-infested
pre-1999 era) have been waiting for him to sing those kinds of lyrics for years. And if you
don't pay close attention at first, Lovesexy does indeed sound like old times. Wh... More >

He's a talented little guy, and this has plenty of pizzazz. But I'll take The Black Album's fat-bottomed whomp over its attention-grabbing beats and halfway decent tunes any day, and despite appearances it sure ain't where he explains why sexiness is next to godliness--lyrically it's sloppy if not pseudo if not stupid. This is doubly bothersome because added religious content is what it's supposed to have over its not terribly shocking alternative. Leading one to the obvious conclusion that the real reason the little guy made the switch was that he was scared to reveal how, shall we say, unpop he could be. (Grade: B+)