Prince and the New Power Generation—[Love Symbol]

Prince and the New Power Generation—[Love Symbol]

[Love Symbol]—Eventually changing his name to it for a time, Prince adopted what was termed a "love symbol" for the name of his second album with the New Power Generation: an apparent combination of the traditional male and female symbols. He did not originally choose it to represent his identity, leaving it to mean, in the context of the album, it must speak to the concept; the album does follow a certain story, though it is obscured by the omission of several planned interludes in favor of an additional song. Longer than Diamonds and Pearls (1991), but less swollen, [Love Symbol] is nothing if not dynamic.

"My Name Is Prince" samples successive early Prince records ("I Wanna Be Your Lover" from Prince [1979], "Partyup" from Dirty Mind [1980], and "Controversy" from Controversy [1981]) as the artist proclaims, "My name is Prince" and "Funky fresh 4 the 90s," contextualized by Tony M's aggressive rap verse. Prince, long hip to musical trends, was convinced the hip hop leaning would make it the album's ideal single; he was partially correct, scoring a top 40 hit, but it did not end up the most successful single. It sets the tone for the mostly-cohesive album, something like a party record with a kind of harmless danger, despite lines like "I put my foot in the ass of Jim Crow." Prince claims on "Sexy M.F." that "In a word or 2—it's u I wanna do/No, not cha body, yo mind u fool," which given his history seems dubious, but the groove is undeniable. "Love 2 the 9s" is irresistible; Prince's future wife Mayte Garcia auditions when Prince beckons, "T. will whip out a 37 questionnaire and/Machine gun a sister like he just don't care;" "'How many kids u got'/'Egad, I'm shocked.'"

"The Morning Papers" is a great, fantastic love song, while "The Max" is dance from the underworld: something like Prince's own version of "Thriller." A short segue—of which there were supposed to be many, but were cut due to space limitations—gives some background to the concept, with Vanessa Bartholomew (played by Kirstie Alley) attempting to reach Prince for an interview. "Blue Light" is a traditional Prince theme presented as a reggae number. "I Wanna Melt with U," its title stylized with an eye (as is every other instance of the pronoun in the CD notes), is filthy funk that was thankfully added to the album at the last minute. "Sweet Baby" is one of the only unimaginative and borderline lousy inclusions. "The Continental" is an awesome, twinkling rocker featuring a sexy outro by Carmen Electra (another Prince girlfriend). "Damn U" (whose video also spotlights Electra) is a romantic, dreamlike slow-dancer. The short "Arrogance" demonstrates that Prince is at least self-aware, and highlights what is probably the true subject of the album.

"The Flow" reprises the hip hop undercurrents, suggesting that Prince is not ready to fully embrace the onset of rap ("Girl, I hate 2 say this—nigga, please!"). The singalong "7" was the album's biggest hit, the number seven referring to the number of assassins hired to do away with Mayte's character in Prince's eventual movie accompanying the story, 3 Chains o' Gold. "And God Created Woman," with almost-new age keyboard, is a quality horn-tinged man-and-woman musing under the guise of the Book of Genesis. "3 Chains o' Gold" (the object the aforementioned assassins were contracted to obtain) is slightly overblown for what is supposed to be the summation of the album's plot, though it is not exactly substandard. The following segue, where Prince, wanting to spread "the truth," claims his name is Victor and that he is 320 years old and "into [his] 5th soul," giving the work a feeling of secret-society ambage not unlike the Illuminati (which, for the record, is symbolized by an eye). The album then closes with "The Sacrifice of Victor," ending as it began, with a self-referential quality that also echoes Sign "☮" the Times (1987).

Concept, as always, proves a double-edged sword for Prince; Purple Rain (1984), for all its pomposity, was a great set of songs, if sometimes preposterous, and so is [Love Symbol]. It languishes at times, but at its best it is one of the most eclectic Prince albums, and therefore has an inherent worth distinct from the rest of his music. Beyond the abstract, though, its greatest songs are pop perfection, and for that reason alone it is an essential listen.