Parade - Prince

SO WHO'S PRINCE? ------------------------------ Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson, in Minneapolis 46 years ago is a very talented singer/multi-instrumentalist (with the emphasis on "mentalist"). Between 1983 and 1993 he released one album every year until his record company took more control of his work and asked him to slow down his work-rate and spend more time on promotion. He responded by changing his name to an unintelligible symbol, writing the word "slave" on his cheek and actively not promoting his work. He returned this year with the apparently fine Musicology album. WHAT DOES HE SOUND ...  Read the complete review

It's hard to believe that this album is 15 years old. Listening to it again it reminds me of when Prince really was pop royalty, capable of producing music of the very best quality. What we have here is a soundtrack to his film Under The Cherry Moon, a film that really needs to forgotten. Parade, though, has enough imagination and energy to outlast most other artists entire career contributions. Classic singles Kiss and Girls and Boys sit beside lesser known gems such as Under the Cherry Moon and Do U Lie? Picking a highlight is near impossible as each song is a complete surprise. The tone of the album flits between joy and pain, making you really feel as if ...  Read the complete review

Released in 1986, PARADE is not Prince's worst album, but by no means is it his best. It features music from his film UNDER THE CHERRY MOON, which I've never seen. Presumably 'Christopher Tracy', whose name appears in a couple of tracks on the album, is a character in the movie? Anyway, the songs themselves are pretty average. There are two stand-out tracks. The first one is KISS which is OK here, but which Tom Jones does much better on his cover version. The second stand-out is ANOTHERLOVERHOLENYOHEAD. This is the one track on the album that I sing along to, sometimes without the album even playing! The lyric "you need another lover like ...  Read the complete review