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Rating: PRINCE: JUST STOP IT.
There is nothing worse than an artist who makes a shallow "trade" piece.
No, actually... there is worse: it's when a versatile and dynamic artist like Prince (not a lightweight) starts doing predictable and trivial work like this 3121. A work without the inventiveness and versatility to which we were (well) accustomed with albums like 1999, Parade, Sign 'o the Times or Lovesexy many years ago (just to name a few from the bunch).
Does this record, therefore, suck?! Noo, I don't want to go to that extreme, but the fact that this "big sellout" is nothing more than what one could expect from today's Little Prince, already indicates how everything in life, sooner or later, settles down, becomes "the norm" and thus predictable and boring (start noting this down!) Everything, huh?! Nothing excluded... geniuses, little kings, and madonnas included.
Everything becomes integrated and made "compliant" with what the audience expects and, all in all, wants (call it "marketing," friends, and remember the term well: it will be what screws us all and everything from here to 10 years - Lesto BANG Teaches!).
So, we start with the "Funky" of ?3121? as predictable as the daily ending of a TV soap for desperate housewives: falsettos, slack scratches from bloated DJs (the wind/synth counterpoint half-way saves it, being somewhat histrionic and bizarre? even these as per script in their originality).
With "Lolita," we return to the anterior neozoic with a "Prince-like" funky even more predictable than the first. Damn, not a note that surprises us, with the keyboard also played "Prince-like," offbeat backing vocals from lolitas (precisely), syncopated rhythm, all in an arrangement that I WANT TO HOPE is deliberately traced back to the "80s" sounds of which he was the king Midas! We arrive at the big sellout (called a "Hit") of "Te Amo Corazon" which I skip without even commenting. And onward with the predictability of "Black Sweet" which leaves us with no hint of inventiveness or surprise: folks, this is the "Classic Prince" that is as classic as can be: and what the hell do you want more (seems like hearing the voice of distant echoes from the marketing offices)?! And onward...
(I already see the die-hard fans of this site saying "Prince is Prince," "Woe to anyone who touches Minneapolis's little genius" and on with the cliché phrases and common places from people with blinders settled on "what they already expect and most suits them").
But I ask you/me: what the hell does an album like this add to his vast production (37 official albums, of which frankly at least half could have been avoided, including this one)?! What the hell does it represent to publish an album of "good craftsmanship and trade" like this one?
Has he forgotten what the hell he managed to produce in the mid-80s and part of the 90s?! Yes yes... don't worry, there's also a nod to the "youngsters" with the speeded-up quasi-rap of "Incense And Candles," but it certainly doesn't serve to rejuvenate it all. And after all, how could it be with arrangements like those (frankly embarrassing and monolithic) of the track "Love," blatantly heard at least for 30 years with a keyboard similar to Bontempi counterpointing a bass and drum line, which sounds as dated as a press release from Emilio Fede from last year.
And I am not completely "Satisfied" with this track either, which at least recovers the patterns of classic black songs with "classic" and standard arrangements in its forced placement as a soul evergreen. Let's say it saves itself but in extra time. Even "Fury" seems to me an improvised wagon put together however possible, that greatly recalls ("quotes the 80s... didn't you get it that it quotes?" the usual die-hard fans in their soundproof bell jar would say with the inquisitive finger) dozens of other songs by him.
Pure shit? I reiterate no... the record can be listened to like a mommy's sermon that as a verbal sermon, one always listens to with a benevolent smile of condescension to then do whatever the hell we like. It's there, it's pleasant to hear but I already know WHAT and HOW it is said... hot air, in short.
With "The Word," we are at the usual... cute (with a small final yawn).
"Beautiful, Loved & Blessed" is the usual "Prince-like" ballad, not to mention the slop of "The Dance" which only has the merit of throwing us off (the title foresaw all dance and booty shaking and instead... here you go!! Perhaps the ONLY REAL SURPRISE of this album). The album bids farewell with the pathetic imitation of James Brown in the track "Get On The Boat" where everything, absolutely everything, is quoted to the letter: horns, backing vocals, breaks, and I don't doubt that on stage, the Little Black Prince will delight us with splits and steps identical to the old Sex Machine (who knows if by then he will have grown as fat as the 70-year-old greased dancer...).
What to say...oh yes, you can dance, it moves your ass, sure, and who says otherwise, we are in the small garden of ?Dance Old Style? with few more crumbs of fantasy but don’t start talking to me about the "Minneapolis genius" or other bullshit clichés I've been hearing for 20 years.
This remains an album that brings us back a Joker&Craftsman Prince now in the grip of a caricature of himself, scraping everything there is to scrape. There's the need to cite the 80s SOOO much in fashion - as taught by Ciccone Dalgranculone? Well... forward with the citation!! Lacking inspiration for an arrangement? No problem...let's recycle from the heroic past!! Need a very classic soul track to give "tone"? Recover James Brown... and this way forward!
In short, and to make it brief, what is missing is novelty, the taste for excess, the jazz digressions of some of his pieces, the zappian originality of some arrangements, the madness of some of his releases, if we want, even extracurricular.
You may feel differently, but I miss Prince, folks, but the "real one."
Keep this "luxury sellout" put back on its back by the current Major, keep the 80s nightclub shimmying dances and his "clone-tracks" of great craftsmanship.
Instead, give me back the nonconformist and wild Prince I knew, the showman who loved to challenge himself with each album, and each track was half an enigma, EP, triple album, or Black Album as it might be.
As for this "golden retiree of funk/rock," for what it's worth, he could very well end it here. Maybe delivering a TRUE classic masterpiece made from the heart or, at worst (at best) with a mad, brilliant gesture, worthy of his past... maybe launched from the 3121st floor of a skyscraper or why not, hanged with the jack of his guitar!
Yes... PRINCE SHOULD END IT HERE.
End it like a Hero and not as a good Craftsman (close to retirement) singing his hits on cruise ships for bored and married oil millionaires.
It would be an impeccably heroic (or hanging) gesture, a true icon of rock/soul (like Jim Morrison or Hendrix, to understand), perhaps the "last" thing he really has left to do to enter the Myth. Forever.
Si u ledar.
Your, Lesto.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 3121 (04:33)
[3121 (3121)] {distorted vocals}
1 mix, 1 mix {looped}
DJ, turn it up {looped}
Let's go
3121
Bring mommy, she's local, right
3121, come on
Through the gates, knock on the door
Put your clothes in the pile on the floor
Take your pick from the Japanese robes and sandals
Drink champagne from a glass with chocolate handles
Don't U wanna come? 3121
Gonna be so much fun - 3121
That's where the party be - 3121
U can come if U want 2, but U can never leave!
Look over there (look over there), there's another turn on
Butterflies scared that they're gonna be awake all night long (All night long)
Dancing in your belly like a ballerina
In spite of your efforts 2 calm them down
Don't U wanna come? 3121
It's gonna be so much fun - 3121
That's where the party be - 3121
U can come if U want 2, but U can never leave!
House party, y'all
It's going down people, like the wall of Berlin
Lock the door (lock the door) till U see the sun (Till U see it)
We gon' party like there ain't gon' be another 1
Futuristic fantasy
This is where the purple party people be, yeah
This is where the party be - 3121 {x2}
Breakdown
Guitar!
[3121 (3121)] {distorted vocals}
Don't U wanna come? 3121
It's gonna be so much fun (Yes it is) - 3121
That's where the party be - 3121
U can come if U want 2, but y'all can't never leave! (Not ever!)
It's going down y'all, like the wall of Berlin {looped}
02 Lolita (04:08)
Ow, ow
Stop it baby
U're a VIP at least 2 me
Come here and show me some ID
Eye know U're fine from head 2 pumps
If U were mine we'd bump bump bump
U're much 2 young 2 peep my stash
U're tryin' 2 write checks Ur body can't cash
U can't hang with this, girl
Lolita
U're sweeter
But U'll never make a cheater out of me
Cool 2gether, yes, eye must admit
Long time ago, we'd be the shh... uh oh
Like Frank and Ava, we'd paint the town
Just on the floor, gettin' way down
Dom Perignon and caviar
The finest clothes and fancy cars
U know, one of them '56 pink caddies, baby!
Lolita
U're sweeter
But U'll never make a cheater out of me
Ur eyes Ur mouth
Ur curly hair
U're bad no doubt
But eye must beware
Lolita
U're sweeter
But eye won't mislead ya
Eye'll feed ya, if it'll please ya
But then eye'll say c ya
U're a fine, mama mia
But U'll never ever ever
No, U'll never ever ever
No, U'll never make a cheater out of me
[Female speaking spanish]
Fellas! (yea?)
How bad is this girl? (bad!)
Then what U wanna do? (whatever u want!)
Then come on let's dance! (dance!) [2x]
Lolita! (yea?)
How bad r u, girl? (bad!)
Then what u wanna do? (whatever u want!)
Then come on let's dance! (dance) [2x]
Imagine me on the tip of Ur tongue
If eye took a sip then eye would be on the run
Hellhounds barkin' 'round my door
Eye can't sip U once 'less eye sip U some more
Lolita
Better get out of here
'Less U wanna dance
03 Te Amo Corazón (03:37)
At 42,000 feet above the sea
That's where U and I first came 2 be
From the dust of the earth and the knowledge tree
Te amo corazón {Spanish for: "I love U, sweetheart"}
At last I can tell U what I've known so long
My heart's been crying out 2 sing this song
I don't care who knows it cuz there's nothing wrong
Te amo corazón
I'm so scared of losing U
I really don't know what I'd do
Can't bear the thought of another day apart
My heart, my heart... corazón
{scatting}
At once when I first laid eyes on U
I saw heaven and Earth anew
Everyone else saw my brown eyes, no longer blue
Te amo corazón
Oh yeah, oh yes
At first I couldn't find the words 2 say
How much U've changed me in every way
I just wanna thank U, oh, each and every day
Te amo corazón
05 Incense and Candles (04:06)
Baby ooh (yes)
Let's go
Eye've been waiting 4 U baby all night long
(eye've been waiting 4 U baby all night long)
So eye could get somebody 2 play this song
(c'mon)
The jam that's got a beat like it's making love
(the jam that's got a beat like it's making love)
Cuz Ur the only one eye've been thinking of
(oh yea) whoaa
Come in2 my room of incense and candles
Eye've got something that U won't know how 2 handle
U can tell me na-uh but U know how this man do
Eye'ma want it all night long
C'mon c'mon
Eye'ma want it all night long
Eye'm glad we're compatible, mature, and grown
(mature and grown)
'Cause this is nothing something U can do alone
There's a dance floor but we can use a table (yes we can)
Eye've got 2 have a partner that's willing and able
(willing and able)
Come in2 my room of incense and candles
Eye've got something that U won't know how 2 handle
U can tell me na-uh but U know how this man do
Eye'ma want it all night long
Once U try 2 seduce me it grows and grows
Ur mind will never deny what Ur body knows
Eye know U want 2 take off all your clothes
But please don't do it
Eye got a cool idea my darling, let's go outside
Eye wanna smother U with something shiny as the rims upon my ride
Eye want 2 look 4 the milky way and uhh when eye find it
Eye'm gonna make U scream my name as if it was divine (Prince)
But we both know that we gotta praise the one who made ya
Give props 2 Ur mama 4 the healthy food she must have gave ya
4 the meek at heart these words they might sound like a sinner
But the truth is that U're sitting on every one of Ur dinners
But that's fine, 'Cause eye'm blind
About blind as a cat in the dark
It might come at 2 in the morning after roaming in the park
Hard 2 understand always changing plans
Harder than hell 2 handle
One scent alone make it worth Ur while the price of Prince's candle
All night
Circles of flowers or pyramids of sand
Violet colored diamonds
U got 2 understand
Incense and candles
Wherever U can
U got 2 make this woman
Lust 4 this man
Come in2 my room of incense and candles
Eye've got something that U won't know how 2 handle
U can tell me na-uh but U know how this man do
Eye'ma want it all night long
[Repeat 4x]
07 Satisfied (02:52)
B4 we get started, r we all alone?
Cuz I'm about 2 get open-hearted
It's time 2 send your company home and turn off your cell phone
Baby, can't U see I just wanna getcha satisfied?
Satisfied
This is gonna be a long night (Long)
A little bit longer afternoon (Afternoon)
Girl if we get this thing right
Ooh, U gonna get satisfied real soon
Baby, can't U see (Can't U see I'm just tryin'?)
That I wanna get U satisfied, oh yeah? (Satisfied)
I ain't talkin' 'bout nothin' physical
Cuz 4play starts in the mind (In the mind)
I'm just tryin' 2 get U 2 think about doin' things
That U've always wanted, but could never find
I'm gonna seek this thing like a buried treasure (Seek and destroy)
Like Columbus sailing over the sea
Till I discover baby, the land beyond expertise and chastity
I'm just tryin', tryin', I'm just tryin' 2 get U
Satisfied (Satisfied, satisfied, satisfied)
I'm sure U had another lover (Another lover)
But let me tell U baby, all tricks aside
I can get U out of your body
Have U ever felt like U were dyin'
And felt satisfied?
08 Fury (04:04)
U must have heard it on the news this morning
Congratulations, a new star is born
Sun 2 shadow, rose 2 a thorn
But there ain't no fury like a woman scorned
Y'all musta dug it when U did your thang
It's like the song everybody wanna sang
When the music's over your ears'll ring
With a voice that says "Queen got no king"
Got no king, (No, she don't)
He got a message sayin' U tried 2 reach him on the phone
He didn't wanna answer cuz he's so afraid
U'll probably tell him just 2 leave U alone
U must have heard he got another band
They're makin' money, they're makin' plans
U feel left out, but U need 2 understand
Word on the street - he's still your man
He's still your man, he's still your man, girl
(Look out, look out) Look out here comes your rainy day
Now U think U got a good reason 2 say
Everything that's in your heart, come what may
Even though his might get broken
Who's the guilty 1, (who's the guilty 1) when there ain't no judge and jury?
Shadow 2 the sun (shadow 2 the sun), next 2 the 1 (next 2 the 1)
Hell ain't got no fury
Will the roses the dead keep sending
Repair the heart in need of mending?
Will this song have a happy ending?
Only the woman knows, only she knows
2 sides 2 every story
One man's gloom is another man's glory
Sun 2 a shadow (shadow), rose 2 a thorn (rose 2 a thorn)
There ain't no fury like a woman scorned
Oh no, ain't no fury like a woman scorned {x2} (Oh no)
No fury like a woman scorned
{laughter}
12 Get on the Boat (06:19)
Look outside Ur window
Tell me now what U c
Coming up the mountain
4 a new philosophy
Every single color
Every race and ever creed
Lookin' 4 the truth ya'll
That's gonna set somebody free
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
All across the nation
People doing what they can
2 avoid the tribulation
That will b great throughout the land
Everything in darkness
Must come out in2 the light
When we love each other
That's the only way that's gonna be right
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Good god!
Say it again
Bridge!
We were meant 2 live 2gether
Underneath the sun
Eye can't think of nothing better
Don't U wanna come?
Get on the boat
Nevermind what time it is
The party's just begun
No te alejes de este momento de inspiracion
U can let Ur hair down
Let the music move Ur feet
Panamama bring the drama
Dancin' 2 the beat
Maceo!
What's the harm in listening 2 the hopeful words we say
If it moves Ur heart U know U better get in without delay
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Dance to the beat... Ray, Ray, Ray
Leadline- horns, hit me now
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
We were meant 2 live 2gether
Underneath the sun
Eye can't think of nothing better
Don't U wanna come?
Get on the boat
Ooh Yea
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Every color, every creed
C'mon c'mon
Come with me
Hallellujiah!
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Get on the boat
Get on the boat, people
Get on the boat now
We got room 4 a hundred more
Good lord
Lead line, lead line
Can't stand it
Keep it going, keep it going
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Other reviews
By Il sommo poeta
Prince can legitimately reclaim the title that was his throughout the '80s: that of a genius.
3121 is not JUST Prince’s most beautiful album in many years, but it is ALSO one of the best albums in Prince’s career.
