Standout Tracks: Thunder, Cream
Thank the gods for Diamonds and Pearls as the follow-up to the tedious three-disc Crystal Ball set. Diamonds and Pearls is good stuff. How good? Wait for it.
The disc kicks off with a bang, the upbeat rocking/funking Thunder. Thunder sounds like it could be a theme song from a James Bond movie, lots of dramatic keyboard action, a catchy hook, filled with good visuals. And while we're on the subject, why hasn't Prince done a James Bond theme song? I'm writing a letter!
The title track has a beautiful chorus, just lovely, but honestly I have to say the verses themselves leave me unimpressed. Prince sings along with the melody there, which is fine when it's a better melody than this. It's these five-syllable runs that are just too cheesy for me. The chorus is really something though. Really everything but those verses is great. In fact, while it's far from the best track on the album, it is the one song that seems to be the ear worm for this release. All day long I've been humming those damned five notes.
Strollin' is a great tune, very jazzy. There is a killer guitar solo in this tune, just spectacular. And here we need to talk about the personnel for a moment. This is the first Prince album that officially is attributed to him and the New Power Generation (even though the NPG had performed on previous releases), and because of the NPG, it's not just Prince playing all the instruments anymore. So I don't know whether to attribute the solo to him or to the NPG guitarist. It's a pretty stunning solo though, so it's probably safe to assume it's Prince's fret-work, but it is a much different genre of solo than you'd expect him to pull off. Great stuff though, wonderful tune.
Gett Off is as close as you can get to making my Standout Tracks list without making the grade. It's got a super beat, is funky as hell, and Prince even throws down a rap, and while I cannot complain about it at all, there's just a little something special that's missing for this to go all the way.
But Cream, that motherfucker goes all the way. Funky, baby. And hot. Dance to that motherfucker.
Walk Don't Walk and Jughead, are mostly forgettable, the only real mediocre tracks on the album. Jughead ends with a bit of dialogue ripping on what is almost certainly Warner Brothers, and it sort of feels unnecessary. Again, not a bad song here, just mostly meh.
Money Don't Matter is smooth, 70s style R&B. I love it. It makes my sheets feel softer. Venus Flytrap would have loved it.
Push is another great funk tune, and from there we go into Insatiable, the ballad in which Prince sings (and talks in PrinceSexyVoice) about wanting to videotape his lovemaking. This is interesting because by the end of the song, it seems he's more interested in being the star of the film rather than the cinematographer. None of this can be very surprising.
The album comes to a close with Live 4 Love, which also comes close to being a fitting James Bond theme song, again, mostly due to that dramatic keyboard action. Little bits of rap are tossed in throughout, but generally it's another funky little number that you can't help but tap your toes to. Super bass solo about halfway through that leads into a good rap portion. Well worth hearing, and a fitting end to a really fine album.
Rating: 4 pearl necklaces (out of 5)
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