Standout tracks: I Like It There, Zannalee, I Rock, Therefore I Am
Who else but Prince could put out an album of previously thrown away tunes and have it be as good as Chaos and Disorder? If anyone could, it would likely be the other weirdo from Minnesota. There must be something in the water up there.
Chaos and Disorder was the last collection of previously unreleased material Prince would do for Warner Brothers, thus wrapping up his contract which had been so unhappy with for so very long. (Frank Zappa also had a tenuous relationship with Warner Brothers, so they must be a bunch of idiots over there for pissing off two of the greatest composer/musicians of the 20th century.) One would think these leftover tracks (from previous recording sessions) would be garbage, but as mentioned in the opening paragraph, this is really solid stuff.
The album opens with the title track, and it's a rocker, guitar-driven, feedback and organ squealing in the background as the song kicks in. The rocking continues into I Like It There, a radio-friendly tune with a great hook. This would have been a better choice for a single than the one that was chosen, a pleasant Dinner with Delores, a more-than-adequate tune but one that doesn't have quite the appeal as the former.
For the other standouts, the blues-laden Zannalee is a must-hear, and I Rock, Therefore I Am is a funky little number with some great scratching and mid-section rap that sets this one above anything I've heard on contemporary releases from the hip hop crowd, a personal opinion to be sure, but one my inarguably snobbish ear stands by.
I Will is the one true ballad on the album and it is, as usual, killer. Some lovely piano here, and really nice instrumentation in the background. Nice vocal harmonies here too from Prince and some mysterious females. All around a really great album, not at all deserving the mediocre reviews it received upon its release.
Rating: 4 seductive whispers (out of 5)
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