Word: raves
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...Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic is the love-child of the Artist Formerly known as Prince and his new record label, Arista. This album attempts to answer the call Prince set forth a decade ago, to "party like it's 1999." But the impression that the album leaves behind is not of the Artist's music but rather of the pageantry behind it all. The body-hugging velvet costumes. The name that isn't a name. The bizarre album covers. The man himself, whose name has been debated more than the gender of Pat on Saturday Night Live. The Artist...
...pretension of the royal pain's latest album begins with a bizarre insert ranting about sheep's rights and urging everyone to "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic." The album's self-important title track is a sorry answer to the promise held out by the artist who previously claimed the year of 1999 as his own. In fact, there is little Joy Fantastic in this album. and the Artist certainly makes no effort to party like it's...oh, you know. The Artist's songwriting talent shines in the track "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold," but his megalomaniac performance...
Whatever. I shake his hand without another word. As long as [The Artist] keeps making albums as good as Rave, he can call himself anything he wants...
Then there's [The Artist]'s new CD, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. It's a terrific album, full of some of [The Artist]'s freshest, most focused music in years. It's being released by Arista--the first time [The Artist] has hooked up with a major label since 1996--but [The Artist] says he doesn't really have a contract with Arista, merely an "agreement." That agreement, [The Artist] says, is only two pages long. Two pages? Most pop acts need longer contracts just to cover the number of M&Ms that have to be in their dressing...
...recent years, [The Artist], 41, has been releasing records on his own label and selling them via the Internet. Some of those records have been sprawling; his 1998 album Crystal Ball was a five-CD set. Rave is smarter and trimmer, a single CD, 15 songs, with an impressive roster of guest stars that includes, among others, folk rocker Ani DiFranco, the rapper Eve and saxophonist Maceo Parker. And [The Artist]'s old pronounceable name makes a return on the new album. Rave's credits list Prince as the producer. [The Artist] adopted his old persona to recapture some...