Publication: VOX [UK]
Date: September 1996
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Title: "Party Like It’s £ 1.99"
Reviewed By: Garvin Martin

Wharever you want to call him, and no matter what else he does to obfuscate the golden age of his Prince era, O(+> is unlikely to ever lose his status as The Most Wilful Rocker of Them All . Who else has relinquished a past catalogue of such astonishing diversity in an unparalleled, utterly perverse scorched-earth policy? Think of how he's punished and worried hinself out of Geniusville. Prince then - a pint-sized titan and unassailable icon; O(+> now- an identity-troubled egomaniac with a 'slave 'complex. A creature of myth and exile attempting to create an endlessly rejuvenating Eden in Paisley Park; performing with a towel on his head on The White Room; supplying the soundtrack for softporn sexploitation spectacular Showgirls; and making albums at a hell-for-leather rate.

"Chaos and Disorder'may be his 134th contractual obligation album. Does anyone really know (or really care) about the state of his ongoing battle with his corporate paymasters? What is worth caring about is how reacts and interfaces with the world through music, and the opening(title) track shows him to be as potentially funny, energising and perceptive in this score as ever. It's a new manifesto, a great Prince rocker, right up there with "Let's Go Crazy"and "1999", bopping round real drum dance fury, delivering couplets that do his Chuck Berry-in-the-modern world lineage proud.

But 'Chaos and Disorder' turns out to be a mission statement- the tittle hiding his current aesthetic quandary before our very eyes. The press blurb claims this is his rock album, guitar to the forefront and back to claim the crown from kidders like Kravitz. But its not that simple. Prince is too vaultingly ambitious and prolific to restreat into a specific genre à la Springsteen. He wants it all and he wants it now.

Accordingly, there's a pervading sense of breathless desperation driving the half-hearted warm-ups and barely developed ideas that follows. With such a formidable gameplan mapped out in his past, it's no surprise if O(+> takes to ripping off his own heritage as he does in 'Dinner With Delores"(almost a sequel to 'Starfish and Cofee'from the classic 'Sign o the Times'album). But though the song promises much-ripe bawdy humour with dollops of Cranberry sauce-it's a marvelous idea that's not been given the care and delicacy to develop that it deserves. Time and again, listening to O(+> you're faced with the realisation that speedy creativity doesn't necessarily preclude laziness. Too worried about outrunning himself, doing a duel with his shadow, O(+> loses respect for the intimacy and daring in his work. Everything is tossed off with a flick of the wrist.

'Right The Wrong' starts interestingly- O(+> as mean-minded Western shit-kicker-but the music soon sinks into a bland mush, barely enlivened by the bored bump'n'grind routine of 'Zannalee'which follows. Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Van Morrison on Ínto the Light'and 'I Will', and then the interest level descends rapidly.

This is a circus clown in trading, a several-trick pony going through the hoops in petulant 'I can do this in my sleep 'style. Whatever he wants to come out of this chaos and disorder - money?drugs?endless sex?freedom?-you end up hoping he gets it asap. Then we can have our Prince, or whatever phoenix he chooses to be next, back again. 5

[Caption: No power generation : O(+> loses the plot(again)]