Publication: Oor [?]
Date: November 27, 1996
Section:
Page Number(s):
Length:
Title: "Master Turn-On"
Reviewed By: Edwin Ammerlaan

[Translated by Barendregt en Ates]

'Emancipation: equality for the law, make free.' The Artist feels free. At last he has the rights and future of his music in his own hands. 0(+> celebrates the end of his much talked about creative 'slavery' with no less than 36 songs on 3 cd's. Don't expect fierce guitar-solo's, exhuberating orgasms of sound and wild explosions of purple machofunkrock, because they are scarce. The Artist has reset his goal. With 'Emancipation' he overtly aims his focus on black America; an audience that he, according to the homefront, has been neglecting as well on album as on concerts. Inspired by the latest trends in the American charts and the succes of 'The Most Beautiful girl In The World' therefore ballads mainly dominate 'Emancipation'. Stylish r&b and slick soul, packed in melodic romance by the master turn-on himself. On cd 1 sugar-sweet songs like 'Somebody's Somebody', 'Eye Can't Make You Love Me' or the Stylistics cover 'Betcha By Golly Wow', despite their nice choral parts, lack impact due to common approach in the arrangements. I'd rather listen to the NPG-swing in a song like 'We Gets Up' (including 'Housequake' sax by Eric Leeds). But beginning with cd 2 something magical happens. The ballads suddenly sound loose, less predictable and are frequently 'funked-up' by the genious productional ideas only The Artist can come up with. From 'Sex In The Summer' (including a sample of Mayte's unborn child), the intregueing 'Joint 2 Joint' and the short guitar-solo on 'The Holy River' unto the emotion in the rousing 'Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife'; in sixty loose minutes we go through the complete 0(+> - universe on an artisctic level we haven't seen since 'Sign O The Times' from 1987. On cd 3 a more varied set gets underway: catchy midtempo funk ('New World'), partygrooves ('Sleep Around'), techno-beats ('The Human Body'), a catchy freeformhiphopfunk ('Face Down') and the only clear downer (a fairly overdone version of Joan Osborne's 'One Of Us'). All songs are meticulously ordered and fit very well in the balanced and impressive concept of 'Emancipation'. The Artist is free. Now we have to wait for 'Prince'.