Graffiti Bridge

Publication: Los Angeles Times [US]
Date: August 12, 1990
Title: "Record Rack: Prince's 'Graffiti Bridge' To The Past; *** 1/2 Prince ‘Graffiti Bridge’ Paisley Park/Warner Bros."
Summary: When it comes 2 a Prince album, U have a pretty good idea what U're in store 4: Sex, God, brotherhood, more sex, soul, rock and bad spelling.

Publication: St. Louis Post-Dispatch [US]
Date: August 17, 1990
Title: "Rating The Records"
Summary: When it comes 2 a Prince album, U have a pretty good idea what U're in store 4: sex, God, brotherhood, more sex, soul, rock and bad spelling. The fun is in finding out exactly what proportions the ingredients come in, and just how commercially or controversially the ex-boy wonder has blended them into his sometimes psychedelic, always funkadelic stew.

Publication: The Orange County Register [US]
Date: August 17, 1990
Title: "Prince's 'Graffiti' Doesn't Leave Much Of A Mark"
Summary: Uh-oh. The latest project from Prince, "Graffiti Bridge" (to be released Tuesday), is a soundtrack. His last film credit was for the funky but lightweight "Batman" album and his previous dabbling in movies hatched the regrettable movie, "Under the Cherry Moon," which spawned a less-than-satisfying aural companion, "Parade."

Publication: The Toronto Star [Can]
Date: August 18, 1990
Title: "Prince Shares Glory But Keeps All Control"
Summary: Not to mention as a tiny, reclusive, sex-obsessed genius with a messianic streak - Prince certainly is generous with the spotlight in his latest album, Music From Graffiti Bridge.

Publication: The Boston Globe [US]
Date: August 19, 1990
Section: Arts & Film
Title: "A New Album For Prince"
Summary: Claude Monet. David Cronenberg. Flannery O'Connor. Steve Reich. John Ford. All artists who've spent much of their careers exploring and reexploring a limited number of crucial themes, burrowing deeper into the possibilities with each endeavor. Or at least into the potential of those possibilities.

Publication: The New York Times [US]
Date: August 19, 1990
Title: "Recordings; Sonic And Sexual Updates From Prince"
Summary: Prince has his head in the clouds, his hands on half a dozen instruments, his feet on the dance floor and his pelvis ready for all sorts of action. Verbally, he's no deep thinker; when he's not singing about sex, his messages tend to be benevolent and banal. His new album, ''Graffiti Bridge'' (Paisley Park/Warner Bros. 27493; all three formats), sloganizes with ''Everybody's lookin' 4 love,'' ''Makin' love and music's the only things worth fighting 4'' and, on the utopian side, ''There will be peace 4 those who love God a lot.''

Publication: The San Diego Union-Tribune [US]
Date: August 19, 1990
Title: "Graffiti' Has Prince's Stylish Mark, But It's Not New"
Summary: Perhaps more than any of his musical contemporaries, Prince is caught between his desire to sustain mass commercial success and his need to follow his artistic muse wherever it takes him. The roller-coasterlike quality of his recording career (mega-hits such as "Purple Rain" and "1999" followed by flops such as "Around the World in a Day" and "Parade," followed by more hits and more flops) attests to his divided loyalties.

Publication: The Washington Post [US]
Date: August 19, 1990
Title: "Prince And The Sexual Solution; The Erotic Allure Of Graffiti Bridge'"
Summary: If the right-wing censorship forces had their wits about them, they would forget about the old-fashioned sexism of 2 Live Crew and go after the new Prince album, "Graffiti Bridge" (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.). Prince doesn't use four-letter words and he doesn't describe the sex act in graphic detail, but "Graffiti Bridge" is one of the most erotic, sexually stimulating albums in pop-music history.

Publication: USA Today [US]
Date: August 20, 1990
Title: "Prince's High-Spirited 'Bridge'"
Summary: He doesn't break new ground on this uplifting collection of danceable soul, but Prince easily reclaims a vast turf, much trampled by artistic trespassers and land-grabbers.

Publication: New York Newsday [US]
Date: August 21, 1990
Title: "Prince Breaks Out Of His Royal Isolation"
Summary: IN THE last few years, waiting for another good Prince album has begun to feel like waiting for a good record from Jerry Lee Lewis: a test of faith, and not necessarily a fruitful one. It's not that Prince's records have been bad (though the two most recent, "Lovesexy" and the soundtrack to "Batman," came close enough).

Publication: The London Independent [UK]
Date: August 24, 1990
Title: "Records / Taking It To The Bridge, Again; Prince's Graffiti Bridge Reviewed"
Summary: PRINCE is beginning to resemble the plight of English football under Bobby Robson, a desperate case of workrate over inspiration. Reports about the chap always focus on how much work he does, how long he spends in the studio, and what little else there appears to be to his life, whilst conveniently ignoring the dearth of great material - or even different material - he's produced since Sign O' The Times.

Publication: The Times [UK]
Date: August 24, 1990
Title: "A Talent Too Thinly Spread"
Summary: GRAFFITI Bridge, Prince's fourth movie soundtrack, has more in common with the throwaway Batman score of last year than it does with his magnum opus, Purple Rain. Spread over four sides, the album gives little indication of what the forthcoming film is about, save that it will unfurl to the super-funky-sexy sound of party animals on the hoof.

Publication: The Louisville Courier-Journal [US]
Date: September 1, 1990
Title: "Tune In Louisville"
Summary: With that warning, Prince rips into "New Power Generation," the centerpiece of his new double album. It's a fiery, fist-pumping, fanny- shaking dance number, built around one of the best grooves the purple funkmeister has ever penned and featuring his most pointed lyrics since "Controversy" 10 years ago:

Publication: The Sunday Times [UK]
Date: September 2, 1990
Title: "Record Of The Week"
Summary: ANOTHER album trailing a movie this time his own finds the tireless Prince Nelson in a more expansive mood than he managed for the monolithic funk workouts of last year's Batman. Idiosyncratically condensing blues, soul, funk and even rock 'n' roll into his unmistakable, disco-friendly stew, Prince manipulates sound with a playful elan which is never less than good clever fun.

Publication: St. Petersburg Times [US]
Date: September 2, 1990
Title: "Prince's ‘Graffiti' Is True Art"
Summary: This is a crucial time for Prince. His once-firm grasp on the Artist-of-the-'80s mantle started to slide late in the decade with the overwrought Lovesexy and the slapped-together "soundtrack" for Batman. The latter propped up the Minneapolis titan's sagging commercial fortunes he'd experienced sluggish album sales and concert halls at less than capacity but Batman's quick ascension up the charts owed lots to the biggest blockbuster movie in several years.

Publication: Time [US]
Date: September 17, 1990
Title: Graffiti Bridge Review
Summary: GRAFFITI BRIDGE Prince Since this is a sound track, we're into one of those good news-bad news situations. On the plus side there's the fact that Prince doesn't seem to recognize that he's supposed to fill such works with incidental throwaway music. From Purple Rain to Batman, he has displayed an inclination to create film scores that are stronger and fuller than most artists' masterworks. The drawback is that this also means there's another movie out there that Prince directed and stars in.