Prince - Lovesexy

Lovesexy is, quite obviously, the least exciting record of Prince's catalog from the 80s. His early work was full of brimming potential that inevitably blossomed into something pristine, and his later work from the decade showed him taking that potential and fully expanding on it. Nine albums deep and a little bit of the magic had died, it seems, yet Prince did the only thing he knew to do - proceed.

This album still sees the artist pushing boundaries, but in many ways it feels like the music doesn't equate to a great deal of sonic change like his last three works consistently were. For an album that has Prince posing on the front naked, something about Lovesexy still feels safe. It's almost as though he had pushed the limit with his music so intensely that the wall had crumbled and Prince had nothing left to push. At least, not at this point in his still incredibly young career.

The lack of ecstatic denying of genre is not the only thing that seemed somewhat safe here. Prince's previous work, Sign "O" the Times, saw his songwriting reach an impossible threshold, yet Lovesexy not only lacks a distinctive track but also lacks any major songwriting success. His lyrical topics don't feel all that fresh or diverse, with Prince effectively returning to the well and pulling out things that have worked in the past.

I wouldn't have expected to like Prince's music as much as I have up to this point, which makes Lovesexy that much more of a disappointment after so much incredibly success. His standards became entirely impassable, so eventually Prince would have to taper out and hit the comedown. Lovesexy appears to have been that comedown.

Favorite track: Dance On