Prince - Lovesexy

The perks and detriments of success is a topic much discussed when we're talking about the show business, the entertainment world and celebrity culture. Standing as one of ultimate icons of pop music, specially 80s pop music, Prince personifies a creative force that's much represented by a string of raved albums he released throughout said decade and so he's an obvious target of the aforementioned discourse. The way he exercised his artistry has been studied and analyzed tirelessly and this album made me think about that. 'Lovesexy' marks the final release of his prime 80s run and it showcases plenty evidence of a ship that was about to go down. It's mostly agreed upon that any of his future releases wouldn't match the excellency of what he released up until this point and some of the reason can be found here. After withdrawing the release of 'The Black Album' because he deemed it as something evil and incorporating heavy religious themes in this project, I think it's clear Prince had started to lose his mind/senses a bit. I would blame the consequences of his enormous success for that but that's, obviously, just my inference with little evidence. I say that this album was the beginning of a supposed downfall because it's much messier and more uninventive than past releases. Glances of the sonic prowess expected of him are still present ('Anna Stesia', title track, 'When 2 R in Love') but they are amidst confused explorations and overtly devoted to God lyrics, to the point that bothers me and comes off a bit fanatic. Ultimately, I think religion would blind him and significantly ruin his artistry (not to mention provoke later controversial remarks). For now, this is slightly disappointing but there's still a lot to enjoy.