Trollheart

Album title: For You
Artiste:Prince
Genre: Pop/Soul
Year: 1978
Label: Warner Bros
Producer: Prince
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: 163/138
Singles: “Soft and wet”, “Just as long as we're together”
Lineup:
Prince: Everything

Hardly the album that set the world on fire and announced a new powerhouse in town, Prince's debut album could not even improve on its initial chart placing after his death, as illustrated above (163 originally, 138 after he passed away) the first perhaps hoarse whisper of the screeching shout that was to emanate from this diminutive popstar, who would redraw the boundaries of pop, rock and soul, redefine attitudes towards sexual promiscuity, both in his lyrics and in his real life, and finally and unequivocally realise the prophecy he wrote on his million-selling Purple Rain album, “Baby I'm a star”. It's probably true to reflect that other than Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson, no black artist has ever crossed the divide - musically, racially, culturally and sexually – as did the man we came to know as Prince.

Review begins

The title track, and opener, begins with that crooning, wailing vocal that would become so associated with him, a sort of church organ going as the song develops into a gospel romp, most of it acapella (and remember, these voices were all his, and he makes them sound like a choir) but very short, more an intro to the album as the boppy, uptempo funk of “In love” takes us into the album proper. Again it's amazing that this is one man doing everything; it definitely sounds like there's a band there with him, including backing vocals, but no, it's all him. It's a very decent song, not bad at all, though of course hardly a patch on the killer hits that would just keep coming over the eighties and nineties as his fame and popularity reached its height. It's certainly very catchy though, right from the off, and leads into the first single, and the only song on the album not written solo by him, “Soft and wet”. I have to wonder though: Chris Moon? I know Prince used some odd pseudonyms in his career, Christopher being one, and I ask myself why would be collaborate with another songwriter on just one song, when this is so much his one-man show? Is this just him having fun and pretending he has a co-writer? There's some superb keyboard work here and we hear Prince using for the first time that amazing vocal range he had, from falsetto to baritone, making it seem even more as if there is more than one singer. But there isn't.

“Crazy you” is driven on a really nice lazy guitar line, reminds me of Extreme's “More than words” with its sort of hollow percussion, and a very soul seventies feel to it too. Prince's voice could go to such a falsetto that, like Jackson's, it could be mistaken for a female one, and this works well in the vocals for this song, where at times you think “that's a woman's voice”. But again it isn't. Another thing it isn't – the track, that is – is long, gone after two minutes and change, which is a pity as it seemed more an idea that never quite got the chance to flower into what it could have become. Back rocking with the EWF style of “Just as long as we're together”, the second single, neither of which did any business in the charts, and oddly, the longest track by a long way, clocking in just under six and a half minutes. I can see how easy it was to cut it down though for a single, as the full-length version is basically a remix, with a long instrumental section from about the fourth minute in. It actually doesn't sound overstretched though, which is quite a feat for a song this long on a debut album, but then again, we are talking about Prince here.

The first ballad comes in the shape of the Smokey Robinsonesque “Baby”, another early example of the kind of creative and artistic heights Prince would reach over his stunning career. This kind of reminds me of “The Beautiful ones” (I think; long time since I listened to Purple Rain through) with lovely sprinkly piano and strings synthesiser arrangements, with Prince's voice at the height of his soul crooning style, while “My love is forever”, which sounds like a ballad is in fact a midtempo funk, with again the falsetto vocal, a lot of Stevie Wonder in it I feel. Some really killer guitar there near the end. Kind of lounge music almost for the extremely laidback “So blue”, which mostly rides on acoustic guitar and some maybe fretless bass? God, could be trumpet. Probably synth though. Really nice almost stripped-down tune, like something you might hear late night in some Vegas off-the-beaten-track dive.

Amazngly, “I'm yours” then kicks right into AOR territory, rocking everything up and taking me by surprise after the really cool laidback vibe of the last few tracks, and showing that Prince was never going to be content with being labelled pop, soul, funk, or indeed anything: this was one guy who would just jump out of any box you tried to put him in and smirk “Nice try!” As he rattles off an almost metal guitar solo here, I think it's a clear message to be had: Prince has arrived.

Track listing and ratings

For you
In love
Soft and wet
Crazy you
Just as long as we're together
Baby
My love is forever
So blue
I'm yours

Afterword:

What a revelation! I went into this convinced this would be a lacklustre affair (it even says it on Wiki: “a lackluster (sic) release”) but by His Purpleness it is anything but! This album is not flawless, but there's really very little I can point to about it that I don't like. The closer in particular is a teaser for just how good Prince was going to get, and I can only guess that the reason this didn't sell well on its release was that in 1979 soul and funk were still associated with disco, which many rockers hated. But then, it didn't sell well even after Prince died. What then can be the reason? Oh yeah, of course, that must be it: people are stupid.

Rating:

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018