1999 (1982)

How time flies—already it's fast closing in on as many years since 1999 (12) as it was until then (17) when this album, the big commercial breakthrough for Prince, came out. Do you remember (or, in the Norwegian, "husker du"?)? With only a few more songs here than on either of the two albums that immediately preceded it, he went ahead and took all of four vinyl album sides to spread them across, which puts the average time per song well north of six minutes. Which makes his celebration of the actual street date in "All the Critics Love U in New York" at least a little suspect: "It's time 4 a new direction It's time 4 jazz 2 die," he breathlessly declares. "4th day of November We need a purple high"—isn't the usual complaint about jazz that it goes on too damn long? Never mind. If the offerings here tend toward the scattershot and uneven, with notable padding along the way (for the dancing, I guess), it doesn't mean you won't find love in spite of all misgivings. There's no one best side, and at least one clunker or dull patch for each, but there are also some very fine high points. The title song alone stood as an enduring party staple for years (if not decades, if not still). "Little Red Corvette" was the first big hit, so insinuating and seductive that John Cougar (nee/later Mellencamp) reportedly stopped mid-concert to play it on a boombox for his audiences at the time. (Note that Sandra Bernhard's later, mocking cover made it all too apparent that you don't want to pay close attention to the words, however.) My own favorites, "Let's Pretend We're Married," "Lady Cab Driver," and "All the Critics Love U in New York," are bursting with energy and/or great moments and/or attitude and/or pure dance groove and/or charming perverse weirdness. All through everything here are hints of the freakshow behind it, random announcements and other interruptions with messages, such as the opening to the whole thing, a robotic voice in front of the title song that tells us, apropos of nothing, "Don't worry, I won't hurt U. I only want U 2 have some fun." Or, elsewhere, "Whatever U heard about me is true / I change the rules and do what I wanna do." Or, at the end of "D.M.S.R.," a terrified girl inexplicably calling for help. What's that? Oh, and hippies on board once again as well, this time all singing together, "Ooh-we-sha-sha-coo-coo-yeah."