'' is a 1988 album by
Prince . ''Lovesexy'' was issued as a substitute record after the release of the now-infamous ''
Black Album '' had been suddenly cancelled. ''The Black Album'' and ''Lovesexy'' almost act as companion pieces, sharing the song "When 2 R In Love" but nearly opposite in theme. The album was recorded in just 7 weeks from mid-December 1987 to late January 1988 at Prince's new
Paisley Park Studios and most of the album is a solo effort from Prince with a few exceptions. The opening track " No" was recorded with the full band (
Miko Weaver on guitar,
Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass,
Doctor Fink and
Boni Boyer on keyboards,
Eric Leeds on saxophone,
Atlanta Bliss on trumpet and
Sheila E. on drums). Sheila in fact plays drums on several tracks and sings backup, along with Boyer. Leeds and Bliss provide horns on most tracks and Ingrid Chavez provides the intro to " No".
The album is notable for the haunting
Gospel of "Anna Stesia" and the hit
Single "
Alphabet St. ". Also notable is the cover, causing some controversy as it depicted Prince in the
Nude , in a seemingly devout pose. Some record stores refused to stock it or censored the cover with black wrapper.
The theme of the album is the struggle between good and evil, or ''
Camille '' and Spooky Electric, respectively.
God and
Satan ,
Virtue and
Sin (although, with the Gemini character that he developed 2 years later, these "sides" may also represent "ego and alter-ego"), the perennial themes of Prince's work, finally truly mix as Prince climaxes to "Love is God, God is Love, Girls and Boys love God above" in the song "Anna Stesia".
''Lovesexy'' Prince himself refers to it as a gospel album. It opens with a sermon of sorts " No", a positive energetic track advising people to be free from their vices and to reject
Satan . The song ends with a scale of horns and a segue of conversations leading to the hit single, "
Alphabet St. " This is the album's most accessible track, mixing
Dance Music , rock and
Rap along with playful lyrics.It contains a dig at the Reverend
Jim Baker Jessica Hahn scandal of 1987. Next is "
Glam Slam ", a busy dance track which really takes advantage of his full band. It ends with an almost
Classical Music string solo (performed on keyboard), which is evocative of "The Phantom Of The Opera". The delicate "Anna Stesia" is a heartfelt confessional number devulging various sins of the flesh and ends with Prince promising to dedicate his life and music to God. This would end side 1 of the vinyl release.
Side 2 opens with the
Machine Gun -like pace of "Dance On", which lambasts negative aspects of society, somewhat akin to "
Sign "☮" The Times ". The title track follows describe by Prince as "The feeling you get when you fall in love...not with a boy or girl but with the heavens above" and it is another energetic dance track; The "Good News" indeed Prince extols its virtues graphically and then he and
Cat Glover share an
Orgasm , both using speeded up ''Camille''-like vocals. This leads into the surviving ''Black Album'' track, "When 2 R in Love", a sex-infused ballad. Next is the lush "
I Wish U Heaven " followed by "Positivity", which echos the theme of "Dance On". But continiously begs the question "Have you had our plus sign today" Most of the vocals are delivered in a spoken word. The song ends with sounds of water, signifying purity and rebirth.
The album was accompanied by the critically acclaimed
Lovesexy World Tour , of which one of the
German shows were released on
Video Cassette .
While considered an artistic triumph of personal expression, the album sharply sunk the commercial public perception of Prince in America in the summer of '88. The average teenage opinion was that Prince had lost his touch to make relevant cutting edge music at that time.
The video for the lead single, "Alphabet St" stood out negatively for it's cheaper looking production in contrast to videos released by other artists in 1988. This was probably an unfortunate misinterpretation of the intentional retro tube video look. Years later, artists like
Stone Temple Pilots or
Beck more successfully used
Retro Camp styles in the public eye.
# " No" – 5:47
# "
Alphabet St. " – 5:38
# "
Glam Slam " – 5:04
# "Anna Stesia" – 4:56
# "Dance On" – 3:44
# "Lovesexy" – 5:48
# "When 2 R In Love" – 4:01
# "
I Wish U Heaven " – 2:43
# "Positivity" – 7:15
# "Alphabet St. ("This is not music, this is a trip")"
- " Glam Slam " (#44 U.S. R&B, #29 UK)
# "Glam Slam" — ''7" version only''
# "Glam Slam (Remix)" — ''12" version only''
# "Escape (Free yo mind from this rat race)"
- " I Wish U Heaven " (#18 U.S. R&B, #24 UK)
# "I Wish U Heaven" — ''7" version only''
# "I Wish U Heaven (Part 1, 2 and 3)" — ''12" version only''
# "Scarlet Pussy"
- Early CD copies of ''Lovesexy'' have the entire album in sequence as a single track, so the listener is forced to hear the whole album in the context of a continuous sequence. Later European pressings and U.S. promo copies are tracked, and contrary to popular belief are not rare.
- The opening track, " No" is a reworking of a song called "The Ball" from the unreleased '' Crystal Ball ''. Prince even kept the party noise that originally segued "The Ball" into "Joy In Repetition". This Segue was kept partially when "Joy In Repetition" was released on '' Graffiti Bridge '' in 1990.
- The first 2 singles had clear vinyl sleeves with only a sticker of the single's title. This was also true for the CD singles.
- "Positivity" was later given to Mavis Staples for her 1991 album, ''The Voice''.
- "Positivity" originally contained the rap that Cat delivered on the ''Black Album'''s "Cindy C".
- This is the first Prince record to use the symbol in its tracklisting, though a slightly different graphic was used. Fans usually Romanize this symbol as "Eye" instead of its intended meaning as the word "I".
''Lovesexy''
lyrics
