Lovesexy – Seven weeks that buried the Black Album

Paisley Park in seven weeks

In May 1988, Lovesexy came out fast, and brighter, after Prince had gone very close to a much darker record. A week before The Black Album was due, he stopped the release. In roughly seven weeks at Paisley Park he cut a tenth studio album for Paisley Park / Warner Bros. The sleeve shows him nude among flowers. Before the first groove, the music announces a “new power generation”. Sex and salvation sit on the same tracks, and the band from Sign o’ the Times still plays hard.

“Eye No” opens the album. “Alphabet St.” throws letters across the video and across the charts. A Thunderbird runs through the images, and a hidden frame tells you not to buy the black record he had dropped. “Glam Slam”, “Anna Stesia” and the title track put desire next to prayer. The closing “Positivity” asks for love, honesty, peace and harmony. The songs move between a nightclub, a pulpit and a street corner, often in the same stretch of music.

Prince left the raw Black Album on the shelf. He put out a brighter record and kept the dance rhythms. Critics at the time heard playfulness and seriousness together. Decades later you can still hear the argument in the songs, between doubt and that brighter mood, with the band playing under it.