Prince [LP]

Solo performer: Prince (various instruments).
Recorded at Alpha Studios, Burbank, California.
Like his 1978 debut, FOR YOU, Prince composed, played, sang, produced and arranged all the songs on his 1979 follow-up, simply titled PRINCE. While PRINCE features a number of great dance songs, it also gave his future audience an idea of what they could expect from a talent many consider the finest pop composer of the 1980s. Barely into his 20's, Prince already possessed a remarkable musical vocabulary and subterranean understanding of an untold number of musical genres--ones he was rapidly combining in a way no one had heard before. On the rocker "Bambi," Prince shows off his dazzling, heavy metal-styled guitar work, while on "Still Waiting" and the now-pop standard "I Feel For You," he displays the kind of gentleness reminiscent of the best of Smokey Robinson or Stevie Wonder.
Though PRINCE did yield the #1 R&B hit, "I Wanna Be Your Lover"--it also cracked the Top 40 on the pop charts--it wasn't until his next release that his highness truly captured the American consciousness. PRINCE stands as a remarkable release by an emerging talent of immeasurable innovation.