Lovesexy (1988)
1. Eye No
2. Alphabet Street
3. Glam Slam
4. Anna Steisia
5. Dance On
6. Love Sexy
7. When 2 R in Love
8. I Wish You Heaven
9. Positivity
By 1988, it had almost become too easy to take Prince for granted. That’s not a knock on the man—it’s more a reflection of just how consistently brilliant he was throughout the decade. At a certain point, the stream of high-quality material became so steady that even a very good album like Lovesexy could come and go with little more than a shrug from the public. It’s the “spoiled teenager” effect: give someone so much for so long, they stop appreciating just how good they’ve got it.
That’s what happened here. Had Lovesexy been released a few years after Sign o’ the Times, or maybe as his first post-Purple Rain statement, it probably would have landed with a lot more impact. Instead, it came hot on the heels of a scrapped release, a bit of behind-the-scenes chaos, and a sudden shift in creative direction. The infamous The Black Album was already set for release, promo copies were out the door, and then—poof—Prince had a change of heart. Word is he considered that record to be “evil,” and decided to replace it with something lighter, more spiritual, more joyful. That something became Lovesexy.
Now, to Prince’s credit, he doesn’t just go soft or sugary here. There’s definitely a sunny tone throughout, but this is still a Prince record—it’s loaded with energy, grooves, and enough eccentricity to fill five albums. That said, I’ve always found it a little difficult to draw a clear line between the supposedly corrupt material from The Black Album and the more righteous leanings of Lovesexy. Especially since When 2 R in Love, a romantic ballad straight off the former, shows up here completely untouched. It’s the sweetest moment on the album—and also the only track that made the leap from one project to the other.
Still, taken on its own merits, Lovesexy is a strong, vibrant effort. There’s a lot going on in the arrangements—layers of instrumentation, overlapping vocals, effects coming in from all sides—but it never feels out of control. It’s cluttered, but deliberately so. Alphabet Street was the big single, and while it might be a little silly on the surface, there’s a cleverness and looseness to it that’s hard to resist. Glam Slam might be the standout cut—it’s tight, funky, and a little more focused than the rest of the set. I Wish U Heaven is over far too soon, and Anna Stesia plays it relatively straight, offering a more traditional melody with some nice emotional weight.
Elsewhere, things drift a little. A few tracks hover in that mid-tier range—solid, but maybe not quite essential. Even then, there’s not a bad song in the bunch, just a few that don’t hit as hard. The biggest shame is that Lovesexy was largely defined by what it wasn’t—The Black Album—rather than what it actually was. And what it was, was another very good Prince record in a decade already full of them. If it had arrived under different circumstances, or with a little more breathing room between releases, it might have earned a lot more respect. As it stands, it's still a highly listenable, joyfully weird entry in one of the most remarkable discographies in pop history.
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