There's no middle ground with Prince - you either love him or you loathe him. And so it is with his music; he either touches the skies or plummets the depths.

That's why his last album, Batman, was such a disappointment. It was Prince on cruise-control, Prince gliding through middle ground - and 'geniuses' aren't supposed to do that! Ripe for a backlash of colossal proportions (critics don't like being caught backing the wrong horse!), if Prince failed to deliver this time he'd be all set to have a very cold winter indeed!

Thankfully then, with Graffiti Bridge Prince not only delivers, he delights! His most rounded and confident album in a long time, Graffiti Bridge is a (very) black 'Sign O' The Times.

The album opens with the cryptic spoken message, *Dear Dad, things didn't turn out quite like I wanted them 2/Sometimes I feel like I'm going to explode!*, and then - boom! - it's 'Can't Stop This Feeling I've Got', Prince having a party by himself over a song that wiggles its bum somewhere between 'Play In The Sunshine' and 'Never Take The Place...'! Joyous and uplifting - but what does the opening confession mean?

'New Power Generation' is a relentless funk crunch of the blackest kind. Featuring Rosie Graines, the 'spirit child' who introduced 'Eye No', this is a good example of Prince's current obsession with heavy funk (that bass - how low can it go?)

'Release It' is the first of four numbers performed by the recently reformed The Time. Sounding like 'Housequake' on speed, this is a big, murky, tense, uptight workout that leaves skidmarks on your turntable. Side one closes with 'The Question Of U', a big ballad that Prince has been showcasing on his recent tour. Opening with a flurry of epileptic noseflutes, a la 'Around The World...', this quickly settles into a down-in-their-boots bass an drums slow clinch. Halfway through it takes onboard some Spanish handclaps and flamenco cat-calls as everything slowly drifts into Ennio Morricone territory. Sensual, shimmering and sublime!

'Elephants and Flowers' opens with guitars screaming out at you like elephants (what else), but the flowers here don't belong in no Daisy Age. A tripping Atlantic funk-chugger, this is 'Starfish And Coffee' all grown up and pleading *Strip me!/Strip me!/I think I'm gonna fall in love tonight*. 'Round And Round', not the Chuck Berry standard, features 12-year old (yes, 12!) rapper sensation Tevin Campbell, who first appeared on Quincy Jones' last album. With a voice sweeter than sugar, Campbell sounds every bit as good as the teenage Michael Jackson, as over a gorgeous featherlight shuffle and echoes reggae-tinted rhythms he teases, *I learnt my lesson young/If you wanna have fun/Go for it!* Where did he learn this - at the creche?

George Clinton turns up on 'We Can Funk', a big mothership of a groove. Featuring some of Prince's old sidekicks (Eric Leeds, Atlanta Bliss, David Z), this open like De La Soul's 'Me, Myself And I' and closes as it collapses into the party piece from 'Eye no', which in turn slowly grows into 'Joy In Repetition', a percussion-drive, late-night jazz-tinged shuffle. A tale of misfired love, a DJ falls hopelessly in love with a spirit child who repeats ad infinitum *Love me/Love me/Love me...'! A song of immense yearning and sexuality, don't listen to this without a willing partner present!

When The Time kick off side three with 'Love Machine' you begin to wonder has Prince given these devils all his best tunes. *The harder you come/The longer the time!*, teases the enigmatic Morris Day as he seduces 'Elisa', his co-lead vocalist. Excited and X-rated! *Oh, I can't hold it!*, groans Prince at the opening of 'Tick, Tick, Bang', a song that threatens to explode, or fall apart, or drop its pants, at every twist. Voices speeded up and slowed down, samples a go-go, stabs of brass, and screeches of guitar all keep things boiling as Prince threatens to *tick, tick, bang/All over you*!

Sounding somewhere south of '96 Tears' with its harmony 'Quicksilver' organ, which pedals frantically right into this juggernaut of a groove, 'Shake' is another gem performed by The Time. Unadulterated fun! Sounding a little too close to 'When Doves Cry' at first, 'Thieves In The Temple' is probably the nearest thing to a radio-friendly song on the album. Initially unassuming, it does eventually get under your skin and slowly slips into your heart...

If Kid Creole were still alive today he'd probably write something like 'The Latest Fashion'. Riding on a 'Critizise' beat, this has The Time joined by the man himself on what sounds like a very good party. But why in hell is everyone shouting *Dolores! Dolores! Dolores!* all the time for? I think my hearing's going!

Mavis Stamples takes the mike for the sensuous 'Melody Cool', an almost-gospel funk-hymn (!?!) of immensely infectious proportions. Ms. Staples positively purrs her way through this one whilst below her The Steeles doo-wop, whoop and shoo-be-doo-be-doo to our hearts content!

'Still Wound Stand All Time' is 'Conditions Of The Heart' revisited. Another paen to the one man bigger than himself, Prince implores 'Can you see the light/If you would only open your eyes'. The title track is a fanfare to Utopia, to the ideal world, the ideal state of mind, the world at the top of The Ladder! *Everybody's looking for/Everybody's looking for/Love!*, cry out Ms. Stamples, young Mr. Campbell, Sheila E., the man himself and a cast of thousands. The inevitable lighters-in-the-air finale, it's actually not too bad. And Prince wisely keeps it under four minutes.

The album closes with 'New Power Generation (Pt 2)', a celebration, an encore, a hymn to life, a big bloody jam! Closing as 'Lovesexy' opened with the sound of running water, a voice informs us that 'The New Power Generation have just taken control'! Resistance is useless!

Sitting somewhere between the Utopian idealism and trippy optimism of 'Lovesexy' and the cold, hard metal-funk of Batman, Graffiti Bridge is Prince having fun, Prince finding his funk again, and then deliberately pulling the carpet from underneath it. There's a sense of experimentation, a sense of discovery here that's been lacking in his more recent work. With Prince so obviously in control here, Graffiti Bridge is Big, Bold and Beautiful.

This is what it sounds like when Prince tries!