Prince & The New Power Generation ‎– Diamonds And Pearls

As a footnote, I notice the CD pictured is from Israel, not Germany ;)

Here you find Prince leaving his garbled style of producing way behind, and entering the proto 90's mainstream producing style: rapping at the middle of the song (something he always loved to do), rhythms and instruments based on sampling, and, novelty, a clear turn towards contemporary acid jazz music. Indeed this album sounds more like a Michael Jackson album than a Prince one, but there are still some nice touches from him: his craftmanship for ballads (all three of them are excellent), a nice blend of his sex-based songs with urban hip-hop (scratches included) in "Get Off" that works even when he's rapping; and three songs that are very different from the rest of the Prince catalog - before and after - : "Walk don't walk", a perfect pop song of the alienation in the city, "Strollin'" a Sting-like jazzy ballad sang in falsetto, and "Willing and able", also in falsetto, with its great gospel song dynamics of phrase-response. These are so good that I almost forgive the painfully bland "Jughead", the tiresome "Push" or the neverending ending song "Live 4 Love".

Summarizing, this is Prince sounding like the rest of the mainstream circa 1991: a bit like the new jack swing producers, a bit like all the sampling craze, a bit like the Talkin' Loud people that were taking off then. He really catched the trends well, but not always the melodies were at the same level as the production. This is why the following symbol album, though being much more difficult to digest, is ultimately more satisfying. Still, "Diamonds and pearls" is interesting for fans and people who liked the production style back then, and maybe for the ones that want to discover some spare Prince jewels.