Sheila E - Romance 1600
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Sheila EEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-07-29
Music Label: Rhino Encore
Soundtracks:
- Sister Fate
- Dear Michaelangelo
- A Love Bizarre
- Toy Box
- Yellow
- Romance 1600
- Merci for the Speed of a Mad Clown in Summer
- Bedtime Story
Free Music Notes for Romance 1600
Free Music Review: With a little help from Prince, Sheila makes good music.
Hit: 5 Stars
It's glaringly obvious how much involvement His Purpleness had in the creation of Sheila E's "Romance 1600" - You can hear his lyrical style all over this album, and he even sings on it. His guitar is noticeable here and there (or someone is really mocking his style) and the general feel of this album is Prince when he was still cool (i.e. before he became overly pious in his songwriting and attitude). This is a fun album full of sexuality, funk and naughtiness.
Don't believe that this is all Prince, though. Sheila is the star here, and she carries the album from start to finish. Her drums are the backbone of this record. Her vocal style is necessary to these songs sounding the way they do. Her flair is what takes this out of the realm of being just another group playing Prince's music (see "The Family", "Vanity 6" and "Apollonia 6" as well as some early work by "The Time" for those) and into the realm of being a Sheila E joint. And a fun one it is!
Sheila rocks the house with "Sister Fate" (a tune about Prince and her?), "Toy Box" (totally naughty Prince lyrics notwithstanding), "Dear Michelangelo", her duet with Prince entitled "Love Bizarre" and the album's title track, "Romance 1600". She draws on some seriously soulful chops to belt out "Bedtime Story" (and one wonders if she's singing about Prince in this one as well).
Sheila's band reminds us that they're talented in their own right with the instrumental "Merci for the Speed of a Mad Clown in Summer", which breaks out as one of my favorite tracks on the album. Why? Because this one is pure Sheila E, blasting on the drums like a she-beast, and loads of Eddie M. making the saxophone do amazing things. This is funk/jazz that takes the album out of Prince's yard and plays to the strengths of the band, instead. Sheila's father must surely have loved this tune.
"Yellow" is another cool tune, which also seems to feature a lot of Prince in it. It's almost certainly penned by him (just listen to it!), so no Prince fan should skip this album.
All in all, "Romance 1600" takes the concepts of Sheila E's earlier "The Glamorous Life" and improves upon it, finding some of herself mixed in with all the Prince that you can handle. It is lamentably the last time Sheila E put out an album that seriously rocks. Her later works were fun, but didn't have the old Prince flair (either he was hands-off, or his religious conversion caused his satellite works to slip even further than his main catalog). "Romance 1600" is therefore like a grand farewell to the era of 1980s Prince-styled naughty funk. Sadly, after this album, it's all self-reflection and communing with God, without an f-word in sight.
Consider "Romance 1600" to be Sheila E's swan song, and her epitaph as a funk artist, all rolled into one.
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