Diamonds and Pearls Review

This is the sound of an artist reading the market rather than leading it. The New Power Generation is a genuinely good live band and they are used mostly to service arrangements that chase whatever was selling in 1991. Gett Off is the best thing here, a flute sample and a filthy groove and a vocal that sounds like he is enjoying himself for the first time in years. Cream is a hit built openly on a glam rock stomp.

Money Don't Matter 2 Night is a lovely, understated soul song that almost nobody talks about. Against those, Jughead is close to unlistenable, Push and Willing and Able are professional filler, and the rapping added throughout has aged worse than anything else in the catalogue. At sixty six minutes it is bloated. Commercially it worked, and the live show around it was reportedly tremendous. On record it is a talented man in someone else's clothes.