Prince built a private universe in the early 2000s. He funneled new songs to fans through the NPG Music Club, a subscription service that bypassed record labels entirely. The Chocolate Invasion collects ten tracks from that era, and it plays like a dispatch from a restless genius with no editor.
When Eye Lay My Hands on U
The album opens with its strongest run. “When Eye Lay My Hands on U” is classic Prince seduction, all slow-burn tension and gospel-tinged devotion. “Judas Smile” follows with a harder edge, a paranoid funk workout about betrayal that still grooves. “Supercute” is pure pop confection, sticky and light. “Underneath the Cream” digs into the dirty R&B that Prince did better than almost anyone alive.
A full frontal fuck song, a sizzling sex jam.
Rock NYC used that line to describe one of the album’s explicit tracks. It is exactly what it sounds like, a five-minute tease that lives up to its billing. “Vavoom” keeps the heat on with a cartoonish, horn-driven bounce. These middle tracks are where the album earns its “Chocolate Invasion” name, and they are unapologetic about it.
High and The Dance
“High” shifts the mood, a slow, spacey ballad that feels like a comedown. “The Dance” is the hidden gem here, a sleek, melancholic synth-pop track that deserves a wider audience than it ever got. It is the most conventional song on the record, and also the most emotionally direct.
Gamillah and U Make My Sun Shine
The closing stretch is a strange finale. “Gamillah” is a brief sketch, more fragment than song. “U Make My Sun Shine” runs over seven minutes and brings the album to a warm, sax-led close. It is a jam, not a statement, and it fades out like a live show winding down.
A Scrappy Collection
This is not a cohesive album. It is a scrapbook, and it never pretends otherwise. The sequencing is loose, and “Gamillah” is filler by any standard.
The highs are high enough to carry it. The opening four tracks alone justify the price of admission, and “The Dance” is a career highlight hiding in plain sight. The middle stretch holds its own, too, with the sex jams delivering exactly what they promise.
It is better than Musicology, the official album released the same year. That record was safe. This one is alive.
7 of 10.
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- When Eye Lay My Hands on U3:43
- Judas Smile6:35
- Supercute4:14
- Underneath the Cream4:02
- Sexme? Sexmenot5:44
- Vavoom4:38
- High5:07
- The Dance4:43
- Gamillah3:10
- U Make My Sun Shine7:05
