The Truth (1998)
Knock back Prince’s advances and with acoustic ninjutsu he’ll rub your nose in all the things you’re set to miss out on. This is what you could have won: a trip to the Champs-Élysées; your name whispered; a shared martini and a dance to the songs of Henry Mancini till dawn. The consolation prize is having your name forever canonised in Prince’s oeuvre so I think Dionne will bounce back. And who is she? Dionne Farris, the vocalist on Arrested Development’s Alphabet St-sampling Tennessee, believes it’s about her and has written an as-yet-unreleased book and album about their friendship. She received Dionne in the post from him in 1997 and believes the line “did u get the tape I sent u?” in One of Your Tears references this. Even if she’s mistaken it’s a shame those two Truth tracks weren’t sequenced together as they make a great pairing. One wears a mask of I’m-doing-great forced joviality; the other sketches the broken-voiced moment the mask slips. Perfection crafted from rejection. Along with classics like When Doves Cry, The Beautiful Ones and How Come You Don’t Call Anymore, Dionne makes the convincing case that a spurned Prince is the best Prince.