Review
ICE CREAM CASTLE THE TIME :Warner Bros..

IT’S HARD TO KNOW EXACTLY HOW to judge the Time — are they Prince’s AAA farm team, his comic relief or his competition? Or more succinctly: whose Time is it — Prince's or lead singer Morris Day's ? Either way it's remarkable how this group has been able to withstand a multitude of personnel changes and continue to pump out the hilarious, funky dance music that’s been their trademark ever since 198 l’s hot-shit anthem, “COOL” In truth, it’s Prince’s influence — “The Starr Company” gets a co- production credit - that’s front and center on Ice Cream Cactle. His affection for Join Mitchell is reflected in the album’s title track (the phrase is taken from “Both Sides Now”), a heavily drummed workout about an interracial romance. “I want you/You want me/We want each other/Is that so wrong?” asks an unusually subdued Day — though by song’s end he’s demanding, “Let’s do something/Let’s do something coon.” You’re not left wondering what he might have in mind: “Chili Sauce” is little more than a comic seduction rap (expanded from his appearance in the film Purple Rain) set over some pro fonna funk And talk about seditious music! Wait till the Reaganites hear “If the Kid Can’t Make You Come,” in which Day apparently brings a woman to orgasm as she recites d~ Pledge ofAl-le~ance. The music throughout is un even, messy; the album refers to the songs as “janis,” and they do have an unstructured quality that dissipates some ofiheir dance-floor im- pact. But there’s plenty to shake a tail feather to in “My Drawers” and “The Bird,” a spectacularly propulsive live track from Purple Rain with the most marvelously stupid chorus - “BRAACK! Hallelujah!” - since “Boogie Oogie Oogie.” Word from the Twin Cities has Morris going so1o any day now; that might be a shame, but it might also be the only way to tell who’s responsible for such a good Time.