It's been a tough year for Prince's extended musical family. Not only have his "cousins" faded a bit – Morris Day's The Color of Success and Sheila E.'s Romance 1600 already seem bound for cutout ubiquity – but the patriarch himself has suffered through a disastrous movie and lukewarm album sales. It's a perfect time for breaking away, and that's just what Jesse Johnson does on his second solo album, Shockadelica.

The former lead guitarist for the Time hasn't altogether abandoned the Ferrari funk of his Minneapolis colleagues; there's plenty of fast, slick, shiny dance music here. Johnson just takes a few side trips along the way. He travels to the Delta for some nimble-fingered blues on "A Better Way," an ironic twist on "Up on Cripple Creek" (he's rich, and his girlfriend doesn't respect him anymore, so he has to prove he can still play guitar). Then he heads for the street corners of New York, circa 1959, with "Tonite," whose lazy triplets echo "I Only Have Eyes for You." Johnson never goes too far – he's not trying to be the Band or the Flamingos – but he does drop some of his usual punkish swagger to let in a little history.

Sometimes Johnson doesn't go far enough. With "Do Yourself a Favor," he attempts, of all things, a straightforward pop song, but the melody never varies and the lyrics sound a little too familiar ("If you see me, walk on by"). Still, it's pretty breezy stuff. "Black in America," three minutes of timeless lyrics ("Some of us are/Lucky by far/Still we fight for the right to be/Black and brown and still free"), is less an anthem than a meditation, and Johnson's acoustic accompaniment sounds as if he just stepped onstage at Woodstock.

When he finally gets to stomping, Johnson is very nearly Prince's equal. He trades vocals with a battle-weary Sly Stone on "Crazay," and the master summons his most invincible, whirling growl to keep up with his younger, stronger student. In their relentless attack, "Addicttion," "Change Your Mind" and "Burn You Up" are outright Prince sound-alikes. But it's the experiments that make Shockadelica an interesting album; if Jesse Johnson doesn't completely take the plunge, at least he's brave enough to test some different waters. (RS 487)

ROB HOERBURGER