It's a pity that Sheila E., Prince's only independently creative female artist, needs a twelve-minute collaboration with the Small One to make her second LP worth purchasing. "A Love Bizarre" is a simple funk singalong in which Sly Stone horns and wah-wahs are expanded and liquefied in homage to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up." Prince's bass and guitar are also the most inspired performances on Romance 1600, a competently executed record with nothing to say.

Two pretty songs, "Bedtime Story" and the title track, actually sound as if they were written. The rest are slight ideas that are elongated, but not enlivened, by the committed playing that makes funk funk. Witness the stupid interpolations – circus music in the percussion piece "Merci" and Prince's ill-considered insertion of "Frére Jacques" in "A Love Bizarre." These are the kinds of ideas that intelligent musicians generally edit out on a second take (unlike the courtly turn of Eddie Minnifield's sax solo on "Dear Michaelangelo," a piece of genuine inspiration).

The fault may lie in Sheila's decision to build the record up in overdubs, playing most of the parts herself. The intimacy of this approach may do a service to more evolved compositions, but most of these songs could use all the help they could get from a full band's rehearsal and performance. (RS 461)

DAVITT SIGERSON