Classic or Dud: Prince's Batman "Soundtrack" Album

it would be interesting to hear an engineer's take on how his gear changed - samplers, drum patches, synths, etc. I think his interest in new sounds continued but the range of stuff available to him (as far as what was "new"/cutting edge) changed, and his eagerness to defy convention sonically also deteriorated. It was perfectly natural for him to not want to just use a LinnDrum forever, but what he replaced the LinnDrum with sounded like garbage.

Michael B was a solid drummer if no Sheila E. I didn't blame Prince for wanting a live drum sound again.

he wasn't a bad drummer, but Sheila's drums *sounded* better, they were tuned, mic'd, compressed, etc. differently. Prince still occasionally got decent drum sounds ("Get Off" is pretty banging) but in general that big booming 90s arena-rock drumkit sound was shit imo.

I'd rank the '90s stuff:

The Gold Experience
Come
Love Symbol
Emancipation
Chaos and Disorder
Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds and Pearls
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic

Makes a lot more sense to rank his '90s singles than his albums tbh.

The drums started to get very New Jack Swing-y after Batman... I sometimes wonder if Prince was ever worried that Jam & Lewis might eclipse him in some way.

with Janet? of course he did

during an Emancipation promo interview he specifically mentioned that he hoped the album would compete with J&L.

Apparently 'Space' was so close to being on The Gold Experience that it even had an NPG Ooperator segue recorded for it ("you have accessed the Space experience" etc.)

there's a lot of crossover between "come" and "the gold experience" - i think "endorphinmachine" was on an early lineup of "come"

both records suffer i think by being recorded at the height of his self-sabotage (also why "lovesexy" often gets consigned to "post-peak", which it obviously isn't). they're fine records of amazing songs put across in a self-consciously off-putting way.

I don't hear the self-sabotage in Lovesexy... a lot has been made of the Black Album but I really think that whole situation was as simple as Prince cancelling a project because it wasn't up to standard and replacing it with something superior. It's not like Prince hadn't done that before, just that Black Album got as far as being pressed and the other projects didn't.

yeah the drums sound is important in my dislike of his 90s output. also the lack of killer synth !
Listening to Batman I tried to imagine what it would sound like with his 90s sound and I think some of the tracks are not that far from the following albums.
As others have said : I wonder what made him change his sound so drastically circa 90-92.
Cos' Batman still sounds like a lot of his 80s output.

Listening to Lovesexy now and it's incredible to think that merely three years later he'd have gone from this dizzying slice of batshit genius to playing it straight on 'Cream' ... a song I like but it's like day and night.

I'm sure I've said this before but Batman is not just a better album than The Black Album, it's also darker.

"Bob George" aside, The Black Album ain't all that dark.

I'm sure I've said this before but Batman is not just a better album than The Black Album, it's also darker.

― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican)

Just about every '90s album is.

"Bob George" aside, The Black Album ain't all that dark.

― iCloudius (cryptosicko), Wednesday, October 25, 2017 7:54 PM (forty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree. It has this reputation (put about by Prince himself) of being a dark record when it's not. Same as Batman has this reputation of being throwaway or "commercial" when it's really neither.

received wisdom about Lovesexy - that it represented a big shift, was inferior, etc. - also inaccurate imo

Yup. If anything, Lovesexy is one of his most focused!

The Black Album might be my favourite of the 3... hmmm nah, I think I like Lovesexy and Black Album equally but in a different way.
The former being more "poppy" and the latter more "funky".
A kinda of fight between Anna Stesia and Cindy C. !

The presence of 'Dead On It' on The Black Album pretty much ensures it's his worst album of the '80s for me.

I don't hear the self-sabotage in Lovesexy... a lot has been made of the Black Album but I really think that whole situation was as simple as Prince cancelling a project because it wasn't up to standard and replacing it with something superior. It's not like Prince hadn't done that before, just that Black Album got as far as being pressed and the other projects didn't.

― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican)

i was thinking of his insistence on indexing the entire cd as one track.

I'm sure I've said this before but Batman is not just a better album than The Black Album, it's also darker.

― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican)

...and that's _after_ he cut "dance with the devil" for being "too dark"!

But then you have "Le Grind" and "Cindy C." which are fantastic and pure fun !

Yeah, but then you have that 7 minute instrumental with that god-awful title which does very little and doesn't go anywhere during its entire runtime!

Keep bustin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulOLYnOthIw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjY8HvpNu6o

This came up in the Graffiti Bridge thread the other day. I just put this on after listening to For You, and it really is a far more enjoyable album, so much that I have to say it's underrated. For You has so little of what made Prince PRINCE that if you remove the title track and "Soft and Wet," what's left is a competent R&B record that's so conventional it's kind of dull. Switched over to Batman and even as a cranked-out job-for-hire, it's loaded with Prince's personality. It may lack ambition, but it feels effortless in the best way.

(I should add that "The Arms of Orion" is a gaping hole of crap. Skip that shit or slot in "200 Balloons" instead.)

"The Future" slaps.

Not only ambition, it lacks craft. It sounds like he bashes it out in a few days. But yeah its enjoyable. Batdance is fun :) I'd prob have preferred it if Tim burton used 1999 and baby I'm a star like he planned before prince jumped on board. Dont imagine burton or Nicholson thought they got prince on his best day when they heard the soundtrack.

But yeah, it's a quickie throwaway like the black album. Which is cool, but dont pretend like it isn't :p I mean, half of love sexy sounds throwaway too!

I've seen posted elsewhere, but it's been said that The Black Album (and its replacement, Lovesexy) marked a shift where Prince became less interested in crafting tight, polished songs. So you definitely hear that continue with Batman. Anyway, it's never going to be a major work but it's on par with the Magical Mystery Tour double EP - a highly enjoyable trifle that's more fun than the movie it was made for.

Batman >> Lovesexy >>> Black Album

All of which >>> Diamonds and Pearls

Lemon crush is underrated.

xxpost Batman >> Lovesexy? Yikes!

id buy a super deluxe edition of the batman soundtrack.

I simply like more songs on Batman: "The Future," "Electric Chair," "Scandalous," for starters. And "Batdance" remains a glorius wtf moment, at once part of and adjacent to his catalog.

hey Jackie
let me put my 7 inch in the computer

id buy a longer version of the batdance vicki vale remix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5l4MW-yg_c

supposedly a remix with big daddy kane was comissioned too, but never released

Alfred - fair enough. I just think his songwriting and arranging struck some sort of weird, baroque vein on Lovesexy and it was dullsville, for the most part, from there.

Dullsville “afterwards”, I meant to write.

All his albums after SOTT until D&P were tossed off quickies. I'll take alphabet st, glam slam, Anna stesia and I wish u heaven over the best of batman though.

I love "Vicky Waiting" and "Electric Chair" is a great heavy funky track.

id buy a longer version of the batdance vicki vale remix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlBQxQkE-wE

200 balloons is a total, deliriously hammered out throwaway but fun.

Back in the day, I hated "Partyman" a lot. Today it sounds completely awesome. I think I just needed to get past the drums.

Ain't nothing but a muffin