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

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