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

Howard Stern last April: "I believe Prince made the best motion picture soundtrack of all time, and I know that might be a controversial statement, because not a lot of people like the Batman soundtrack." He wasn't kidding. It's his favorite Prince album.

It's not a soundtrack album,tho.

The majority of the songs were "inspired by the motion picture Batman" iirc, the idea of which seemed funny at the time, Prince finding the idea of a Batman Movie so cool he writes a whole album. Doesn't seem so unlikely now tho it wasn't really the case.

It's not a soundtrack album,tho.

It was marketed as a soundtrack album to the movie (as opposed to Elfman's contribution, which was released as "the original motion picture score"), and the songs (tho not all of them) were used in the movie, so I don't see why it wouldn't qualify as a soundtrack?

Anyway, 'Scandalous' fucking rules... as good a song as anything Prince did in the '80s...

I don't agree with this, in fact I think "Scandalous" is the only dud on the album, but if you like it so much, you should check out the Scandalous Sex Suite EP, which extends the song to a 20 minute suite, complete with orgastic moans by Kim Basinger (whom Prince was dating a the time). It also has a B-side called "Sex (The '80s Are Over and the Time Has Come 4 Monogamy and Trust)", which has gotta be the most stereotypical Prince song title ever!

Lol, looks like I posted pretty much the exact same thing about the EP in this thread in 2015.

"The Arms of Orion" is blah.

What, you're not searching for a lover in the Sea of Tranquility?

"The Arms of Orion" is tres pretty.

I put it in the same boring ballad category as the R&B hit "Insatiable" two years later. In 1996 he released a cousin of "Orion" called "Soul Sanctuary" that's far prettier.

Back to the album! I love "The Future."

"The Future" and "Electric Chair" are the fucking bomb; overall I rate the album pretty highly and prefer to tag it as the end of the hot streak rather than beginning of the hit-or-miss imperium

Okay, so I previously had Lovesexy down as being the last LP in Prince's fabulous run, but after spending more time with Batman over the last month, I'm willing to admit I was wrong about this record for years - it fucking rules.

In other words, Jon not Jon OTM - this was the end of the hot streak rather than the beginning of the hit and miss records.

'The Arms of Orion' is a lovely song.

I wouldn't say it's at the beginning or end of any streak. It's about on par with Lovesexy and the three albums after it (Graffiti Bridge, Diamonds and Pearls, Love Symbol), in terms of hits and misses.

I think both Lovesexy and Batman are def. superior to the three LP's that came after!

All are uneven, all have moments of all-time greatness.

Graffiti Bridge alone has "Joy in Repetition" and "The Question of U" and "Round and Round" and "We Can Funk."

Turrican otm it was downhill from here and there was a p distinct change in sound - less cluttered, New Jack Swing drums, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sordWByWM-M

Graffiti Bridge is half of a worthy successor to batman and lovesexy and half... not

yeah that's really the first time you can tell he just sort of gave up/didn't know what to do and was just like "well, here's a bunch of random stuff"

also his first terrible haircut

guhhhh otm

so ugly

movie is legit fascinating in a shitshow way, but having to look at that hairdo for 90 minutes oy

haha yeah we watched it shortly after his death and it's just one design monstrosity after another, we found ourselves marveling at, like, the shitty lighting and his weird facial hair and the totally fake "outdoor" sets etc

Graffiti Bridge is technically half of a worthy successor to Purple Rain and half not even remotely in the same ballpark.

i actually love the aggressively false outdoor environments in GP a lot

just hanging out in this crappy abandoned department store display case https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftrashfilmguru.files.wordpress.com%2F2016%2F04%2Fgraffiti-bridge.jpg&f=1

love that thing

also she later married david sylvian, right? this was not known to me until recently.

the other day at CVS I heard a familiar-not-familiar Prince track, a gospel-inflected ballad.

It had been years since I last heard "Still Would Stand All Time."

It's probably been said about a million times before, but one thing I like about this record is that Prince couldn't help himself and ended up taking the Batman characters and made a Prince-style concept album that can easily exist as its own thing apart from the movie.

otm

i wish someone would make a batman movie that attempts to incarnate what the burton movie would have been had it used the prince records as its bible

Jack Nicholson as Vicki Vale.

It's funny, because all of these songs are sung "in character", and 'Scandalous' is meant to be "sung" by "Batman", and you watch the movie and you just can't reconcile the song with the character as played on-screen by Michael Keaton. It's like Prince has decided to cast himself as Batman on the record and then just ran with it.

also she later married david sylvian, right? this was not known to me until recently.

still married !

She also had two daughters, Ameera and Isobel, with English singer and musician David Sylvian, whom she married in 1992 and divorced twelve years later.

oh my bad heh

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/21303846/sn/1538020043/name/n_a

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udVFCpg5OnU

I really don't understand why Prince fans hate 'The Arms of Orion' so much, I think it's a really beautiful song - really well-written, gorgeous melody and highly memorable. They can't all be funk jams! I still disagree with Tuomas and think 'Scandalous' is one of the highlights of the record, as good as anything he did in the '80s and one of my favourite Prince slow jams.

graffiti bridge? oh yes please prince take a bunch of killer outtakes from '86-'88 and rerecord most of them to sound way shittier and then release those versions, thanks

(of course he didn't rerecord "joy in repetition", oh hey "joy in repetition" is the best song on the album, what a shocker)

yeah, I don't really get the hate for "Orion". It's a nice Prince slowjam - on the cheezy side of Prince, sure, but it's part of his work from the start ! - and certainly not the worst song on the album.
"Scandalous" is clearly upthere with his best stuff. It could have been on any album since 1999 and not be out of place.

Have you hear the new "single" available on spotify for the remastered "Purple Rain" ?
It's called "Father's song".

I'm looking back through the Prince artist poll we had on here, and it's crazy that none of the highlights of this album placed.

I was on hiatus or something when that poll happened. I think I'd need "Electric Chair" on my ballot

Maybe it would be worth giving it its own poll...