prince

Everyone loves his guy...how many of them own 'TGE', 'Come' or anything after the Love Symbol album? There's a shitload of people who don't have anything past Diamonds and it's basically the Kid's fault.

It's does seem an awful shame that because he hasn't released a decent record in over 20 years
― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Thursday, July 7, 2011 7:29 PM Bookmark

I stopped reading here. sorry, Emancipation, Musicology, and 3121 are all good to great....

also I like the Symbol album and Come

I currently don't own anything of Prince's past The Gold Album, and even then Diamonds and Pearls is the last album of his featuring anything I want to hear. It's just too much mediocrity to take/sift through. Granted, each Prince album has always had a track or two I've liked, even "The Rainbow Children," but I'd be lying if I gave a shit about his sort of gormless genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vITKFi2W_o

thread why u brake heart ;_;

^Obv. live is a different matter. I've seen the dude in several different live contexts, from clubs to arenas, and he's never been less than captivating.

Well, you are correct: nothing after Emancipation is essential.

yea I would agree that he hasn't made a CLASSIC in the last 20 years, but sonnyboy acting like he hasn't even achieved mediocrity in the last 20 years = o_O

There was a Prince vs Bowie thread a few years ago and I was more or less aghast that anyone could seriously pick Prince over Bowie. I only vaguely remember the "points" I was trying to make and I can't be bothered to find the thread, but anyhow, something clicked over the past few years and now I think I finally "get" Prince (ILM has certainly helped). I say that even as someone who was a Prince fan during the 80's. It's amazing that you can hear music one way for 20 years and then suddenly a light turns on and you hear things completely differently. This is also a big reason why I could never give up listening to music.

that's like me with the Rolling Stones, who I hated up until this year

Live of course he still rules although the best bits for me are when he sits alone at the piano and plays his little heart out...that is pure unadulterated Prince genius...(but go back to 82/83 live boots...up there with J.B, P-Funk and EWF...arguably better)...but as someone who lived on Prince's music between 82-88 don't come here and tell me that there wasn't as major dropping off as has been witnessed in 50 years of pop music...Emancipation vs 1999??...please...sure you could scramble together a good comp of the best bits and it would still have lots of great stuff on there but the day he let Wendy and Lisa go was the day everything went tits up...yeah ill call it...if you tell me that Come or 3121 is up there with a Dirty Mind I'll respect you,shake your hand and tell you maybe we like Prince for different reasons...right that's enough from me I'm off to watch Graffiti Bridge...

ehm, nobody is saying Come or 3121 are up there with Dirty Mind, but Dirty Mind is a classic and one of his best efforts. You said he hadn't released anything "decent" in 20 years.

Well I guess "decent" is subjective but for me Prince and decent should'nt even be in the same room. As far as his recorded output goes and im only talking bout his recorded output... sure they're are a few gems but the vast majority of it is'nt mediocre...its just plain bad...

As far as his recorded output goes and im only talking bout his recorded output... sure they're are a few gems but the vast majority of it is'nt mediocre...its just plain bad...

As far as his recorded output goes and im only talking bout his recorded output... sure they're are a few gems but the vast majority of it is'nt mediocre...its just plain bad...

As far as his recorded output goes and im only talking bout his recorded output... sure they're are a few gems but the vast majority of it is'nt mediocre...its just plain bad...

As far as his recorded output goes and im only talking bout his recorded output... sure they're are a few gems but the vast majority of it is'nt mediocre...its just plain bad...

I suppose if you include Around the World in a Day, Lovesexy and the enervated late nineties records the percentages informing the phrase "vast majority" would make sense.

I was only talking about the last 20 years...but I guess you could now say the majority...

what the fuck ever

also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6yANUgWfSM

Everyone loves his guy...how many of them own 'TGE', 'Come' or anything after the Love Symbol album? There's a shitload of people who don't have anything past Diamonds and it's basically the Kid's fault.

― Master of Treacle, Friday, July 8, 2011 10:26 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

Parts of Chaos and Disorder I liked (the title track) and parts of it I LOVED ("Dinner With Dolores"). But Emancipation was underwhelming. It wasn't that he was phoning it in necessarily, but most of what was on that record was What We Know Prince Can Do, rather than Prince Taking Chances.

today I was visiting with an old friend who got me into Prince years and years ago, and he went "which Prince albums do you not have?" -- he's been ripping and selling/giving away a lot of his CDs, so he gave me a whole stack of Prince: For You, Around The World In A Day, Lovesexy, Grafitti Bridge, Diamonds & Pearls, Come, The Gold Experience, and Emancipation. gonna enjoy poring over these while i work on my ballot for the Prince tracks poll.

yeah, if you haven't really listened to those albums you are due for a fucking revelation my friend

i've heard some of them once or twice and have heard songs from others via said friend, but yeah i know there's a wealth of good shit i'm about to exposed to

the problem with Prince Taking Chances is that (apart from the rainbow children, or the truth) when hes tried to do that over the last 20-odd years, weve been ending up with some pretty awful music. basically, prince shouldnt touch new technology or try and work with new styles/sounds anymore cos it comes out badly. his best stuff of recent is more modest in its ambition.

it is kind of funny to end a rant about how Prince has lost it by announcing that you're going to watch GRAFFITI BRIDGE

unexpectedly i was listening to SOTT at the weekend and thinking its maybe a bit overrated compared to say an album like 1999. maybe ive just developed a thing about rejecting 'classic' career peak albums but it seems a bit too 'careful'/muted. and im not sure the title track lyrically is much more than a social ills laundry list or that the cross isnt a bit cliche with its almost bono-ish imagery of pregnant mothers singing and flowers and ghettos on opposite sides etc. i should make a SOTT thread.

there's one floating around where we ranked the tracks on SOTT

my opinion was that the singles are among the weakest tracks on the album aside from "If I Was Your Girlfriend", which is amazing

U Got the Crazy

SOTT feels like the start of 'modern' prince to me, but it's the best possible version where almost all the ideas work and the songs are really strong

But Emancipation was underwhelming. It wasn't that he was phoning it in necessarily, but most of what was on that record was What We Know Prince Can Do, rather than Prince Taking Chances.

Agreed. The problem is, What We Know Prince Can Do tends to be more listenable (ie, less appalling) these days than Prince Taking Chances.

i think sott is the end of classic prince, rather than the start of modern prince. graffiti bridge was basically the real end of that though, seeing as it had a lot of old 86-era songs from the sott/dream factory sessions on it.

1999 is just bolder though (im using this to compare as its his first big double album) - it feels like no one had done anything like that before. sott meanwhile seems more measured with some not exactly obvious (he makes them prince-ian) influences showing up but still clear here and there (the ending of play in the sunshine i still love but it now just makes me think of strawberry fields) whereas before prince seemed to have few obvious influences. could never take the place is still amazing and weirdly the guitar section now makes me think of weather report or return to forever but not nearly as flashy/bloated. very odd hearing an album youre so familiar with after leaving it alone for so long.

emancipation is good if you trim it to one cd. more than that and its weaknesses start to show. plus a lot of the songs on there were just too long.

There is a lot more worth saving on Emancipation than just one CD's worth. Chunks of it are self-indulgent but most of it works.

I think Emancipation apologists take things a bit too far, really. Especially when there's the perfectly serviceable Gold Experience right next to it in the discography.

Here's where I admit I never got "I Hate U."

It's perfectly possible to like both Emancipation and The Gold Experience! In fact, I prefer The Gold Experience; that doesn't make me dislike Emancipation.

those stabs at nineties R&B on Love Symbol and TGE are mostly tinkly and treacly. Emacipation is where he gets it.

Don't think we ever polled TGE.

Here's where I admit I could really care less about anything on Emancipation outside of "Sleep Around" and "The Human Body."

"Let's Have a Baby" has quietly become one of my favorite Prince ballads: the bass, piano, his falsetto.

ha Eric, well at least I agree that both of those tracks bang

sleep around i always thought george michael should have covered

"Sleep Around" with "Star People" production would be pretty great.

or 'outside' type production

it really is the best GM song GM never recorded

could never take the place is still amazing and weirdly the guitar section now makes me think of weather report or return to forever but not nearly as flashy/bloated. very odd hearing an album youre so familiar with after leaving it alone for so long.

this might be my least favorite part of the whole record. the drum programming drives me crazy, that relentless fake open hi-hat over what should be a simmering breakdown

aargh the drums on ICNTTPYM drive me insane, if there was ever a Prince single for proper rock drumming

drums on the Cross are also terrible, as opposed to Sheila rocking out on SOTT live

maybe the Mo Tucker effect on the album was intentional, I dunno

cmon, you think prince really was listening hard to the velvets? thats just something critics assigned to the song in retrospect, no?

Yeah - I also seriously doubt he was listening to the VU. Wishful Critic Thinking.

The beauty of SOTT - and very much spoken about at the time it was released - is the very obvious demo-y quality of many of the tracks. Especially when Prince was always so good at passing off stuff he'd recorded mainly by himself as full band collabs (i.e. "1999", much of Purple Rain)

Love the drums on "The Cross"! They actually sound live.

I also like the sorta crappy drum machine sound.

the drums on the cross are live. its not a drum machine. ICNTTPOYM is a drum machine tho, obv.

prince would not be a VU fan imo... i think he would see them as deficient/too inept in some way.