I understood it sucked.

I play it all the time.

Chaos And Disorder rocks!!

it rocks for sure!!!

it would rock ten fold if, I rock therefore and Dig you better dead didn't exist

Chaos is a lazy lazy record. From the piss pour cover art to the half thought- out songs, I think it is obvious these are just songs that P was messing around with. The songs were not intended for the public for a reason---because they either weren't finished or shouldn't have been started. "I Rock..." makes "Jughead" seem funky. "Dinner with Delores" may have the dumbest lyrics of any Prince song (even though I like the music and wish it was attached to a better song). And "Right the Wrong" may be one of the worst songs P ever had any connection with. It's popular to hate this album for a reason...because for most, this album is a sign of uglier times. It's contract filler; it's an f.u. to the record company but its also an f.u. to the fans. If he didn't care enough to make an album for public consumption, why should we have cared enough to consume it?

PurpleKnight said:

I like you PurpleKnight.


stormbringer

OnionJuice said:

Actually I think that title is already taken by "Come" - THAT is a good album & often shat on

I understand it sucked cause Prince was a WB slave. So, he gave them an album(s) that he tricked them into to thinking was "quality", so they wouldnt think it was a jibberish compilation and not release it.

I acutally like "Come" a whole lot more than "Choas..."

PurpleKnight said:

It's the shitty rapping sprinkled throughout the album that ruin it for me. Well that and Right The Wrong... crap song.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

What rapping is there besides in I Rock...?
[Edited 3/13/05 9:03am]

Chaos rocks.

muirdo said:

I totally agree - Take out ' I rock' which makes me very ill, and it's very good indeed.

I like the fact that it sounds like a mish mash of f'O's to warner. I bet they hated it, cuz it was so not what they wanted.

its aight...

sad that prince got his fans involved in the whole wb fiasco...i wonder if anyone has ever called him on that...


it was just a pathetic thing to do.....

I don't think it's one of his better albums but it definitely doesn't deserve all the hate it gets in my opinion. It's a rockin' album!

the title track and Same December are my favorites!

GottaLetitgo said:

It was just an f.u. to WB, not his fans. I just see it as an incredibly fun, fascinating look at his inner anger, bitterness and hurt towards WB and music in general. The good thing is that it's accessible to be applied to anyone's problems when they're really angry. Songs like I Will and Had U are so easily relateable when you feel hurt or bitter.
[Edited 3/13/05 10:19am]

All this business about the album being only tracks "meant for private listening" and a FU to WB is bollocks. Zanalee and The Same December were definitely slated for release at one time - videos were made for these tracks in 94/95. If not for WB not allowing Prince to release albums as often as he liked and in a configuration of his choosing (2/3 cd) those two tracks would definitely have seen the light of day earlier.
The main problem with C&D is that some of the songs sat around for too long and Prince ended up overproducing them due to his inability to leave well enough alone - much the same fate as Come. The tracks from 93-96 that I have heard in their pre-release versions are much better than the versions that ended up being released. It could have been a solid rock album if it wasn't so saturated in production (poxy sirens and voiceover in Zanalee being the prime example).
Oh, plus I Rock.. and Dig U .. are awful and out of place on the album.

gsh said:

I think the little sirens and stuff just convey the effect of "chaos and disorder" that is the album's main theme. At least there's no Kirky J drum programming or glossy sound to the songs.

When this CD first came out I totally thought it sucked until people here on the org. had me give it another try. I'm glad I did. I really like it and it deserves another listen 2 by those who do not like it. C&D is a cool rock song that I appreciate more 2day than yesterday.

I like it !

muirdo said:

Choas crack-rocks.

I think C&D is a very enjoyable Prince record, although certainly not his best.

I love the lyrics in the title track.
Love the instrumentals in Dinner with Delores.
Love everything in The Same December.

gsh said:

Absolutely! You've hit the proverbial nail on the head, gsh.

OnionJuice said:

Negative. It had some definite hits on it.But never got airplay.

PurpleKnight said:

I always liked this album too. I love it when he rocks out...and the 1st half of the album is pretty rockin'. Awesome flow imo. It was a nice departure after all the bloatedness of the Symbol and Gold Era (even tho Gold Experience is awesome too). Its short, angry, and has great guitar on it. I don't know how any fan of Prince could hate I Like It There, Had U, or Same December. It's not one of his best, but its not near one of his worst.

Amen to that. Chaos is definitely misunderstood. As a matter of fact, it's my favorite Prince album (and I have been a fan for a long while, so don't let the date of my registration fool you) and one of the two that I actually listen to daily and carry around with my in my CD carrier, along with Dirty Mind.

I bought the album after I saw the video/heard the song Zannalee on Housequake, and checked it out on Amazon. Sounded like a killer rock record to me, and I wasn't disappointed. I tell you, on my first listen to the entire CD, I was loving it. Every single track was configured just right, and the flow of the album was effortless, and the feeling and passion was all there.

The title track is a slamming opener to any rock album, complete with some awesome drumming and screaming. I Like It There is another great song. Dinner With Delores, even with the brontosaurus line, has some level of rock sophistication to it, atop a floaty melody. The Same December is my favorite song, because it seemlessly crosses genres within the 3-4 it plays; it starts off as a rock opera-esque song, builds up some momentum, and goes straight into a classic, folk-rock chorus through and through until it turns bluesy in the end. I love it! Right The Wrong I wasn't digging at first, but when the chorus came blasting, I was hooked. Really catchy. Zannalee was the track that turned me on... some classic blues wah-wah guitar work on here. I Rock... has a solid bassline and a catchy verse/chorus to it, and although I can't always understand what it being said in the raps, I still love it. At this point, this album is banging, but then it tones down with Into The Light and I Will, and even though these songs feature sensitive piano playing and high-pitched singing, they still seem to blend with the other songs. And you can't say that Into The Light isn't one of the most beautiful ballads Prince has ever written. A lot of people don't like Dig U Better Dead, but that synth-bass melody is intoxicating and the song is quite catchy, and finally Had U leaves a brilliant touch to the whole album. A truly haunting song that stays with you even when the CD has stopped.

This is why Chaos And Disorder is my favorite Prince album... over Purple Rain, LoveSexy, Parade, Sign O' The Times (although it's in my top 3), etc. It's the kind of Prince you wouldn't expect because it's so much darker and harder sounding than anything he has ever done (like Come and Gold, which is why my favorite era was 94-96) but at the same time, it's the same Prince you'd come to love. This is actually the first album I bought for a friend who is just getting into Prince. He heard a lot of Purple Rain stuff and saw the Sign O' The Times movie and the Rave DVD and kept hearing about Prince all last year. He likes a lot of metalcore music and hard stuff, and he asked me what kind of Prince to get. I told him anything between 94-96 is pretty cool, and I picked this up one day in the store thinking about him. He told me the next day he loved it, because he'd never think Prince could ever do something like this. He thought Prince was just that androgynous guy who wore heels all the time and danced around and screamed. But he said he loved the guitar work and is now hooked on Prince.

...and on the subject of the "piss awful" cover... at least it looks better than that God damned contraction that looks like Musicology. I mean, a brick background, vines or barbed wire or whatever the hell it is and an oversized picture of Prince's head... yeah, that's something I want to buy.
[Edited 3/13/05 15:34pm]

/\ Funny, I had the same reaction.

Chaos and Disorder is definitely an interesting album - Occassionally surpassing the heights over The Gold Experience, but that's the one problem - C&D hits just as often as it misses for me.

It's still a really nifty and distinct album though - I listen to it a lot.

PurpleMusiq8 said:

I like you PurpleMusiq8.




stormbringer