jtfolden said:

I agree, a lot of his work is timeless. You can pick up a 20yr old track and it wouldn't be out of place on something current.

jtfolden said:

I never thought of it that way.

I was listening thru 3121 earlier... and it's a very happy album, which made me like it when I heard it the first time. It has balance and the progression of the tracks just works for me. I do feel like Prince is experimenting with technology throughout the album (the title track, where he made a few diff. voices 4 himself and such...), but occasionally, he'd bring forth tracks that kinda break away from that.
Some of them are gems, some shine brighter than others.
Examples: Te Amo Corazon, The Word, The Dance & Get on the Boat sound like they could have fit somewhere else, a diff. album. They're unique and that's why I like them... and they're also like breaths of fresh air.
To me, Black Sweat, Incense & Candles and Love sound like modern tracks with little sound bits added here and there. Like the way he does that thing w/his voice in Incense & Candles kinda sounds like something Justin Timberlake did on one of his crummy tracks (they're all crummy, really)... but he makes it work for him.
Love's music sounds like radio music a little bit... but there's just something about it that I go crazy for.
Variety is definitely a strength in this album that caught my attention. He experimented with many genres and made it work for him so well. I think maybe I'm kinda hard on some of the tracks because they sound like they were thrown together in the studio... so they kinda lack life. That said, I probably spoiled myself by overindulging in TGE becuz that music sounds alive 2 me.
The production of Fury & Lolita (to name a couple) is a little disappointing, I guess. I've heard a few live versions of Fury, so of course people aren't crazy about it. I still like it cuz it tells an interesting story.

UCantHavaDaMango said:

The Truth and Rainbow Children are both amazing.
the original poster is clearly crazy

NEWS - Prince's best album since C-Note!

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Right, it would be hard for you to think of it like that if you haven't heard all those older releases yet. So, something like the pitch changes on the vocals in 3121 seems like a new experiment to you but if you'd heard tracks like Erotic City from 1984, Love or Money from '86, or the Camille tracks off of Sign O' The Times in '87 then it would really seem old hat, like a nod to the past.

Some of those styles and songs that seem 'modern' or 'radio oriented' to new fans, only sound that way because Prince originally pioneered those sounds 15 and 25 years ago...and they just filtered out into the mainstream. The whole Minneapolis sound can still be felt today.
[Edited 4/11/07 20:51pm]

Yeah, I'm not exactly in any position to make any decisions on these kinds of threads... although I always jump at the chance to discuss the albums I do have. It saves the time of starting threads and having them die down.

Still, the title obviously implies that Musicology isn't a good album... I still believe it is.But it's actually in a class by itself in the ones I own. It's more or so a collection of music with similiar elements. The other ones have tracks that build up on one another to paint a diff. picture 4 the album.

I've yet to figure out what the painting of 3121 looks like with the variety it has... I felt I connected with it at first listen becuz the overall arrangement seemed cater to my every thought... more or less, I felt like he could read my mind. That's why I liked it so much initially.

He seems to step up his game and add a little extra something as it progresses. 3121 is like a party song and Lolita is worth worth dancing 2. Then there are the three seductive tracks: Te Amo Corazon, Incense & Candles and Satisfied. Each one feels like it gets more mature and surpasses the boundaries the previous one goes. TAC makes me feel fall in love with him with that 2 connection we have thru it. I&C goes more in-depth on the subject and takes things in a diff. direction with the rap. It more or less strengthens the "spell" he has on me from the previous. Then Satisfied... I'm still not crazy about it, but I listened to it after I&C and it had a degree of maturity (he's talkin' bout it in the bedroom & such) that I actually liked. But things have been a little confusing, mixing/matching songs from "1999" with 3121... I guess I wanted to see Prince as he is today and not think of him transcending the past.

I'll comment on everything else later... I lost my train of thought, plus I've written enough 4 the time being.