Appreciating O(+> (THE LOVE SYMBOL ALBUM), One of my Favorite Prince Albums

Prince is at his very best when he is showing off. True, he seems to take every simple thing to excess--I mean, where other artists will simply do or say something stupid to damage their careers, Prince will create a career ending symbol, change his name, and derail that ship into chart topping oblivion before return again after reclaiming his name, winning a few awards and being inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of fame along the way--and that’s during the same period of time it takes most artists to release their next albums. In some ways the album doesn’t even come close to the drama of Prince’s actual real life , but that’s Prince isn’t it? A hot pink in a pale grey world.
But if is anything--it’s expansive, dramatic, energetic, and daring in ways George Michael, Micheal Jackson, and Madonna could never be. In one short album, his musical palette dwarfs his counterparts.

I love the symbol album. I always have. I always will. Prince comes in screaming “My name is Prince, and I am funky!!!” on the song that kicks the album off (as if we needed to be reminded), and by the end of the album, one can call him crazy, excessive, tacky, desperate--whatever, but they certainly can’t deny that he is funky as all hell.

Instrumentally, this album is tight! It has all sorts of moments that in songs (even ones I don’t like such as Sexy MF), where you go “wow, that was cool.” Even dance numbers like the furious “The Max” has him banging the shit out of a piano in such a way that would have made Beethoven take note (no, I’m not implying Prince would impress Beethoven --just peak his curiosity).

Even songs that impersonate other songs by other artists, like “3 Chains of Gold”--basically a funky man’s Bohemian Rhapsody, has flashes of brilliance scattered throughout it. Prince takes so many emotional and sonic turns in that song it leaves me breathless each time I listen to it--each time I really listen to it.

I remember listening to the cassette the day that it came out in my dorm room in Tech School, and when the romping “7” played folks kept asking me who it was. Every time I said “Prince” folks where all saying, “That’s Prince?--that’s really cool!!”.

This album is everything I wished Diamonds and Pearls was--crazy, funky, and downright nasssstttaaaaay. Where Diamonds & Pearls was nothing but a warmup to this album, the was obviously a template for The Gold Experience---a slightly better album in my opinion.

I’m listening to as I type this thing to you folks, and 2 the 9s just finished, and I’m already in a good mood. Any way you cut it, is a gem in my book. One of my favorite albums of his , and one of my favorite albums of any artist. Sure it isn’t perfect--you can find lots of things on Prince albums you may not like--but its an accomplishment I can’t fathom any other artist pulling off with such quirky finess.

Hands off Mr. P--Whenever you channel your inner tinkerbell decked out in gay policemen outfits and matching high heels, you tear that shit up like no other


.
[Edited 7/23/08 20:54pm]

The All New MSDMD : Attempting to be everything ORGanon and OWB tried but failed to be.

theslut.ning.com

your thread title makes no sense.

Anxiety said:

your thread title makes no sense.

The All New MSDMD : Attempting to be everything ORGanon and OWB tried but failed to be.

theslut.ning.com

Anxiety said:

your thread title makes no sense.

I dig this album a lot too.

My Name Is Prince is a steaming pile of turd though. It makes me cringe hearing Prince try to sound tough and Hip Hop - it sounds so contrived. Blue Light, I Wanna Melt With U and The Max are throwaway filler...

However, there is a lot to appreciate on Symbol. The ballads in particular... Damn U and Sweet Baby are two of his most sincere (and downright classy) slow jams. His vocal arrangements and harmonies on Sweet Baby are so intricate and yet they work so well.

The Sacrifice of Victor is a great funky workout - it's just a shame Tony M craps all over it.

And Arrogance has always been something of a guilty pleasure of mine.

This is the very first Prince full album I listened to.

I've been watching the video to 'Sexy MF' throughout summer 1992 and it got me.

He got me then, that's when I became a Prince fan, by the end of his first era, at the dawn of the name change (just heard of him in 1989 for the 'Batman' soundtrack, but that was all).

is a very important album to me.
[Edited 7/24/08 2:32am]

It's nice but I haven't listened to it this year.

Dayclear said:

It's nice but I haven't listened to it this year.

i love 'my name is prince' true, its pure egotism, but god he sounds venemous in it, and it kicks ass. and really, any cd with a track such as blue light on it is worthy of excellentce.

zsasz said:

Imago said:

Prince is at his very best when he is showing off. True, he seems to take every simple thing to excess--I mean, where other artists will simply do or say something stupid to damage their careers, Prince will create a career ending symbol, change his name, and derail that ship into chart topping oblivion before return again after reclaiming his name, winning a few awards and being inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of fame along the way--and that’s during the same period of time it takes most artists to release their next albums. In some ways the album doesn’t even come close to the drama of Prince’s actual real life , but that’s Prince isn’t it? A hot pink in a pale grey world.
But if is anything--it’s expansive, dramatic, energetic, and daring in ways George Michael, Micheal Jackson, and Madonna could never be. In one short album, his musical palette dwarfs his counterparts.

I love the symbol album. I always have. I always will. Prince comes in screaming “My name is Prince, and I am funky!!!” on the song that kicks the album off (as if we needed to be reminded), and by the end of the album, one can call him crazy, excessive, tacky, desperate--whatever, but they certainly can’t deny that he is funky as all hell.

Instrumentally, this album is tight! It has all sorts of moments that in songs (even ones I don’t like such as Sexy MF), where you go “wow, that was cool.” Even dance numbers like the furious “The Max” has him banging the shit out of a piano in such a way that would have made Beethoven take note (no, I’m not implying Prince would impress Beethoven --just peak his curiosity).

Even songs that impersonate other songs by other artists, like “3 Chains of Gold”--basically a funky man’s Bohemian Rhapsody, has flashes of brilliance scattered throughout it. Prince takes so many emotional and sonic turns in that song it leaves me breathless each time I listen to it--each time I really listen to it.

I remember listening to the cassette the day that it came out in my dorm room in Tech School, and when the romping “7” played folks kept asking me who it was. Every time I said “Prince” folks where all saying, “That’s Prince?--that’s really cool!!”.

This album is everything I wished Diamonds and Pearls was--crazy, funky, and downright nasssstttaaaaay. Where Diamonds & Pearls was nothing but a warmup to this album, the was obviously a template for The Gold Experience---a slightly better album in my opinion.

I’m listening to as I type this thing to you folks, and 2 the 9s just finished, and I’m already in a good mood. Any way you cut it, is a gem in my book. One of my favorite albums of his , and one of my favorite albums of any artist. Sure it isn’t perfect--you can find lots of things on Prince albums you may not like--but its an accomplishment I can’t fathom any other artist pulling off with such quirky finess.

Hands off Mr. P--Whenever you channel your inner tinkerbell decked out in gay policemen outfits and matching high heels, you tear that shit up like no other


.
[Edited 7/23/08 20:54pm]

MattyJam said:

Tame said:

The All New MSDMD : Attempting to be everything ORGanon and OWB tried but failed to be.

theslut.ning.com

Didn't read all that but yes the album is good.

Anxiety said:

your thread title makes no sense.

I love this album, too. My favorite is Morning Paper. That is such a beautiful, sweet love song.

Great cd! I love it and still listen to it often.

A quite confusing album i think.

It is one of his most busy, all over the place, sometimes 'over the top' albums.

Probably as eclectic when it comes to the different musical styles as Sign of the Times, but Symbol somehow sounds 'messy' because of that and also because of these semi-cryptic interview-interludes.

Next to that: the strength of the material differs a lot. Sexy MF and Love the '90's are great (jazzy) funk jams, but songs like The Max and Melt with U are Prince dance tracks on auto-pilot.
Damn U is a tempting nightclub ballad, where Prince uses his falsetto to a great extent. But, another falsetto ballad, Sweet baby, is as schmaltzy as the ballads from his debut album.
The Continental and Seven are strong songs, with some experimental instrumental touches, songs like The Flow and Arrogance are experimental too, but very sketchlike in terms of songwriting.
A rockballad like The Morning Papers doesnt sound very original, but at least heartfelt. The other real rocktrack on this album, Three Chains of gold, is a failure: a misguided attempt to do a 'Bohemian Rapsody'.
Finally, the people who slag My Name is Prince because they feel he is 'acting' tough and hip-hop (and this songs seems to be slagged A LOT) don't seem to get the humor of it: to me it is obviously a parody / a satirical take on those typical selfreferential funk- and hiphop songs.

The mish-mash of musical styles, the uneven songwriting and the 'messieness', somehow leads to quite an intriguing album: moments of brilliance mixed with moment of blandness.

What also makes this albums intruiging to me is the lyrical content (and the way he uses those lyrics for the vocal and instrumental delivery of the material).
I always see The Symbol Album as of Prince is 'reckoning' with his past as a Big Pop Star during the WB years, the way he and the record company have promoted him, and the way the media and people seem to percieve him.
Prince is using a lot of humor and selfparody on this album: He seems to take the piss of himself with My Name is Prince and Sexy MF, which give an over the top portraying of some megalomaniac, funky, sexgod.
With songs like The Morning Papers and Three Chains of Gold he seems to say: i don't need the press and the media, what is important for me now is my object of love, Mayte.
Songs like Arrogance and The Flow follow one of the key-motives of the lyrics on the Diamonds and Pearls-album: selfmotivation.
The final song, The sacrifice of Victor, sounds like an autobiography / personal testimony during the length of a song. Like a goodbye to his WB-past and a welcome to a new period.

Allthough this wasn't his last official album for WB, to me this album 'reads' as a goodbye to WB, and with that, a goodbye to his career untill that moment. Its an album about 'looking back' and closing a certain era.

Tame said:

the album generally gets a lot of bad press here on the org but I love it.

diamonds & pearls too

I liked The morning papers,7, blue light, the max, but the rapping killed my name is prince, love 2 the nine's, arrogance, the flow. i liked and god created woman, damn u. 3 chains o' gold was a disaster. i would give it a 3/5!!!

The sacrifice of the victor!!

This album has so many great songs! It would've been a bigger hit than D&P if not for the whole change my name & write slave on my face shit!

This is one of my favorites. You could see Diamonds and Pearls, with the new band, showed some signs of great things to come but had too many songs that didn't seem polished or were fillers. You can see how tight the band got in this album. Every song seems to be polished and completed. You can see the build up from Diamonds to the Gold Experience. I really believe the NPG at this stage really allowed Prince to cover alot of ground. I don't think the band has been as good since. There seemed to be a higher bar of musicianship around him.

This album had all the songs to make it a commercial success. But perhaps he hurt himself with the whole symbol name change etc. This album was great. Two or three songs that I didn't like, but the rest was amazing. 3 Chains of Gold, was a wonderful musical composition and showed alot of depth in his songwriting. Not sure how the critics responded to this album, but by far one of my favorites.

BIGGEST OF THE BIG! U CANT WALK UP DIS WIT OUT LOSIN YO BRET! FOOL STYLIN ORCHESTRA! sexy as the early 90s

don cyer wot dem say, des flowas n faaaaalllllaaaaawwwwaaasssss!!!!!

yes. good album.

bzzzzz.

proper album.

"mmmmm"

On top about to scupper mesel f album

"ggggg"

fkn good album, no word less.

£

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ITS A LOT.X

Tame said:

she has a huge camel toe. It's not cameltoe, it's like DINOSAUR TOE =O - Protege

i lime huck OFFA - Myle

she probably has locks in her vagina - Myle

and Imago. your avatar is so fucking distracting

she has a huge camel toe. It's not cameltoe, it's like DINOSAUR TOE =O - Protege

i lime huck OFFA - Myle

she probably has locks in her vagina - Myle

Oh yeah, and the symbol ass album is nice

she has a huge camel toe. It's not cameltoe, it's like DINOSAUR TOE =O - Protege

i lime huck OFFA - Myle

she probably has locks in her vagina - Myle

I love the album too.
I love all the songs especially Damn U. That´s just beautiful.