Update: This poll closed on April 21. The results are available here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...thm=runoff

I created a Condorcet poll to rank Prince's albums. The link is here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...6857ba24d5

It should be pretty self-explanatory. You rank them in order of preference, and then the program will summarize the results at the end of the poll (which I set to end on Friday, April 22). I only included official releases by Prince (or The Artist) and I excluded the NPG music club exclusive releases. I realize that many would take issue with these criteria, but I thought it would be interesting to see how fans rank the main releases.

Vote, and make your voice heard!

[Edited 6/4/11 7:18am]

I should have mentioned that, in this poll, you can rank all 30 albums, not just the top 5.

Oh shit, I listed the albums backwards.

The instructions were clear enough, but I was just a compete dufus myself. It's more common in my country / language to give "scores" than "ranks". I would do the list again, but the app tells me I can't vote another time. Should neutralize the list somewhat though.

[Edited 4/21/11 0:00am]

novabrkr said:

Oh shit, I listed the albums backwards.

The instructions were clear enough, but I was just a compete dufus myself. It's more common in my country / language to give "scores" than "ranks". I would do the list again, but the app tells me I can't vote another time. Should neutralize the list somewhat though.

[Edited 4/21/11 0:00am]

Well, someone on the org probably has the exact opposite opinion of you, so we'll just imagine they voted instead. Sorry the instructions weren't clear. We'll only get significant results if lots of people vote. We could also do the poll again, particularly if people object to which albums I didn't include (as is likely to happen if folks actually vote on this). But I think we should just let this one run its course and see what happens.

No, the instructions were clear. I just read them in a haste.

Looks like, from the voting so far, that most people are ranking them in their true order of preference (since the usual suspects are moving to the top of the list). Keep those votes coming in!

28 votes have now been cast. There is a clear pattern at this point, but there's still one significant tie that a few more votes might help to break.

I am convinced people need to break out their The Vault Old Friends 4 Sale CDs again and listen. How can someone rate that album so low? The material on it is slamming?

Spinlight said:

I am convinced people need to break out their The Vault Old Friends 4 Sale CDs again and listen. How can someone rate that album so low? The material on it is slamming?

Shhh... No politicking until the poll is over, or it may skew the results. Besides, at least two people think it is better than SOTT (unless they voted that way by mistake).

When do the voting polls close?

My choices were pretty consistent with the overall rankings of others so far.

CallMeCarrie said:

When do the voting polls close?

My choices were pretty consistent with the overall rankings of others so far.

Polls close tomorrow, unless I see a flood of suspicious last-minute votes in favor of The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale in light of Spinlight's recommendation, in which case I may shut it down early.

electricberet said:

Spinlight said:

I am convinced people need to break out their The Vault Old Friends 4 Sale CDs again and listen. How can someone rate that album so low? The material on it is slamming?

Shhh... No politicking until the poll is over, or it may skew the results. Besides, at least two people think it is better than SOTT (unless they voted that way by mistake).

You're right. I should wait.

Spinlight said:

electricberet said:

Shhh... No politicking until the poll is over, or it may skew the results. Besides, at least two people think it is better than SOTT (unless they voted that way by mistake).

You're right. I should wait.

There will be plenty of time for post-game criticism tomorrow.

Nice job, wish New Power Soul was included instead of Crystal Ball though. Crystal Ball is a compilation and hard to really judge, whereas NPS is a regular Prince studio album (despite the NPG moniker).

NoVideo said:

Nice job, wish New Power Soul was included instead of Crystal Ball though. Crystal Ball is a compilation and hard to really judge, whereas NPS is a regular Prince studio album (despite the NPG moniker).

I think that was part of the point - to only list officla "Prince/Prince and the __" releases as opposed to any other paradigm. That seems the most fair to avoid arguments about NPS, Kamasutra, The Time, etc.

Crystal Ball is a compilation of brand new material, so it really shouldn't matter if it is included.

Spinlight said:

NoVideo said:

Nice job, wish New Power Soul was included instead of Crystal Ball though. Crystal Ball is a compilation and hard to really judge, whereas NPS is a regular Prince studio album (despite the NPG moniker).

I think that was part of the point - to only list officla "Prince/Prince and the __" releases as opposed to any other paradigm. That seems the most fair to avoid arguments about NPS, Kamasutra, The Time, etc.

Crystal Ball is a compilation of brand new material, so it really shouldn't matter if it is included.

Yes, I thought about including NPS, but decided it would open up a can of worms for the reasons Spinlight suggests. It's very easy to set up a poll on that website, though, so after this one closes you could start a new one and include whatever albums you like.

Hmmm... the top of the list hasn't changed much today but there's been some reshuffling at the bottom. Don't forget to vote if you haven't already!

Spinlight said:

I am convinced people need to break out their The Vault Old Friends 4 Sale CDs again and listen. How can someone rate that album so low? The material on it is slamming?

Tell me about it! It's such a great album.

We're up to 50 votes now. Keep 'em coming! I'll close it down sometime tomorrow (depends what time I wake up).

did it. kind of surprised myself how high I ranked recent and 90's albums compared to some of the 80's "classics"

although Rave, as always, comse in dead last.

errant said:

did it. kind of surprised myself how high I ranked recent and 90's albums compared to some of the 80's "classics"

although Rave, as always, comse in dead last.

Thanks for voting!

It's interesting to see the results come in. I'm eager to close the poll so that I can post the results here, but I want to give everyone a chance to vote first.

was kind of surprised at how my ranking turned out. i think there are albums that i may not listen to as much as others but i still think are better than others. like Lotusflow3r. was surprised how low ATWIAD ranked for me. I actually had to pull the track listing and think about it a bit.

datdude said:

was kind of surprised at how my ranking turned out. i think there are albums that i may not listen to as much as others but i still think are better than others. like Lotusflow3r. was surprised how low ATWIAD ranked for me. I actually had to pull the track listing and think about it a bit.

I know what you mean. It can be quite a challenge to compare 30 different albums, especially given how diverse Prince's output has been over his career.

Not bad, but where is NewPower Soul the NPGMC albums and Kamasutra.

Godd to see SOTT is number one by a long shot, (Purple Rain is 2nd and 1999 3rd, Parade is 4th and Dirty Mind and Controversy are nearly tied). Of course 3121 is best of the new albums in 14th place. Last place is Rave and the great fan divider TRC sits near the bottom in 22nd place.

I was the 55th person to vote on this according 2 the thread.

Can't wait to see full results.

Since people are starting to report tentative results on this thread, and it is past midnight on April 22 on the East Coast, I decided to go ahead and end the poll. Apologies to those who didn't get to vote, but I didn't want people jumping in to rescue their favorite album with some strategic voting, which is a danger once the results start to leak out.

So, with 55 votes cast, here are the final results of my poll:

1. Sign 'O' the Times (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)

2. Purple Rain loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 34–19

3. 1999 loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 36–18, loses to Purple Rain by 35–18

4. Parade loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 41–10, loses to 1999 by 33–20

5. Dirty Mind loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 45–7, loses to Parade by 34–16

6. Controversy loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 45–7, loses to Dirty Mind by 31–21

7. The Gold Experience loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 48–4, loses to Controversy by 29–23

8. Lovesexy loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 46–7, loses to The Gold Experience by 26–25

9. Around the World in a Day loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 50–3, loses to Lovesexy by 29–21

10. 0+> (Love Symbol Album) loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 49–4, loses to Around the World in a Day by 28–23

11. The Black Album loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 50–3, loses to 0+> (Love Symbol Album) by 32–19

12. 3121 loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–2, loses to The Black Album by 29–23

13. Diamonds and Pearls loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 48–5, loses to The Black Album by 29–24

14. Come loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 49–4, loses to Diamonds and Pearls by 27–24

15. Tied:

Prince (1979) loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 49–5, loses to Come by 27–25

Emancipation loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 49–3, loses to Come by 30–23

17. Lotusflow3r loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 49–3, loses to Emancipation by 30–23

18. Graffiti Bridge loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–1, loses to Lotusflow3r by 27–24

19. Crystal Ball loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 50–2, loses to Graffiti Bridge by 25–24

20. Tied:

The Rainbow Children loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 47–5, loses to Crystal Ball by 27–22

Musicology loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 50–3, loses to Lotusflow3r by 32–20

22. Batman loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–2, loses to The Rainbow Children by 25–24

23. 20Ten loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 50–2, loses to Batman by 32–17

24. The Truth loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 50–2, loses to 20Ten by 26–23

25. For You loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–3, loses to The Truth by 26–24

26. The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–2, loses to For You by 29–20

27. Tied:

Chaos and Disorder loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–2, loses to The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale by 25–23

MPLSound loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 49–4, loses to The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale by 27–22

29. Planet Earth loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–2, loses to Chaos and Disorder by 27–22

30. Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic loses to Sign 'O' the Times by 51–2, loses to Planet Earth by 27–20

Technical note: This is the result using the Condorcet-IRV completion rule. If you want to see the results using a different completion rule, click here and select your preference:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...thm=runoff

Changing the completion rule results in some reshuffling at the bottom of the list, because the different completion rules break ties in different ways, and people seem to have weaker preferences with regard to albums they don’t really like much.

As for the results: the biggest surprise to me is the relatively strong showing by 3121, which beat out Emancipation and Graffiti Bridge by convincing margins. Guess I should give 3121 another listen.

What do you think? Anyone can start a poll, and it’s not hard to do, so if you want to do another poll including NPG releases, associated artist releases, or whatever, feel free. Thanks to you who voted in this poll! At least the experiment produced some kind of result.

I should note that all three of the other completion rules have 3121 tied with Diamonds and Pearls. I don't quite understand how the Condorcet-IRV method puts 3121 ahead of D&P when the others don't. If we ran another poll with more voters, it might resolve fine points like this. However, I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes in the grand scheme of things. It seems pretty clear that, as much as we each may have our own idiosyncratic favorites (I happen to like several songs on MPLSound, for example), there is widespread agreement on which of Prince's albums are the true masterpieces.

Listening to 3121 now. It does have some good stuff on it, for sure. It's interesting to hear it again knowing that so many people think it's his best album since the 1990s.

so why such a short window on poll voting? should have gone for a week or so.

errant said:

so why such a short window on poll voting? should have gone for a week or so.

Because it's Prince-like that way.

errant said:

so why such a short window on poll voting? should have gone for a week or so.

Good question. This is what it says at the CIVS website FAQ:

For how long a period should I enable voting? This is up to you. The best time period depends on your voters. For voters who are aware of the poll or who check email frequently, a couple of days is usually enough time. Most people vote right away, or not at all. Election durations of more than a week are usually too long, unless your intention is to set up a long-running public survey.

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...s/faq.html

The problem with running a public poll from a forum like this is that, once a pattern can start to emerge and people notice it, there might be additional voting to change the pattern (e.g., "I can't believe Lovesexy is ranked so low! Everyone go vote for it now!") I have seen this phenomenon on other websites (not music-related) that use the CIVS website for voting. A hit-and-run poll is less susceptible to this, but the flip side is that you may not get a broad enough cross-section of voters.

Another factor to keep in mind here (which is another reason I decided to close last night rather than this morning) is that Prince has fans all around the world, and there may be regional differences in which albums are more popular. Thus, a voting period of about 24 hours allows people the same voting time no matter where they are. Of course, a voting period of 48 hours or any other multiple of 24 would serve the same purpose.