I was admiring the Lovesexy album today. I hadn't heard it in a long while. But Wow! He was the epitome of an artist then. Not yet really following trends. Just doing what he wanted to do musically (same with the Black Album). Batman, to me, changed all that. Even though I think Batman is a good album it didn't have the same experimental play-fullness that the previous albums had. Lovesexy was so positive a vibe whereas Batman was more dark (of course because of the movie) but even Graffiti Bridge (though it has a bunch of great previous era songs) didn't have that play-fullness anymore. Is it the general consensus that Lovesexy was the last great "classic" album?

I think that the years 1980-1988 was when Prince released his most inspired,most interesting music.He reached his creative peak with SOTT/Lovesexy.

"Lovesexy" was like the last "hurrah" moment IMO.

And it's understaandable.

You can only burn like that for so long.

It happened to Stevie.

I'd say "In Square Circle" was his.

He could have made 10 more albums from the material not used from 1980-1988. And maybe updated the sound a little on some...but we all know he would have gone overboard either with silly sound effects or somebody talking over the music like our little friend on AOA who finds her way to lessen the experience a bit.

But had he simply done it right, he could have mined a lot more of those old songs. But he didn't. Sad. Case closed.

But Loveexy was the end of an era. He showed bits and pieces here and there. Thieves In The Temple is about as good a song as he could have made...strange to me it wasn't a bigger hit...but his over-saturation of the market likely played a role. If Thieves was his first release in 3 years or so, it would have been huge.

The Rainbow Children is a superior album in my humble opinion. The Gold Experience is on par, 3121 and AOA come close.

[Edited 2/10/15 15:00pm]

I don't think there was much room for experimentation or the kind of unique Lovesexy vibe when it came to the Batman soundtrack.

I think the Lovesexy tour took a huge toll on Prince's finances (the costs of transporting that huge set around must have been insane). I think Batman was a chance to pull some good money back in without having to work too hard. It's a fantastic record and does the job perfectly of providing an audio accompaniment to the film.

But as for musically not being the same again, I disagree. He's made several albums after that time that for me as just as insane and amazing as the ones that preceded Lovesexy.

I do not agree. I think some of the stuff he has released since has been equal or or better than (some of) Lovesexy.

Militant said:

I don't think there was much room for experimentation or the kind of unique Lovesexy vibe when it came to the Batman soundtrack.

I think the Lovesexy tour took a huge toll on Prince's finances (the costs of transporting that huge set around must have been insane). I think Batman was a chance to pull some good money back in without having to work too hard. It's a fantastic record and does the job perfectly of providing an audio accompaniment to the film.

But as for musically not being the same again, I disagree. He's made several albums after that time that for me as just as insane and amazing as the ones that preceded Lovesexy.

I read that the barely broke even on that tour.

Militant said:

I don't think there was much room for experimentation or the kind of unique Lovesexy vibe when it came to the Batman soundtrack.

I think the Lovesexy tour took a huge toll on Prince's finances (the costs of transporting that huge set around must have been insane). I think Batman was a chance to pull some good money back in without having to work too hard. It's a fantastic record and does the job perfectly of providing an audio accompaniment to the film.

But as for musically not being the same again, I disagree. He's made several albums after that time that for me as just as insane and amazing as the ones that preceded Lovesexy.

I know this is sort of of out of the blue Militant, but I was recently looking through archived topics on here, and I came across a topic from around 5 years ago were you mentioned something about Lovesexy being written under the influence of MDMA. Like, you said something about you'd been around people doing it and thought the album 'stank' of it?

I was just wondering if you could elabourate on that? It really interests me because I'm actually basing some of my uni work atm around The Black Album/Lovesexy concept. I was under the impression that P had heard about the drug, or had a small experiment with it and written songs for the black album like superfunkycalifragisexy about it and THEN had the experience where he tripped out and pulled the album from release, then never touched it again? (Or at least, been wary of it or something). Thanks! ~

The question is way too broad and simplistic and the answer, obviously, is no (I don't agree).

I must agree. Batman was clearly a step down, but at the time, I could happily blame it on 'the Batman machine'. Graffiti Bridge, however, came along and confirmed that things were now officially not as they once were.

I don't dislike those two albums, but I think we can all agree that they're not on par with the 80-88 output. And then D&P came along, and the rest is history...

Lovesexy was the beginning of the end. Too much time and toys available to him in the studio (first album recorded at Paisley Park). He changed his sound. Everything is overly cluttered and melodramatic. He lost is sense of direction and use of breathing space in his production.

Prince hasnt be the same muscially after any album. Thus, for me, this question is moot.

After Lovesexy, life changed forever. The blue in the sky began looking more and more metallic, bird songs slowly lost their magic, sugar became too sweet, water too wet, clapping hands too painful, stomping foot too hazardous.

Entire fields of violets died... after Lovesexy.

[Edited 2/10/15 17:38pm]

CynicKill said:

SoulAlive said:

CynicKill said:

"Lovesexy" was like the last "hurrah" moment IMO.

And it's understaandable.

You can only burn like that for so long.

It happened to Stevie.

I'd say "In Square Circle" was his.

For Stevie,I think he reached his creative peak with SITKOL.That album was impossible to top.

>

I agree, but "Circle" was that last GOOD album. Some great songs on that album even if you could tell he had already turned that genius corner.

Well, for me Lovesxy is the at the very top of the pile as the best Prince album ever made. So everything afterwards is a lesser attempt. He seemed to upgrade and modernise his studio after Lovesexy and a different sounding production took over which has not really left him to this day. Everything became more polished and clean sounding. His vocal layering became more in-your-face and up front. Sure, the sound of the albums became louder and the albums from Batman onwards are not really in any need of remastering like his previous albums are. But something was lost in that modernising upgrade. Something loose and organic went missing.

TRC and his jazz noodlings regained a bit of that organic sound but by then the songwriting wasnt quite on par anymore. But I think the song writing on the WB albums that came after Lovesexy was just as strong, I just think they were slightly less good due to the new production techniques Prince had started using.

Aerogram said:

I think Batman and Graffiti Bridge continue much in the same vein as SOTT and Lovesexy did, but as they were connected to those movies of the same name they were quite watered-down as collections of songs. The mad genius is still there though. GB is largely made of stuff from SOTT sessions with some production updates. A lot of things changed when GB flopped.

D&P and Symbol are important albums, but he seemed to ditch his playfulness and positive attitude for something far darker and harder to approach. I believe that went with the times, with Twin Peaks, alt.rock, Madonna's Sex book and so on. The early 90's had a different vibe altogether. He might have looked just silly had he continued to have a Lovesexy era type of an image and overall sound then.

I agree with Rebeljuice that in the end the change in the production style was the biggest chance and he never fully got that thing back together. Although he has later on revisited his old sound on many occasions (the most obvious examples would be tracks like "No More Candy 4 U"), I suppose as those songs appear only here and there they lose their impact amidst all the contemporary-sounding R&B and his take on retro rock.

I've been saying this for years, but give the latter half of Planet Earth a chance.

CynicKill said:

SoulAlive said:

CynicKill said: For Stevie,I think he reached his creative peak with SITKOL.That album was impossible to top.

>

I agree, but "Circle" was that last GOOD album. Some great songs on that album even if you could tell he had already turned that genius corner.

I can agree with that

After Lovesexy he had to start to make money again to keep things going. I suspect his artistically most interesting material from '88 onwards have been kept in the vault, while his supposed more commercial material have been chosen for release.

warning2all said:

One could say he was never the same after "Parade"/" The Dream Factory"-and be right. That was truly the end of a musical era. One could argue he was never the same after "Sign o' The Times"- arguably his last great 80's album- running on the fumes of The Revolution & hungry to stretch out. One could say " Lovesexy" was his last pure shot of creativity. Layered madness & a trip. To me, "Lovesexy" had the first notes of inconsistency--"Dance On" & "Positivity". "The Rainbow Children" was the next album to be a solid work of art. One can forgive "Wedding Feast" like SOTT's "It"-he's done much better tracks on intervening albums- but the whole is so good. "Dirty Mind"-"Sign o'The Times" are solid listening experiences. Most albums thereafter are uneven. "Lovesexy" was the last blast of seeing Prince as a Musical Space Alien Genius to me. The best bootlegs keep that spirit alive.

At the time you could possibly blame the Batman machine, but now we've heard more of the post-SOTT 80s out takes and unreleased material, I think it's a fair assessment to say that it was not just the Batman machine that made that apparent drop in "quality" and that it was happening regardless.

That sparse synth sound he was going for then, I don't know if it was a soaking in of techno and house, or trying to bang out as many songs as he could now he was in full control of his squeaky new Neverland Chocolate Factory, he also had a lot of big ideas for the Lovesexy tour, and offshot bands that never saw the light of day, and he was trying to get Graffiti Bridge up and running since before Lovesexy even. I think spreading himself too thin and not really spending time crafting each song so that it said something unique was really the problem.

I'm not sure if the quality drop off of Batman is really that fair any way, are the Future, Electric Chair, Vicki Waiting, Scandalous not great? Is Batdance not completely batshit wild? (pun intended) Who the hell else does a 7 minute techno-funk-heavy metal suite as a pop single let alone for a huge blockbuster film soundtracks?! I think it gets unfairly judged as a novelty song because of the "Batmaaaan!" chants and just for being a superhero movie song.

And it's not like it was Lovesexy then.... BAM! Nothing, he reinvigorated his sound with the NPG on D&P and , those two have a very different sound and energy to what came before and I don't mean the Color Me Badd, MC Hammer stuff - Strollin', Money Don't Matter, Love 2 The 9s, Insatiable sound new, different, of the time and top drawer. And then with Come/TGE he brought in another fresh new different sound and still banged out really great sounding tracks that didn't hit it out of the park only because of the name change silliness imo.

Yes, what NoveauDance said (except for Vicky Waiting...).

The GB album is a natural end to this whole period, covering his whole career.