misiu said:

We have 4 to choose from: The gold experience, chaos and disorder, emacipation and rave unto the joy fantastic. GE has some classic jams like now, dolphin, shhh, billy jack bitch, beautiful girl, i hate u and gold ... The rest is ok. If the record wuold have the raw mixing of come, it would be even better. I really dislike that over the top "glitter" sound on most tracks. Chaos and disorder on the other hand is Pure energy ( its like listening to the raw sound of purple rain- simply great) There may not be many classics on it, but its very enjoyable. Highlight for me: i like it there, zanelee, i rock, into the light, dig u better dead. Emacipation: well what can i say. maybe his best mainstream r&b cd ever. The production is a little too plastic at times, but it fits the time. (But symbol was simply following trnds). his vocals on this cd set are simple great. It would be a killer album, if it was max. 16 trax. Classics/great tunes for me: somebodys somebody, jam of the year, right back, get yo groove on, emale, holy river, savior,curios child, face down, one of us,the love we make... Rave unto the joy fantastic: at that time of its release a real letdown. It has few great tracks, but all of them sounded in 1999 a little dated. the other problem is, the plastic production and too many mid tempo songs. Still gratest romance, so far so pleased, man of war, i love u but i dont trust u anymore, where ever u go and pretty man are fine tunes ( and undisputed from ritjf remix cd) So whats your pick and why? Mine would be ... Hmm... I dont know now.

i love all of these albums..

but i still say that if Emancipation had been edited like HELL.. it would have been a classic...... basically.. take most of disc 3.. add in Holy River, Joint 2 Joint, In this Bed Eye Scream and its killer... but the org does NOT need another thread about how to edit down this album.. so i will shut up now.

It goes: The Gold Experience....

........................................ country mile........................

all the others

Imma say:

1. Chaos and Disorder - this just appeared in the record stores. I had no idea it was coming but I loved it right away.

2. The Gold Experience - The build-up to this was so excrutiating but I do love it immensely.

3. Emancipation - This is great but its so sprawling. I treat the three discs sometimes as three different albums.

4. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic - I love this album to but I wish a couple of the guests were featured more prominently.

[Edited 2/13/15 11:02am]

Gold Experience.

Rimshottbob said:

The Gold Experience. By a long shot. It's the most well rounded, The writing is consistent. He set out to make a great album, he succeeded, and he knew it. Concept of the album was a good 6/7 years ahead of it's time. People were playing CDs in their CD-ROM drive but a computer as a delivery system for music?

Emancipation suffers from length. It's hard to get round that. Though most people can grind it down to between 10 and 15 great/good songs. Perhaps a little too much focus on RnB, and 30 songs all with similar sounding production (with a few exceptions).

Chaos & Disorder is interesting, but his intention with this album was to deliver to WBR a record they couldn't sell, full of songs they couldn't get onto the radio. It was for a long time (and arguably still is) his only real rock album. The music is great for the most part, and it's not really mainstream radio friendly.

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic is a barely salvageable wreck. To his credit he tried with Rave In2 which is far better. But its still a bit immature in places.

Totally agree that the fan compiled "The Dawn" is immense. "Exodus" is well worth mentioning too.

[Edited 2/13/15 15:56pm]

lust said:

Although, the fan made "The Dawn" compilation is pretty wicked.

That gets play all the time.

itsjustaroundthecorner said:

i love all of these albums..

but i still say that if Emancipation had been edited like HELL.. it would have been a classic...... basically.. take most of disc 3.. add in Holy River, Joint 2 Joint, In this Bed Eye Scream and its killer... but the org does NOT need another thread about how to edit down this album.. so i will shut up now.

I can edit it for you: Highlight all the tracks and press <delete>. Much better album that way.

"his only real rock album"....THIS. Some people say it's "Purple Rain" but "Chaos and Disorder" wins. "I Like It There" had a real 90's garage rock vibe to it...I use to hear it on the local alternative rock station out here..I liked "Emancipation"for the variety and production.

The Gold Experience.

That said, if I could make Emancipation the eternal single disc....

Jam Of The Year

Right Back Here In Your Arms

Somebody's Somebody

Damned If I do

In This Bed I scream

Curious Child

Dreaming About U

Joint 2 Joint

Savior

Style

Face Down

My Computer

The Love We make

The Gold Experience

.

although Come is close, if you count that, as it was released under the Prince name, it came out in the TAFKAP period

.

Chaos is not far behind either.

1. Chaos and Disorder

2. Gold Experience

3. Emancipation

4. Rave

Probably Gold, but I always count Exodus in there as well even though its an NPG album. Exodus is my motherfucking jam.

herb4 said:

Probably Gold, but I always count Exodus in there as well even though its an NPG album. Exodus is my motherfucking jam.

Not "Lovesex?"

^ That mixes things up a bit.

The Truth is another great lost Prince album.

The great thing about an acoustic album for an established artist is that it forces songwriting. Some of the lyrics on this album are among the best he's ever written. His sly wit is in full effect on songs like "3rdeye" and "Don't Play Me".

I think it's a amazing acoustic counterpart to the mid 90's sound. It's a shame how things worked out with EMI. I can't help but feel Prince should have submitted this to WB when he found out they were putting out "The Vault".

Probably Gold Experience. If Emancipation didn't have so much filler, as well as HORRIBLE drum sounds, I would probably go with it. Emancipation sounds SO weak, nothing bumps like "Now" or "Pussy Control" even though something like "Joint to Joint" should.

I agree The Gold Experience, is the greatest..... by far imo...

Cracking period. Very strong material, still prolific, but not hitting 9/10 now, more like 7.5/10. Terribly overlooked, and generally rated as average from the critics and old fans. But come on. Fkin strong stuff in there. For me:

Gold Experience

The Best of Emancipation - Whatever that is for you.

The Truth

Come

Chaos & Disorder

Whats that....5 year period. Not many who can boast that sort of form after 15+ years.

purplethunder3121 said:

No question here, The Gold Experience, one of his very best...

The Gold Experience.

Somebody already commented that Prince set out to do a great record with that one. It's a more focused set of songs (although there's quite a stylistic gap between the first and the last song on the album, if we're honest about it).

Emancipation really does have my favourite tracks from the 1990s though. "As an album" it's hardly very satisfying.

Newpower Soul really should be on these lists, btw. There's no reason why it shouldn't be seen as "a real Prince album". It's more of a real Prince album than Graffiti Bridge.

I'm going to say Emancipation, only because the Gold Experience, though better, was recorded at the same time as COME, so I don't consider it a TAFKAP album.

Or perhaps, I should consider COME a Tafkap album?

After Emancipation, Prince tended to phone-in his releases.