Far and away best of the 90s and one of the best of his whole career. It's a very consistent, tight, and well thought out project even if Gold was "the one" and this was presented as some afterthought for WB. Beats the hell out of what Gold ended up as IMO.

Between the plethora of completely top shelf versions/remixes of the title track being avaliable, I hadn't listened to the 11 minute version that actually made the album in a long time. Just phenomenal. Space? Phenomenal. The list goes on. The songs work incredibly well together. Letitgo is particularly underrated as well.

It feels effortless, too. Nothing feels forced here, somehow it all feels so right together. Great album.

[Edited 4/6/24 14:12pm]

Meh.

That's a hot take. I disagree with you, but that's a hot take.

Come is in my lower Top 15. Every album from the 80's is better than Come, with the possible exception of Batman.

Come, The Gold Experience, and Exodus are a trilogy of excellent albums.

Frankly Chaos and Disorder is only a step down from Come. They could be a quartet.

Come doesn't necessarily drive into some neo-goth-pop like some suggest. Rather, it's a journey into sexuality and social problems, which - really - isn't new for Prince.

Touching on domestic abuse with "Papa" or pointedly "We March"-esque race and social issues as in "Race," the album stays balanced.

The other side is lustful sexuality with "Come" and "Pheromone," then sees the opposing arguments of regret and forlorning in "Dark" and "Solo."

It's peppered with other varying topics like euphoria ("Loose!"), love ("Space"), and the familiar war with Warner ("Letitgo").

These topics are easily covered on the Gold Experience, Controversy, 1999, Around The World In A Day, Lovesexy, and more. So it's not an unusual album other than a darker production mirrored in its heavy and fat synth hits, moody and layered keyboards, thick bass, and screaming guitars. Still stuff we find on The Gold Experience.

I think TGE's production has a sharper treble-esque filter on it which gives it that brighter, sparkling type of sound. It sounds digital.

Whereas something like Come damn near feels like it was made to be pressed solely on vinyl. In the shadowy production, there's a mid-range warmth to it that - despite being taught to not explore empty dark houses - invites us into the ominous and foreboding that is Come.

Come is a very strong album, and was worthy of much more promotion that it saw in 1994/5. Is it a top 5 album for me? In the 90s, for sure. Overall? It'd probably make the top 10 perhaps. It's hard because the 80s were pretty much golden across the board. The 90s is really its own monster, often mirroring the blueprints and ideas of the 80s albums.

I did a remix album called Come Again, that used mostly remixes, took out the "Poem" stuff, and added new ocean sounds. "Come" was a mix of the album version and another version (the one with the jingle bells throughout). "Loose!" was a mix of the album and Versace version. I think "Solo" and "Orgasm" were the only original cuts left in there. It actually clocks 4 seconds shorter even with all those remixes.

agreed a million percent:

Pheromone

Space

Loose

one of his best 3-in-a-rows ever

top 5 90s album

is it better than:

PR

SOTT

Parade/ATWIAD

Dirty Mind

1999

(these are generally regarded as the obv picks for top 5 prince albums)

id say no.

in no order:

lovesexy (fave album of all time by anyone ever)
1999
dirty mind
come
sign

nayroo2002 said:

Meh.

Meh to your comment

Better than all albums recorded before 1989 !

It's a fantastic album, but not Top 5, not enough good tracks. Space live & studio versions are fantastic, the title track is killer, Dark live was fantastic especailly in the later years, but then after that, Phermone is good every now and again, can't say I listen to the other tracks.

Interesting! I love hearing other folks' hot takes.

Totally disagree with it being top 5, but I definitely enjoy the album a lot - worth revisiting for sure.

It still bugs me that we didn't get the original "acid house bass line" version of the title track though, and I prefer the remix version of Space as well.

It's kinda terrible as an album imho but there are good songs on there for sure. ALSO I love the length of it.

TrivialPursuit said:

lustmealways said:

Actually I'd forgotten how great Pheromone and Dark were. Hmm maybe this better than I remember!

That falls under the "personal opinion" column.

I don't see how it compares to any of the albums from 1980-1988:

Dirty Mind / Controversy / 1999 / Purple Rain / ATWIAD / Parade / SOTT / Lovesexy (and I didn't include The Black Album in there on purpose).

You think Come is better than any of those albums?

Now - mind you - I think Come is an excellent album. It might squeak in the Top 10 for some, but you said Top 5. I find that hard to believe.

[Edited 4/8/24 13:44pm]

Se7en said:

That falls under the "personal opinion" column.

I don't see how it compares to any of the albums from 1980-1988:

Dirty Mind / Controversy / 1999 / Purple Rain / ATWIAD / Parade / SOTT / Lovesexy (and I didn't include The Black Album in there on purpose).

You think Come is better than any of those albums?

Now - mind you - I think Come is an excellent album. It might squeak in the Top 10 for some, but you said Top 5. I find that hard to believe.

I believe with a catalog like Prince's, which has such specific periods or eras, you have to sorta put separators in it. 80s. 90s. post WB, whatever.

As I stated above, the 80s is golden. So to compare Come to Dirty Mind is illogical. They're vastly different time periods. Frankly, it's a different person sing on each record. One is early in his WB career, the other is part of his exit from WB.
The 20 year old Prince of 1980 is not the same person as the 35 year old Prince on Come. God, if any 35 year old here is the same as they were when they were 20, I pity them. But you get my point.

In the realm of 90s records, from Graffiti Bridge through Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic is where, I believe, Come should be judged. It's the fairest place to do so. Is it a top 5 album of the 90s? Abso-fucking-lutely.

It's unfair to any listener to try and compile 42 studio albums in a top 5 or even a top 10.

Yeah I find it impossible to rank Prince albums.
I also think Come doesn't really work as an album, but like all Prince albums it has some essential tracks on there that should not be missed.

If I was to make two little tweaks to it, I would:

1. Swap "Come" for the original with the arpeggiator style bassline

2. Swap "Space" for the remix

3. Swap "Orgasm" for "Strays of the World"

Many people have a lot of fun with anything you can think of and write down. I'm one of those people who like what you write

.... to poop on. There's a 90's reference for you.

MsNia said:

I also think Come doesn't really work as an album, but like all Prince albums it has some essential tracks on there that should not be missed.

which space remix?

i actually agree that it doesnt quite work as an album

for a long time i thought it was one of his better 'albums' from the 90s, ie something that only works if you listen to it as an album, which is half true, but even in spite of that, id say come is like his 90s equivalent of controversy, as an album. its pretty inconsistent.

the title song is cool and has some great horns but its just padded out to fill up the album length. race is just trite, lyrically, and irritatingly peppy. i do like space but its also kind of bland, but its a nice bland prince song. dark is musically great, i love the bridge especially, but its a second tier 'my lover left me and done me wrong' prince song. i like let it go though, its the most fully formed song on there, and i like solo just cos its got amazing vocals, and a very unusual thing for prince to do, and i like orgasm, just as a cool little weird thing to have. papa is great but too short.

all personal taste obs, but for a 90s top 5, id rate it like: D&P (minus push and jughead), C&D, the truth, emancipation (with lots of skipping/editing lol), GB/love symbol/come.

[Edited 4/9/24 1:11am]

Se7en said:

That falls under the "personal opinion" column.

I don't see how it compares to any of the albums from 1980-1988:

Dirty Mind / Controversy / 1999 / Purple Rain / ATWIAD / Parade / SOTT / Lovesexy (and I didn't include The Black Album in there on purpose).

You think Come is better than any of those albums?

Now - mind you - I think Come is an excellent album. It might squeak in the Top 10 for some, but you said Top 5. I find that hard to believe.

[Edited 4/8/24 13:44pm]

I'd rather put Come on for a listen than Dirty Mind, Parade, Lovesesy or 1999. Never been particularly fond of the sparsness of DM, or the production soundscapes on Parade or Lovesexy. The best songs on Parade and Lovesexy are some of his best but there's much that I don't especially enjoy. 1999 is something I've spoken about enough times before, half of it is top tier untouchable, the other half just bores me and has never touched me in any meaningful way.

Is Come a technically better album than those others I've mentioned? I don't know. What I do know is that sequence from Space to Dark, I can listen to loud and on repeat. I love it. If the title track was one of the other versions from 10,000 Wallpaper, or The Beautiful Experience TV special, and Orgasm was droped, the album could be top 5 for me. As it stands, it doesn't make it to the top 5 for me but the gap between top 5 and top 15 isn't a wide one and Come is up there somewhere.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

MsNia said:

I also think Come doesn't really work as an album, but like all Prince albums it has some essential tracks on there that should not be missed.

which space remix?

i actually agree that it doesnt quite work as an album

for a long time i thought it was one of his better 'albums' from the 90s, ie something that only works if you listen to it as an album, which is half true, but even in spite of that, id say come is like his 90s equivalent of controversy, as an album. its pretty inconsistent.

the title song is cool and has some great horns but its just padded out to fill up the album length. race is just trite, lyrically, and irritatingly peppy. i do like space but its also kind of bland, but its a nice bland prince song. dark is musically great, i love the bridge especially, but its a second tier 'my lover left me and done me wrong' prince song. i like let it go though, its the most fully formed song on there, and i like solo just cos its got amazing vocals, and a very unusual thing for prince to do, and i like orgasm, just as a cool little weird thing to have. papa is great but too short.

all personal taste obs, but for a 90s top 5, id rate it like: D&P (minus push and jughead), C&D, the truth, emancipation (with lots of skipping/editing lol), GB/love symbol/come.

[Edited 4/9/24 1:11am]

Re Space remix, it was the one from the Maxi Disc single, I think it was called "Universal Love Remix" or something. Anyone unfamiliar, do look it up. Enjoyed your takes on the rest of the songs, I think we're pretty aligned on that. I think there's probably a great extended version of the album, if we mined the best stuff from the Beautiful Experience, the Come stage musical project, and other odds and ends from the era (e.g. Sampler Experience etc).

Yeah, we can agree to disagreee on that one..lol. Come is an ok album, not to me one his best, but even stuff that's just ok, always has some strong, solid songs, and that is what Come is to me. We all have our opinions though, so there's no right or wrong answer to this one.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Ill refresh my memory I always wondered about one line in space

That everything I wanna do to your body, baby I would do to your hand

Does he mean he wants a handjob?

Haha I thought he was saying "I would do to your head"

But genius.com disagrees so who knows