Rave and Emancipation..I would have to agree. Rave was supposed to be Prince's Santana like comeback but the marketing was so horrible and the record was mediocre. I thought Prince would own 1999 but, even with the help of a one of the top producers in the game, he ended up fading deeper into obscurity. Depressing to listen to, even to this day.

Emancipation was a disappointment because it was just way too much. Three times the Prince album equals three times the amount of songs the man can do in his sleep. Scrap @$%$# D on Da Da Da?! How many damn songs could P. write about his home computer use? The album had some great singles (White Mansion, In This Bed I Scream, a few more) that just died on the vine. Very much the equivalent to that best selling author who writes a 1400 page book just because he can and only 500 or 600 pages show the talent that merits the author to write such a tome to start with.

CalhounSq said:

Thank you! I absolutely LOVE that track; it alone was worth the cost of the entire Vault CD. I liked several other songs on there as well, and IMO it's the project that kept 1999 from being a complete disappointment (since Rave was such a major letdown).

RealMusician said:

I see what you mean. You're approaching my theory from a different perspective. Let me explain.

Purple Rain, at the time it was released, blew our collective minds. It did not disappoint Prince fans who experienced it at the time simply because that project (along with the rest of his solid 80's catalogue) set the barometer. Those albums let us know just what Prince could do, and they're the reason many of us are so critical of Prince's later material.

It's not that Prince's later albums are necessarily bad (and in fact, I really like a number of them), it's just that much of the stuff he subsequently released is the kind of music he was capable of writing in his sleep. Many of us don't have much of a tolerance level for Prince on auto-pilot.

wasitgood4u said:

Just look at my username...


I think it's wonderful for us fans when Prince puts out more music and we can choose our favourite tunes (that seem to differ a lot...). The alternative would be that someone would "control" his output again (like WB did), but that means that a lot of good songs will go down the drain. Let us do the choice!

There has been another "reduce Emancipation to one disc" thread recently, and I can honestly say that I missed lots of songs cut out in EVERY tracklisting which has been posted there...

Cloudbuster said:

The computerized drumming on 1999 doesn't sound like a $8 casio keyboard though DATSHITSOUNDGOOD

CalhounSq said:

Could this opinion/feeling somehow be connected with the fact that people saw Prince as a "hot act" back in 1982 and not anymore in 1996?

Or, in other words, is our perception of music really (honestly) independent from the status of the musician's (commercial) career/public view on it?

Btw, many sound effects on the "1999" album sound like my old Yamaha keyboard (1986), but it doesn't do the record any harm - it's great!

QuakeXLE said:[quote]This is based only on that initial vibe i was hit with on the original listening to the album.

For the record, i'm not one of princes more critical fans.. I'm simply a fan who has enjoyed greatly most of the music he has made from day one. I don't bitch about every single song not being a master piece as i notice a lot of orgers due. I listen to a song for what its worth on its own merits. that said the albums which didnt hit with me off the back as a whole were

Lovesexy: I remember going.. "what the fuck!"... to this day I still consider LS as a whole one of his weaker joints... but the disc it self is one of my most treasured because of one song..... Anna Stesia

Graffiti Bridge: Big disappointment and had to grow on my to enjoy songs like 'Joy in Repetition"
I completely and utterly agree with you on the judgement part.Each song that he creates or releases has to be appreciated with an open mind because each song or album he does, tries not to reflect on any of the previous ones.Yeah I agree, some do take time to appreciate,but can anyone say the same for these non-versitile new artists( should I even call them artists?) whose albums sound exactly the same as anyone elses.Prince has a completely different style and sound from anyone else out there on the market.I thought being Prince fans we would all get this.Especially since he's only went commercial like one time. [/Do you want him?...Or do you want me?....Cause I want you....]

rosanda said:[quote]I may be the odd ball here but, I've never been disappointed.

I've never really known WHAT to expect from the man, and that's one of the things I love about him. There is no Purple Rain pt. 2, or 1999 Redux. (well, ok....how about SOTT Redux!)

Just when you think he's gonna zig.....he zags.

And I like it like that! I love that he puts my thoughts and feelings into song.....and I HATE when he puts things into song that I am not ready to face about myself, or admit to others is true about me! I am along for The Ride, and wherever it goes, that's where I'm going. There may be some albums I like and others that are not faves, but "disappointed"? No way. Because every time I think he can't surprise me, that I can handle whatever he puts out and keep control of my life, he throws out a line and reels me right back into the madness!

Ro

**LoveLife, LoveGod, LoveSexy**
I think I love you.....[/How far must we go, before the winds of change will blow and show,this world how it's supposed to be? Land of peace and harmony.]

rosanda said:

I think I love you.....[/How far must we go, before the winds of change will blow and show,this world how it's supposed to be? Land of peace and harmony.]

QuakeXLE said:

I completely and utterly agree with you on the judgement part.Each song that he creates or releases has to be appreciated with an open mind because each song or album he does, tries not to reflect on any of the previous ones.Yeah I agree, some do take time to appreciate,but can anyone say the same for these non-versitile new artists( should I even call them artists?) whose albums sound exactly the same as anyone elses.Prince has a completely different style and sound from anyone else out there on the market.I thought being Prince fans we would all get this.Especially since he's only went commercial like one time. [/Do you want him?...Or do you want me?....Cause I want you....]

N.E.W.S. I was depressed for a whole week when I got N.E.W.S. in the mail. I havent listened to it since.

todd305 said:

Yeah ok...

But what is "disappointment" really? It's when something turns out to be different than what you've expected, right? So if you insist on building up specific expectations, based on your own personal taste or whatever, you're in fact responsible for your own disappointment!

Like if I'm invited to dinner and just assume there's gonna be, say, Filet Mignon "cause that's what we had last time"...then I'm gonna be disappointed when it turns out there's something else on the menu. But instead of focusing on my disappointment, I can choose to just enjoy what I'm actually getting...because even though it's different, it just might be something good!

In the same way, I think every one of Prince's albums are supposed to sound exactly the way they do. And they're not meant to be compared to each other.

You might say that, for instance, New Power Soul is not a good album, and that's ok - but if you say it's not a good album because it doesn't sound like Purple Rain or 1999, you're missing the point. It's not supposed to!
[Edited 1/29/05 8:38am]

RealMusician said:[quote]

todd305 said:

I totally agree.

Prince himself has said, in an interview last year, "he's been there, done that".

So why's it so hard for some fans to do the same?

There's been some great music released in the 80s, 90s and 00s - period.

News! I did not expect it to be an instrumental project. I still can't believe i brought that.

There is only one album in my enture Prince catalogue I wont touch. Now let me honest, I have a hundered and sixty Prince cds (albums, singles, and maxis.) Sometimes at first you don't like something. You dust it off, listen to it again, and somethimes your veiw change. It happened with Xpectations and Rave unto the Joy Fantastic. But I will be damned if I can find anything enjoyable about listening to New Power Soul! I've tried folks. I've really tried. But it is boring and trite. At least with Around the World in a Day, the experimentation brought about a cenergy of "oh check out that sound or how he hit that lyric". New Power Soul sucks and it is the one album I prefer he never released. I would some much more thrilling if was a rumor and left to our imanginations to what it would sound like.

xpsiter said:

But this topic is about disappointing albums not individual songs.

For example Controversy contains Jack U off and Ronnie talk to Russia - NOT EXACTLY classic songs that stand the test of time.

Even the revered SOTT and Lovesexy have some poor songs on it:

SOTT: It, Hot Thing, Play in the sunshine, It's gonna a beautiful night
Lovesexy: Glam Slam, Positivty, Dance On and When 2 R in love.

None of these songs are off the chain.

Now I'm not saying the 90s are blameless either on this score but when you consider the 80s albums contained fewer songs then the proportion of bad songs
on an album might be high as 25-50%.

Of course this doesn't match the 99% of bad songs on NPS

Rave

EmancipationLover said:

I Agree I LOVE Emancipation!!!!

Parade

faniam said:

blasphemy!

CalhounSq said:

Those of you who only like his 80's stuff are only fans of those hits, and not the artist himself. You sound like those dumbass critics.

doctamario said:

So I agree with Calhoun that the 90's had some good stuff. The 90's were only bad because you and the critics wanted it to be.

doctamario said:

u shouldnt say shit like that.
respect what others believe/think and dont assume thangs....

Sign O' the Times. Don't get me wrong, this was an excellent CD, and it's also my newest Prince CD. I've been hearing about it for years that it was his best, that it is his definitive work, it has his full range of skills, that there was a reason for putting 16 songs on 2 disks and that didn't have to do with making it look good. And I heard that this was flawless and anyone who bashed it deserved to die.

Kill me. I love the CD, but it's no where near what it was cracked out to be. Much of the second disk is pop music. Which is fine, but how is that different or better than anything else he put out in the 80's?

Oh, and Adore is good. Nothing more, nothing less.

TRC, the whole voiceover thing just got on my nerves.