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Thread started 04/10/05 3:07pm

Moonbeam

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The Prince Canon: Underrated, Overrated or Right?

By my estimation, there are 31 Prince albums worth considering here.

For You
Prince
Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999
Purple Rain
Around the World in a Day
Parade
Sign o' the Times
The Black Album
Lovesexy
Batman
Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds and Pearls
prince
Come
The Gold Experience
Chaos and Disorder
Emancipation
Crystal Ball
The Truth
New Power Soul
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic
The Rainbow Children
One Nite Alone...
Xpecation
NEWS
The Chocolate Invasion
Slaughterhouse
Musicology


Of these:

Pick 10 that you would consider overrated by the fan community.
Pick 10 that you would consider underrated by the fan community.
Pick 11 that you would consider rightly placed.
Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #1 posted 04/10/05 3:11pm

Moonbeam

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Here are my thoughts:

OVERRATED by the fans:

Sign o' the Times
The Black Album
Emancipation
The Truth
The Rainbow Children
Xpecation
NEWS
The Chocolate Invasion
Slaughterhouse
Musicology


UNDERRATED by the fans:

Controversy
Lovsesexy
Batman
Graffiti Bridge
prince
Come
Crystal Ball
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic
One Nite Alone...


About right:

For You
Prince
Dirty Mind
1999
Purple Rain
Around the World in a Day
Parade
Diamonds and Pearls
The Gold Experience
Chaos and Disorder
New Power Soul
Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #2 posted 04/10/05 3:32pm

PurpleKnight

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Interesting thread...

Overrated

Lovesexy--Nothing special

SOTT--It's great, but his best album? No way.

The Rainbow Children--Incredibly flawed, doesn't deserve the praise it's fans give it imo.

Musicology--As basic a Prince album as he could possibly make.


Those are the only overrated ones to me, really.


Underrated

Prince--This one's an early gem.

Controversy--People seem to overlook how great this one is. Maybe it gets overshadowed being sandwiched between fan faves Dirty Mind & 1999?

Graffiti Bridge--It's really not that bad at all. It's got a few absolute classics and a few other keepers.

The Gold Experience--The short segues aren't that big of a deal, the rich production is just right for the album, and it's his most brilliant and inspired album of the 90's. Shame that politics kept it from getting hailed as the rich gem that it really is.

Chaos and Disorder--An angry, bitter gem of a pure rock album. Very misunderstood.

One Nite Alone--The studio piano album is simply gorgeous. Easily his best work since Gold Experience if you ask me.

The Chocolate Invasion--This is a really fun "album", and I think it's way better than Musicology. Wish it'd get released to stores.

Come--Dark, introspective, sexy, enjoyable album.

The Black Album--It doesn't get talked about much, but it's an incredibly funky and fun party album.

prince--Yeah, it's not really great per se, and a combo of Tony M, Kirstie Alley and the whole underaged Mayte theme hurts it, but you can't deny that some true classics are on this album.

Emancipation--It's got its problems, but I think Disc II is romantic bliss. Also has stunners like The Love We make and pop classics like Face Down that shouldn't be overlooked. A good album overall to have for the gems sprinkled across the three discs.

The Truth-Sad and brutally honest. Strong songwriting.

Crystal Ball-Tracklisting could've been layed out better, but it's still a collection no Prince fan should be without. Some real essential songs on here.

Rightly Placed

Dirty Mind--Praised for a reason. It's a dirty, rebellious masterpiece.

1999-Cold, futuristic, brilliant masterpiece. Deserve all the praise it gets.

Purple Rain-His greatest album ever. Pop songwriting and epic ballad compositions at its finest. His most popular album for a reason.

Around the World in a Day--It's no Purple Rain, but it's still great.

Parade-Elegant and beautiful. The perfect Spring album.

NewPower Soul-Crapped on cause it, well, sucks.

Rave--Mostly NPS Part II, so it doesn't really deserve the praise it never gets.

NEWS--It's four 15 minute instrumental tracks of totally anticlimatic band practice. How do you expect fans to feel about it?

For You--Just derivative music that he totally eclipsed with all his future albums. Nothing special here aside from the factor of it being his debut.

Not sure...

The Vault--How do fans really feel about this one? I don't really hear much either way.

Xpectation--See Vault.

Slaughterhouse--Not too sure about this one yet.
The world is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.

"You still wanna take me to prison...just because I won't trade humanity for patriotism."
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Reply #3 posted 04/10/05 3:37pm

RazzBeret

Overrated:
Dirty Mind
Controversy
Purple Rain
Sign O' The Times
Lovesexy
The Rainbow Children
NEWS
Crystal Ball
The Truth
Come

Underrated:
Parade
Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds and Pearls
prince
The Gold Experience
Chaos & Disorder
Emancipation
Newpower Soul
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
Musicology


Just Right:
For You
Prince
1999
Around the World in a Day
The Black Album
Batman
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
One Nite Alone...
Xpecation
The Chocolate Invasion
Slaughterhouse
[Edited 4/10/05 15:37pm]
[Edited 4/10/05 15:38pm]
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Reply #4 posted 04/10/05 4:58pm

littlejim

OVERRATED - Gold experience - ,for some reason every one loves it BUT no messin about, ITS SHIT!
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Reply #5 posted 04/10/05 5:39pm

psykosoul

10 that I would consider overrated by the fan community:
Lovesexy
Purple Rain
The Chocolate Invasion
Slaughterhouse
One Nite Alone
Batman
prince
The Black Album
Emancipation
Around the World In a Day

10 that I would consider underrated by the fan community:
The Rainbow Children
Xpectation
Prince
For You
Controversy
Parade
The Gold Experience
The Truth
Chaos & Disorder
NEWS

11 that I would consider rightly placed.[/quote]:
the rest of them....
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Reply #6 posted 04/10/05 6:03pm

whodknee

overrated by fans:

Lovesexy
Sign O The Times
Around The World In a Day
Come
The Vault (garbage)
Dirty Mind
Musicology
The Gold Experience

that's it.

Underrated by fans:

Chaos and Disorder
Symbol
Grafitti Bridge
Batman
The Truth
Emancipation
Controversy
Prince

Just right:
TRC
Parade
NPS
Rave
Black Album
etc.
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Reply #7 posted 04/10/05 6:20pm

damosuzuki

I don’t think I’ll be able to slot my selections the way you suggested (I don’t think there are 10 over-rated or under-rated albums), but I’ll take a stab at this.

OVER-RATED

Lovesexy
The Black Album
Controversy
Parade
Batman (shocked at how many people have expressed admiration for this robotic-sounding album)
Around the World in a Day
The Gold Experience
Symbol


Under-rated

Dirty Mind
Come
Chaos and Disorder
Emancipation
The Truth
Prince


Accurately rated

SOTT (rightly considered to be his masterpiece by most)
For You
1999
Purple Rain
Graffiti Bridge (mostly dreadful with moments of redemption seems to be the consensus)
Diamonds and Pearls
And I’d say that everything post-Emancipation has been assessed pretty accurately
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Reply #8 posted 04/10/05 7:31pm

vainandy

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Overrated:

Parade
Sign O The Times
Around The World In A Day
Lovesexy
Diamonds And Pearls
The Gold Experience
The Truth

Underrated:

Controversy
For You
Prince

Right:

Dirty Mind
1999
Purple Rain
[Edited 4/10/05 19:33pm]
Andy is a four letter word.
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Reply #9 posted 04/10/05 7:35pm

MidnightFunk

2 much like homework...but it's fun 2 read...
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Reply #10 posted 04/11/05 6:21pm

Anxiety

Of these:

Pick 10 that you would consider overrated by the fan community.

Emancipation
The Gold Experience

Pick 10 that you would consider underrated by the fan community.

One Nite Alone...
Xpecation
NEWS
New Power Soul
Come
Chaos and Disorder
For You
Prince


Pick 11 that you would consider rightly placed.[/quote]

Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999
Purple Rain
Around the World in a Day
Parade
Sign o' the Times
The Black Album
Lovesexy
Batman
Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds and Pearls
prince
Crystal Ball
The Truth
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic
The Rainbow Children
The Chocolate Invasion
Slaughterhouse
Musicology


I didn't follow your instructions very well. redface

I think without the qualifier "fan community", I'd have made very different lists.

TGE and Emancipation have some great songs on them, but in my opinion, as whole albums, they're kinda wobbly. I don't understand why some fans completely drool over these albums and overlook other records of his that I think are far more fully realized. Of course, tastes are subjective, blah blah etc... smile
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Reply #11 posted 04/12/05 4:11am

organgrinder

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littlejim said:

OVERRATED - Gold experience - ,for some reason every one loves it BUT no messin about, ITS SHIT!


eek THE GOLD EXPERIENCE KICKS ASS! SHAME ON YOU! hehe cool

Nath xx lol
~ "don'tcha wanna see my 'Tootsie Roll?' Baby I'm sho' you would!" ~
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Reply #12 posted 04/12/05 8:15am

Neversin

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Overrated

Purple Rain
Sign O The Times
LoveSexy
The Gold Experience
Emancipation
Crystal Ball
The Rainbow Children
The Chocolate Invasion
The Slaughterhouse
Musicology

Underrated

For You
Prince
Dirty Mind
Around The World In A Day
The Black Album
Batman
Come
Chaos And Disorder
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale
Xpectation

Right

Controversy
1999
Parade
Graffiti Bridge
Diamond And Pearls
prince
The Truth
New Power Soul
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
One Nite Alone...
NEWS

Neversin.
O(+>NIИ<+)O

“Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man's?”

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
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Reply #13 posted 04/12/05 9:12am

Novabreaker

Overrated:

Ziggy Stardust
Reality
Lodger
The Man Who Sold The World
Space Oddity
Young Americans
Diamond Dogs
Pin-ups
Stage

Underrated:

1.Outside
Earthling
Hours...
Let's Dance
Station To Station
Songs For Baal
Tonight
Love You 'Til Tuesday
"Heroes"
Tin Machine I
Tin Machine II

Right:

Heathen
Low
Aladdin Sane
Black Tie White Noise
Never Let Me Down
David Live
Scary Monsters
Labyrinth
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Reply #14 posted 04/12/05 9:37am

Anxiety

Novabreaker said:

Overrated:

Ziggy Stardust
Reality
Lodger
The Man Who Sold The World
Space Oddity
Young Americans
Diamond Dogs
Pin-ups
Stage

Underrated:

1.Outside
Earthling
Hours...
Let's Dance
Station To Station
Songs For Baal
Tonight
Love You 'Til Tuesday
"Heroes"
Tin Machine I
Tin Machine II

Right:

Heathen
Low
Aladdin Sane
Black Tie White Noise
Never Let Me Down
David Live
Scary Monsters
Labyrinth




confused


not that i'm complaining.


but confused .
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Reply #15 posted 04/12/05 3:00pm

Aerogram

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Basically, nothing by Prince is overrated before the Batman soundtrack, which happens to be somewhat underrated. Of course, the tag is most easily applied to those albums that have garnered the most praise, notably SOTT and Purple Rain. Since they were praised to high heavens, they seem like a logical choice, but that in my view is the easy (and cynical) way of going about it. Much more suspect are the records that followed -- I believe many of those tend to be overrated by fans. Prince wrote some great tunes, but his albums began to feel stapled together. When he was eclectic in the 80s, the songs still felt like a whole... rather than a collection of examples of different styles. Like a platter of fish n chips with spaghetti and a side of blood sausage. They do tend to be a bit overrated by fans, but also, in some instances, underrated by the general population and critics...
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Reply #16 posted 04/12/05 3:09pm

4nowneway

I thought I had all of them, but theres three I dont have Xpectation, Chocolate Invasion, Slaughterhouse, anyone know how to find these?
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Reply #17 posted 04/12/05 3:17pm

Anxiety

4nowneway said:

I thought I had all of them, but theres three I dont have Xpectation, Chocolate Invasion, Slaughterhouse, anyone know how to find these?


npgmc.com - check out the musicology download store section of the site. et voila. smile
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Reply #18 posted 04/12/05 8:14pm

Krystal666

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Overrated

Around the world in a day
1999
Dirty Mind
Controversy
Parade
The Vault
Musicology
Rainbow Children
The Truth
One night alone

Underrated

New Power Soul
Prince
Batman
Graffiti Bridge
prince
Come
Crystal Ball
Rave
Emancipation
For you

Perfect where they are

The Black album
Purple Rain
Lovesexy
D&P
Gold Experience
Chaos & Disorder
NEWS

The rest I can't comment on because I haven't heard but I'll add the hits and B sides because I think it is very worthy of all it's praise.
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Reply #19 posted 04/12/05 9:13pm

GangstaFam

Anxiety said:

confused


not that i'm complaining.


but confused .

lol
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