Apart from his instrumental albums, Parade is a weird album, in the sense that there are very few 'real songs' on this album... lots of side one (talking about the vinyl-era) here is a medley of short songs, and there are some atmosphere pieces on the record also... That makes it a very original record, even for Prince-standards....

But, this makes it also hard to pick out 'best' and 'worse' song, so it take this album and come out with something like this:
- The first 4 songs are short and form a medley: going from psychedelic pop (chrystopher tracey's parade), spare percussion-driven funk (new position) and a short beatles-pastiche (I wonder U), ending in a french vaudeville song (Under the cherry moon). Alltough these arent the strongest cuts on the record, as a medley it works surprisingly well in my opinion... After years of listening to this record "Under the Cherry Moon" gets a bit too wee and kitschy for me, but "New Position" could easily be a great funk tune, if it was longer of course...
- Girls and Boys, Mountains, Kiss and Anotherloverholenyohead are the 'real' songs on this record, and in general VERY GOOD Prince-singles: the first is funny and witty, the second rocks more and has some nice Sly-influences, Kiss is one of the stripped-down Prince classics (the others being When doves Cry and Sign of the Times), Anotherlover i think is a bit too pompous for its own good maybe, but a nice track for that place on the record.
- Venus de Milo is a quite bland 'classical-light' cut, but forms a nice bridge between Life Can be so Nice and Mountains. Do You Lie is delightfully whimsical: lighthearted, but with very nice (background) vocals. The third atmosphere piece is Life Can be so Nice, speaking of a real song is too much maybe, you better see it as an adrenaline rush of 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Maybe its my favoriete piece of the record, because when i turn the volume very loud on this and just me go with the flow of the flutes and the percussion, this song can give you a natural 'high'
- Sometimes it snows in April is both an athmospheric piece and a real 'song'. When i first heart this song, it was a big surprise for me could handle this kind of understated, 'quit' music... The more i listened to this song it occured to me its sorta of a Joni Mitchell hommage... when i am not in the mood to listen to this song, the lyrics can sound a bit too sentimental, but when i am in the mood i really enjoy the sobre arrangement: i especially love the fact that you can hear those little acoustic details (strings crackle, the reverb inside the piano)

For me the musical growth shown on this record not only lies in the different styles and the arrangements Prince and the revolution used, but also the fact that he experiments with the 'format' of the tracks: as i said, on this album you find 'real' songs, next to atmospheric pieces and pieces of songs in Medleyform.. With this different formats He and the band take the listener to different feelings: melancholy (under the cherry moon, mountains, venus de milo, sometimes it snows in april), Joy and vividness (Christopher Tracy's Parade, New Position), anger and dissapointment (anotherloverholenyohead), lightness and humor (Girls and Boys, Do You lie, Kiss) and hyperactive excitement (Life can be so nice)... The way the songs hang and connect together make this such a great, classical Prince-album, i think....

Beautifully said. My favourite Prince album without a doubt.