Best : kiss (obvious choice but its undeniably brilliant )
Worst track : Venus de Milo (an instruental thats never really stuck in my mind ) , worst non-instrumental track either Life Can Be So Nice or I Wonder U ,both are a bit too whimsical for my tastes , they work within the album but as stand alone songs theyre pretty insipid.

Hotlegs said:

yep!!! me too....

Best: Mountains...there is no worst song IMO

moonshine said:

Life can be so nice is cool as hell. It's like some kind of acid jazz. The only think that would make it better, is to take out the loud hand claps.

Best Song: Kiss

Worst Song: Do U Lie

Best: Mountains!

Worst: I like them all.

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....

Riverpoet31 said:

Beautifully said. My favourite Prince album without a doubt.

Xavier23 said:

I hope so. Boring and uninspired!? (insert something about a pot and kettle here).

But to answer the question

Best - Kiss

Worst - Venus De Milo

Favourite - Sometimes It Snows In April

Least Favourite - Life Can Be So Nice

I like Parade a lot. I really bought the album finally because Do U Lie was in it.

As for best and "worst", Kiss is definately the best, it's just genious. My other favourtes are Do U Lie and Undr The Cherry Moon and Anotherloverholenyohead. Least favourite is Venus De Milo.

As a whole, this is a good album that gives no reason to press skip.

Best--Kiss This song couldn't be better. It's perfect.
Worst--I Wonder U Cool, but it's barely a song

Best: ? After all these years I still love "Kiss"! I like "New Position" when at a party or club, cuz then there's a conga line to join!

Worst: The album would still be great if Venus de Milo wasn't on it

But the best thing about Parade was his look on the tour!

emesem said:

Yeah, it's been a few years since The Rainbow Children came out

noonblueapples said:

can i have some of that Kool Aid please

emesem said:

You know, there is only one song that I sometimes skip [only sometimes] on Parade and that is "Life Can Be So Nice." So I guess I would say that that is the worst song. . .

Best has got to be "Mountains."

Best: "Girls & Boys"
Worst: "Under The Cherry Moon"

Best-Mountains

Wors-Under the cherry moon

Best song: "Kiss"

Worst song: "Life Can Be So Nice"

floralelephants said:

I agree,this is definitely the weakest song.Bad lyrics and messy arrangement.

Best-Kiss
Worst-I Wonder U

I refuse to participate in thread!
it's my fav album
and I can't bear to read some of these comments!

Best song - The entire album
Worst song - That there was not another song after Sometimes it Snows in April

I was just remembering something a musicjournalist wrote about Parade, and that is: if he had made a double-album of it (including brilliant outtakes like In all my dreams, there's others here with us, old friends for sale, and the instrumental, all orchestral version of Mia Bocca) it would be on par with Sign of the Times.....

Interesting idea, i think: in my opinion Prince was on a creative peak during the period 1985 - 1988, and these critic also said the released record was a bit too short to resonate deep enough...I think he has a point there...

But, you cant turn back time, and i still consider Parade one of Princes most satysfying records (9 out of 10). Lets hope that if Prince and WB will one day reach agreement over releasing remastered versions of his records, they will include some of those brilliant outtakes on cd.....

best: sometimes it snows in april
worst: do u lie

best: anotherloverholeinyohead
sucks: UTCM (life can be so nice gets an honorable mention though)
[Edited 5/9/05 16:12pm]

Riverpoet31 said:

agreed !!

Best

Anoherloverholeinyohead

Worst

I'll just stay positive.