i know everyone has the right to an opinion but sometimes there is some amount of crap put up on this site about what is a good prince album and what is not.
for example, the "newpower soul" cd is rubbished as a poor prince album but people seem to miss the point. for a start, the cd is not a prince cd, its an npg release, the same as exodus cd was. this is the way that prince uses to get his more party, r&b sort of music out to the public. this music is not to be taken too seriously, its was meant to be a fun release.
if people are going to start calling these cds official prince releases then you might as well call the time's first 3 albums prince albums or shelia e's first album a prince release and various others he has been behind.
i would say that in prince's entire career, there have been TWO albums that you could say were not up to his usual standard, "come" in 1994 and "chaos and disorder" in 1996. both albums were short,lacked good, strong songs and the feeling that prince was not really interested.
of course these albums were released during the bitter standoff with warner bros and prince WASN'T that interested in taking the time to make them better, they were simply contract fillers,
oh bye the way, those two sub standard albums were the reason for prince's slip in popularity during the 90's and not much else.

blackboab said:

i agree

I think "Come" is brilliant.

blackboab said:

... and you then go on to illustrate your opening sentence most effectively.

I like 'Come' and 'Chaos and Disorder'. Mind you, I also like 'New Power Soul'. I know that NPS was officially a NPG release, but let's face it - it had Prince on the cover AND he sings the lead vocals on the songs. I think that it's fair to say that it's a Prince album.

blackboab said:

Claiming that NPS is not a Prince album is weak. GoldNi**a and Exodus didn't feature Prince on lead vocals... hence why they were NPG albums. NPS was a Prince album... I didn't notice Sonny or Rhonda handling the lead vocals, did you? If you need an explanation for why he titled it an NPG release, I would say the answer lies in the fact that he had probably decided at that point to change his name back from and he was buying time before "Prince" reappeared... first as the producer of Rave. NPS is crap, and it is a Prince album. No excuses can justify it.

Also, Come was definitely not the reason for his decline (which had already begun), nor is it below his usual standards (or a contract "filler"). It's a pretty good album if you listen to it again... as is C&D. I'll take them both over RAVE anyday... now that's garbage.

I think Come is a very underrated CD as well. Pheromone, Loose, Letitgo and Race are all very solid songs.

I think it was probably the first real departure people noticed from the formula Prince.

~Adore

The reason for his decline can be summed up for 2 reasons, his lack of promotion on MTV & his own lack of desire to promote ie., tv appearances, & the timing of his tv spots with his releases.

sorry, moonbeam. come was the album that started the slid in his popularity, well in europe anyway. the album went straight to number one in the uk with 80,000 sales in the first week on the back of his then recent number one hit "most beutiful girl in the world". the album recieved poor reviews which in the main were justified because he was not a 100 per cent behind this album and people who had bought the album were generally not impressed.
prince has never had a number one album since, not even came close.

and another thing, "come" was the last of a run of prince albums to reach number one in the uk charts, if it had not been for simply red's "stars" album pipping "diamonds and pearls" to the top spot, prince would have had SIX number one albums in a row.
that wee ginger-headed git.

blackboab said:

But popularity doesn't necessarily reflect quality. I think "Lovesexy" is superb, despite the fact that it was his first album since "Dirty Mind" to fail to achieve platinum status.

I agree with Moonbeam when he said that popularity does not reflect quality. Stop judging someones artist credibility by album sales and critical reviews.

I personally think that NPS and Exodus have absolutely no business being named in the Prince/ discography . . .

But they are simply side projects, something to appease fans between official releases and allow Prince to experiment . . .

As for the official albums . . . yes "C&D" is probably the worst, with "Come" maybe in the worst 5. But having said that, they are still not really that bad at all, they are just being compared to his other albums that are brilliant.

i dont judge everything on album sales but like it or not, its an important aspect. i do feel that the talent of prince is too great not to be heard by people in general and his decline into cult status started with come.

Record sales are an important aspect of being popular and as far as his decline into cult status look at Around The World In A Day.

blackboab said:

Eye agree with everything u said, u were right on the point. Have 2 also agree with u about "Come" and "Chaos And Disorder" it definently wasn't up 2 baby's standards.

Come is a good album, but I think it could have been so much better.

Unfortunately the whole Warner 'thing' & name change happened, and Prince really blew it with his wider fanbase at that time, due to his 'contract filler' attitude to his output at the time, and Warners reluctance to promote what was in their opinion substandard product.

The whole period was a commercial disaster from which he has never recovered. It's a great shame because in my opinion he produced some of his best material in that 'Come/Gold/C&D' era.

I consider Exodus and NPS Prince albums, regardless of how he labled them. I get the feeling that the naming, along with the "Prince in disguise" graphics on Exodus were done for some sort of legal reason.

Strip out the skits from Exodus, and it's one of my 3 or 4 favorite Prince records; what The Black Album should've been.

Let me see, those albums by the NPG, early Sheila E albums, and the first couple of Time albums are not prince albums??I think you might as well say they are since he wrote, produced, and played on all of them. Yea, he gave some of the artists time to shine, but make no mistake about it, he was in full control of the project. For example, the Time has a full unreleased album called Corporate World which Prince decided he didn't want released, not Morris, not Jesse, Prince. he is the one who controls the music. Don't forget that.

troy

I'm glad that someone has brought up NewPowerSoul because I put it on only the other day. It may not be one of Prince's deeply emotional efforts like 'Joy in rep' or 'Something in the water' and Prince may not of put all his creative effort into it but that dosn't mean it's not one of his greatest LPs. If it was a full canceled release like the black album was everyone here would be kissing it's ass. It's funky, poppy, dancy, it kicks ass, it was easy for Prince to make but it's still fully effective. What is everyones problem with it? And as for Come, that was worth buying just for Loose. I nearly had a fit when I first heard that.

Hey makavelli187, good call.

blackboab said:

I consider 'NPS' to be a Prince CD.He is the only person on the cover,sings LEAD vocals on every song,and plays most of the instruments and wrote and produced all the songs.It is not what I would consider a "band effort" in any way.The fact that he labeled it a "NPG" project means nothing.

sexualfreak said:

Not true...New Power Soul and the Black Album are my least favorite Prince albums. Opinions are of course individual, but I found half of the songs on New Power Soul really weak and the Black Album just rubs me the wrong way.

blackboab said:

Bullshit. Prince wrote all the tracks on NPS and is on lead vocals during the entire album.




More nonsense. Emancipation had the same type of music.



There's nothing on it to take "too seriously". Most people simply don't like it.



Weak argumentation. As I said, NPS is written by Prince and has Prince on lead vocals. Hell, it even has a picture of Prince and only Prince on the cover. How can one not consider this a Prince album?



Wrong again. Prince fighting with WB, not doing any promotion for his albums and the lack of video's were much more important.

Blackboab, i agree completely...i would also include Crystal Ball in that list--as even though prince freaks knew it was a compilation album, a few of my friends-who just simply like prince, but don't keep up with the npg newz-- didn't(up until the pt where i explained to them what it was).

And although the cover photo is misleading, i too don't take NPSoul for a real Prince album either. I think 'The One' is great, but the rest is "party, r&b sort of music" similar to his NPG/Time output. Hence the "NPG" title instead of "Prince". --

Come contains Papa and Get Loose !

NPS contains Wasted Kisses and Come On !

...well, i would like to write such bad albums !!!!!

to say that NPG records are no prince records is pretty lame! thats like saying the six albums by the "JB's" are not james brown. come on.
I am an old school prince fan and yes, the npg albums are more party music. but they are - especially exodus - some of the funkiest shit prince has ever done.

come is a great album.and new power soul is not great butits nice 2 listen 2 it.and freaks on this side is amazing.its very simple why he loose poularity 1- he's not playing by the rules of the music biss.so he doesn't get a chance in the charts .and 2-he's not a superstar anymore he's back just a great artist.3- he's not selling out 4-he's not making lightheaded teenage music 2 get 2 the next generation.5 - and finnaly a lot of people don't know about his latest releases.here in europe .people tell me waauw its a long time that we heared something new from prince.and everytime eye let them listen 2 his latest work and they are 80% suprised that its that good.last week eye was playing in a club .and a guy comes 2 me asking music from prince.eye told him old or new songs .and he'said what new songs.a lot of not real fams like us just don't know about what he's doing.thats the choise he made with being free.

Come was an AWESOME cd. Now Chaos and Disorder was a mess. Can u say "ANGER MANAGEMENT?" All others r wonderful 2 me:)

It still amazes me that people don't think the NPG albums are not Prince, THEY ARE PRINCE. If you folks are truly fans, you would know what kind of control freak Prince is in the studio. These outlets such as NPG, MC Flash and his other names/groups, are other avenues for him to try different types of music. Make no mistake about it, it is mostly Prince in the studio. Who else have you known to produce Prince/The Artist music since his beginning, him, that's it. The man has an idea and how he wants it to be, period.

Prince described NPS before its release by saying "I will have a new album out this summer." It is a Prince album, simple and plain. If anything, NPS is MORE of a Prince album that TGE, Come and C&D, because those albums all featured other musicians collaborating at least somewhat with him, whereas NPS is 100% Prince. (Rhonda, Kat, etc... if you think they had "input" you are dead wrong)