Dirty Mind *
Controversy(heard most of it)****
1999(heard most of it)*****
PR *****
SOTT*****
TBA****
Lovesexy*****
Batman**

Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999 1/2
Purple Rain
Around The World In A Day
Parade
Sign O' The Times
The Black Album 1/2
Lovesexy 1/2
Batman

Dirty Mind:

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

ATWIAD:

Parade:

Sign O The Times:

The Black Album

Lovesexy:

Batman:
[Edited 6/21/05 13:42pm]

Dirty mind:

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

ATWIAD:

Parade:

Sign o the times:

Lovesexy:

The Black album:

Batman:
[Edited 6/21/05 13:44pm]

Dirty Mind:

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

ATWIAD:

Parade:

Sign O The Times:

Lovesexy:

Batman: 1/2

Dirty Mind:

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

Around the World in a Day:

Parade:

Sign O' The Times: and another , just because

The Black Album:

Lovesexy:

Batman:
[Edited 6/21/05 19:23pm]
[Edited 6/21/05 19:24pm]

Dirty Mind

Controversy 1/2

1999

Purple Rain

ATWIAD

Parade

Sign O The Times

Lovesexy 1/2

Batman

Sorry , but you all make one big mistake!
AroundTWIAD is a milistone.

After PurpleR nobody expected such a magic carpet ride. But maybe it´s more an European than an U.S. album - like Parade (at least Parade sold more copies outside of the U.S.)

1999, PurpleR, AroundTWIAD, Parade, SOTT: 5*

Compared to these 5 albums DirtyM & Lovesexy are weaker, but compared to the other decades they are great albums: 4*

Controvery has one of his best songs (title track) and one of his worst songs ever (RonniettR - wurgh). I underrated this album for more than 20 years: 4*

Batman. Hm, a "Motion Picture Soundtrack". In the eighties, as a real P fan, you were not allowed to like this album. But somehow I enjoy Batdance, Electric Chair, Partyman & Trust: 3*

TheSchrank said:

On that we agree. But on balance, it's not as consistent as DM, 1999, PR, Parade, SOTT, or for that matter, Lovesexy.



A lot of "real" Prince fans I know liked the album, including myself. And if any other fans have a problem with that, step to me.

In any event, you're right, it is the weakest of the 80's bunch.
[Edited 6/21/05 15:05pm]

Dirty Mind

Controversy

1999

Purple Rain

Around The World In A Day

Parade 1/2

Sign 'O' The Times

The Black Album

Lovesexy

Batman 1/2
[Edited 6/21/05 15:14pm]
[Edited 6/21/05 15:15pm]
[Edited 6/21/05 15:17pm]

Dirty Mind-

Controversy-

1999-

Purple Rain-

ATWIAD-

Parade-

SOTT-

The Black Album-

Lovesexy-

Batman-

Dirty Mind
Controversy 1/2
1999 1/2
Purple Rain
ATWIAD
Parade
SOTT
Lovesexy 1/2
Black Album
Batman 1/2

Dirty Mind:

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

ATWIAD:

Parade:

Sign O' The Times:

Lovesexy:

Black Album:

Batman:

Whats wrong with BATMAN?

nothing's wrong with Batman. Vicki Waiting is a sublime classic. IMO.

1. 1999 (best album ever) *****
2. Lovesexy *****
3. Sign o' the Times *****
4. Controversy *****
5. Parade *****
6. Purple Rain *****
7. Dirty Mind *****
8. Around the World in a Day ****
9. Batman ****
10. The Black Album ***

You are probably right because everyone I knew in my area was highly pissed with these two albums. I know many long time Prince fans that became ex-Prince fans because of them.




For a lot of the Prince fans that were around in the early days of his career before "1999" and "Purple Rain".....if they made it past the "Around The World In A Day" era, along with the albums that followed it, and were still a fan, nothing Prince did surprised them anymore so they were willing to accept it. I personally think "Batman" is the best album Prince released after "Purple Rain" because it was more like the "old Prince". It was cold, dark, and futuristic. It didn't have the retro 1960s/1970s sound that the albums that followed "Purple Rain" had.
[Edited 6/22/05 21:16pm]

Dirty Mind *****
Controversy ****
1999 *****
Purple Rain *****
ATWIAD ***
Parade ***
Sign O'The Times *****
Black Album ****
Lovesexy ***
Batman ***

Dirty Mind
Controversy 1/2
1999
Purple Rain
Around The World In A Day
Parade 1/2
Sign O' The Times
The Black Album 1/2
Lovesexy 1/2
Batman 1/2

NWF's rating system:

= An absolute masterpeice. No Prince fan should do without it.
= Very good, especially to the dedicated fans.
= Pretty good, but may be flawed in some areas.
= Has its moments. But if you're not a fan, don't waste your time.
= Listening to a washing machine on spin cycle is better than this.

vainandy said:

That's the feel I had for the album, tho I disagree it was the best post-PR album.

However, to me, Parade isn't retro, it isn't futuristic, it simply defies definition. It's sheer genius. You're right though. A lot of P fans jumped off the bandwagon after ATWIAD and Parade.

I simply don't hear this 60/70's retro, post-Purple Rain thing VainAndy keeps yapping on about. If anything i hear it more on the PRE-Purple Rain albums (with the exception of 1999). Songs like Jack U Off, Got A Broken Heart Again, When U Were Mine etc sound like 50's pastiche to me. And Lets Work/Head replace James Brown horns with synths etc....
I don't, however, see a song like Annie Christian being too far away from The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker-as in timeless and seemingly having just floated out of the ether. As for the song Sign O The Times....60/70's retro?
To dismiss a great body of Prince's work as 60/70's retro is, to me, utterly foolish and glib.

Dirty Mind:

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

ATWIAD:

Parade:

Sign O' The Times:

Lovesexy:

Black Album:

Batman:

Dirty Mind:

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

ATWIAD:

Parade:

Sign O The Times:

Lovesexy:

Batman:

Dirty Mind: 1/2

Controversy:

1999:

Purple Rain:

ATWIAD:

Parade:

Sign O The Times:

Lovesexy:

Batman:

www.neighborhoodflash.com

It is my own uninformed and ignorant theory (which I stubbornly cling to) that Prince pretty much had has albums mapped out from Dirty Mind up to Purple Rain. That is, I think he had written a lot of those songs way back when. There are moments in all of his recordings from this period that I feel he was stretching the length of the album with "filler." The only two that I don't really hear any filler on are "Dirty Mind" and "Purple Rain."

Of course, Prince's filler was better than most artists' best writing.

www.neighborhoodflash.com

Dirty Mind: (A raw funk/rock masterpiece.)

Controversy: 1/2 (Flawed in parts, but saved by maybe his greatest ballad.)

1999: (Not a bad song in the bunch.)

Purple Rain: 1/2 (Movie music never sounded so good.)

Around The World In A Day: (Not nearly as good as it's supporters think, nor as bad as it's detractors believe.)

Parade: 1/2 (The production alone deserves 5 stars.)

Sign O' The Times: 1/2 (Slightly overrated, but not by much. Side 2 brings it down some.)

Lovesexy: (Spirituality alone can't save some of this muck.)

The Black Album: (A brief return to form.)

Batman: 1/2 (Too many nights out with Tim Burton.)

A little, but these are not the songs the radio was pumping at the time. They received absolutely no airplay. The ones Prince was famous for was "Controversy", "Private Joy", "Do Me Baby", "Uptown", "Dirty Mind", "Partyup", "Let's Work", "Head", "I Wanna Be Your Lover", "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad", "Sexy Dancer", etc.

Some songs may have borrowed a little from the past, but for the main part, the complete albums as a whole were very contemporary for the time and could and did fit in very well with the R&B radio format at the time and could compete with the other artists of the day.




That's just it. Everyone has influences, and Prince is no exception, but he took an influence and totally gave it a 1980s sound moving towards the future. He took the funkiness of the horns and replaced them with the synths. This totally strayed away from tradional as much as possible. It's one of the reasons people considered Prince as having his own "sound".



Those albums had some hints of modern in them but, as complete albums, they had absolutely too much traditional in them. In fact, they have more tradional in them than they have modern. It was the exact opposite on the previous albums which were mostly modern with a little bit of traditional.

As far as the term "dated" that people love to throw around so much in here, I could care less. People's arguements are always that the post "Purple Rain" albums are timeless and still sound good with the music of today and the pre "Purple Rain" albums sound "dated" to the 1980s. Well, that's the reason I love the early ones so much. Anything that sounds as far from today's music as possible is alright in my book. In the 1980s, music was moving towards the future. Today, music as a whole by the majority of artists, is going backwards to the past.
[Edited 6/23/05 22:21pm]

Dirty Mind *****
Controversy ****
1999 ****
Purple Rain *****
Around The World In A Day ***1/2
Parade ****
Sign "O" The Times *****
The Black Album ****
Lovesexy ***1/2
Batman ***1/2