..Which of his past albums could be released today and not sound like an old project??

roodboi said:

Hmmm that's tough because music seems so cyclical. I mean most of the stuff on Andre 3000's "The Love Below" sounds dated, but it's new again. So it all depends. 10 years ago "Purple Rain" sounded really dated compared to , nowadays it's almost the other way around.

Purple Rain is a classic because it has a unique sound unto itself. The songs are strange and nobody else used the Lynn drum machine like Prince.

Sign o the Times also doesn't sound dated. Just great musicianship, wacked out drum programming, classic soul.

Now that I think about it, only Prince's first few albums sound dated, with that 70's keyboard stuff. I'd say once he made 1999, he made one timeless album after another.

I have never understood the word "dated" in the first place because just about every song by every artist sounds like some decade. I can even hear an old song for the first time and instantly recognize what decade it was made in.

I think Parade sounds like it could have been made in any of the last thre or four decades. It seems to be quite timeless

I think the only thing that ever truly dates an album are any references used that apply to the time it was made. With that thinking, Controversy is the most dated album Prince has ever made. Still sounds great, mind you, but with references to everything from Reagan to the Atlanta child murders, Controversy is firmly rooted in the '80s.

Sign 'O' The Times
Batman (at least i think)

Come

Parade: one of his best albums but unlike some others, its production is timeless and the album does not over rely on Linn Drums and computers

The Truth and ONA. The lack of instruments help. Most Prince songs in general with sparse arrangements do not sound dated.

The Timeless 'Rainbow Children'

The Rainbow Children

Purple Rain

Parade

Sign Of The Times

The Truth and ONA piano, for the same reasons as mentioned above


....and maybe Around the World in A Day

and of course some songs off the futuristic sounding 1999...it was so ahead of its time back then that it still sounds fresh.


But, if I had to choose one, it would probably be Purple Rain.

Emancipation! Especially the midtempo songs and the ballads, the production was ahead of it's time.

PARADE

IT's impossible for me to date it

BT11 said:

Wow, Kirk Johnson posts on the Org.

KoolEaze said:

1999 immediately came to mind for me. Specifically "Something In The Water."

WonderU said:

Fucked up.

The answers are

1999

Parade

Black Album

Madhouse 8

"Parade"

Musicology in a very demonic way...

FrancerulzV99 said:

Huh?

FunkMistress said:

Strange ...Something In The Water is exactly the song I had in mind when I wrote that !

It´s one of my favorite songs, in all its incarnations, and it defies time.

A timeless masterpiece with great lyrics.

The Vault - OF4S

Nice arrangements, live band...nothing electronic

"sign of the times" definitely doesn't sound dated.

"i could never take the place of your man" and "if i was your girlfriend" could have easily been a hit in the 90's and even today.

as with some of the songs on "parade".

sign of the times and parade

I'm one of these people who likes Prince because SOME of his stuff does sounds dated.

But I don't mean it in a bad way.

I've been contemplating the question today and I think I like albums like Controversy and Dirty Mind because they have a rough, electronic, produced in a bedroom kinda feel about them.

Also I always get the feeling that Prince had know idea how these albums would turn out and for me that is why they always sound quite free and refreshingly honest.

To me it does sound dated in the sense that it sounds like nothing else you would here in the charts. Definately nowadays.

Plus I love to hear Prince's screeching lyrics and all the mad things he does with his voice.

Heck I even like Apollonia's duet with Prince on Purple Rain because it's not perfect. It just adds to it's character I feel. (I'm not sure if many will agree!)

I sort of feel all those things DO make a lot of Prince stuff sound dated because nowadays there seems to be less imperfection and personalities in music.

Like the end of The Beautiful Ones Prince's voice sounds like it's breaking up and he's trying not to cry. That's powerful stuff !