I LOVE this album so much but I hear so many people criticise it. I think it has so much going on in and is so full of life and energy.

I also like the fact that Prince incorporates so many different sounds.

I think it's a real eclectic mixed bag !

What does anyone else think?

I dont like the album very much. It's too classical and elevatorish for my taste. Kiss and Girls and Boys were the best but the rest of the songs I couldn't care for.

It seems on the org. Parade is well-liked by many.

But outside the org is a whole different ball game.

YES. People only think of "Kiss", but "new position" and "sometimes it snows in April" , "boys and girls" among others isn't even known by many Prince fans...

I don't own the albume, but I really enjoyed it when I heard it.

Parade is a good album. You need to listen to it more than once to really get into it.

This was my favorite Prince record for a long time. I thought the strings were really trippy. Anotherloverholenyohead is amazing as is the 12".

By far this is one of Prince's most under-rated albums...

I really think that people don't appreciate it much because it went along with the box-office failure "Under The Cherry Moon". It had an excellent way of mixing French influence with rock and funk. I have a hard time finding a way to dis-like this album...

I love it, some of our good posters like vainandy hates it but how can you overlook the funk at the bottom?

it's a gorgeous album
only in recent years have i noticed that almost every song has a "French" sound
i often wonder how Prince knew to write these songs -- how?!?
amazing, really
just one more sign of his musical genius
Parade is in my top 5 of all-time favorite Prince albums
and i love the way all the music was worked into the movie
without all the other nonsense, UTCM is a beautiful longform music video

It's one of his most underrated and underappreciated works certainly because it didn't have the flair and rawness Dirty Mind, 1999, or Purple Rain had. The production was a little warm and lush. I loved it because it showed Prince's love for classical and jazz music. It was certainly his most collabrative record, to me also. Sorry Around The World In A Day fans, but I would say that this was even better than that album. It's one of my favorite albums by Prince and it was a true sign of things to come next.

This was my favorite album of his for the looooongest time. The music is so eclectic and delicate, yet still funky and fiery. I was quite surprised to find out later that Wendy & Lisa had written Mountains and Sometimes It Snows In April. Those two tracks in particular seem to really help round out the feel of the album. Anotherloverholenyohead is my fave track. I wore out my original cassette by continually rewinding it to play that track over and over again. I think the call-and-response vocals on the second verse are pure magic.

I guess my only possible complaint is that some of tracks, as featured in the movie, have orchestration that is missing on the album. I always wondered why considering Prince's apparent love of Claire Fisher's work during this period.

Underrated???

Not by me!!!

My favourite album of all time!!!

I fell in love with this album at the very first listening...

jtfolden said:

Apparentally, Prince told them the chords and let them interpret them the way they saw it fit. That's hardly "Wendy and Lisa wrote it".
[Edited 1/6/06 4:13am]

pepper7 said:

i hated it at first cause it was too weird. lol even for prince standards. but now its my favorite prince album. it stands out even among the other 80s albums.

Cheek said:

I fell in love with it my first listening to it too....in 1986. It is still my favorite Prince album. I just recently got the UK picture disc of it! "Sometimes it snows in April" is my all time favorite Prince song!!!!

Christopher said:

djdaffy1227 said:

It's always great to see others' admiration of this lil' album...

I love it !!!

Upbeat and refreshing for most of the part.

Sometimes it snows in April is a beautiful tune alongside Venus De Milo.

Kiss and that wicked Jingly guitar, Mountains with its Drum beat, Girls & Boys in fact the whole album is just too funky !! Gonna play it in my car later

I'm really glad that I'm not alone.

I do think it's an album that gets better over time.

Give it another go to all you doubters!!!!

"Anotherloverholenyohead" was one of the first Prince songs I heard. That and "Kiss" and I just think they are timeless classics.

Didn't Prince say himslef Parade was bad except for Kiss

calldapplwondery83 said:

mountains is all wendy and lisa. not sure about "sometimes it snows in april" though. it could have been composed the way you indicated.

I love it to pieces - probably my favourite of his as it is in my opinion the most consistent. Most of the others, SOTT included, flag badly as they go on (I don't listen to disc 1 of SOTT after "Dorothy Parker", or disc 2 after "I Could Never..." as I find the remaining tracks extremely weak.)

Nasalhair said:

Maybe you've got hair in your ears too, then.

Brilliant Album!!!Arty, progressive sounds, raw "new" funk and ahead of it's time. The album still sounds ahead of it's time today. The live drumming and basslines are Prince at his best. Every time I listen to the disc I discover something new. I believe he successfully worked out the tonal experiments on Around The World In a Day and incorporated great jazzy horn charts and his unique quirks and ideas. This is Prince songwriting at it's brilliant, expansive and naturalistic best. Why does he not write from the drumkit more often? The production is not over the top and compliments the lush ideas in his head. I believe "Anotherloverholenyohead" may be one of the best funk jams ever recorded. I would love to hear the "Rebirth of the Flesh" recordings that were done at this time.

Without trying to be controversial, if Prince was not a black artist this is the type of album that would've been hailed by the indy musical press and college radio programming. Can you imagine the reaction to this album if it was created by overrated acts such as REM, Beck, White Stripes or U2? Many "best of" lists in Europe hail this album as one of the best ever. During this period (86-87) Prince was in a zone.

Aerogram said:

damn....

sosgemini said:

I don't know the story behind "Mountains" but the drum track is so Prince, do you really think that is W&L?

MY #1 favorite prince album....listen to the joy in Life can be so nice

calldapplwondery83 said:

the song is a wendy and lisa composition w/ prince's contribution. so the drums could be his. when they play this song live they always reference it as a "song we wrote w/ prince". they never publically take claim for any other songs...except for this one..oddly enough.

calldapplwondery83 said:

I think you're confusing this with Purple Rain. It's been well known since a late 1986 Rolling Stone Interview that W&L wrote these songs. Both songs reek of the style that would later be found in their solo work such as Waterfall and The Life.