Parade is cohesive, yet every track is different, it's like a suite or a mini-musical, fitting as a soundtrack.

'Do U Lie' is Prince at his most light-hearted and care-free, 'Life Can Be So Nice' is exhuberant and energetic, and very dense sounding - there's things in that track that make it sound a mess, but if you get into it, you hear things burried down that make it a real favourite.

Girls & Boys and New Position are funky, Sometimes It Snows is genuinely emotional in a non-sexual sense (not something we see Prince do very often), Mountains is the Revolution at it's borderless/genre-less finest.

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.

It's not often you see Parade under-rated, it has it's fair share of critics, but there's usually an agenda behind the distain (Revolution biting, dislike of post-Purple Rain Prince, "too white", etc, etc).

IMO Parade is the pinacle of Prince's official output. It's not my most favourite album, not even the 2nd, but I think this album is the Zenith of Prince's 'in the zone' period.

I know SOTT usually holds that title, but I find Parade far more enjoyable - it's Prince stretching out, playing, having fun, trying different things, really taking advantage of his talents, and the talents of those around him, and trying to create something different and fresh. By SOTT, I think he'd found what he wanted, and he just pulled out the best example he could of everything he could do, with Parade he was still discovering things, playing around, having adventures with new ideas. I like Controversy over 1999 for the same reason - It's the predecessor to a perfect opus, and in that moment before, you can see the genesis of ideas and artistic adventure that had been used to get to something like 1999/SOTT.

I've always been in awe of the story of him going in and laying down the first 4 tracks on the LP, in sequence, instrument by instrument - it's an amazing image of how the guy worked and how easy this great music seemed to come at that time.

Parade is cohesive, yet every track is different, it's like a suite or a mini-musical, fitting as a soundtrack.

'Do U Lie' is Prince at his most light-hearted and care-free, 'Life Can Be So Nice' is exhuberant and energetic, and very dense sounding - there's things in that track that make it sound a mess, but if you get into it, you hear things burried down that make it a real favourite.

Girls & Boys and New Position are funky, Sometimes It Snows is genuinely emotional in a non-sexual sense (not something we see Prince do very often), Mountains is the Revolution at it's borderless/genre-less finest.

I rank it probably #4 in my personal top #5 Prince albums, but Parade is the pinacle of Prince's official artistic output IMO, it was really like nothing before, save maybe the Family album, which I see as a kind of test run for the kind of sounds, texttures, ideas and themes Prince wanted to explore then.
[Edited 1/9/06 17:08pm]

Does anybody know anything about the "Rebirth of the Flesh" sessions that were recorded around the same time of Parade? I hear they were experimental, jazz-funk and brilliant.

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.

It's not often you see Parade under-rated, it has it's fair share of critics, but there's usually an agenda behind the distain (Revolution biting, dislike of post-Purple Rain Prince, "too white", etc, etc).

IMO Parade is the pinacle of Prince's official output. It's not my most favourite album, not even the 2nd, but I think this album is the Zenith of Prince's 'in the zone' period.

I know SOTT usually holds that title, but I find Parade far more enjoyable - it's Prince stretching out, playing, having fun, trying different things, really taking advantage of his talents, and the talents of those around him, and trying to create something different and fresh. By SOTT, I think he'd found what he wanted, and he just pulled out the best example he could of everything he could do, with Parade he was still discovering things, playing around, having adventures with new ideas. I like Controversy over 1999 for the same reason - It's the predecessor to a perfect opus, and in that moment before, you can see the genesis of ideas and artistic adventure that had been used to get to something like 1999/SOTT.

I've always been in awe of the story of him going in and laying down the first 4 tracks on the LP, in sequence, instrument by instrument - it's an amazing image of how the guy worked and how easy this great music seemed to come at that time.

Parade is cohesive, yet every track is different, it's like a suite or a mini-musical, fitting as a soundtrack.

'Do U Lie' is Prince at his most light-hearted and care-free, 'Life Can Be So Nice' is exhuberant and energetic, and very dense sounding - there's things in that track that make it sound a mess, but if you get into it, you hear things burried down that make it a real favourite.

Girls & Boys and New Position are funky, Sometimes It Snows is genuinely emotional in a non-sexual sense (not something we see Prince do very often), Mountains is the Revolution at it's borderless/genre-less finest.

I rank it probably #4 in my personal top #5 Prince albums, but Parade is the pinacle of Prince's official artistic output IMO, it was really like nothing before, save maybe the Family album, which I see as a kind of test run for the kind of sounds, texttures, ideas and themes Prince wanted to explore then.
[Edited 1/9/06 17:08pm]