#1 - 5 Stars

"Prince's most focused, direct album, and it's a keeper.

There's the flavor of his earlier albums (sizzling synth work, blistering guitars, multi-tracked vocals) and a hint of what was to come; "Computer Blue," "Take Me with U" and, especially, "When Doves Cry" pointing the way to the future.

Purple Rain, however, easily transcends its transitional nature and achieves both timeliness and timelessness; quite an achievement, really.

As a result, each of these songs would sound great pumping out of an a.m. radio, a thumping car stereo, a B+O home system, or in a crowded, sweaty dance club. Even better, a few songs would be at home in a piano bar. Few artists command such range, and fewer can consolidate such reach into a single whole, never mind doing so in a mere nine songs.

At once stripped-down and elaborate, dense and spare, Purple Rain takes all the most commercially appealing aspects of the purple wonder’s style and hones them to a razor sharp edge, while still featuring enough embellishment to make it a singularly Prince experience.

"Let's Go Crazy" is a call-to-arms that entices the listener to discard their inhibitions (a common Prince theme) and search for something greater than the mundane (another common theme) and does so with such ebullience and exuberance as to be well nigh irresistible. "Punch a higher floor."

Prince smoothly shifts gears on the next track, moving into the pure pop territory previously staked out by some of the old Motown duets of yore, with plenty of stings and harmonizing. "Take Me with U" features Prince's romantic interest from the movie, Apollonia, and serves as the album's most approachable song. The idea is simple; sing a song about falling in love, and convey the overwhelming need for proximity with the object of affection. "I Don't care where we go/ I don't care what we do/ I don't care pretty baby/ Just take me with u" they sing, and I for one, want to go with them. Top 40 pop confections don't come much sweeter than this little gem.

But the road to heavenly bliss is filled with many travails; among them jealousy, uncertainty and desperation, and "The Beautiful Ones" sets these emotions to a scorching ballad of incomparable skill. Prince may very well deliver his most impassioned vocal performance ever on this stunner, demonstrating his ability to scream/sing like no other. Effortlessly shifting between a gentle croon and a screaming falsetto, all the while hitting every note, Prince gives such emotion to this ballad as to propel it to the top of his canon. And that's saying something for an artist whose ballads regularly reach such stratospheric heights. Prince soars with the angels here.

After such a draining effort, Prince retreats back to a more detached stance, questioning whether he's actually capable of finding love ("where is my love life?/ where can it be?/there must be something wrong with the machinery"). "Computer Blue" is one of Purple Rain's funkier workouts. The song is basically split in two: part one is robotic and conveys a sense of disassociation and chaos. Prince also seems to be addressing his inner self here, his higher consciousness pleading its case to his more base impulse, asking "do u really know what love is?". The second part is without words, and might be hinting at the need to quit over-thinking and over-analyzing, and just let the feeling happen.

The final track on side one (this is still the age of vinyl/cassette) is the notorious "Darling Nikki". While Prince has certainly been (and will be) more risqué, the success of this album shone a glaring spotlight on this track. A throwback to 1999 in some ways, the song is about sex and only about sex. In the context of the film, it serves as a brutal 'fuck-off' to Apollonia. A 'who needs you, I found another slut' sort of message. In the context of the real world, the song prompted Tipper Gore (wife of then-Senator Al Gore of Tennessee) to form the Parent's Music Resource Center (P.M.R.C.) and, eventually, all those "Parental Advisory" stickers you see on albums these days. Give the little fella credit; he changed the way music is marketed; how many artists can take credit for such a far-reaching change? Not many. Like it or not, Prince had definitely arrived and was shaping the musical landscape around his idiosyncrasies.

The second half of the album kicks off with the album's lead single and what is easily one of the most idiosyncratic songs to ever top the Billboard singles charts.

Brazenly annoncing itself with a blistering guitar line, "When Doves Cry" displays an array of the aces Prince had at his disposal. And what aces they were. The song originally had a bass line, but during the recording process, Prince took that out and created the first of his incredible string of minimalist hit singles. The beat is steady, the vocals front-and-center, the synths filling in the empty spaces, and the percussion forming the sturdy skeleton this timeless, peerless, masterpiece. And just to show how idiosyncratic he was, Prince topped the whole thing off with an accordion. In hindsight, this song laid the groundwork for much of the Parade album.

The next track is a bit like "Take me with U" in it's straightforward presentation; both in the lyrics and instrumentation. Well, maybe not too straightforward, but certainly appealing enough. Another minimalist song, "I Would Die 4 U" establishes its theme and proceeds to drill it into your skull. The message is simple: Prince is ready to give it all up for love. "You're just a sinner I am told/ I'll be your fire when you are cold/ I'll make you happy when you're sad/ I'll make you good when you are bad." A devotional of sorts, if you will. And they way he sings while inhaling is thrilling.

"Baby I'm a Star" follows and is easily the most ebullient moment of both the album and film. Prince cuts loose and lets his ego/id run amok. And it works. The most joyous and celebratory track on the album, "Baby I'm a Star" positively defies apathy. Of all the 'get up and dance' songs Prince has recorded over the years, this is possibly the most succinct and compelling. If this song doesn't make you want to shake your ass, you should call Dr. Fink. Stat.

Rounding out the album is the epic title track. "Purple Rain" is often called 'Hendrixian' and that's not too far off the mark. However, it hardly does it justice. Sure it's majestic and can make even the most stolid listener get teary-eyed, the song is much, much more than that. Possibly the most inclusive song he'd done up to that point, "Purple Rain" has a melody that is proudly transcendent, and the guitar work necessary to affect the rock crowd. Eight minutes and forty-five seconds later, even the head-bangers have become transfixed. Incredible.

So, there you have it; in a mere 44 minutes, Prince consolidated his strengths, converted millions to his purple reign, and ruled the U.S. charts for months on end. 1984 was a very good year for Prince in particular, and for music in general."


#2 - 1 Star

I know nothing about him except what I see on the media. I don't know the background or exact history of the time, therefore I will rate this album on what I hear. It sucks. It is white noise to me. I'm astonished at how this got to be anything more than a circular piece of vinyl. He is a good guitarist though, that's all he has going for him.


WTF!?!?


discuss...

GoldenGlove said:

Well, this must be the most profound, deep and philosophic review I ever read... But really, why do you really care for something like that?

A few days ago I came across Ian Penman's rant on Zappa; it was written in 1995, as far as I know, just after Rykodisc had rereleased most of the albums. With the knowledge of the death of FZ just one and a half years earlier, this was the most disgusting and indecent "review" I ever read. Sure there would be a lot to discuss about Frank; but after I read it, I felt cold.

lol. I don't know, i just found it interesting to see 2 TOTALY different reviews.
[Edited 1/8/06 3:11am]

Check out the review I did for Purple Rain at RateYourMusic.com:

After Prince went forward and made a major breakthrough with 1982's "1999" that spawned the hit singles "Little Red Corvette" and the dance-pop hit, "1999", Prince and his new band the Revolution began to write music for the album that made him a superstar called "Purple Rain". "Purple Rain" was the first album to be credited to the Revolution that featured longtime keyboardist Matt Fink, drummer Bobby Z, bassist Brown Mark, and the fabulous female duo of guitarist/vocalist Wendy Melvoin and keyboardist/vocalist Lisa Coleman. While Prince strays away from his R&B roots in favor of more pop-oriented styles, that doesn't mean he turned his back on soul music since a lot of the album carries soulful elements. Though the soul is still on Prince's mind, he mixes it up with dashes of metal, new wave, pop, and even some traces of psychedelia. "Purple Rain" was the one that helped launch Prince into superstardom. The album opens up with the rocking, "Let's Go Crazy". As Lisa Coleman's wailing organ and Prince's gospel-like sermon ends, Bobby Z's rhythmic electric drum tracks comes with metal-blazing guitar riffs and wailing keyboards. Then, there are the punchy bass lines that come in. Next, there is the smooth and psychedelic tune, "Take Me With U", as it opens with the mid-tempo bass drums and the melodic synthesizers that are accompanied by the pounding bass lines. It's a beautiful duet with the Purple Rain movie co-star, Apollonia. The strings are just wonderful. "The Beautiful Ones" is a great R&B-like ballad, which has some great drum work by Bobby Z and Matt Fink's piano and organ-sounding synthesizers are lushy, as well as, great. The tune is about how beautiful women aren't always happy. "Computer Blue" is a funky, pop tune, which is very hard-pounding. The guitar-work and strong backbeat percussion is breathtaking. "Darling Nikki" totally sounds like something from his 1980 album, "Dirty Mind". The song is all about eroticism. The tune has some killer, blazing metal guitars. "When Doves Cry" is probably Prince's greatest song ever. It went #1 on the charts and stayed there for six weeks. The song doesn't have any bass included, it just has percussion, keyboards, and guitars. "I Would Die 4 U" is a up-tempo tune with some great, energetic synthesizer work. "Baby I'm A Star" is a funky, dance-pop song with Prince saying that he doesn't want to stop being a star, until he reaches the top. The spritual-like "Purple Rain", has to be one of the best compositions Prince has done. The song has some well-focused instrumentation in it. It has a beautiful fusion of guitar, cello, violin, drums, and strings. The album, itself, is a major classic. Every song on here are probably Prince's best performances ever. His 1982 album, "1999" might've introduced Prince to pop music, but "Purple Rain" was the one that kept the momentum going. It was the album that took pop music to a whole new horizon. "Purple Rain" is truly a pop landmark. The disc will never leave your CD player, trust me. A+
[Edited 1/8/06 3:19am]

GoldenGlove said:

"I know nothing about him except what I see on the media"

Well that is part of the problem. I just don't think you can listen to P's music and get a full picture of what he is about. You got to listen to the whole catalogue and go see him live.

Of course some people just can't stand the fusion of RnB & Rock. The either discuss like one of the musical genres and therfore can't stand to see them meshed.