If you had to give up your entire Prince collection, except for one album, which one of these three albums would you keep?

Very, very difficult question.

I'd probably keep Sign 'O' the Times, after I ended up cutting my wrists...

Purple Rain.

SOTT is more of an artistic acheivement, but PR is the shit!

1999, hands down.

Purple Rain, feet up.

Probably SOTT because of the variety. It has something for almost every mood.

Hmm, well, I think Purple Rain is easily the weakest album of the three... I really, really enjoy listening to 1999 better - as a whole - but given the variety on SOTT, I guess I'd go with that one.

"Purple Rain", perhaps. It's the one that I can honestly listen to on repeat for hours.

Sign of the Times. Purple Rain is a bit disjointed for me, and 1999 is quirky with too long songs. SOTT is focused and balanced and the funkiest of the three

I'd keep "Purple Rain", no question. It is the album which brought Prince to my attention back in '84 so it has a special place in my heart.

As for the others (and here come the flames I'm sure...)
"SOTT" is great but patchy, and it runs out of steam badly on each of its two halves - disc 1 fizzling out at the end of "Starfish & Coffee", disc 2 after "ICNTTPOYM" - so much so that I stop the player when the good stuff ends. Never liked songs like "Forever in my Life", "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" is a crap send-off for The Revolution, and "Adore" leaves me so very, very cold.

"1999" is massively overrated. Sure, the title track and "Little Red Corvette" are fantastic but the rest is too repetitive, as if he found a synth riff or a beat and thought "I like that - let's loop it" and also too long, so those same repeitive loops just go on and on and on for waaaaay too long. I've never liked this album at all, and every single song just cries out for the shears of an editor.

I like Sign O' The Times way much better than Purple Rain but I can't live without When Doves Cry!
So I go with Purple Rain!

the idea that one guy wrote these 3 albums is crazy. p got mad skils

xpertluva said:

Same here,though I would miss the energy and fun of PR.
But SOTT has some great songs U can just listen 2 by yourself on a lonely night

I'd wanna keep "Parade". Why isn't that an option??

I would keep '1999'

1999

Nasalhair said:

Uh duh! 1999, of course, because both PR and SOTT are available on DVD and show up every now and again on cable so the chance of hearing them both again are very good. Whereas after the year 1999 the song and album 1999 have become extinct as far as the airwaves are concerned, so I'd have to hold on to that one if for nothing else the songs, "Free", and "Something in the water"!

Nasalhair said:

Oh come on, who are you trying to fool? You've never heard the whole thing, have you? Go ahead, you can fess up, we won't laugh...much.

Nasalhair said:

hopefully you do realize that most pop songs actually rely on repetition.

Hangin' Tough

Nasalhair said:

While I don't agree with the reasoning I do agree that I don't like 1999 very much. That, Dirty Mind, For You and Controversy are easily my least listened to Prince discs. God knows I've tried often enough to get into Dirty Mind and 1999 but I just can't do it. The only one of those early discs that I really dig is Prince.

Oh and for the record, I'd keep Sign.

Purple rain. The album and the film would last me for a life time.

sott, probably, but I would miss a lot the others.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

{sigh}
Here we go again...

Yes of course most songs rely on repetition, but the "1999" album takes the piss in my opinion. As I said in my earlier post it is as though Prince found a loop or a keyboard sound he liked, pressed repeat and then sung over the top. Songs like "Automatic", "Something in the Water", "Let's Pretend We're Married", "DMSR", "Lady Cab Driver" just don't develop or go anywhere - they just hit a groove and stick with it for way too long. But this is my opinion and just because you disagree doesn't mean either of us are wrong.

Somebody said I'd clearly not heard "1999" all the way through. Actually I have, many times. I was given the cassette of it back in 1987 by a friend who had bought it and didn't like it, so knowing I was a fan he handed it on to me for free. I listened to it and it did nothing for me. Since then I've tried again, even bought the CD to see if that was somehow better, but no. I've never liked it one little bit, apart from "1999" and "LRC".

As for the other songs, "Free" is turgid shit, as is "International Lover." Again, my opinions only - not wrong ones.

In future, before you flame, just understand that not everyone likes the same thing.

This is tough.

I cant choose between 1999 and SOTT.

I would keep 1999