PurpleKnight said:

hmmm .. IMO is not his worst album...

the greatest romance ever been sold is nice, hot with u. what´s wrong with hot with u"?
great party song..nice production feat Eve

tangerine - short and ESSENTIAL
MAN O WAR - CLASSIC PRINCE playing guitar
I LOVE U BUT I DON´T TRUST U ANYMORE - ESSENTIAL AND ESSENTIAL LYRICS,

AND HOW CAN´T U DIG " RAVE UNT2 THE JOY FANTASTIC TRACK?? IS CLASSIC PRINCE!

SO I DON´t understand U . the RAVE" album is not that bad... geting my drift?

that's just you're opinion!

wlcm2thdwn said:

Uhh, yeah. Obviously.

myloveis4ever said:

Hot Wit U is plastic, cold trash devoid of fun or meaning. It's the epitome of Prince on auto-pilot, except it isn't even really catchy or well-produced. It also goes on wayyy too long, and Eve's rap just makes it worse. It's formulaic crap.

Tangerine could've been great if he hadn't stopped it just as it got going.

Man 'O' War is solid, but it gets repetitive as it nears its end. I do like the title track though, and I've already said ad nauseum how I feel about I Love U But...
[Edited 12/5/06 17:48pm]
[Edited 12/5/06 17:48pm]

myloveis4ever said:

I agree w/ ya!

Rave falls right in the middle for me, I suppose. It's not one of my top 10 Prince albums, but it's also not one of those Prince records I avoid playing.


Emancipation, now there's a hot mess for ya!

Man O War is one of my fave ballads and I love the funky linn of Undisputed.

I like RAVE, not my fave but I like it.....

Man O War and Eye Love U But Eye Don't Trust U Anymore are two of his best ballads, IMO.

But yeahh, the album does feel a bit desperate.

Shapeshifter said:

agreed!

Shapeshifter said:

Question: why did Prince complain about WB messing with his records (a lie, BTW), and then join forces with the most overrated and most hands on "producer" out there?

Answer: because Prince only cares about money. "Freedom"? Pffft, all he was talkign about "I don't get a big enough piece of the pie".

NDRU said:

I agree.In 1999,Prince should have stunned everybody with a loud,outrageous,celebratory CD filled with kickass jams.Instead he gives us 'Rave',which has a few jams but alot of midtempo tracks and ballads.1999 would have been the perfect time for Prince to finally give us 'The Dawn',the much-talked about big album that he is still holding onto.

Rave was not a flop because Prince didn't deliver. It was because they fucked up the promo. The video for the lead single was three months overdue, the formatting of the single was fucked up to the point where it wasn't even eligible for chart entry.

In the UK at least, The Greatest Romance was shaping up to be a big hit for Prince. Like I said before, airplay was huge for that one. But it fell flat because they put too many remixes on the single.

TGRES and Whever U Go Whatever U Do had the potential to be two of his biggest hits. And unlike many occasions in the past, it wasn't Prince who fucked this one up.

And I dig Prince's reggae rap on The Sun The Moon & Stars.

He was having a bit of fun. Something he's clearly not doing on 3121.

MattyJam said:

true. although i don't think it's a very good album, it did have
a few incredibly strong songs and The Greatest Romance should've
been a huge hit but sadly it got all muddled up.

it was almost like Emancipation all over again with prince doing
a kinda good job delivering a patchy set with some great singles
and the record company just messing it up.

if i recall correct, Rave started out as quite a different disc,
with more quirky material and Clive told prince to go back into
the studio and come up with some more hit potential material to
put on the disc as well or instead of other songs.

i would really like to know the tracklist for the original rave.

When you have to make a case that one sucky Prince album (Rave) sucks a little bit less than another sucky Prince album (Emancipation, 3121), does any of it really matter.

Prince took a dump one time and it stank to high heaven, he took another dump a little later, and it stunk even worse, but nothing can erase the memory of the stench of that first dump, so it doesn't seem so bad.





dump edit
[Edited 12/6/06 3:44am]

I disagree with those of you who are saying that 'TGRES' could have been a big hit if promoted properly.That song is tedious.The singles from this CD should have been:

"So Far,So Pleased"---the most "obvious" single choice on the album
"Baby Knows"
"Wherever U Go,Whatever U Do"

Really,those are the only songs with strong hit potential,imo.

... Did I care when Rave was released?
How could you be disappointed if the last 10 years only delivered disappointments?

The greatest disappointment still is Batman, ‘because it’s the first disappointment.
After 1988 there’s not one great release.

I do know you’ll disagree with me ... but most fans do agree, but they don’t visit sites like this one anymore after so many disappointments.

There are some really great boots released containing concerts that took place in 2002 or 2004 ...
But further, I don’t give a shit for the post LoveSexy releases.

his version of Everyday Is A Winding Road is worse than Sheryl Crow .... think about that

Pretty Man is that ish though...

I'll let PK b my spokesperson - he's been into my head and pulled out my opinions and preferences and expresses them better than I can (and unfortunately I'm not even being sarcastic!)

A friend of mine who used 2 b a prince fan bought Rave hoping for the 1999 comeback: after listening to it once, he was so disappointed, he just gave it to me (his only reluctance was that he thought it kinda insulting 2 give me something he thought was a piece of shit).
I listened to it with another friend - a musician with a general appreciation of Prince but limited familiarity who I was trying to convince that P was worthy of more of his attention. What a mistake! I tried hard not to apologize for P, but "depressing" is really the word (or lacklustre?).
The only songs I really like are "I love u but..." and "Prettyman" (come on, the first time you heard Prince say "Maceo!" must have sent shivers like it did for me!), but they're buried so deep in the crap which abounds, that the album sinks under the dead weight.
The whole symbol produced by Prince may put the problem in a nutshell: it was stuck between being cutting-edge (it wasn't, it sounded old, unoriginal and hackneyed) and being retro (it wasn't, it didn't have the real 80s sound, at best it sounded like bad early 90s!). In other words Prince pulled symbol away from being innovative and new, and symbol pulled Prince away from recreating his old sound or mindset, and we were left with something that was neither here nor there (even TTD's Neither Fish Nor Flesh had more bones!)

BartVanHemelen said:

Isn't that a little harsh? Prince's biggest issue actually seems to be the fact that he doesn't own his masters. He didn't make that same mistake with Arista.

But either way, Rave taught him an important lesson, since TRC was the polar opposite of this album.

PurpleKnight said:

I never heard News as I do not have that CD. However, I wouldn't think that you could compare that because it's instrumental. There are no vocal to compare, lyrics to dissect and analyze and feel, or a comination of slow and fast songs. I think a CD blows if there is maybe only ONE redeeming song, like NPS.

BartVanHemelen said:

Prince was very open about the money issue. He commented publicly about mariah's big deal and how his internet distribution was actually better ($1 to the artist per cd vs $7).

It's not the worst thing he's ever done...But, it does have some SHIT songs! Hot Wit U is Probably his worst song, I can never listen to that one.

FunkJam said:

And the video for the remix just depresses the hell out of me. Prince looks so, so unhappy to be there. You can tell he's having zero real fun.

then package for rave is cool. like the lamb. made about 25 in the uk album charts. musicology was wallmart album of the week/asda for us brits. does this mean anything?

FunkJam said:

I did forget about 'Hot Wit' U' actually, it just makes my heart sink.

Hot Wit' U, is a hot favourite for worst Prince song ever, for so many reasons..... Actually the scary thing is, it's so bad, that it borders on the same ground as the movie 'Showgirls' as being so bad, that it's genius.

I mean, doesn't a lot of commercial pop music today sound a lot like Hot Wit' U.

NouveauDance said:

Hot Wit U is one of those songs that's basically horrible on record, but if I saw him sing it in concert I'd be singing it all week after. This happened with The Max, Jam Of The Year, Push It Up, Musicology, Freaks on This Side.

PurpleKnight said:

I disagree. I think all of his work that people call "mediocre" is still decent work, but his "worst" as you would call it I have to say would be "Chaos and Disorder", but even that was okay.

You can't tell me that you don't bob your head to the groove on "Undisputed"....

I wholeheartedly disagree. I think Rave is a blast. Here's my review:

Hindsight too often plays a role in an album’s reception. Throughout the 90s, Prince (or The Artist Formerly Known As Prince), battled to stay relevant to a music market increasingly intent on packaging and re-packaging trends at the expense of musicianship and artistry. Prolific as ever, Prince pumped out album upon album of overlooked gems and missed opportunities. For some reason, quantity was now a barometer for quality and unmet commercial expectations precluded critical acclaim. The album that represents this the most is 1999’s Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.

Issued with the support of a major label and Clive Davis, who masterminded Santana’s reemergence in 1999, Rave came with a lot of expectation. Rumors of collaborations with several major artists were confirmed with appearances by Eve, Chuck D., Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow, Ani DiFranco and Maceo Parker. Weekly spur-of-the-moment performances at Paisley Park created a buzz around Prince again. Interviews and spotlights in magazines and TV shows rare for an artist of Prince’s mystique were commonplace. A live broadcast of a concert entitled “Rave Un2 the Year 2000,” where Prince was to perform his anthem “1999” for the last time was planned and executed. Could this be the album to resurrect a commercially gasping career?

No. Missteps in promotion that plagued earlier albums of the decade likewise plagued Rave. A lush, extravagant video for the lead-off single, “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” was shelved until months after the single release. Rumors of a second single never came to fruition. A market filled to the brim with adolescent juggernauts of style over substance apparently had no room left for an artist in his 40s. Initially positive reviews of the album (often called his best in many years) turned sour as Rave was dubbed a flop.

All of these failed expectations distract from the fact that this is a fun, quirky and diverse album. The first song, “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic” is a leftover from 1988 and was planned as the title track of an album to follow Lovesexy. A synthetic funk workout, complete with mechanical beats, a hypnotic Eastern-tinged guitar riff and some screeching, passionate vocals set the stage. Other robotic offerings such as the irresistibly weird “Strange But True,” the playfully lustful “Hot Wit U” and the creeping, ominous “Undisputed” conjure the glory days of Minneapolis funk. “Prettyman” sees Prince lay down the brass funk in self-mock mode (quite unusual for him) in the vein of “Movie Star.” Most playful of all, however, is the searing rock of “So Far, So Pleased.” Prince and Gwen Stefani share flirtation and innuendo over a punchy backdrop. This is what pop-rock should be. Soaring melodies drift above some THICK guitars. Had this been released as a single, the fortunes of this album would have likely been much different. Other pop gems include the stealthily seductive “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” and the shimmering “The Sun, the Moon and Stars.”

Rave isn’t all fun and games. Much of the record offers answers to his bitter divorce with Mayte. The over-produced “Man o’ War” is classic Prince “You done me wrong” balladry, but it can’t touch the similarly themed “I Love U, But I Don’t Trust U Anymore.” A stark, haunting piece featuring piano and Ani DiFranco’s acoustic guitar, the song slowly builds with increasingly vulnerable vocals that depict the despondent tale of unrequited love and false accusations. Elsewhere, the painfully short “Tangerine” is a colorful, melancholy highlight, the likes of which had not been seen since “Starfish and Coffee.” Later, the anthemic “Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do” offers reassurance and an effortless melody ripped off and watered down for Lenny Kravitz’s megahit “Again.”

Free from the harsh lens of a society with its ridiculous demands and expectations, 1999’s Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic offers something that Prince had kept hidden for a long, long time- an album that is at times fun, confessional, funky and relaxed. It succeeds in being quirky but accessible, sprawling but not over-reaching. There is no grand message here, nor is there interminable excess- Prince plays all of his cards on one disc here. And above all, the album is undeniably Prince. Had this album been released in 2004 like the similar but lesser Musicology, it would have benefited from a much more favorable musical climate.

Moonbeam said:

I disagree with it (obviously), but wow! What a well-written review!