I'm putting this topic in because I'm appalled at a fellow member(Purple Knight I think) who says "Rave.." is Prince's worst album. First off, any album with at least 1 hit off of it won't be too bad. Of course I'm talking about "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold". True it has its low points like "Silly Game", "Baby Knows", and "So Far, So Pleased" but these songs don't make the album. The gems are the title track, "Undisputed"w/ Chuck D., "The sun,the moon and stars", and the hidden bonus track "Prettyman". These songs make up for the others and hold it up. Secondly, my man bashes at Prince for having too many guests on the project. Are you kidding me? Most of these up-coming singers and rappers today need a bunch of guest artists on their stuff because they have nothing to offer anyway. Prince has plenty to offer. He may not have picked maybe the perfect guests on this album but don't knock him for that. He tried and he's evolving. He's getting used to letting other artist join him at work. That didn't hurt the album basically. I'm not saying is his best but it definitely not his worst. Any other Prince fan will agree with me for sure. Now do you know what I think is his worst album ever? It's hard to pick just one so I'll list the top 3 worst of all time.
1. Chaos and Disorder
2. Rainbow Children
3. Friends for Sale..music from the vault
Anybody who agrees with me or him just state your opinion. Peace and Love.

the fact that you say rave isnt the worst album but the rainbow children is invalidates all of ur argument.

1. i prefer chaos & disorder to rave. at least C&D has some real energy happening on it, and it's un-self conscious.

2. musically, i think the rainbow children is one of the finest albums of his latter years. say what you want about the lyrical content, but it was a return to a complex, playful, organic musical approach...which we hadn't heard from prince for years.

3. don't really consider 'the vault' a proper album as much as an odds'n'sods collection to fulfill the WB contract. disqualified.

Yeah, all of the 3 you listed are better than Rave.

Rainbow Children is pure Prince making an album for Prince, which is when he is best.

Chaos is Prince friggin' around on a guitar which is better to my ears than the pop on Rave.

Vault is Prince making an album for WB, but the material is pretty good vintage early 90's-ish prince.

Rave isn't his worst album, but it kind of wreaks of radio-hit attempts.

Rave is his worst IMHO.... as a matter of fact, hadn't he come up with TRC afterwards, I honestly would have given up on him.

Sure, there are good moments (silly game -a wonderful, honest moment-, strange but true, pretty man), but as a whole it just comes off as an incoherent mess. And that is the problem for me - it doesn't flow, it just sounds like someone loud and desperate, screaming everywhere, hoping for some attention. And even worse, it sounds like he knew that but couldn't help it. As a whole it sounds, I'm sorry to say, cynical.
[Edited 12/9/06 6:13am]

As mediocre as "So Far, So Pleased" is, it had "hit" written all over it. should have been a single, imo.

I guess we're talking about Un2 right?

In2 doesn't count?

Anx said:

Totally agree with Anx.

And, oh yeah - Rave blows, but not quite as hard as NPS.

Ooh, darlin, you better be careful, cuz voicing an opposite opinion about an album not liked on here is death. the moderators will spank you with emoticons and all that. It happened to me. I'm thinking about starting a support group.

Rave is a great album.

not a big fan of Rave, but I'll give you a 3 reasons whay it's not his worst:


Reason number 1:



Reason Number 2:



Reason Numnber 3:

LoDog said:

Why would it matter if it had a hit? And that single was not at all a hit.

True it has its low points like "Silly Game", "Baby Knows", and "So Far, So Pleased" but these songs don't make the album.

The "misses" are scattered all over the place, which makes hitting that skip button a hell of a good exercise. That's the problem, the album has no flow. It's all over the place. A good song will regularly be followed by one of his worst ever.

The gems are the title track, "Undisputed"w/ Chuck D., "The sun,the moon and stars", and the hidden bonus track "Prettyman". These songs make up for the others and hold it up.

If you liked those songs, that's fine, but I thought Undisputed had an irritating chorus and an unnecessary guest, Sun, Moon, and Stars had a vomit-inducing reggae rap, and Prettyman was a funny, but not exactly great song. But the problem is with the album as a whole, and not every individual track.

Secondly, my man bashes at Prince for having too many guests on the project. Are you kidding me? Most of these up-coming singers and rappers today need a bunch of guest artists on their stuff because they have nothing to offer anyway. Prince has plenty to offer. He may not have picked maybe the perfect guests on this album but don't knock him for that. He tried and he's evolving. He's getting used to letting other artist join him at work. That didn't hurt the album basically.

Yeah, rappers and young artists need a million guests, but Prince has always been above that. At least in the past, any guests were Prince's own associated artists. Sheryl Crow? Fucking Eve? Are you kidding me? It was a pathetic, desperate attempt by Davis to make Prince seem hip. Prince has always been above that. It contributed to Rave's dishonest, phoned-in feel.

1. Chaos and Disorder

This album has raw production and a ton of inspired energy. And at least its message was genuine.

2. Rainbow Children

Organic sounding, musically vibrant, and totally imaginative.

3. Friends for Sale..music from the vault

The difference is that this album was just an extra collection of songs tossed out to break free from WB whereas Rave was his big, major release for the year. You have to put these releases in context.
[Edited 12/9/06 10:27am]

LoDog said:

you can't be serious

hmmmm,
i wonder what your all time faves are ?
rave,musicology and new power soul? hehe

eyewishuheaven said:

you know, NPS is off my shit list because when it's good, it's really good (though when it's bad, it's REALLY bad) - it gave us 'come on', 'mad sex' and 'the one', and those songs ain't too shabby. the whole 'feel' of the album is really uneven and kinda unfocused, but it's one of those that has a few gems hidden for people who have patience. the whole of rave, meanwhile, just leaves me dry. even the few kinda interesting ideas get bogged down for me by the production of the whole album, which feels really synthetic, as if he's second-guessing himself at every turn. at least the remixed version of 'rave' is a bit more playful now and then, and it has keepers like 'beautiful strange' and the reworked 'man'o'war', which i think is very underrated.

LoDog said:

C&D was a great garage band album. Very grungy. All the songs were polished and unfinished which annoyed alot of folks--but Dirty Mind wasn't exactly a polished album either. And the songs on Dirty Mind to me represented a ERA in music more so than pure genius.

The Rainbow Children was an amazing album hindered only by the insistence on using narration, and the overall theme.