Personally, I think that 3121 is the superior album to Musicology. The music is more inspired, there's a greater feeling of a creative drive and whereas Musicology had a Prince-by-numbers feel, 3121 was Prince exercising what he does and doing it very well.

So how come Musicology flows a lot better and works far more effectively as a piece? The songs flow into each other and the album comes across as just that - an album! Certainly, it comes across as an album planned as a 12 track CD, far more than 3121 does.

3121, on the other hand, doesn't seem to flow together. I love it, but not one of the songs smoothly flows into the other. In fact, 3121 is one of the very few Prince albums where not even one of the songs flows into the next as if they're partners, or a segue. It's a great collection of songs, but every song ends abruptly before the next one starts - there's no sense of the songs intending to be together.

Now if I were to speculate, I would wonder if originally 3121 was intended as an album that was meant to have more tracks on it, or was to at least have some more depth as an album. I wonder if some of the original versions of the songs were longer and meandered in the same, wonderful way that the songs on 1999 did. As it was, most of the songs almost seem to be cut short and although the songs are wonderfully varied, they come across as a selection of songs he recorded, rather than songs that were recorded together as an intended set.

I don't think I'm the only one who has wondered if the original intention of 3121 was that of an album intended for the fans, rather than the masses but was, somewhere along the line changed to become a commercial hit instead.

Haystack said:

first , nice topic:)

Interesting theory. I like 3121, and would certainly love to have seen more hearty portions of most of the tracks ala 1999.

But I never really felt a cohesive bond between the songs on Musicology. I think that songs could easily be dropped off or placed in different order, and it would still be a stinker.

I think that 3121 makes a more defined conceptual statement even if the songs are possibly truncated versions.

squirrelgrease said:

yup, i agree. i hate some of the songs on musicology with a passion, first
time ever that happened to me with prince. so i always replace them for an
alternate bunch of tracks like "magnificent" "united states of division" &
"stt-brand new orleans" when listening to the album on my winamp playlist.

the thing i dislike about 3121 is that the last portion of the album kinda
falls flat for no reason. he's got all this momentum built up by the time u
get to "Fury" backed with "The Word" and then he just tags on this song with
Tamar, which should have been restricted to her album alone.

Follow that by "The Dance" which is an obvious retread of a 1995 song (!) to
which imo there was simply no point. first time ever he recycled one of his
own songs. still a very weird and quite incomprehensible inclusion imo.

Lastly he closes the album with "Get On The Boat", while it's an ok track
(altho his umpteenth james brown by numbers track) it just doesn't sit well
as a closing track. it feels more like a song that should be placed at the
beginning of middle of an album, not as an album's finale.

So what i'm trying to say is that although i like 3121 a lot more than i do
Musicology, the album is stopped dead in it's track by the final portion of
it, which leaves you with a bad taste.

Kinda like "Come" feels so unlike an album because the opening is dragging
on for far too long and the end is simply non existent. with a better song
to kick the album into gear and a good closer, "Come" would be considered
so much better of an album.

On the other hand, i dislike Musicology but have to appreciate the way he's
built that one up like a real cohesive album, flowing from song to song and
eventho i don't like the songs most of the time, the album also runs to a
nice and well constructed finale. "Reflection" is a perfect tune to end an
album with, especially coming after the mellow "Dear mr Man".

Taking the best songs from Musicology and 3121 (but with the 3121 production style) you can IMHO put together an awesome album!

That's the problem with Prince's output since the mid 90s onwards, a lack of consistency across the albums but still a handful of excellent/killer tracks on each.