Militant said:

I agree.It's a lazy,uninspired album.

vinx98 said:

Don't you think he knew that? He knew what he was doing, and the reasons for it. He could have made the record some were hoping for, that's what makes him so great in my eyes.

this album is a turd and would've been rightfully received as such. ATWIAD is much better

jtfolden said:

I disagree...Raspberry Beret was a hit and got lots of airplay as well as the video. America and the 12 inch had dancefloors packed. It was cutting edge and original regardless of sales. The Chaos and Disorder cd was just that---disorderedly and sucked.

Thumparello said:

You really can't disagree with the facts. Purple Rain sold around 20 million copies wordwide and ATWIAD sold only 4.5 WW. IIRC, America didn't even hit on the Dance chart (though it may have in Dance Sales) and failed to crack the pop top 40.

...I won't disagree with you that ATWIAD had more artistic merit but that's not what this thread is about. C&D would have been more appealing to the masses that were buying up PR, and they weren't buying it for artistic merit any more than they were eating up Madonna CDs because she was a great singer in those days.

The R&B fans weren't happy with it either.

Ofcourse, Around the world was a shocking follow up to Purple Rain as it was totally different and many regarded it as wierd...but don't forget that it was liked by many, many people because it was different, daring and creative. And it had commercial hits! Raspberry beret is a masterpiece single and was a huge hit worldwide. Pop life reached #7 in the US and was big. Paisley Park was released as a single in Britain and reached the top 20. I think the main problem with less sales is that it came way too soon after Purple Rain. Take me with U had just left the charts and the masses were simply not "Prince hungry", so many were still enjoying Purple Rain. In addition, I really think that Chaos has no songs as suited for the charts as the ones mentioned above. One observation, it seemed at the time that many non-Prince fans liked Tambourine! Maybe he should have released that as a single!

I think Purple Rain was as much a different album as a follow up to his prior records as ATWIAD was to Purple Rain. He went from mostly synth funk (1999, Controversy, Prince, For You) to a more organic, much more guitar oriented sound. But I guess it also depends on the period when you became a Prince fan. Maybe people who became a fan in the last 10-15 years weren't as surprised as the fans who were already there in the 80's.

And with regard to the question regarding C&D: Definitely not! C&D is a bad sounding, uninspired, bad composed album of fillers, left overs, etc etc. In other words: it's not my favourite album

That album was pure garbage and strictly contract filler. Nuff said ya dig?

bonedaddy said:

Agreed. He would need a single what could he possibly release off of Chaos right after PR that would have made it become P's biggest hit ever. Lawd

If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle.

Why are we even talking about this?

Why am I responding? I've got 20 seconds of my life to waste:

C&D, like most Prince albums post-Purple Rain (except for SOTT), has a couple good cuts, but he hasn't delivered an album with the patchwork genius of PR or SOTT since.

ZiggmanZoo said:

I think it's safe to say that it received more critical acclaim than it did from the general buying public. The more he moved away from the pop/rock sound the quicker his sales dropped and ATWIAD was even rather alienating to many fans, especially on the R&B side, that had followed him previously.

C&D, as a whole, has the sound that would be more palatable to the mainstream audience of PR. The title track or "I Like It There" could have been a decent hit if released in early '85, imo.... Dinner With Delores and Dig U Better Dead could have made an impact on pop and dance charts respectively. Into The Light, coupled with an appropriate performance clip, is another good chart contender.