I think part of the problem with the 1990's in general and with Prince's output was with CD's becoming the major format. They held more music and too many bands set about filling them up.

I always think 45 minutes is about the perfect length for an album.

Nearly all of Prince albums in the 1990's that were single CD albums had to be released as Double vinyl albums.

Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds And Pearls
Symbol
TGE
Rave.

In my opinion all good albums apart from TGE which is a classic album.

Apart from TGE I don't think he really had enough great material to make these albums worthy of their running times and he certainly didn't have enough good material to make Emanciaption 3 hours long.

I think each of these albums would have been so much better as shorter albums.

In saying that I'm glad that all the albums are as they are as I like to get as much Prince as possible but I think the excepted view in the music media is that Prince's 1990's output is far inferior to his 1980's and to a point I agree but I think if they had have been shorter albums they would have been considered as better albums.

For Instance take Diamonds and Pearls and the Symbol album.

D&P

Thunder
Daddy Pop
Diamonds And Pearls
Cream
Strollin'
Willing And Able
Gett Off
Walk Don't Walk
Money Don't Matter 2night
Insatiable.

Symbol

MY Name Is Prince
Sexy MF
Love 2 The 9's
The Morning Papers
The Max
Eye Wanna Melt With U
The Continental
7
And God Created Woman
3 Chains O'Gold
Sacrifice Of Victor.

Wouldn't they have been considered as better albums?

How can you take 'Blue Light' off of The Symbol Album? That track is soooo good.

Romeoblu said:

Not by taking off "Live 4 Love." BAD decision, indeed!!!

With all that music in The Vault it's amazing that people still want Prince to trim his CDs. I would argue that he should release a minimum of ten CDs a year filled to the rim with track after glorious track!

....or possibly a few DVD-Audio releases, each with over 4 gigs of music.

.....
[Edited 3/12/07 18:36pm]

Well I guess you're entitled to YOUR opinion but I disagree.

gcu1 said:

10 cds a year would be too much to absorb

a 2 cd set every 4 months would suffice

I can agree with your point. The shift from vinyl to CD to a certain extent coincides with the downfall of music in general, imo. Maybe format had something to do with it, maybe not. There were a lot of other changes in happening in the business also (who was in power at the labels, other developments in entertainment/communication, etc.) I guess it's all relative.
CD's also allowed people to skip around albums easier- not always a good thing- and stuck the knife in AOR radio from what it once was.

On the other hand:

1999 (double album, single CD) has 11 songs and a total playing time of 70 minutes...an average of over 6'30"...

Many of the songs could have been edited, since they contain several minutes of just jamming at the end. Maybe a double album wouldn't have been necessary?

I guess that SOTT is Prince's most justified case of "stretching out". It's long, but it is in fact interesting all the way through.

But the 90's albums aren't that bad either. Prince makes good use of the playing time; the songs usually aren't longer than they have to be. (Maybe just too many of them, you might argue)

The notable exception is Emancipation, which again contains a lot of lengthy jam endings - but I guess that was due to the idea of making each disc exactly 60 minutes long.
[Edited 3/12/07 23:55pm]

The Symbol album was over long and a bit of a mish mash 2 me (just 4 my own

personal tastes, not saying it as a fact).


That was the first Prince album I bought that I was truly turned off by.

Obviously over the last 15 years i've revisited songs on the album and love

some of it, but for me personally, the only 90's Prince album that can live

with his 80's output was TGE.


Just an opinion tho

One major consequence of CDs is the decline in album art. CD booklets simply don't lend themselves to the kind of images and design work that were possible with those huge vinyl album sleeves.

Prince being such a visual artist, this may have affected his pop craft somewhat, but honestly, he's never been the kind of album cover imagist like Pink Floyd anyway, so I don't think it made much of a difference for him.

What hampered Prince's output in the 90s was his newfound Lovesexy piety. He spent that whole decade acting like he was some saintly innocent being wronged by greedy studio heads. And his hyprocrisy infected his music. His party jams lost their sense of joy, his love songs became twisted reverse psychology mind games (Damn U, I Hate U, I Don't Trust U), and his religious songs became more and more cynical. 7, Dolphin, Gold are all pretty contentious and spiteful for supposedly redemptive songs.

One of the saddest aspects of Prince's evolution has been the slow death of his Love Your Enemies credo. As he began to identify his enemies as money-minded, artist-hating executive types, his tone grew increasingly intolerant and unforgiving and incoherent, personified by the narrator in The Rainbow Children.

If Prince is to make meaningful music again, forgiveness and regret and apology would have to be his central themes.

gcu1 said:

Agreed

Live 4 Love, one of the best songs on the album.

I'm not a big fan of this particular period with Tony M rapping on P songs. I personally don't associate P with Rap music.

Some people cant see clearly...

Why would u want him to shorten his CDs?

Its like him releasing a 40-50m CD AND including the outtakes.

Singingboy said:

Right I love that song! Anyway we have come to realize that there will always be threads posted based on pure opinion which is totally subjective and we'll just have to disagree and move on. I'm sure Romeoblu doesn't mean any harm, but I don't think there was anything wrong with the length of P's albums in the 90's. How can u define the term "filler" that's subjective. P left songs off of many of his albums that many of us here find are essential to our collections. So when people go on rambling about " why so many fillers" I'm like whatever. Get rid of Blue Light? puhleeze!

steve4key said:

Me neither. To me, Prince is like a mad scientist dabbling in anything and everything. He defies categorization.

.....

adorable2 said:

YES! Well articulated!!

.....

origmnd said:

If you're referring to me, I see perfectly clearly....thank U.



Then you pick your favorite 40 to 50 minutes worth and create the playlist that suits you best.

Meanwhile I'll bask in all that The Artist has to offer. Maybe I'll like it, maybe I won't. But at least I won't have to go to my grave without ever hearing it.

.....

I'm glad the CD's Came as they did.

I want as much Prince as possible.

My point was that because he released more music on albums in the 1990's the great stuff was sort of missed because the albums on the whole were seen as not as good.

If I were to compare Symbol to Controversy I would say Controversy is the my more favoured album as It contains 8 great songs. So I really enjoy the album from start to finish and love every song. Whereas the Symbol album has probably as much great music but the album experince isn't as good because it has some songs that I still consider good but not great and a couple that I can listen too but could live without.

Singingboy said:

That song is sexy. That's a certified "panty-dropper"

gcu1 said:

Tony M. raps on Live4Love.

Prince used to mix a lot of styles in his music.

Needless to say, Prince is two very different people in the 80's and 90's.

I dealt with a little "culture shock" today because I listened to TGE for the first time and then watched "Purple Rain"... TGE kinda took away from the overall feeling of the movie, which is why I plan to watch it again in a matter of minutes.

I'll have more of an answer as to my thoughts about 90's Prince/... his overall vibe is extremely different in the 90's, I'll say that much.

Tremolina said:

Hi Tremolina

I know that Tony M raps on "Live 4 Love" but all I was trying to get across was that of the whole album that track for me is one of the best songs.
But as far as I'm concerned that era was not his best.I'm not saying that all his music around that time was s**t coz he did put out some good tunes. I've just never really been a big rap fan and don't think that that style suits him.
Maybe if he had done the rapping himself i might have felt different. I buy Prince albums to listen to Prince not someone else.
I do not mean to cause offence and am sorry if I have.

steve4key said:

Oh no, no offense. Why would you think that?

I was just pointing it out. Personally, I liked the ladies raps he had during the SOTT, TBE and LS period. It was still Prince music you would hear then. It had Prince all over it. I think introducing Tony M. made his music lean more towards commercial hiphop, which just isn't Prince anymore, in my opinion. Hence part of the reason of a decline in quality during the ninetees is given if you ask me.
[Edited 3/14/07 10:27am]

gcu1 said:

I think U misunderstood me (like many).
Im grateful that he releases 70+ minutes on a CD, even if some would argue only 45-50 minutes is grade A quality. Its like having the CD plus outtakes.

Like NPS....40m exc shit ,25 min good shit

origmnd said:

OK...sorry 4 my misunderstanding.

.....