Which album do you guys prefer.

I, personally prefer Love Symbol. It has more diversity to me. Diamonds & Pearls has some killer songs like, Cream, Gett Off, Diamonds & Pearls, and Live 4 Love, but there's just a lot of bland songs on there to, like Jughead, Willing and Able.

Love Symbol is just a great album to IMO, start to finish. IMO 7 is better than most of the songs on D&P

all the way

Even though a couple of my absolute favorites are on D & P, I have to go with Love Symbol.

for certain. while not perfect, it is far superior to D & P's, which is arguably Prince's worst album simply because of the inclusion of Jughead.

im gonna choose the less popular choice, Diamonds and Pearls

My favorite album of his career by far. This is loaded with great music, beautiful harmonies, complex and inventive arrangements, mature lyrics, etc...
Some people don't appreciate the diversity here but I, personally, don't think there's a weak track in the bunch. Prince was at the top of his game and I consider this to be Prince's last truly 'epic' release. I've said it before. There's more 'classic' worthy tracks on this album than most artists have in their entire career. It's just sad it didn't get a marketing plan that made sense.

D&P, otoh, is a rather uneven album. While there is some diversity there it more or less boils down to two different sides - A) tracks that sound like they were purposely written to be hits and were, and b) The bland tracks that weren't good enough to be singles. It's really a pretty shallow album.
[Edited 5/6/07 18:02pm]

D&P by a mile!! I mean really, the thing has Gett Off on it for crying out loud. Gett Off totally makes up for Jughead. I really hate symbol except for 7 and God Created Woman.

D&P is Controversy as Love Symbol is SOTT, that's a good comparison. Love Symbol is more esoteric, more artistically satisfying. In D&P Prince just wanted a hit, and damnit if he didn't get it.

Wonderwall said:

It's funny how tastes differ because I think the best thing D&P has going for it half the time are the B-sides (Horny Pony, Violet The Organ Grinder)

2freaky4church1 said:

Diamonds And Pearls pisses on from a great height.

To this day, in terms of Prince's sound, Diamonds and Pearls is still unique and represents a definitive era in Prince's career. Tony M's contributions are more subtle and actually worked (although like just about everybody else here, I could have done without Jughead) and act as a constructive embellishment to the album's sound.

The album, however, is as contrived as Prince could possibly be.
Although there are some beautiful Prince songs on there, for the most part, he just seems far too intent on trying to sound like what he thought was contemporary at that time - and failing miserably. Oh yeah, and the NPG (okay, I mean Tony M) had far too much 'creative input'.

The word 'boombastic' was used a lot at the time when reviewing said album and it really did sum it up - in a bad way, too.

As I've pointed out to people before - is the only CD of his that Prince has officially put-down on his own website and I'm so glad that he realises just what a horrible attempt at trying to sound contemporary it really was. It's the album that totally sums up why Prince was trying to get away from Warners at that time. They were forcing him to make dated dirge like that album.

without thinkin twice

purpleworld said:

D&P = better potential r&b hits singles

= better conceptual album

Tough call IMO.

More killer songs makes Diamonds & Pearls the winner here.

Thunder
Daddy Pop
D&P
Cream
Willing & Able
Insatiable
Live 4 Love

All GREAT songs!

FunkJam said:

Agreed

I love , but it would be better without the rapping. Love to the 9's is such a great song, and then the rap "How you gonna make that booty boom?" I mean really is that whole part of the song necessary? But it is still a great album

I say Diamonds and Pearls because Insatiable and Money Don't Matter 2night r on it

I'm not a huge fan of either of these. I guess I would go with the symbol album but only by an inch.

D&P

The only songs I like on the Love Symbol album are Sexy Mutha, Damn U, and And God Created Woman.

Symbol

Haystack said:

I'm not familiar with the comment about on his site but... Prince has REPEATEDLY criticized his own works. Forgetting the entire war he waged against The Black Album (while still performing songs from it in concert no less), he's put down Parade, saying nothing on it but Kiss was worth being proud of... He's claimed that all his previous releases were inferior to The Gold Experience... stated 1999 was the work of a 4th grader... tried to ignore For You all together at various points, etc... He often does it simply to push whatever current agenda he has in his head at the time.



Forcing him? D&P was the album Prince was bending over backwards on in an attempt to have a big hit and please everyone. WB was happy to milk that and tell Prince to slow down on releases... Prince is the one who marched ahead with a 'rock opera' concept album and built a "movie" around it.

Diamonds and Pearls, a slick album, a bit calculated even, but when it comes to the quality of the compositions and the way this album flows, its his best album since Sign of the Times.

Love symbol is maybe pushing more edges, but on the otherhand this album is way over the top, way too bombastic and kitchy for its own good. Its cartoon-music, offering not a lot of depth.

dumbass said:

the way i prefer to see it is D&P is a brilliant album in spite of including Jughead.

to me D&P is the original, is the sequel. and as sequels would, it's bigger, faster, louder, nastier and shallower.

jtfolden said:

The comment on the NPGMC site included the line 'Listen to and then listen to The Rainbow Children and see which one sounds more like freedom' (roughly that, anyway)
It's interesting that, as the comment appeared at a time when Prince was releasing independently and enjoying his 'freedom', he picked that one album as the example of when he wasn't 'free'.

Haystack said:

Oh, I remember that one... It's just politics and a general F.U. to WB... was the the very first he delivered under his "$100 million Contract" to Warner and when they really began going head to head over marketing. It's no different than him Previously stating that Gold was better than Purple Rain (and the rest of his entire catalog for that matter).

I love Insatiable but for the overall album I choose

all the way. There are songs that I love off of Diamonds and Pearls but as a whole, is my album. It's one of my all time favorite albums of Prince's.