The best songs on Diamonds & Pearls are better than the best songs on , but as a whole is the better album. Both are essential Prince IMO and are 2 of my faves.

Symbol

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.

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.

Haystack said:

I completely disagree.There's nothing "unique" about D&P.That's one of the most safest albums of Prince's career.I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing and I do like most of the songs.But let's not sugarcoat things.'Diamonds And Pearls' is a gentle,harmless,commercial pop album filled with radio-friendly tunes.It doesn't really take Prince in any new directions.The arrangements are mostly safe and unchallenging,which is rare for a Prince album.He was clearly looking for a hit with this album.

'Love Symbol',on the other hand,is a much bolder album.It goes in many,many more directions than 'D&P'.Bold,invigorating tunes like "Sexy MF","Love 2 The 9s","Three Chains O Gold" and "The Contintental" make D&P sound like elevator music."The Flow" kicks "Jugheads'" ass."And God Created Woman" is superior to anything on D&P,while "7" is one of those Prince songs that can truly be called a classic.As good as D&P is,I don't consider any of the songs to be classic.


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[Edited 5/7/07 5:32am]

SoulAlive said:

3 Chains o gold is hardly bold...its a REALLY weak rewrite of Bohemian Rhapsody. Symbol was the 1st album when I heard Prince chasing trends instead of creating them. The rapping on it is a joke and it was also missing Rosie BIG Time.

D&P had Rosie, minimal rapping (excluding Jughead), and Thunder, Gett Off, Willing and Able, and Money Don't Matter...There is no question imo that D&P CLEARLY wins this battle!!

Oh please 'Diamonds and Pearls' is a safe album.It wouldn't hurt a fly.'Love Symbol' is funkier,louder and more aggressive.It's an album that KICKS YOUR ASS! "My Name Is Prince" kills "Daddy Pop"."The Flow" kills "Jughead"."Sexy MF" puts "Gett Off" to shame.

What about all the rapping on 'D&P'? That was the first Prince album that prominently featured a rapper.There's very little innovation on 'D&P'.It's just a simple,commercial pop album.That's not a bad thing,mind you.After the failure of 'Graffiti Bridge',he needed to bounce back with a mainstream project,to stay in the game.I just think 'Love Symbol' is more interesting and a whole lot more fun.