I personally love the weird funk Prince. Not this watered down r&B version of him that we have been getting lately. I know he still has it in him to be innovative and different. The Rainbow Children and a fw songs from 3121 hinted to that. Anyway I wanted to list his top 5 strangest records....

#1 Controversy- I was listening to this the other day and the first thing I thought was damn P was on some shit when he did this. People rant about how good Dirty Mind is, I personally feel this is the better record.

#2 1999- This is my favorite P record. It starts out with the hits, but by the 4th track its a weird funk workout that is just brilliant. Everything was done right (even Free).

#3 Around The World In a Day- This has never been a favorite record of mine. It sounds as if P was trying so hard to remove himself from Purple Rain that he kinda sounds a bit worn out. It sounds more like a transitional record to me but it still very left field.

#4 Parade- Another one of my favorite P records. I was stunned to here Prince say he didn't have enough strong material when he put out this record. This thing is everywhere yet it sounds very consistant. I love the french feel he put into this and the songs were top notch.

#5 The Black Album- This one really needs no explanation. We all know the story . This is not one of my favorite records, but it's still fun to listen to.

Now that i have listed my top 5 lets hear yours, Maybe we agree maybe we won't. Something to talk about though.

*Honorable Mentions*
LoveSexy
Dirty Mind
The Rainbow Children
Come

5. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic - The covers, the guests, the mish-mash of new and old songs, the sequencing. Not just a Santana-style sell-out, but a huge sell-out. A sell-out that really backfired. I can still dig many of the tracks, but I didn't think Prince would ever go there.

4. Come - One word titles. The "death" of Prince. Kiss-off to Warners, or to his fair-weather fan base?

3. Lovesexy - Musically outrageous for a pop album. Light. Heavy. Album-as-whole-experience. Good for you Purps.

2. Rainbow Children - Expected, yet unexpected musically and lyrically. A record more about hate than love.

1. NEWS - Strange that it was released under the name Prince. Prince declared war on preconception and pop-star convention yet again.

/
[Edited 5/5/07 16:07pm]

Interesting take.....

squirrelgrease said:

I agree with this list and for all the same reasons.

squirrelgrease said:

Awesome write up....so true....

1. Around the World in a Day
2. Parade
3. Newpower Soul
4. LoveSEXY
5. The Rainbow Children, I guess. I love it

I guess what I meant was musically. It seems people get too caught up with what P is doing or who he is that the music is forgotten. I started this topic because i was listening to Controversy and was just amazed that P was not on something. It is such a starnge record all around.

Anyway, I was judging the music itself. It's hard for me to see the Rave as a strange record. It was Prince music watered down...
[Edited 5/7/07 10:36am]

ATWIAD: I don't like it very much. In my opinion, the Dream Factory and some parts of Parade truly showed what Prince and Wendy&Lisa were tryin' to do by 1985.
Lovesexy: you know, the neverending story. He was just ready to deliver one of his nastiest and funkiest records of all time but finally he decided to deliver this confused, friendly pop/funk album. But I do like the songs from a musical point of view, though.
Come: dark, depressing, unexpected...
Rave: an insincere, commercial record with annoying, plastic R&B for the most part.
Rainbow children: absolutely different to anything he had done before, with mixed results.
[Edited 5/7/07 11:38am]

Camille - for a number of reasons.

01. The adoption of the actual "Camille" persona. It's nothing new for pop-stars to adopt differing characters, from Sgt. Pepper, through to Ziggy Stardust, Sir Nose and onwards, but Camille was more like adopting a cypher than a character. The Camille persona was more ambiguous than Prince's actual persona really is or was. It wasn't like adding another layer to portray another character, as much as stripping one away... Prince's lyrics remarked upon his androgny from time to time whereas Camille's lyrics pushed this to the nth degree with the ambiguity of lines like "I just hate 2 see an erection go to waste" and "If I was your girlfriend, would U remember 2 tell me all of the things U forgot when I was your man". The character was less defined than the actual performer. I can't explain it any better than that.

02. The sped-up voice throughout the Camille album. It's like Alvin and The Chipmunks on crack. We know that Camille also has a spooky slowed-down voice ('Scarlet Pussy' and the live version of 'Bob George') but the helium effect was sustained for a full forty-odd minutes of funky weirdness. I'd love to have known what the suits at Warner made of it.

03. It's just so different from the Parade album. I know a lot of people cite the progression from Purple Rain to Around The World In A Day as being his biggest change of gears, but I really don't think so. Both those albums are quite rock-oriented - different genres of rock (Stadium Rock and Psychedelia), but rock all the same. Whereas Parade sounds dense, lush, orchestral and jazzy, the Camille album sounds like plastic pop from planet Cock.

BinaryJustin said: