I mean: Come, Exodus, Chaos and disorder, Newpowersoul, Rave un2 the joy fantastic are awful albums compared to 80's and also 00's production.
What was the main explanation for this decrease of quality? Was it due to personal reasons or, more simply, P was just confused aboout what musical path to follow?

ps At first listen, PE seems 2 b his best since Lovesexy!

Aloisio said:

Except Come and Chaos and Disorder are good records...
I would say upward 96 ---> lack of inspiration
before 97 there are a lot of classics.

Don't diss...
Come

Probably personal, that was a bad time for Prince but he's bounced back just fine!

i think prince was truly inspired in the first to mid 90's

first he tried to completely reinvent himself in a modern
way that connected with radio on diamonds & pearls and

then he wanted out of his contract and the fued that they
got into made him seriously prolific again. his music got
an edge at that time that it didn't have before and sure
never had again. prince sounded angry, disappointed, hot
and bothered and above all searching and inspired.

no matter what we all think of emancipation, it's still a
huge project and an inspired one eventho it sounds little
to none like his gold/come inspired drive. his marriage to
mayte and her pregnancy inspired 70% of those songs and it
made him open and more human in the process.

then fcuz the tragedy of their baby came along and when he
went into the studio and recorded The Truth it came out as
one of the most inspired things he did in the 90's. prince
stripped to the core (well, as far as one can go with p),
delivering a naked and honest album.

i do agree that his inspiration seems to have dried up in
the later part of the 1990's from late 1997 up to the time
he recorded and released TRC.

still that's not such a long dry spell really.

from his breakup with mayte until his mariage to manuela
i think was his only real creative lull. not a low, but it
also didn't bring any really amazing sounds or inventive
production. or even anything un-prince for that matter.

i think prince did some of his most experimental and extreme work in the '90s.

in fact...

i don't know if i can say my FAVORITE prince music came out during this era, but i'm most FASCINATED by the music prince released during the first few years of his "symbol phase". i think the anger and conflict he was going through was INSPIRING him to crank out music in a creative fury.

i think as a recording artist, he's way more uninspired *now* than he ever was during the symbol years.

Aloisio said:

the quality i have is excellent, copy the cds at 192 KB

I love his 90´s music. The Gold album. Come, are my favourite.

he hung out with some lame musical partners. Levi, Sonny, Larry, Doug E Fresh et al

Even the greatest musician needs good people to bounce things off of. If it wasnt for Mayte (her inspiration as a romantic interest), I think that whole period would have been totally awful.

emesem said:

Valid point. An artist is influence by the stimuli around them which provides input/incite.

I think Prince was not necesarily less inspired in the nineties then in the eighties.

I mean, on a musical level he was in a growing phase in the eighties, sounding surprised himself by what he could achieve, after 'building' the Minneapolis Sound between 1981 and 1984, he looked beyond that borders in the period 1985 and 1988, discovering new musical styles to express himselve with, culminating in 1988 with Lovesexy, an album that mixes all the musical styles and idea's he tried out in the eighties, and also his 'apotheotos' when to comes in combining the carnal and the divine in his lyrics.

I think after that Prince was stuggling a bit with the way he thought he should present himselve: following his muse? or bringing out albums that the people seem to want. Next to that their were his personal problems and the 'battle' against WB that seemed to distract him too much from the music.

When i look back at the nineties Princes main problem seemed to be that he wasnt making a clear choice between either 'pleasing the public' or 'following his own muse'. A lot of his albums from that decade did sound if he put rappers and 'house'-like dance beats in his songs to keep in touch with his public, but he didnt sound really convinced that that was what he wanted.
Next to that the whole slave era and the plastic funk-period (New Power Soul, Rave) give me the feeling that Prince felt left out by both the public and the people who have the power in the musicworld. And that he decided to draw back himselve out of a feeling of 'you dont seem to want me, fuck you... i will do fine in my own little world (NPGMusicclub)'.

Coming back to the inspiration part, when you look closely it really is there, but mostly not in the officialy, 'marketreleased' albums.
IMO you can hear the inspiration on C&D and the Undertaker: himself trying to rock out, having fun, not having to fullfill any expectations of his broad public.
You can also hear it on the Vault: Prince, Sonny and Michael enjoying themselve in recording bluesy and jazzy songs in a live-setting.
And listen to The Truth and One Nite Alone (studio version): Prince seems inspired while he is expressing himself trough largely acoustic music.
Finally: listen to some of the more experimental tracks from the nineties on Crystall Ball, songs that were aimed to remain in the vault, but i sure hear inspiration, and creative 'greed' in those songs.

Umm...sorry, lame musical partners?

Levi had a lot of input in the early version off the NPG, and i think it was him, Michael Bland and Sonny Thompson that helped him to refresh his music: Diamonds and Pearls, Symbol and The Gold Experience are not perfect, but IMO you should admire Prince trying to make his music sound more band-orientated.

Many of the basic-tracks from those albums were recorded live in the studio: that was a new way of working for Prince and IMO it brought something new and exciting to his music.

I agree, people like Tony M and Scrap D. were probably put into his songs, because wanted to stay in touch with the young public. Those were bad choices.

But calling people like Levi and Sonny lame partners doesnt make sense.

1991-1997 had great outings
from D&P to the 90's stuff on Crystal Ball
+ The Vault (assembled in 1996)
A lot of fantstic material, some plain some experimental
Strollin, Joint 2 Joint, TGE/Come stuff
all great to me

better asked "why does P (to me) appear to be so lowly inspired..."
but it won't matter
I can't answer either question

the implication is that "inspired Prince" equates to songs/albums that YOU like. (and possibly chart success, and sales too)

just send an email and tell him EXACTLY what YOU want him to make.