What Prince album have you tried the hardest to like? You know there's a particular stinker in his catalog...you kept coming back again and again for whatever reason, hoping that you'd find something "new" or have the album suddenly hit you...

For me, it's Emancipation. Ever since '96, I've been trying to like this album. It's 36 fucking songs, across 3 CDs...the first album after Prince was "released from the slavery" of WB (riiiight). Shouldn't the floodgates of creativity opened? Shouldn't it be full of magical Princely delight? Well, instead, it's full of dreck like "We Gets Up" and "Mr. Happy." Plastic production. Meandering song structures. Half-ass lyrics, with Prince trying way too hard to sound hip. Lots and lots of pathetic, generic, shitty modern R&B. I could go on, but let me just say I hate this album. But for some damn reason I keep coming back. I WANT to like this album. I WANT it to be a masterpiece. Other people seem to like it, to a large degree. I can't stop myself. In fact, I'm listening to it right now. And "Big White Mansion" is playing. It sucks. It's always sucked. It always will suck. But I'll keep coming back for more, as much as I don't like it. I'm going to wear out the fast-forward button on my iPod...

Do you have any Prince albums like this? (This probably leaves out total shit like "Kamasutra," since I can't imagine anyone who's not a complete fucking asstard trying more than once to sit through that pap.)

It's not a 'stinker' per se, but I'm just not feelin' 3121. I love the song, but the rest of the album just turns me off, no matter how hard I try...

(edit: as for Emancipation, I won't even give that wank-a-thon the time of day more than once a year, if that!)
[Edited 7/19/07 16:25pm]

New Power Soul..just can't though. Nearly fell off the Prince wagon at that stage.

Listened to it constantly for 3 days with my girlfriend at the time, then i just threw in the towl so to speak. I mean Come on and if you love somebody had flickers but the rest was so generic and god awful, i remember feeling extremely depressed

I then discovered Wasted Kisses and my hope and sanity was renewed and reinvigorated ... .

It remains one of my favorite Prince tracks ever.

Planet Earth is a strong record imo, much better than his last 2. Been spinning it for a few days now. I think its a grower, although it still lacks a cohesiveness of sound which i love in all my classic P albums..Parade, Dirty Mind, Sign,The Truth..and even my more than guilty pleasure ; Emancipation..

Chaos & Disorder.
When I went to see Prince on the "Today Show" back in '96, I was into it for a minute, but that was because I was riding the high of seeing him perform those songs live.
I got tired of it after a while, and one day I picked it up to listen to it and I thought .

Recently there was a thread defending it, so I pulled it out & gave it another listen.
I just got another computer and am reloading my iTunes. I included it in hopes that as individual songs shuffle thru, I will gain new appreciation for them.
I do try...

The Rainbow Children and sometimes GB. Its the only Prince album (including boots) that I have to work hard to listen to all of it, non-stop.

The Truth. I know some people love it and think its the best thing he did in the 90s and all that but I just cant get into it. There's maybe 4 songs that speak to me. Circle Of Amour, Fascination, Comeback and Welcome 2 The Dawn. There's something that I just don't like about the album and I cant figure it out.

Dirty Mind! God, whatta disappointment!! The songs are weak, the plastic 80s production is weak....man, I can't get over how profoundly WEAK that album is. It sounds like he just didn't even care. I still come back to it from time to time with a faint glimmer of hope, but to no avail....

.....

Lovemachine has really tired to get me to enjoy The Rainbow Children..it hasn't worked yet.

I'd have to go with Emancipation also. The "plastic" production as someone else mentions doesn't do it for me. I will always prefer Prince with more of a live band sound. Some of those songs (Jam of the Year, Face Down, Get Yo Groove On, One Of Us) were outstanding live, but the soul was missing on record. I think that what we got on that album was happy, in-love Prince, and for some reason, that doesn't always translate into a very interesting Prince. He's always been better to me when he's angry or has something to prove.

another vote for TRC. I can hear that it's well made, but I just don't feel it.

Chaos and Disorder. Great rock songs but painful to listen

For me, the album I spent most time trying to get into was Lovesexy.

I was a non-religious person (still am), and had come through the 80s with Prince.

I spent a long time trying to enjoy the religious vibe, and a long time trying to ignore the fact that the album was nowhere near as good as anything preceding it.

I gave up, and haven't really tried to enjoy anything of Prince's since. The albums since the 80s have their moments at times, but I never listen to any of them all the way through. I only own a couple.

I keep trying with all of these..

The Rainbow Children
NPS
Come
Emancipation
3121
Musicology
(I think PE might be added to this list soon too)


I give all these albums a good spin, I am trying really hard to like them. They get more airplay than favorites, Lovesexy, Parade, Prince, etc..

I think I have to come to terms with the fact that they are just no good.

NEW POWER SOUL.
I have tried and tried, I can absolutely not get into it.

It's been hinted at already, but it's true for me too. Sometimes all of you, my fellow orgers, are the motivation for me to try something again that I can't get into.

The three Prince albums that are the most highly praised here out of the ones I don't really care for are (in order of the most praise around here):
1. Lovesexy
2. The Rainbow Children
3. Come

I don't know what it is...I LIKE Lovesexy but don't LOVE it. I don't like the continuous play and I think half of the tracks are silly even if the instrumentation/arrangements are similar to the other mid-80s Prince stuff I love. The Rainbow Children...I love the music on that disc but almost none of the words. Words don't have to mean everything but at the same time, I was so overwhelmed with dogma and his version of spirituality and, worst of all (because my mind is an open one on the religion stuff) that dumb voice. I RESPECT that disc for the musicianship but don't ENJOY it. Then there's Come, which some of you (Anxiety...I remember that you're a fan...) really really like. And I thought "Letitgo" was the weakest leadoff single from a Prince album ever and then when I listened to the whole thing I was like "oh no...he's done!" To me, he had run out of things to say and the sex talk wasn't as witty as "Do Me Baby" or "Gett Off." "Orgasm"? Excuse me? So ridiculous to me. Again, because some of you have persuaded me of it's virtues, I've grown to appreciate a few of the tracks.

Keith/Kacey

I would say NPS but techinically everyone says its an NPG album.

.
[Edited 12/19/12 18:28pm]

3121 and Musicology

STILL trying to get into PE. Going to be tough...

looking around but I KNOW I've seen it all before, P!

eelco

Lovesexy was a hard one to get into, it was helped by the SOTT movie the SOTT b-sides, and BLACK ALBUM. These sweetened my attitude.

whisper it, but 20 years later I am still unsure about SOTT. Even though it came with a free plastic pink rose from HMV in Derby on release day!

I've tried hard to like it, mainly to try and see why it's always singled out. It's good for me, but I rarely listen to it, and when I do it's to see if I finally 'get it' to the same extent as most people.

Still trying.....

gcu1 said:

I hope this is sarcasm...

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

Apart from 7, ...and God Created Woman, I hated this album from day one and still hate it. I fell off the Prince-wagon for a few years after this came out. I dig Continental and Sexy MF every once in awhile.
[Edited 7/20/07 12:40pm]

mellow1 said:

Agree!

Only 2 songs on that album I truly enjoy listening to, the
rest face down.

3121

gcu1 said:

U have 2 remember that "Dirty Mind" is essentially a demo album. Prince had plans to re-record all of the trax in CA, but WB execs at the time loved the "rawness" of it and decided to issue it as it was.

4 me, the album I cannot get into is NPS. I like some of the trax (Mad Sex, Come On, The One, Wasted Kisses), but I could have definitely lived without the rest of it.

PurpleKnight said:

I 4got about N.E.W.S.. Add that one on my list for the same reasons listed.

Chaos & disorder.
Not because of the songs but this was the first time
I heard such a bad production/sound from our man.
He was always praised how good he made his music sound but not on this one...
It was the first time,and sadly not the last time, we would
hear Prince rock with 2 much cymbals(tsss tsss tsss,like they are trown all around the room)and not enough power-guitar

[Edited 7/20/07 14:28pm]