There's been a lot of talk (like there always is when a new album is released) about whether it is good, bad, not as good as XXX. At the end of the day it is always going to be subjective because what I like you might not and vice versa.

Personally I don't believe Prince will ever release another GREAT album (because of a variety of factors but most of them external, ie Prince is no longer part of the zeitgeist and is no longer the soundtrack to my coming of age - which is always the time you develop your main love of music).

However, I do believe that the last three albums are all GOOD albums that have given me a lot of pleasure. People will say that the albums are not as consistent as his releases in the 80s but I disagree as I feel there has always been weak tracks on ALL of his albums, but perhaps my absolute love of those 80s albums is due to where I was at that point in my life!

If there is any problem then it is probably a combination of Prince covering too many styles of music on a single album (as the rock guys will not want so much funk, the funk guys won't want so much R&B, the R&B guys don't want the rock etc). The other potential problem is the sequencing of some albums!

What I do believe is that:

a) If any of these three albums had been released in the 80s they would be one of the yardsticks we measure his current releases against.

b) That you can create two GREAT albums from the material on these three GOOD albums.

So here goes (not withstanding different production styles):

3121 Album
3121
Lolita
Black Sweat
Te Amo Corazon
The Marrying Kind,
If Eye Was The Man In Ur Life
Love
Call My Name
What Do U Want Me 2 Do
Fury
The Word
Beautiful Loved And Blessed
The Dance
Dear Mr Man
Reflection

Planet Earth Album
Guitar
Cinnamon Girl
Somewhere Here On Earth
The One U Wanna C
The Lion Of Judah
Future Baby Mama
Mr Goodnight
Chelsea Rogers
A Million Days
On The Couch
Resolution
Planet Earth

The great thing about iTunes is that you can mess with the running order. Try out the ones above and see what you think. For me these are both GREAT and cohesive albums.

Obviously I have missed off a few tracks such as Musicology and ICP&C but the way I see it these could have been great B-Sides of NPGMC releases or even the extra tracks for a Hits 3 collection.

two great albums is a stretch. maybe 1 14 track single cd, but you have to be extremely lenient on what you consider great Prince songs to make 2 great cds, due to 3121 and Musicology being so extremely weak.

Damn - I was going to do this thread!

Will post my tracklist in a bit...

dumbass said:

well as I said that is subjective and you are entitled to your opinion. Mine is that the songs I have listed are good enough to form two great albums. As far as I am concerned if those songs had been released on any of the 80s albums I believe many people would hold them up as examples of how "good Prince was back in the day"!

Similarly if Prince released some of his 80s songs now we would be saying "Prince is not as good now as he was back in the day"!

The whole issue is what the albums meant to you at the time. For Prince's first 11 albums he was a trend setter then from around 1990 onwards he began to do two things:

a) Incorporate the styles of the day (such as hip hop/rap) in an effort to ensure he stayed relevant in a changing musical world

b) Began to repeat himself and show his immense stylistic range on the same albums.

However, neither of those mean he was no longer writing good/great songs.

You can keep Musicology and 3121. Just leave me with Planet Earth...

MattyJam said:

Matty do you really not like ANY of the tracks on either of those albums?

I'm rather partial to What Do U Want Me 2 Do... I actually don't mind Musicology although it certainly doesn't excite me in the way songs like Resolution, Planet Earth and Chelsea Rodgers do.

As for 3121, I loathe it from beginning to end. I just think it's painfully weak.

I think the last 3 have been Soild/Great Albums. Full Albums straight through.

Though I like all his last 3 albums ( to different degrees ) I couldn't
honestly compile 1 album that I think is TRULY great . I could compile
an album that was better than each of the 3 individually for sure , but
no way could I honestly call that album GREAT sorry

Well this just demonstrates the amazingly diverse audience Prince attracts due to his ability to cover such a range of musical styles/genres!