I'm not quite sure "lonely" is the right word for it. But I agree with a lot of the things you said.
Dark is heartbroken sounding. To me, it's like a sedated version of " Hate U" It sounds like he should be angry, but he's not.

I listened thru it once and during the first half, I was a little mad at him cuz it sounded like he was putting on an act, haha. I know, nearly everything he does is an act... but in that moment of "awareness" it felt like he was covering up for some deeper issues that lie in Dark & Solo.


No, I have not. And on the inside, I've felt myself driven to tears because of the pain, agony and sadness within it. But at the same time, that's what makes it brilliant.

And I've seen Letitgo in sadness and also as the bright side of "Solo" where he finally breaks away from the past.

It's a very tight project and also very personal. And that's why its one of my favorites.

you was it a dark album just cause he was fufilling his WB contract..so he was giving them any old stuff?

good album anyways

Christopher said:

I'm sure he was just genuinely in a dark place during that time, and the album was basically touted as the "death" of Prince as a record company marketing tool, so surely it was intentional.

I find it very hard to listen to Papa. I feel the pain of each musical punch he gets from his father. Solo is one of the best vocals I've heard come out of him. So veunerable and lonely. All in all a great album, yet heartbreaking at times.

PurpleKnight said:

Good analysis. I wish P would explore his dark sides more often. "Dark" is one of my top twenty P songs. I think musically, lyrically and thematically it is perfect. It doesn't get enough love on the org. It is so much better than the CB version where he is taking your analysis of this work at attempting to "lighten" it. I also love "underproduced" Prince. So many people get this album wrong. And it's lazy music criticism to label and hate on all his 90's work. I'm convinced that if you created a box set of this decade, there would be a new appreciation of a lot of the material.

PaisleyStarr said:

True enough... once when I heard it and ID'd as "the death of Prince," Letitgo felt like a video he put on a living will after he "passed away"...
Then the next time I listened, I saw that it had a bright side... can't explain what/how/why, but it made me smile.


Again, I agree. I think I might have analyzed this album to death, though, so I've come up with other hidden meanings behind its release.

SOLO is one of the most riveting vocal arrangements that he has ever done.

The album is great!

About 5 years ago, I babysat a pair of parkeets for two weeks....Prince
music was usually around the house....

The birds....loved Solo.

Oh man... I remember when I first started considering getting this album. I think I didn't want it at first because I thought people didn't like it and I didn't want to hear overly "dark" music from Prince.

But after hearing Race, Pheromone and Come in "The beautiful experience" video when it was on HQ, I thought it might not be a bad idea.
It's a grower album, but it's what I like to call "subtle greatness". There's nothing really WOW that jumps out at you (although Letitgo did for me), but when you spend time with it, it takes you into this whole new world.

It is very personal and Prince had never done anything like this. And hasn't since.

It's one of my favorites to talk about, especially when I found out that it wasn't quite what I imagined and it has a big fanbase here.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Oh man... I remember when I first started considering getting this album. I think I didn't want it at first because I thought people didn't like it and I didn't want to hear overly "dark" music from Prince.

But after hearing Race, Pheromone and Come in "The beautiful experience" video when it was on HQ, I thought it might not be a bad idea.
It's a grower album, but it's what I like to call "subtle greatness". There's nothing really WOW that jumps out at you (although Letitgo did for me), but when you spend time with it, it takes you into this whole new world.

It is very personal and Prince had never done anything like this. And hasn't since.

It's one of my favorites to talk about, especially when I found out that it wasn't quite what I imagined and it has a big fanbase here.

Yes It it does!

cool album...i have some major issues with it, but overall, one of his best.

i think it's my favorite prince album. i'd say it's my favorite album but i like 3121 equally for the same, but opposite, reason
[Edited 9/24/07 19:44pm]

Your critique of Come is a good one. I always felt that the songs flowed well in the order they were placed in...on continued play, its seamless. Dark is always a word I used to describe P's mood in this one, and yes he seems to come off as lonely as hell....gee, this puts a whole new perspective on the song Orgasm for me, a lonely Prince fantasizing instead of actually being with someone eewww!!

I'd put up my own critque of Come (I came up with this theory about it having 2 halves. Come thru Loose is "Purple Fantasy" and the rest is "Reality in Darkness")...

but I think I killed a bunch of people with my Musicology thread.
So I'll spare the rest of you guys.

I'd say Come is my favorite album... but the last time I picked a favorite, it didn't pan out. I mean, a favorite album should sound good all the time, right? TGE has let me down so many times that I can hardly call it my favorite, but it's in my top 4, alongside 1999, PR and Come.

It's a very tight project that really flows well. In that one way, its superior to TGE.

PurpleKnight said:

I like how you are able to form a synopsis of the entire album yet pinpoint the emotion/feeling within each song and tying them together with one theme!

This album, I never did hear any song from it. Although I did hear from an earlier post, I think it was "How Come Nobody Ever Talks about Papa?" that this album was created after the death of Prince's and Mayte's baby (correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe because of the grief in Prince's life it was a dark time and this album reflected those feelings. I hate to keep saying "Maybe" but maybe during this point in his life overwhelming feelings of depression drove him to face all those other demons that haunted his past and still lurked with him in his present life and he had to face life's most difficult questions. Sounded like a lost person at that time.

It's very sad but I hope that him being able to express and purge these awful feelings helped him in the healing process!

After considering this thread I'm seriously thinking about getting this album now, I wasn't before. I'm very curious and want to experience this personal album from his life.

Thanks for your thread!

Come is the loneliest album that he'll ever do
Prince can be as bad as Come, its the loneliest album since the album Come

wildgoldenhoney said:

I'll co-sign there. At least you were able to keep things minimal. I go really long in my synposis of different albums (my Musicology thread is proof).
But I'll have to correct you on that.
Mayte & Prince weren't married until '96 and Emancipation was the album dedicated to her and their baby.

It's supposedly dark because of the whole fight with WB. Around that time, he started writing "SLAVE" on his face. I came up with a thread on what that meant. I know that WB had a great deal to do with it, but it was also a personal struggle. He wrote so much music in that time that he wanted to release it as soon as he could so he could make more and when he couldn't, it caused all kinds of problems emotionally... so some of the "dark" elements of the album could be from that inner struggle he was dealing with.

After having the much anticipated album lag in sales, I believe WB execs. decided not to advance P as much $$$ and put further restrictions on music releases. Prince quickly tired of his 100 million dollar contract and told WB to kiss his azz. I believe this is when all of the reports of him becoming bankrupt, and lots of folks being let go at Paisley Park happened. Prince surely was in a bad place during the time when come was released, I don't even remember any promotion for it's release

hiccup
[Edited 9/25/07 9:03am]

PurpleKnight said:

Talking to Michael B. (Prince's drummer during that time) Come and The Gold Experience were recorded at the same time, along with many other songs. So I don't know if he was in such a dark place overall at the time as the album makes it seem.






.
[Edited 9/25/07 13:02pm]

Christopher said:

I've never really bought that. Especially since it's far better than New Power Soul, a supposed "free" album.

I think maybe it's the focus on the death of Prince. "Prince" at the time, was probably a big source of demons for Prince. Maybe the album was a way to address them once and for all, and put them to rest before moving on with a fresh life & name.

I think maybe he has since realized that "Prince" had some good qualities, too, and now he's back. But at the time I guess he wanted to leave the image & connotations behind.

I never considered Come to be a dark album. I loved it because at the time it was released it was critically panned but to me it was the old nasty, dirty Prince that I had grown to love ("Can I fuck you baby? Can I suck you baby?"-"Come"). And I thought the beat was just awesome on that title track. That track alone was worth the price of admission to me. "Dark" is also a great track. The arrangement is superb. Yeah, it's a "break-up" track, but it's not really sad. The saddest part of Come to me is the line in "Letitgo" where he sings (paraphrasing here) "All my life I wanted to sing my song but a horse couldn't drag your ass to put me on." To me that was sad because Prince is a genius but no one would play him anymore other than his old "classic" radio hits.

dannyd5050 said:

That was kind of the reason why I wanted to avoid it at first.
I got the impression from how it was talked about (I obviously wasn't listening too well) that it was very dark, angry and sad.
Then when I said so out of concern, people told me "No, it isn't angry or dark at all." Then someone mentioned that "Eye Hate U and Dolphin are more angry than anything you'll find on Come."
And he was right. Those 2 songs drove me nuts the last time I heard them for that reason.

The sound was unbelievable when I heard it the first time. I mean the use of horns in the title track... I wasn't expecting that at all. And there's some super sexy stuff on it that I think I wouldn't have had the stomach for when I first got started. But it only took one listen to get used to the little bit in "Come" after he starts whispering (u guys all know it) and Orgasm... I didn't know what to think of that one... but I just couldn't keep it out of the line-up.
This album, I almost always have to play thru the whole thing w/o stopping. The rest of the time is when I pick a few tracks to mix with other albums.