Whilst I love the old school classics, I find these last 3 albums have been great to listen to as records in their own right. They've provided a tantalising glimpse into some of the newer jams from the infamous vault and also personally given me many highlights to savour...

Musicology...a personal highlight of mine being Prince & Wendy's acoustic rendition of Reflection but also loving that we got to hear A Million Days and If I Was The Man In Your Life dusted off from the back catalogue and given a rightful home
3121...especially felt the Lovesexy vibe on The Word "get up, come on let's do something", the "hey, hey, hey, wake up it's a new day" bridge on Beautiful, Loved & Blessed, not to mention the classic funk break on Love of "bounce, aww, shake that thing, c'mon!" And who didn't love the Michael B./Sonny T. Days Of Wild style rumbling on the title track?!
Planet Earth...absolutely LOVING(!) the gorgeous melody on Future Baby Mama (reminds me of the plaintive longing on the Rebels era demo of If I Love You Tonight) as well as the sheer brilliance of Lion Of Judah (a true classic in my eyes).

Surely I can't be the only one who is truly diggin' all 3 of these albums.
Anyone else feeling these joints?

Love 'em all brotha...

I adore 3121 and appreciate about half of Planet Earth. Musicology never really clicked with me though.

I love every last one of them. They are each special in their own way.

each of these r very classy. love em all.
the songs on music & 3121 would not have seemed out of place on either album.
phew perfect class! totally soundd...
planet e is a melting pot. it's a fun album. the only tune tht doesn't suit me is somewhere here o e, but each 2 their own. it doesn't sound as spontaneous as his other stuff, plus i like 2 sing along - funking impossible in this case!

All 3 are truly indispensable to me. Without them my dining table would still wobble & spill my wine all over the floor whenever I leant on it.

me, me, me.

Anjikins!

I like Musicology. It's okay enough.

I REALLY like 3121 and PE. I truly dig them.

I must say that I do

Flowerz said:

Me too. I liked Musicology. I don't listen to 3121 anymore. The last time I listened to it, was like a year ago. and I never really got into all of PE.

So I'd take The Rainow Children over these three anyday.

I love 3121, Musicology && Planet Earth!

How can't you?

I love Musicology! 3121 is ok and PE is good.

I do miss the days when Prince would promote the albums with videos and it seemed like album 2 album were completely different periods in time as far as style and image goes. Nowadays it feels like a blur..change is less gradual.

I like them all okay, but don't love them. Was just thinking about Musicology today though, and remembering it quite fondly. Maybe I should revisit it...

Yes indeed.

Yes Anji, I love the last 3 cd's. I love the direction Prince is going in. I play eveything on all 3 cd's without the skip button. Like u, I totally love Lion of Judah along with the whole PE cd.

Thrice x 3.

Anji, you goon!

i can sincerely say that i do!

I like them all and if P is ready to retire or take a break he is going out on top. I am sure that over time most fans will be raving about the 00's years.
-----

Anji said:

I love all 3 of 'em!

their all in my top 10 prince albums, 3121 and PE in my top 5!

Anji said:

that song and call my name were my fav's. reflection was great cause of the lyrics.a true 00's prince gem.

I liked all three. Although they are all a little disposable. A 17 track CD compiling all of the best tracks would have been the best puclic release, but I still enjoy them as a set. I think Musicology is the strongest because it has the least amount of weak points.

What makes a hardcore fan by the way. Some of the people who have responded on here only own a few albums?!

Liked Musicology, and 3121 - Planet Earth is growing on me with every listen.

Does that make me hardcore?

skywalker said:

I dig that The Rainbow Children is a murky, dark, brooding beast of a record. It adds to the atmosphere and accentuates those euphoric, healing moments such as on Everywhere and Last December. I also find Prince to be pretty cheeky in many places so there's definitely a little fun to be had but I know what you mean.

realm said:

That's a really good point. I think he made a concerted effort to brand the 3121 era but it seems he is less interested in drawing thematic distinctions between these recent eras, so it does feel like there is less of a change between the albums. That's a pity because, like you, I used to love diggin out a particular album and getting into the whole ethos of that era.

50/50 on them. Some great tracks, and some bad.