Listening to this album now, it occurs to me that this is probably his best album ever.

While Around the world in a day was a Fuck You for people who thought he 'sold out' with Purple Rain, and while Sign of the Times almost sounds like an apology to the music critics, Parade still shows a playfullness and quirkienss that is truelly delightfull!

Parade sounds like an 'accident', but somehow it captures the brilliance of Prince in the best way.

can't wholeheartedly agree, but it is an amazing album ! one of my personal faves. one of the first few i bought, mainly for sometimes it snows in april . didn't get it at first, but it grew on me quickly. hearing sign o the times kinda put it into perspective for me, but

My favourite album of all time by anyone since forever!

To me this one is the most "entertaining" Prince album - a great, great record. Never get tired of it - perfect from start to finish, also the cover is the best!

no way, parade is sloppy, full of silly short little songs and most of its filler. kiss and anotherlover are good but the rest is not good at all. one of my least favs.

emancipation on the other hand...

parade is fab no doubt about tht!
NEVER fails 2 lift ur spirit! also very sexy era 4 prince...

[Edited 2/23/08 4:30am]

Its a good album but IMO its not his best work.

I've always liked it.

Wouldn't call it his best,but I do like it.

Its my favorite !

A good/excellent album, but I feel it is part of an era (1999-SOTT) that Prince could almost do no wrong. I love that Parade developed the Claire Fisher sound, but I think it was used better on the Family album. Parade was when Prince showed his confidence in his success. PR was a touchdown, ATWIAD was a fake to the left and Parade was his way of saying "you like those, well watch this one!" For the most part, no one saw that coming. I wish he could do that again so easily.

That said, Parade led to several things that damaged Prince. UTCM was an awful movie, the Parade tour was too much of a funk review and the band was way too big (did we need the dancers?), the hit and run tour was very unsatisfying and the main tour ended in Japan, and with Wendy and Lisa interested in leaving the band, this was the last blip of The Revolution.

I see Parade as a pretty good album, not perfect, but an amazing symbol from a time that really wasn't a great year for Prince.

it's always been one of my favs. the soundscapes are fantastic! a breath of fresh air,imo.

I love this album, always go back to it and enjoy all over again.
Just a shame it is so short

I love that he had the balls to make such an unusual sounding album. Listening to it recently on vinyl, I thought side 2 every song is vocally amazing.

This is a really difficult thing to answer to

Although I love this album. I never fail to kick myself for not considering it orginially just because I thought every other song would be like "Kiss," which I didn't see why it was so special.

It's an album I just love to listen to again and again and 99% of the time, I enjoy it so much that it just erases anything bogging me down and makes me happy.

As for being his best, that's the difficult thing. There's no clear way to define "best" but I see what you mean when it's perfect based on how ATWIAD was this... and SOTT was that.

Of all my 80's albums, I don't think anything came close to Purple Rain before I first heard the Parade album. The music is completely different, with a different vibe and everything, but there's a rivalry there. Not so much between the movies, but Purple Rain has more of a nostaglic feel to it. Parade feels a little more spontaneous and various since there were a lot of "firsts" in it.

The sad thing is that there isn't much more to it. It's a little too short, not to mention the songs are too short... well some of them are.

It's one of my favorite albums, but I can't really define anything as his "best" because everything has at least one flaw in it. Nobody's perfect.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Dirty Mind 30:16
Purple Rain 43:51
Around The World In A Day 42:34
Parade 40:57

Venus De Milo is such a beautiful track. Also Sometimes it Snows in April is remarkable. Great album.

I don't own Parade yet. Well, if I must buy it

YES YOU MUST !

underthegraffitibridge said:

underthegraffitibridge said:

Go and get it!!!

parade

Riverpoet31 said:

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought to myself, leave now and no one will be hurt. However, you have a very good point, I dont think it is his best album, but it is definitely one of his most obscure albums

C letter edit
[Edited 2/24/08 2:09am]

prettymansson said:

why the shock..?
People have favorite albums for various reasons...
to me..this album represents a time in my life when Prince was GOD ..I joined my first band at the time that this came out..and the whole band walked around like some weird combo of the Time and the Revolution..(with the hair and clothes and mascara/eyeliner to match)
we all went to the theater together to see UTCM and we all marveled at the sight of seeing the mysterious/Dark Prince actually cracking jokes..! we sat in the basement where we would rehearse and watched syracuse 85' and the UTCM premier party from sheridan wyoming until our VHS tapes were run down and muffled sounding..we learned all the licks..all the dance moves..we chopped down the oak tree like Prince did on the shelia E romance 1600 Video..I took my first girlfriend to see Prince at Madison square garden in NYC for the Parade tour..I screamed louder than any girl in my section at the concert..I worked my ass off at a pool club cleaning the pool for old ass rich people that summer just to go to that show and to go to dinner and to buy the posters, tourbook, and t shirts at the show...PARADE will always be My favorite Prince !

FuNkeNsteiN said:

prettymansson said:

It's a shame that Parade was overshadowed by the much more inferior Under the Cherry Moon movie because it really is a brilliant album that deserved more recognition then it got.

This is one of my faves too. Hard to say if its his best, that is to ones own opinion. But, it's consistantly in my top 5 best Prince albums. I have loved it since when I got it back in 86 and it has never got old. It was so far ahead of its time its not even funny...I mean NO ONE was doing stuff like this back then, let alone a multi-platnium artist like Prince. It still sounds fresh to this day. It shows every aspect of Prince's talent all in 40 minutes.

BRILLIANT!!!

great songwriting on here, and a ton of fun to listen to

Not the best album to me, but definitely in the top 5.


It should be common knowledge in orgland that "Purple Rain" will forever be the holy grail. But mad props to "Parade" for Prince and the Revolution's adventurous and excitingly creative musical statement of purpose. The likes of which we do not see in popular music today (shamefully).

Emancipation? (a previous orger stated)