onenitealone said:

I'm not you, Alun!

I think Batman definitely sounded more contemporary than Lovesexy which sounded very retro with it's "party bass" and thick synths.

Sign OThe Times was very futuristic and minimal,
and then Black Album also sounded very contemporary with its mean, dense funk and macho, driving arrangements.

Then Lovesexy shattered that with it's retro high synth sounds, over the top arrangements, and feminine lyrical melodies.

this was the time when new minimal driving music rose in popularity, the rise of rap, and "meaner" club music that did not have meandering flowery melodies.

Bootleg songs from that time might also share a technique of using sampled instrument lines.

Off the top, I think two things about the Batman album:

I think it was Prince carrying on a train of thought that he'd had for years - it was probably the best 'next logical step' he has made.

I think it's very funny that the Batman album is considered a dark album, when as far as I can tell, it only has 3 songs on it that could be considered dark (The Future, Electric Chair, and Batdance). The rest are either ballads or party funk.

I think Batdance is probably in my fav. ten albums of his, cuz I met my first boyfriend minutes after listening to "Scandalous".

TANKAEFC said:

Can you expand on what you mean by that?? I'm interested...

ufoclub said:

Never looked at it that way, but yeah, see what you're saying.
Cool.

Some music critic once said it perfectly: "It's not that the Batman album is a bad record...it's that with Prince, you just expect so much more."


We have to remember that LoveSexy confused folks when it was released in the shadow of the critically acclaimed Sign of the Times. There was always this "warming up" period with Prince where it took folks a little while to catchup to him and "get it". Once folks "got" Lovesexy, she sends Batman our way, and it was just such a shift in gears, that most folk didn't care for it. It didn't help that The Arms of Orion was on it--that song is sooooo and easily one of his worst ballads.

The album is vastly underrated. It's a good album, on par with any of his current output, and the minimalist "Future", soulful "Scandalous", and funky if a bit formulaic "Electric Chair" and "Party Man" make for a decent album.

It just pales in comparison to his other output at the time. Other albums in this category are "COME" and "Around the World In A Day"--fine albums on their own, but just not able to withstand scrutiny when compared to ones he recently released around the same time or at the same time.

There was a time where even Princes 'bad' albums were better than other folk's good albums.

That's since changed, but in the 80's, Batman was better than most of what was out there. Anyone care to bring up Bobby Brown's dreadful Ghostbuster's song?

onenitealone said:

Alot of people consider this the Prince Holy Trinity with SOTT, Lovesexy, and Batman. You can hear the musical progression in each album, yet they have alot of the same sounds. There is also alot of religious tones in all the albums. If it wasn't the Batman album, the next album we would have got in 1989 would have been Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and you can hear alot of what might have been on the original Rave. Batdance has samples of Rave as well as We Got The Power. Those who have the oringinal Rave/songs on boot from 1989 know what I'm talking about. Batman is a pretty slick album, especially the underrated Lemon Crush.

Imago said:

I remember the time of De La soul, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy.... remember Jody Watley's "Friends"?

FlamingRaindrop said:

I personally have no idea what you are (both) talkin about, but it is ok, someone somewhere will get the joke

emesem said:

Am I the only Prince fan who actually hates Batdance, I hate especially the way it always sez batman it reminds me of that old shit tv show(you know pow biff bang) I think its so terribly shit, definitley one of my worst Prince tracks ever prefer Trust or Partyman anyday

The Batman album definitely doesn't get the credit it deserves, from fans and non, as something good to hear. I'm not sure how much credit Prince deserves for sampling, though I do know he was one of the first mainstream acts (rap still wasn't really mainstream at that point) to try it successfully.

Arms of Orion aside () it's a solid album. I especially love Electric Chair and Batdance.

optimus said:

That'd the idea, actually. Prince was a big fan of the old skool show as a kid and one of the first thinsg he learned to play was the theme song. No doubt that's why he threw it into the mix when he was working on the album.

optimus said:

I don't like Batdance OR The Future. Batdance was the first song I heard form Batman (besides the ones in the movie), and I thought it was great, but then I found out it was, just a conglomeration/remix of the other songs.

Riverpoet31 said:

I didn't know that! Are you sure guitars on Electric Chair were sampled?

Very cool thread.

coolcat said:

I can't tell, but I just have a feeling they were live. They just sound like it. The solo is definitly "real" and the bridge (to commit the crimes of passion, etc) are real. But the main riff could be fake

joyinrepetition said:

I have to agree, Lemon Crush is VERY underrated IMO.

Volitan said:

Yeah, those guitars really sound nice on the song... If they are samples, then I need to get those samples.

joyinrepetition said:

Thanks for the explanation.

I'm not sure I'd select those 3 albums as 'The Holy Trinity' of Prince's oeuvre, though. Certainly SOTT - and possibly Lovesexy; but then what happens to Purple Rain, Parade, 1999??? - but I do love the Batman album. 'The Future' is right up there in my favourite tracks. So, so Prince.

I've got a few of the original 'Rave...' tracks and I'd have been interested to see how the completed album would've turned out... Wasn't 'God Is Alive' also from those sessions?

And - YES - 'Lemon Crush'. I've seen so many people criticise that song but I love it. Quirky, upbeat and tight.

Cool thread people.

TheNewWatcher2 said:

welcome back

onenitealone said:

PARADE, SOTT, and LoveSExy (albeit LoveSexy is really sort of a divergence from the previous albums. It moves someplace new, whereas SOTT cleans up and focuses what was being done on PARADE. In my opinion).

The sampling on 'Batdance' is quite similar to tracks like 'Just Give 'Em Whiskey' by Colourbox (from 1985) - who also went on to do 'Pump Up The Volume' by M/A/R/R/S in 1987. I think Prince had heard these, Pump Up The Volume especially.

NouveauDance said:

Very good point!!
also sampling was in music news alot by 89, with De La Soul's debut album, "3 Feet High and Rising" getting tons of great reviews, and well most rap music which was mainstream by now.

Imago said:

Says the guy who bought it as his FIRST EVER SINGLE!

onenitealone said:

The song "The Future" kicks ass, lyrically and musically.

That shit is intense. I love how the keyboards complement his different singing, on the track. I, especially, like the "Whoa" part toward the end.

Imago said:

onenitealone said:

will you two :KY: preachers ever leave this thread alone, it is not often that us peeps get a chance to show we are actually.....


forget it, I completely forgot everything, BTW, where is butchersdog when you need him

i just gotta say that "vicki waiting" is a smoking track!!!

IMO the guitarriffs on Electric Chair definitely are samples, just listen closely and several times to this track and notice the way they 'cut off' directly. The same happens with 'the horns' on Trust. They sound sampled too.

Notice the difference with the (indeed 'real') guitarsolo on Electric Chair. The difference is very obvious.

By the way, when it comes to the quality of the tracks (in terms of songwriting / composition) i consider Batman a bit uneven. The Future, Electric Chair, Partyman, Vicki Waiting and Batdance (because of its originality) are the strongest songs IMO.
The Arms of Orion is a too formulaic 'sentimental movie ballad', and Prince is singing very poorly on it.
Trust sounds like another take on 'Baby, i am a star' and like the kind of song Prince can write while sleeping: a funky groove, but lacking 'body'.
Lemon crush is nice because it sees him attempt some house-styled dancetrack, but the composition itself is quite poor.
Scandalous is not bad at all, one of his best slow-jams, but the problem is he has done so many songs in this vein during his career.

But in general its a fine album i think, the 'lesser' tracks being compensated by the better ones.
The combination of the bleak, mostly electronic and sampled sounds and the quasi-psychological lyrics also works good.
In fact: on Batman Prince is showing himself a 'smarter' lyricist as the mediocre one i sometimes tend to make him out for. He is using the 'characters' of Bruce Wayne, Batman and Joker in a playfull way to extrapolate on his central lyrics themes he dealed with during the eighties: the carnal and the spiritual, sin versus redemption, selfcontrol versus letting yourself go.