i feel that from dirty mind to lovesexy the music has to sound dated cos so many people copied and imitated that, yet because they were very forward looking albums the actual date to put on it would be less accurate.

After those albums every album started to sound like its year.

Batman film obvious

Grafitti bridge to diamonds and pearls had so much envelope filters on the guitar that his techie must have been the same as vernon reid's (and the rapping attempts)

Come loose? come on!

The Gold experience is alright still songs like We March and Now put it really in 1994

from then on i don't known the real exception is the Truth and poss One nite Alone as well

I think that the albums that use more 'real' instruments or the albums that are TOTALLY original generally tend to be the ones that don't date; Parade, Sign O The Times, Lovesexy, Old Friends 4 Sale and The Rainbow Children.
But I think it's better to concentrate on different songs rather than a whole album concept.
The Symbol album sounds dated to me, but 'And God Created Woman' is totally timeless.

IU would have to say that both SOTT and Lovesexy are the ones which seem to be the most timeless. Especially Sign, when you listen to it it has no overall "sound", its all so different that it could have been released yesterday and still wouldn't sound any more fresh.
Lovesexy on the other hand is for me such a unique album, which no other artist at that time could have even dreamed of, and again I'd argue that this could almost have been released yesterday. Unique IMO

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

That first verse always stays in my head.

The stuff from 1985 to 1988, The Gold Experience and The Rainbow Children. You wouldn't know what year they were from if someone didn't tell you, especially Parade. It's Prince at his best.

SOTT and Lovesexy era.. Especially the tours and aftershows. The band was so live it was off the hook.
Glad to see Eric in the mix again...Sheila?

Yeah, Gold! I recently found a cheap used copy, I sold off my tape way back and I was suprised at how fresh it still sounded, The Gold Experience.

Now again, What about Prince style? Clothing, hair, themes, etc.? Anything strike ya'll as timeless in terms of STYLE?

I say his Camille (clothing) and Lovesexy look can still fly today. Even better his Parade look.

And I also think he could still look cool with that 1999 Rave era long hair and earing like my avatar.







.
[This message was edited Thu Nov 7 23:32:47 PST 2002 by FlyingCloudPassenger]

"Sign of the Times", "The Hits, Disc One" (hehehe) and "Emancipation, Disc II".

Tina (~!~)

FlyingCloudPassenger said:

And since when Diamonds & Pearls woudn't have been considered a classic? And Dirty Mind really isn't considered a classic by anybody else than us Prince geeks and a few old new wavers who happened to be there at the New York gig but now just wear anoraks.

jessyMD32781 said:

'this thing we got is alive...'
or is it...'GOD IS ALIVE!'
hmmm...

sorry, back to topic:
most timeless is PARADE, already
close thread!

The Bangles version of Manic Monday, now THAT's timeless!

All stuff prior to Purple Rain is rather dates but not necessarily bad.

Parade does sound timeless... except for the drum machine on Mountains ('80's alert)

Most of Sign sounds dated cuz of the keyboards and drum machines he used.

Around the world is its own special case...
Batman ... yawn
GBridge ... yawn
D+P ... ok but a few tracks make it dated
Symbol ... the rapping makes it dated
Come ... ah
Gold ... dated and badly (re-)mixed
Emanicptaion to inconsistent
Rave ... very dated


ok so the winner is Parade... and Around the World

I personally think Lovesexy is the most dated of all Prince albums, other albums Like Controversy and Dirty Mind have dated but in a good way.

SOTT, LOVESEXY, and TRC.

SOTT/Lovesexy

The concert versions of PARADE would be more timeless than the album version,in my opinion.Still it would be # 3 in that list.

Damn, just thinking about music from the years 1983-1989 makes me wish for the old days.There is no "fresh" sounding music .I would pay money to see gangsta rap put to sleep.