Below are the results of rate the albums poll made up of two sets. There was a total of 46 valid voters in Thread one and 25 in Thread 2 of these 43 of 46 rated every single album and every album in list one had at least 45 votes. The second thread was not as popular and had more less well known albums than thread one (Purple Rain the big exception). Still each album got at least 21 votes. Sorry about the format list is copied from excel



Album name Mark out of 10 Grade Votes for album
1.Sign o the Times 9.57 A++ 46
2.Purple Rain 9.16 A+ 25
3. 1999 8.88 A 46
4.Parade 8.76 A 46
5.The Hits/Bsides 8.68 A 25
6.Lovesexy 8.48 A- 46
7.Dirty Mind 8.00 A- 46
8.Controversy 7.92 B+ 25
9.ATWIAD 7.59 B+ 46
10.The Gold Experience 7.40 B 25
11.Black Album 7.16 B 25
12.Come 6.98 B- 46
13.One Night Alone 6.86 B- 21
14. 3121 6.71 B- 46
15.Symbol 6.68 B- 25
16.Prince 6.42 C+ 24
17.Diamonds and Pearls 6.39 C+ 46
18.Rainbow Children 6.38 C+ 45
19. Graffiti Bridge 6.22 C+ 46
20.Musicology 6.20 C+ 25
21.For You 6.03 C+ 45
22.Batman 6.00 C+ 25
23.Emancipation 5.96 C 25
24.The Vault OF4S 5.75 C 24
25.N.E.W.S. 5.74 C 23
26.Planet Earth 5.52 C 25
27.Indigo nights 5.27 C- 22
28.Chaos and Disorder 5.17 C- 46
29.Rave un2 the Joy 5.09 C- 46
30.Rave in2 the yr 2000 4.59 D+ 22
31.Newpowersoul 4.49 D+ 45
Total Mean 6.78

Average mark for any album was 6.78/10 and a total of 1073 votes for albums

^ give or take, sounds about right

The lines appear as

1. Sign of the Times 9.57 A++ 46 (Album name, mark out of 10.00, Grade A++ to F) and votes recived (Here 46 votes).

Patterns emerged. (Please note any generalisations involving orgers only applied to ones who voted and do not attempt to judge all orgers at all, just patterns that I observed in this research)

1. The Top 5 were pretty predictable, SOTT has always been a fan favourite and deserves it, Purple Rain is the big hit and also a very accessible album. 1999 is the progeny album his first classic and most experimental and innovative. Parade is just first class pop and funk and the Bsides disc I think is what propelled the hits (It was included as it had previously unreleased material). Yet I don't think any of these albums are overrated and deserve their places.

2. Us orgers are quite critical, we are not swooning teeny bopper types, an average mark of 6.78 is quite average and indicates we are definitely aware of Princes erratic genius. This is also borne out by many fans rating albums with marks down to 0 and a lot of 1s and 2s and hardly any doing all 10/10.

3. Princes comeback was not really that applauded by the orgers, no album after 2000 has gained over 6.8 and the universally well recieved 3121 only got 6.77 out of 10 a very average mark. Even worse was the 2007 and 2008 discs only getting in the 5s (Very mediocre), generally we did not like Indigo nights or its book at all.

4. Princes first two albums were quite average only getting in the low 6s and generally no one gave it over 8/10 and no one gave it a ridiculously low mark.

5. The Rainbow Children gained marks ranging from 0 to 10 with most orgers even rating it very highly and quite lowly.

6.The Rave albums/DVD and Chaos and Disorder often regarded as his worst work rated lowly with orgers, but not so low they were standing out. Newpowersoul gained a mark in the mid 4s still indicating the album has some value. Indigo nights was also not well received.

7. Princes late 80s early 90s period also fared poorly with most albums scoring in the low to mid 6s. Generally Diamonds and Pearls is only an average album to us.

8. Princes best 90s album is the Gold Experience and the only one after Lovesexy (Besides the Hits which is mostly 80s material from his golden age) to get over 7. Come did fairly well too.

9. Near well to do albums include Black, Dirty Mind, Controversy and Lovesexy all quite experimental and great albums, But not quite classics, these are the 4 stars behind the 5 star stuff.

10. Please comment below thanks all for voting and making the exercise worth while

11. Sign o the Times was universally popular. Only one orger gave it a mediocre 6 and one a 7, there were a couple of 8s, more 9s but mostly 10s for this album. The same with Purple Rain, nothing lower than a 6 and lots of 9s but not so many 10s
[Edited 2/16/09 15:04pm]

As you said, this seems to be a good cross-section of opinions, but there are some ratings I definitely don't agree with (and I'm sure a lot of orgers will feel that way). I definitely think 2000s-era Prince would've fared better had his NPGMC releases been rated. Are you considering doing one for NPGMC releases soon?

Sorry as I live in New Zealand I am not exposed to all this web, bootlegs, unreleased demo type stuff as its not available in such distant territories, also you can't albums like Crystal Ball or Slaughterhouse here, so no unfortunately, however I am sure someone else can. Realistically Prince dosen't really care about fans outside of the UK and USA.

what were the criteria for these ratings, and particular, were people instructed to put their emotions aside a little and use their mind to rate - I've found ratings systems like these to be too much based on people's personal favorites more and about actual merit. I'm just sayin...

eaglebear4839 said:

Thats why I waited a week and tried to get a spread of marks. I admit there may be a subjective bias as orgers clearly know about Prince, and people who did not rate all the albums could have affected some of the marks as well. Also degrees of fan ranging from new fans, to people who haved adored Prince all of his career.
After all it is just 1073 votes out of 10 for a man who has sold over 100 million records so an absolutely tiny sample, and then you have the people who refuse to reply to these type of threads and ones who have missed out.

Good points though eaglebear

That took alot of work.