Hmm... if we're going with ESSENTIAL, I second, third, and forth "The Gold Experience." While 3121, Planet Earth, or LotusFlow3r would be great intro albums to bring someone back in the purple fold (I love all three), none of them are essential to me.

The Gold Experience is quintessential hardcore Prince in all his guitar rift, emotional, falsetto glory. In my opinion, the last Prince album that shows EVERY SINGLE reason why he was and still is "The Artist!" From the laid back sound of "Shy," to the raw sheer emotion in "Endorphinmachine" and "Eye Hate U", this is a MUST HAVE Prince album.

But...if you're going to have a true Prince collection, you need EVERYTHING!

Crystal Ball.

You know I'm going to have to go w/ Lotusflow3r. But I hate that Elixer is tied up w/ it but I guess it's a good coaster for ur drink while u're listening to MPLSound or LF. Look, there's some pretty sweet songs on both of those discs. Dreamer, WoB, OSC, NMC4U, C&C, & a bunch more.

I think this is his best collection of work since TGE. If LF didn't exist I would have said the TGE but I think MPLS follows thru & shows Prince is still as diverse & raw sounding as ever. I would still have prefered more grit, but TGE wasn't any grittier w/ the exception of the PA & his scream

Graycap23 said:

exactly

nosajd said:

I agree also. While I know this may not be in the spirit of the question, every album he has released has at least a couple songs that will forever be on my playlist. I can't imagine not buying any Prince album out of fear I may miss a couple more gems.

What's an album cost? $10?

motherfunka said:

Does that really count? I mean it was just outtakes.

The Rainbow Children.

Vendetta1 said:

Love it or Hate it, this album is definitely essential in describing Prince to anyone over the last 10 years. It is truly what he has become as a person.

Purple Rain

coz i dont have the gold experience yet, id say Come

daPrettyman said:

While I agree with that part, I'd still hide it from people asking, just to save everyone the embarrassment. lol

I think it is essential to follow the musical journey from Prince right up to C&D. Each album kind of morphs into the next and there is a neccessary connection between each one that should be heard so that you can follow the evolution of his sound.

After C&D the evolution stopped and we started getting a bunch of songs thrown together to make an album without any real direction or concept. Some better than others, but essentially nothing brilliant as whole.

Essential

1. Dirty Mind
2. 1999
3. Purple Rain
4. SOTT
5. Lovesymbol
6. The Gold experience
7. Crystal Ball
8. 3121
9. MPLsOUND

ernestsewell said:[quote]

thedance said:

I'd have to agree with that. He's had some hits and misses from 1996 onward (I still think Chaos is a great "little brother" to The Gold Experience), but TGE was his last, truly, GREAT album. The hot rock of "Endorphinmachine", the funk of "Now", the punk funk of "Billy Jack Bitch", the anthemic "Gold", the ballads like "TMBGITW" and "I Hate U", the fun and sexy "P Control" and "319"...it's just a perfect album.

The only song I'd delete on that is "Shy".[/quote]





That's my favourite song on the album.

But to answer the original question I would recommend (no album is essential) TRC. It's the one album my non-prince fan friends have all loved.

xtraloveable said:

Agree...it marked the whole ridiculous SLAVE episode, signified his name change and had his only No 1 hit in the UK.

It was also the last album (for me) in a fairly seemless chain of quality. It's nit a great album but ut is the essential Full Stop at the end of an otherwise good Prince sentence.

Folks seem 2 be missing your question, which is asking what the MOST RECENT essential Prince album is.

I guess I'm the only one who is going 2 say that 'Lotusflow3r' is absolutely essential.

But then again, I'm the same one that would say that 'The Gold Experience' could easily be missed.
[Edited 11/11/09 7:08am]

Giovanni777 said:

thanks for that, was begining to wonder about my grammar!. Must admit that I am coming round to the idea of LF [the single cd NOT the 3 cd set] as well.

Giovanni777 said:

I'd agree with you on the relative values of those two for sure.

Giovanni777 said:

I can agree that Gold, while a good album, is not essential in the least. It seemed to be a work that had little love thrown into it, in a period that it seemed Prince was determined to make himself almost invisible. Perhaps he got a little lazy.

Now he is working hard and it is great. He has tapped his creative spring again, but I am not sure at all that Lotus is essential either. While the craft is strong, and the technique is firm in this album set, it seems to miss something that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe because it is really good, but not great.

It grows on me with each listen, and the confusing thing is that the best of its songs are some of his best in a long while, at the same time those treasures do not make the albums strong.

Let's face it, no more candy is wonderful, haven't heard stuff like that from him in a while. Valentina is great, cept for the words. A little too personal and it makes it wierd in not so great way. Music is great though. It sort of reminds me of Cindy C. from the Black.

Old Skool, highly great also.

Dreamer, is great.

Point is, the line between these dots seem a little too weak or miss placed.

So I still have to go with 3121 as the last essential.

2funkE said:

Most of these songs that are strong on these albums are easily forgettable to me though. I think that is why i come to the new albums. No sets have been in as strong in while as Musicology thru Lotus, not since Controversy through SOTT.

That's a good thing, it is hope for the nest work indeed.

Last essential album (in terms of defining what makes his greatest music so ...well...essential):

Sign of the Times

Last great album (not essential in terms of originality and innovation, but very solid all-over in terms of songwriting, musicianship and production):

The Gold Experience

Oh.. and if i would go for his all-time essential albums, its a rather short list (in chronological order):

1. Dirty Mind
2. 1999
3. Purple Rain
4. Parade
5. Sign of the times

I was gonna say The Gold Experience, but it's become pretty redundant since I got hold of The Dawn.

The Black Album was released in 94 but recorded earlier. So, last essential release is Lovesexy. In fact, everything between Dirty Mind and Lovesexy is essential, IMO. There would be loads of releases on the 'worth a spin' list tho.
[Edited 11/11/09 11:24am]

daPrettyman said:

I was just answering the question, "What was the last P CD that you would describe as an essential to anyones' collection"? Although a lot of the songs were old, to me it was the last "must have" Prince CD. On a side note, I don't get why some people feel Come, The Gold Experience, Chaos and Disorder, and Exodus are seen as coming from a "dark" period in Prince's career. What makes it dark? Of all my years of being a Prince fan, I don't think he has ever played more to his fans than he did in the years from 94-96, and it was mostly songs from those albums. He seemed to be having a pretty damn good time to me! He had several women around, he dumped WBR, he was playing a ton of new stuff...

motherfunka said:

I think people mean that he was at a cross-roads in his career at that time. It was not about hits. If you listen closely to the music from 93-96 or so, the music is rather dark sounding. I don't think it means "dark" as in he was depressed, but "dark" in that he was searching for something. By 2001, I think he found who/what he wanted to be in life.

motherfunka said:

I agree! with all of it!

and Crystal Ball was an Offical Release. And alot of those songs were reworked for it. And come on Crucial, Lovesign, Good Love? pfft mint!
[Edited 11/11/09 19:33pm]

Emancipation or Ultimate, depending on what you already have.

Emancipation...then again Crystal Ball

hollywooddove said:

Help me understand this. You don't think "Gold" is an Essential Prince album? To me, that album shows Prince in a different light. It was a period of creativity, a period of finding himself and a period where he was searching for freedom. Read the liner notes in that album again. It tells you how Prince was feeling when he recorded that album.

To me, if you are listing defining moments in Prince's career, it would be this:

1. Prince (breakthrough)
2. Dirty Mind (showing he is not just a cookie cutter pop/r&b artist)
3. 1999 (a double album of new material at the time was very important in pop and r&b)
4. PR
5. SOTT
6. Lovesexy (P growing in spirituality)
7. D&P (his last popular album)
8.
9. TGE
10. TRC (return to Prince as a new spiritual person).

I don't think Gold is an essential album. It's so overproduced (Endorphinmachine, Now, TMBGITW, and the title track especially) that it's hard for me to rank it among his best. It does have some brilliant standouts (Shhh, Shy, and Billy Jack Bitch among them) though.