WonderU said:

The "when" can be deducted from the story quoted below (and yes, it's true). You can even determine who is to blame:

http://groups.google.com/...b7e3cf6bcf



So there you have it.

He still has his moments, LF had lots, and MPLSOUND had a few but 1999 was an Opus, PR was the begginning of a slide if your talkin about the signiture sound we all were drawn to. We are no longer kids, Prince could move me to spend my moms money on the first week of release but at 42 i'll cherry pick from itunes or look for a torrent. He's changed too, still prolific but more mature,and spiritually grounded (whether we agree or not) and wayyyyy too good at the art of recording-the precocious, inexperienced Prince would inovate unaware. It is what it is and i'm garteful for being on this ride.

cborgman said:

Three words:

Purple and Gold

Personally, I think there are some factors that changed between Prince's music of the 80's and the stuff he's releasing now. This is from the perspective of someone who's gotten his albums since 2006, starting with 3121, and going everywhere from there.

1. Sonically, I think he's moved away from the unique sounds he created in the 80's and even 90's. His music is arranged and sounds "more traditional" on stuff like Musicology, Planet Earth, and parts of 3121 and the whole of Lotusflower. There's no exciting produced sound like "New Position" even on the MLPSound album, which has too much going on, IMO than 1999.

2. What else can you say after 30 years? Prince has given us some awesome lyrics over the years, but the dude releases an album almost every year and to me, he's saying either stuff he's written before, or just saying nothing most of the time

3. Youth. The same youth that has been discussed about anticipating a new album back in the 80's and 90's, I think Prince has lost some of that youthful expression; not to be confused that he's bored with music, he just doesn't have the same urgency like he did before, of course excecptions like "No More Candy For You", "Boom" or "Colonized Mind" Never can say he can get back there, but he seems to be following a trend.

Despite this, he's a master musician, knows how to produce and arrange a record all by himself... but there's been a change of attitude, beliefs and style of Prince since he started out.
[Edited 2/9/10 7:35am]

To me, the problem is that he struggles to make good, exiting and funky music.And it started with Emancipation. Emancipation really suffers from the lack of exiting funky music. He lost his funky groove back in mid 90`s, And Prince without the good funk is not so interesting. But f.eks Come On, 3121 and Dance 4 me is good.Very good tunes.

Norwayman said:

Wha? Joint 2 Joint is extremely funky.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

I see where the change in our ages can impact, I too had that excitement for Star Wars and the stuff of child hood... to an extent my inner child is strong and perhaps it is that which leads to the lack of feeling I now get...

I hope P still has that last killer album in him - rising uncluttered to new highs for the faithful. But for now like so many I watch from the sides wondering what to make of things...

But live? now there he still excites me !!!

'Come' is the last 'proper' Prince album, as far as I'm concerned. There's some seriously weird stuff on that record. The arrangements generally are really great, and the lyrics are sort of... proper.

Actually, it's all 'proper'.

After that it was all downhill.

skywalker said:

Join 2 join is very good. I also like Right back.., but the rest of the funk is not my kind of funk. The album starts and ends funky but terrible.

Splanknasty said:

Come is a funky album and very Prince

Who else can do papa, it was spoken word over creepy bass and thunder, that was some cool shit

I think things started to go wrong in 1993,when he began battling Warner Bros.

Yes,he continued to make great songs here and there,but 'Love Symbol' is truly the last time I got really,really enthusiastic over a Prince album.

Subsequent albums like 'Come' and 'Chaos And Disorder' just didn't work for me.'TGE' has its moments but by the time it was released,I remember thinking that something is missing.The thrill is gone.I wasn't feeling that same excitement that I felt with 'Lovesexy' or 'SOTT'.

sweething said:

I don't mean to be rude, but do you post this in every thread where people disagree about something? Debating and disagreeing with other people's views are what Internet forums are for. It would be a very boring world if we all agreed. I'd hardly call it war, it's having an opinion.

Erik
[Edited 2/10/10 3:56am]

Prince's career is like having a slap up meal.

1978 to 1979 are the breadsticks. They're there to get your appetite going for what's to come.

1980 to 1983 that's the starter. Stunningly diverse, little nibbles of greatness dotted with a thick funky sauce.

1984 to 1988 main course. Rich, hearty food that fills you up and extra side orders of interesting flavours (family, madhouse, etc)

1989 to 1996 ( pre emancipation) dessert. Bit sweet, but wholesome and fruity. Plenty of diverse flavours but a slightly uneven consistancy.

1996 to 2000 (including emancipation) cheese board.

2000 2008 scraps and crumbs from the table, and a doggy bag of stale leftovers.

2009 + a half decent cup of coffee (lotusflower), unfortunately it's decaf and comes served with a coaster (elixir) and a sugary, sickly After Eight (mplsound)

can you all tell it's lunch time and I'm hungry

Erik

^^^ Hahaha... that may be the best, most concise break down I have seen yet.

Yeah, I pretty much left after dessert myself.

BlackbeltJones said:

join me tomorrow lunchtime when I talk you through why Musicology = a beef & tomato Pot Noodle.

Erik

erik319 said:

What comes next?? I few pints and a fist fight down at the local??

or early to bed and a big fatty filled breakfast??

erik319 said:

Interesting .... I reckon the main course should have been rounded off with a quick dessert (Batman) and then Coffee (D&P) and then left the restaurant to avoid heartburn and bloating

^^^Bootlegs are the antacids. Sweet relief for post '95 cheese board and stale leftover induced heartburn and acid reflux.

.
[Edited 2/12/10 7:26am]

I still get xcited when a new P joint is released, not like I did back in the 80's when I was a teenager and P played a larger role in my life.
Now Im a man with a wife/kids/mortgage...etc...so I dont get all hyped up over P like before, more because of me and how Ive matured and changed...still though, I do get excited and always find a handful of songs on each release that I like. P has grown up and so have I , but he still brings the funk/rock/r&b,he just isnt as nasty as he was in his younger days or as wild..he has matured...which is what were supposed to do. right?

yes you have changed as you've gotten older and so has Prince. But to answer your question, it started to go wrong with Batman and it all went wrong around 1996ish (although I like the Emancipation album).

Norwayman said:

Alot of the "buzz" went because the media stopped hyping his music due to the fall out with WB, at the time alot of people said it was a bad move for Prince to write "slave" on his face and that he was rich and was acting like a child.....since then the record industry has fallen the internet has take over and Prince is seen in a new light....

Prince like his music is ahead of the game ...Emancipation as a CD is one of the greatest releases by Prince and in years to come like all of Princes current non-WB records will be held up as ground breaking ...it's a hard CD to get into took most people on her 2 - 3 years to get into it ...simple "pop / rock" music it is not!

The problem is with Prince's 80's fan base they just can't get past Purple Rain album which is not even his best work! ... which is SOTT by miles then followed by TRC .. labeled by the media as anti-jewish ...which is crazy talk...

WB is given too much credit in the Prince story and the whole WB period of the 80's put Prince and his music in a box which i'm glad he's able to break out of.

Sivad said:

Sorry man the 80's is gone....deal with it....and enjoy the now ...
Face the facts prince could produce a 80's CD and you still would not like it...that just how it is man....

LondonStyle said:

I think we all accept that the 80s is gone, and with it that certain Prince sound. Yes I got into Prince in 1981 and yes I liked Purple Rain but it wasn't my fave even during th 80s, When doves cry was like nothing ever before and other tracks really good but as a whole there were better albums.

The point I think is not that we want him to necessarily sound like 80s prince but we want him to make something that we have never heard before - I mean seriously think back, when u heard the track SOTT or the opening to Doves or If I was your girlfriend and Alphabet St, they were the mark of an artist that was thinking without the bounds of trends or his glorious past and who was not so obsessed with controlling everything around him (that's what freedon from WB brought).

clarityman said:

Even Picasso invented cubism only ONCE!
You can't expect an artist to revolutionize art year after year!!!

porfyrivrohi said:

normally I would agree , however in Prince's case he offered us revolution year after year from 1979 to 1988 then he discovered his sun lounger ....

porfyrivrohi said:

LondonStyle said:

Nah. The Rainbow Children is labelled by me as 'anti-Jewish.'

Because it is. It's anti-semitic. It's sour, and ugly, but it's true.

"You still got your family name"? Fuck you, Nelson. Massacre of Jewish people and slavery of African people aren't COMPETING IN SOME MISERY RACE, you insensitive dick.

Thanks for bringing this album up, actually. For me, this is exactly where it began to go wrong.

Could have been the rhymes on Diamonds and Pearls, but even they were forgivable. The lyrics on The Rainbow Children made me feel kind of sick.
[Edited 2/12/10 10:36am]

Splanknasty said:

It is odd that you have such a visceral reaction to Prince (that make you feel ill), yet here you are on a Prince fan site actively supporting/following someone you have labeled as an "anti-semite."
[Edited 2/12/10 11:05am]