....don't you agree?. It really is staggering and perhaps we should chill and take a moment to reflect. Have a look at what he's done from TRC [2001] through to today, imagine that these vast and varied releases were done by whoever. I have certainly been one to moan in the past about the P Lite sound, lack of focus, lack of pride, too many CDs released etc but flicking through I cannot believe that P set the bar so damn high at his peak that anything since is pretty much trashed.

The variety is staggering from straight up albums i.e. Musicology, TRC, 20Ten, Planet Earth, 3121 through to his Jazz explorations [Xpectation, NEWS, C-NOTE], live discs i.e ONA, Indigo nights, the tours, etc.

The man is 52!, 52 ya hear me and he is still pushing hard, driving us mad, still playing live and mixing up the sets each night, still doing aftershows 'til daft o' clock!, constantly recording and putting others to shame with his work ethic.

Many of us here have extreme views and I sit somewhere in the middle but when all said and done we have to be fair in our judegment of what he as achieved in the last 10 years and get some real perspective. So I put it you, the purple jury that had the above been done by ANY other artist we would be full of respect, good will and proclaim them as a genuis.

Please do not turn this into a flame war about how crap you think his music is [I think we all know each others opinions on this lol!!!]

funkyhead said:

....don't you agree?

No.

funkyhead said:

....don't you agree?. It really is staggering and perhaps we should chill and take a moment to reflect. Have a look at what he's done from TRC [2001] through to today, imagine that these vast and varied releases were done by whoever. I have certainly been one to moan in the past about the P Lite sound, lack of focus, lack of pride, too many CDs released etc but flicking through I cannot believe that P set the bar so damn high at his peak that anything since is pretty much trashed.

The variety is staggering from straight up albums i.e. Musicology, TRC, 20Ten, Planet Earth, 3121 through to his Jazz explorations [Xpectation, NEWS, C-NOTE], live discs i.e ONA, Indigo nights, the tours, etc.

The man is 52!, 52 ya hear me and he is still pushing hard, driving us mad, still playing live and mixing up the sets each night, still doing aftershows 'til daft o' clock!, constantly recording and putting others to shame with his work ethic.

Many of us here have extreme views and I sit somewhere in the middle but when all said and done we have to be fair in our judegment of what he as achieved in the last 10 years and get some real perspective. So I put it you, the purple jury that had the above been done by ANY other artist we would be full of respect, good will and proclaim them as a genuis.

Please do not turn this into a flame war about how crap you think his music is [I think we all know each others opinions on this lol!!!]

I agree completely. I've said it before, people take Prince for granted...especially a certain portion of his fans.

hmm I don't agree,

most of the mentioned releases has been average, if not bad.

Musicology, good 7/10

TRC, great 9/10

20Ten, good 8/10

Planet Earth, bad 5/10

3121 bad 5/10

[Xpectation, NEWS], very bad 2/10

live discs ONA, Indigo nights, very bad as well 2/10

funkyhead said:

....don't you agree?. It really is staggering and perhaps we should chill and take a moment to reflect. Have a look at what he's done from TRC [2001] through to today, imagine that these vast and varied releases were done by whoever. I have certainly been one to moan in the past about the P Lite sound, lack of focus, lack of pride, too many CDs released etc but flicking through I cannot believe that P set the bar so damn high at his peak that anything since is pretty much trashed.

The variety is staggering from straight up albums i.e. Musicology, TRC, 20Ten, Planet Earth, 3121 through to his Jazz explorations [Xpectation, NEWS, C-NOTE], live discs i.e ONA, Indigo nights, the tours, etc.

The man is 52!, 52 ya hear me and he is still pushing hard, driving us mad, still playing live and mixing up the sets each night, still doing aftershows 'til daft o' clock!, constantly recording and putting others to shame with his work ethic.

Many of us here have extreme views and I sit somewhere in the middle but when all said and done we have to be fair in our judegment of what he as achieved in the last 10 years and get some real perspective. So I put it you, the purple jury that had the above been done by ANY other artist we would be full of respect, good will and proclaim them as a genuis.

Please do not turn this into a flame war about how crap you think his music is [I think we all know each others opinions on this lol!!!]

I do agree! I can't think of any other Artist that have had as much of a consistant body of work as Prince. In any way shape, or form. Even my favorite artists like Teena Marie, Boy George, Tori Amos and a few others have not released as much, as often, or as varied as Prince does. That's why he's my number one man!!!

[Edited 7/12/10 15:40pm]

Not much from this era had a quality control..

thedance said:

hmm I don't agree,

most of the mentioned releases has been average, if not bad.

Musicology, good 7/10

TRC, great 9/10

20Ten, good 8/10

Planet Earth, bad 5/10

3121 bad 5/10

[Xpectation, NEWS], very bad 2/10

live discs ONA, Indigo nights, very bad as well 2/10

ahh but say this lot were released by another artist, perhaps younger, hungrier etc wouldn't you honestly look at them / the music in a different light?

funkyhead said:

thedance said:

hmm I don't agree,

most of the mentioned releases has been average, if not bad.

Musicology, good 7/10

TRC, great 9/10

20Ten, good 8/10

Planet Earth, bad 5/10

3121 bad 5/10

[Xpectation, NEWS], very bad 2/10

live discs ONA, Indigo nights, very bad as well 2/10

ahh but say this lot were released by another artist, perhaps younger, hungrier etc wouldn't you honestly look at them / the music in a different light?

The entire world would be stunned. No one in popular music today could/would have a song like 3121 and a song like Fury written and performed and produced by the same person. With Prince, it is normal and greatness is expected.

* While the org certainly is the place to display your own personal (and completely subjective) rating system, keep in mind that they are your own and cannot be used as factual stats, etc.

enjoyed everything but the rainbow children 4 me his only true shit album.

But this has ALWAYS been the case. If you go back and check out contemporary reviews from every post-PR album you'll see that they are being judged on a Prince-specific scale.

thedance said:

hmm I don't agree,

most of the mentioned releases has been average, if not bad.

Musicology, good 7/10

TRC, great 9/10

20Ten, good 8/10

Planet Earth, bad 5/10

3121 bad 5/10

[Xpectation, NEWS], very bad 2/10

live discs ONA, Indigo nights, very bad as well 2/10

Ahhhhh...yes, a lot of that music may be average or bad, but the sheer diversity in that collection of music would be enough for me to label that artist a genius.

The music from this decade, if made by another artist, may not be appealing enough to make me a huge fan of that artist, but it would certainly be appealing enough for me to take notice and respect that artist as a genius. There are plenty of musicians that I don't really dig, yet I consider them musical geniuses

I remember when Chaos and Disorder was released. It was either panned or ignored by most of the media, but Spin magazine said something along the lines that if any other artist had released this album that artist would be considered a genius.

That is pretty much how I feel about any of Prince's work. Even his worst.

Agree....There have been a few Stellar CD's and many, many great songs during that span.

funkyhead said:

....don't you agree?.

Please do not turn this into a flame war about how crap you think his music is

So you don't want an opinion unless it agrees with your own?

FAIL.

If I had never heard his earlier music I would label him as a wildly inconsistent and insanely talented artist--which is how I think of him anyway

I do not know nor do i care if another artist would be proclaimed a genius if they had achieved the output that Prince has put out in that or any other time scale.

But when it comes to Prince, the actual physical output, the constant writing and recording, the exhaustive touring and aftershows, the mad hours, the whole work ethic is yes.........very impressive.

The result of all that constant writing and recording? Not so impressive.

But still very good..........most of it.

Marrk said:

funkyhead said:

....don't you agree?.

Please do not turn this into a flame war about how crap you think his music is

So you don't want an opinion unless it agrees with your own?

FAIL.

pretty much!

skywalker said:

especially a certain portion of his fans.

That veil is scandalously thin.

funkyhead said:

....don't you agree?.

I think that even with the inconsistency of the material we would still be struck by the level of musicianship on his albums, and that they are largely done by one person.

We would also be struck by the fact that his music really doesn't fit into a neat category. It is a throwback to another time for an artist to straddle so many genres, including releasing highly superficial pop music (MPLSOUnd) and anti-pop (The Rainbow Children) instrumental music (NEWS, Expectation), piano & vocals (ONA), bad rock (Planet Earth), and brilliant live performances & band arrangements (ONA Live)

Prince does make me cringe at times, but there is a reason I still listen.

This music by any other artist would get my toe tapping, but I doubt I would have been moved enough my the singles to check out the entire CD. Genius? No. Refreshing compared to all the other crap out there? Sure. I must admit. I like many of these songs more just because its a Prince song.

[Edited 7/12/10 16:58pm]

Spin Magazine's Best of Issue for 1996 said that if Chaos and Disorder would have been released by an unknown that critics would rave. I would say the same for this era of Prince's music.

Prince is one of the most under appreciated artists of this era.

I will also step out on a limb and say that this era is his best outside of the Dirty Mind-Lovesexy era.

I totally agree and I believe Prince is a fuckin genius whether he's past his prime or not. Its a pleasure to hear new music and watch him perform. Whether I like it or not is irrelevant but to deny the man his greatness is just ignorant and kinda snobby. He still shits on his 80's peers and the generations that will follow. I just wish he had better quality control, stop being a diva, actually promote his albums on television and with concert tours and work with other artists just to keep it interesting. Otherwise no complaints and he's one of my musical heroes.

nope.

I don't think that statement can be said anymore about Prince releases.

It all hinges on the album of course, but the current one could have been released by ....let's say... Van Hunt, and critics would have called it "ok"

There's no excuse for "Everybody Loves Me" and "Laydown"....none. I don't care who the artist is....it's not genius.

However, 3121 and lotusflow3r would have probably been given better reviews.

yeah, genius is a bit much. I don't think anything he's done in this decade fits that bill. I think his name change was a stroke of genius for the 90's, as his music was in the 80's.

This decade he would be described as eccentric, very talented, interesting, weird, but I have not yet seen genius.

TheVoid said:

There's no excuse for "Everybody Loves Me" and "Laydown"....none. I don't care who the artist is....it's not genius.

To me, the fact that he does release songs like those are part of his genius. I believe there are "real music" lovers who can truly find value in one or both of those songs.

Yesterday I played Arboretum and Laydown back to back for a 28 year old redneck neighbor of mine from Texas who knows nothing about Prince just to show him the extreme diversity in his music.

He was genuinely blown away. He could not believe that those two songs came from the same artist (he loved Laydown BTW).

That is the genius of Prince. It was there in the 80's, and it is still there today.

I don't know about that. How many artists do you see making of those albums any more exciting, they probably would be more lazy on the tracks than Prince ever could lol

funkyhead said:

....don't you agree?.

yes, i do.

I agree. Look at the critical acclaim Justin Timberlake got with his last album. Look at the love The Dream has been getting .

If Prince's songs the past decade had been performed by a younger artist and packaged as such, the critics would be shitting themselves.

That's why Prince said in one of his songs that the only competition he has is his own past.

If a younger artists had released Dance 4 Me as a single, it would have been a big hit.

The same with Black Sweat

This is the "problem" with Prince being a big "radio/music video" artist now....

he's 52 years old.

Now back in the mid 1980s there were a few oldies acts that still were making music and we were jamming to it. People like George Clinton, Larry Graham, Chaka Khan,the Rolling Stones, James Brown,Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye,Barry White were all charting from 1982-1987. Hell Barry White had his greatest selling record in the mid 1990's with Practice What You Preach. Barry White was the realist ,down to Earth cat in the biz and he told the truth many times.

He said during the Preach run that that album was not his best album. He said that "if the record company did not WANT you to have a number 1 album that you would not have one and I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE." I have always remembered that interview with Donnie Simpson on the real BET that used to exist. It was around this time Prince was charting with songs like Cream. Prince only had 5 #1 songs in the USA ,When Doves Cry,Lets Go Crazy, Kiss,Batdance,and Cream. Now when mofos on the Org talk about this "classic" Prince the first 3 songs really fit that profile but Batdance and Cream really seem out of place.

Looking back on this now is a real WTF moment. Prince only had 5 number 1 songs ???? WTF?

Little Red Corvette,1999,Purple Rain,Take Me With U,I Would Die 4 U, Baby Im A Star, SOTT,ICNTTPOYM,U Got The Look, Diamonds and Pearls,7,TMBGITW did not make #1. That should tell you that there is bullshit in the game people.

Timberlake,the Dream,Lady Gaga, and whoever are the new bitches on the stroll. They are going to get the pretty clothes and exposure because they want everyone to see the new bitch on the walk. Yes this is pimps and hoes people on a very sophisticated level. Prince is an old hoe that is broke down and they have made money off his ass and now he is trying to do whatever it takes to make money off of us. And when people bitch and moan about how bad it is or say Prince is crazy for stating the internet is dead he is still going to laugh his way to the bank because you looked at the old hoe once again and gave him some dollars and he did not even have to screw you to get it like Timberlake and these other fake ass acts out there today.