rialb said:

JudasLChrist said:

D&P was awful. It was the full on start of the end of his golden period. It's inexplicable to me why people would give praise to such pap.

You know, people LOVE to give props to TGE around here, too. But that wasn't a successful record at all.

Well, there are different types of success. Certainly in commercial terms the album was not successful but creatively I think it was extremely successful.

Commercial success was what I was referring to. I think the album is crap, anyway.

MattyJam said:

Has the commercial success (or lack thereof) of certain albums shaped how we look back on them?

Yes.

Case in point: 3121

D&P is a mixed bag, but there's still stuff on there that's sold: Willing & Able and Money Don't Matter are probably the two strongest cuts on the LP.

[Edited 8/4/10 5:09am]

No. Commercial success of an album hasn't really made much difference to me. It comes down to content and substance.

I revisited Chaos and Disorder a few months back after a long break and found a deeper respect for it even than when it first came out.

But in my opinion, Prince's talent has never waned. The accessibility of his music chosen for his cd's may have peaked in the 80's but his talent never did. I was always pretty clear that if others didn't agree with me on the quality of his music, it's because they simply couldn't hear what I was hearing. I knew commercial success was going to have little to do with me liking any of his cds. I played the hell out of Graffiti bridge for a minute like I did with Parade or 3121.