Good thread.

the 90s right now bring back some bad memories. While, except for TRC, prince's output in the 00's has been somewhat fun.

If you take the best tracks of the 90s, (say Gold, Holy River, Bed I Scream, Dolphin, Interactive, Enforphinmachine)...I think the best of 00's holds up nicely but he just seems to be in a better place.

Right now, my best of the 00's mix is a much more on rotation than anything from the dark 90s.

it's tough. The 2000s have been more consistent overall. The 90s had higher highs, and lower lows.

I guess I'd have to go 90's overall, but it would be very close.

But lately I've been listening almost exclusively to the 00's output. I'm really focusing on it more than I have in the past. The 80s and 90s are really played out for me, at least for now.

[Edited 7/22/10 11:01am]

A few great songs from the 2000's were definitly:

Call my Name=Musicology

Musicology=Musicology

What do u want me 2 do?=Musicology

The Marrying kind=Musicology

If eye was the man in ur life=Musciology

Dear Mr.Man=Musicology

Reflection=Musicology

Black Sweat=3121

Fury=3121

Guitar=Planet Earth

Dreamer=lotus flower

NoVideo said:

it's tough. The 2000s have been more consistent overall. The 90s had higher highs, and lower lows.

I guess I'd have to go 90's overall, but it would be very close.

But lately I've been listening almost exclusively to the 00's output. I'm really focusing on it more than I have in the past. The 80s and 90s are really played out for me, at least for now.

[Edited 7/22/10 11:01am]

I'll give you that! Consistent crap! Just kidding, everyone has their own tastes. I would definitley have to go with the 90s.

Really hard to decide!

Some of the 90's stuff is really great if you need to get some aggression out. Just blast it in your car and watch the people stare! Love love love TGE. And NPS and Exodus are so funky.

On the other hand TRC and 20TEN make stellar bookends for the 2000s. Between Lotus and 2010, the 2000s really ended with a bang, so I think that's what I'm going with.

Cobblepot said:

Three words: Sexy Mutha Fucka

Doesn't get any better then that!

Damn right.

Hatman said:

Cobblepot said:

Three words: Sexy Mutha Fucka

Doesn't get any better then that!

Damn right.

i always skip that song these days..

2000s

Prince's entire career is very hit and miss for me, but some of his music of the 00s is what made me a hardcore fan in the first place. Lotusflow3r, TRC, and 3121 easily rank among my favorite albums of his career.

While there were definitely moments of genius, the 90s were generally the lost years for me.

Its a close one one, but the 90s highlights are more than the flat 2000s. The 90s you had the musical pot pourri of Graffiti Bridge, the slick urban tempo of D and P, the sprawling opus of Symbol, the eccentricity of Come, the sheer rock brilliance of the Gold Experience, and the vast experimentalism of Emancipation and the four brilliant xtra Cds (3 from Crystal Ball and the B sides from the Hits). But then again you also had the dross of Tony M, the Time's less memorable moments and a slew of horrendous protege albums (TC Ellis anyone or is Carmen your flavour?). Plus the added dross of Chaos and Disorder, Newpowersoul and the blandness of his later 90s releases.

Now the 2000s, only one real stinker with the Rainbow children, but the highlights are not that high. Musicology and PE are ok, and the Lotusflow3r stuff was largely forgettable, especially Elixer, only 3121 was a great album. This hardly compares to the brilliance of TGE and Symbol. I say that as its highly unlikely he will drop another Crystal Ball or a Symbol on us again.

1990s 7/10

2000s 5/10

'90s.

Kara said:

2000s

Prince's entire career is very hit and miss for me, but some of his music of the 00s is what made me a hardcore fan in the first place. Lotusflow3r, TRC, and 3121 easily rank among my favorite albums of his career.

While there were definitely moments of genius, the 90s were generally the lost years for me.

paisleypark4 said:

. I think he may have gained a few rock fans more so in the 90's than anything...and really funk was my thing...the thing he abandoned in the 90's.

Define "funk" since if you'd ask Prince he'd say he ways FUNKAY FRESH in the 90s. Sounds like by "funk" you only mean Prince's unique 80s minneapolis sound which was an evolution of funk, pop, new wave, rock. (good times)

Suure the rock fans really "loved" all the fake rap, doug e fresh, slow beat crap. 90s were NOT a good time for the rock fans.

His problems in the 90s are well documented as a reaction to hip hop and not the few nods to his rock roots.

I'm tempted to say the 2000's because my perception of the 1990's was that music as a whole - including Prince - was weak. To be blunt, I think pretty much everyone but Prince sucked in the 90's. But that's not to say I think Prince was any shining star.

However, I'm going to take this chance to break it down and see if my perception is right. I'm going to list the songs from each decade that I think are worthy of massive repeat on my playlists. This is probably only going to interest me, but here I go:

1990's

Elephants and Flowers

Daddy Pop

Diamonds and Pearls

Willing and Able

Cream

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

The Continental

Sweet Baby

7

The Sacrifice of Victor

Pink Cashmere

Peach

Gold

Pussy Control

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Dolphin

I Like It There

Dinner With Delores

Into the Light/I Will

Get Yo Groove On

Damned if I Do

In This Bed I Scream

Sex in the Summer

Saviour

The Holy River

My Computer

One of Us

Emancipation

Hide the Bone

Interactive

Crucial

The Rest of My Life

Sarah

The One

Baby Knows

2000's

Family Name

The Everlasting Now

Last December

Young and Beautiful

Pearls B4 The Swine

1+1+1 is 3

Musicology

Cinnamon Girl

Reflection

3121

Lolita

Love

Beautiful, Loved and Blessed

Guitar

The One U Wanna C

Mr. Goodnight

Lion of Judah

Resolution

Vavoom

Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful

Wall of Berlin

$

Dreamer

No More Candy 4 U

PFUNK

I'll be darned. The 90's list is longer. I would not have guessed that.

The Question Of U

Joy In Repetition

Thieves In The Temple

Diamonds And Pearls

Cream

Willing And Able

Gett Off

Walk Don't Walk

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Sexy M.F.

The Continental

Damn U

7

And God Created Woman

Pink Cashmere

Peach

Come

Space

Race

Dark

P. Control

Shhh

Days Of Wild

The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

Dolphin

Shy

Billy Jack Bitch

I Hate U

Dinner With Delores

Right Back Here In My Arms

Somebody's Somebody

Get Yo Groove On

Betcha By Golly Wow!

White Mansion

I Can't Make U Love Me

Soul Sanctuary

Curious Child

Dreamin' About U

Joint 2 Joint

The Holy River

Let's Have A Baby

Saviour

Slave

New World

Face Down

Sleep Around

My Computer

The Love We Make

The Truth

Don't Play Me

Dionne

The Other Side Of The Pillow

Comeback

Da Bang

Come On

The One

Wasted Kisses

5 Women

When The Lights Go Down

The Greatest Romance Ever Sold

I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore

Strange But True

U're Gonna C Me

Musicology

Cinnamon Girl

What Do U Want Me 2 Do

Reflection

3121

Te Amo Corazon

Black Sweat

Love

Somewhere Here On Earth

Boom

Crimson & Clover

Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful

Wall Of Berlin

$

Dreamer

Dance 4 Me

U're Gonna C Me

The 90s gave us:

(The symbol album)

The Gold Experience

Emancipation

Chaos & Disorder

The Truth

None of the albums are quite as brilliant as his 80s material of course. But damn, are some of them fierce.

He through in a LOT of cringe-worthy materiel in the mix, but he also wowed me a great deal too.

And lets' face it---some of his brilliant 80s material had cringe worthy moments too ("Owee sha sha coo coo yeahehehay ?!?!?").

The stuff out since Musicology is all guaranteed to be safe, radio-ready, and likeable enough. But the 90s material is more fun.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a decade starts at the year 1 and ends at 10.

So we can't consider Graffitti Bridge as a 90's album.

The 90's had great highlights :

Diamonds&Pearls; commercial succesful and very consistent album with some of my all time

fav's: Cream, Get Off, Money don't matter...

The MTV europe specials, the tour (Act2 was better though), great period.

The Gold Experience; imo the last but great classic Prince album!

was a fav of mine..at the time but as a whole not so strong.

Great ballads, Sexy Mf but also The max and Blue light

Emancipation; we all know it, 2 much filler and would have been a strong 1-disc album.

The 00's don't have these hits or great albums but 3121 comes close and his output

is more consistent. Musicology is great and 20Ten is already a fav, if only 4 the first 6

songs!

Important is also the way he presented himself in the media.

It seems that the last 10 years he has found peace with his legacy, plays his hits and new stuff

and gives interviews once in a while.

In the second half of the 90's things really got embarrassing 4 a Prince fan!!

Someone remembers the interview where his face is covered, he doesn't say a word and

Mayte gives the answer. And off course the whole Slave thing; last year in France he said : that wasn't me when a reporter asked about the slave-period.

And the NPS period, his appearence at television,, with Graham and the concert...

Nope, I like the 00's better, the whole atmosphere, his looks...everything.

[Edited 7/23/10 11:15am]

[Edited 7/23/10 11:17am]

Paisley4u said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a decade starts at the year 1 and ends at 10.

So we can't consider Graffitti Bridge as a 90's album.

I think Graffiti Bridge can be considered a 90s album, considering it was released in 1990. What would you consider it? An 80's album??? Your thought is not making any sense to me.

Most people think of decades starting with x0 ending in x9.

All of the "highlights" you mention, really arent all that great. In fact I consider Symbol one of the worst P albums ever. The production in the 90s was also terribly tinny. Add to this the gun mic, the "game boyz" and typhoon do and you basically have a Prince that you couldnt share with your friends. The Gold band was tight but then he jettisoned it all with Emancipation and more Kirky Johnson crap.

Looking back and compared with the best parts of 2004 and on, the 90s are quite horrid, including Graffiti Bridge.

Paisley4u said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a decade starts at the year 1 and ends at 10.

So we can't consider Graffitti Bridge as a 90's album.

The 90's had great highlights :

Diamonds&Pearls; commercial succesful and very consistent album with some of my all time

fav's: Cream, Get Off, Money don't matter...

The MTV europe specials, the tour (Act2 was better though), great period.

The Gold Experience; imo the last but great classic Prince album!

was a fav of mine..at the time but as a whole not so strong.

Great ballads, Sexy Mf but also The max and Blue light

Emancipation; we all know it, 2 much filler and would have been a strong 1-disc album.

The 00's don't have these hits or great albums but 3121 comes close and his output

is more consistent. Musicology is great and 20Ten is already a fav, if only 4 the first 6

songs!

Important is also the way he presented himself in the media.

It seems that the last 10 years he has found peace with his legacy, plays his hits and new stuff

and gives interviews once in a while.

In the second half of the 90's things really got embarrassing 4 a Prince fan!!

Someone remembers the interview where his face is covered, he doesn't say a word and

Mayte gives the answer. And off course the whole Slave thing; last year in France he said : that wasn't me when a reporter asked about the slave-period.

And the NPS period, his appearence at television,, with Graham and the concert...

Nope, I like the 00's better, the whole atmosphere, his looks...everything.

[Edited 7/23/10 11:15am]

[Edited 7/23/10 11:17am]

Huggiebear said:

Its a close one one, but the 90s highlights are more than the flat 2000s. The 90s you had the musical pot pourri of Graffiti Bridge, the slick urban tempo of D and P, the sprawling opus of Symbol, the eccentricity of Come, the sheer rock brilliance of the Gold Experience, and the vast experimentalism of Emancipation and the four brilliant xtra Cds (3 from Crystal Ball and the B sides from the Hits). But then again you also had the dross of Tony M, the Time's less memorable moments and a slew of horrendous protege albums (TC Ellis anyone or is Carmen your flavour?). Plus the added dross of Chaos and Disorder, Newpowersoul and the blandness of his later 90s releases.

Now the 2000s, only one real stinker with the Rainbow children, but the highlights are not that high. Musicology and PE are ok, and the Lotusflow3r stuff was largely forgettable, especially Elixer, only 3121 was a great album. This hardly compares to the brilliance of TGE and Symbol. I say that as its highly unlikely he will drop another Crystal Ball or a Symbol on us again.

1990s 7/10

2000s 5/10

eh, I dunno. does anyone actually consider Graffiti Bridge a 90's album, as far as Prince's recorded output is concerned? very little of it originated int he 90's, and it was pretty much a capstone for his 80's material, containing outtakes, re-recordings, etc. nor would I count Pandemonium, as it only contains 5 Prince tracks, the more prominent ones originating from the mid-80's. and Crystal Ball is half '86 and half '93 to '96. The Hits/B-Sides should not count in any way shape or form. and there is nothing particularly experimental about Emancipation except for its 3 CD format.

errant said:

Huggiebear said:

Its a close one one, but the 90s highlights are more than the flat 2000s. The 90s you had the musical pot pourri of Graffiti Bridge, the slick urban tempo of D and P, the sprawling opus of Symbol, the eccentricity of Come, the sheer rock brilliance of the Gold Experience, and the vast experimentalism of Emancipation and the four brilliant xtra Cds (3 from Crystal Ball and the B sides from the Hits). But then again you also had the dross of Tony M, the Time's less memorable moments and a slew of horrendous protege albums (TC Ellis anyone or is Carmen your flavour?). Plus the added dross of Chaos and Disorder, Newpowersoul and the blandness of his later 90s releases.

Now the 2000s, only one real stinker with the Rainbow children, but the highlights are not that high. Musicology and PE are ok, and the Lotusflow3r stuff was largely forgettable, especially Elixer, only 3121 was a great album. This hardly compares to the brilliance of TGE and Symbol. I say that as its highly unlikely he will drop another Crystal Ball or a Symbol on us again.

1990s 7/10

2000s 5/10

eh, I dunno. does anyone actually consider Graffiti Bridge a 90's album, as far as Prince's recorded output is concerned? very little of it originated int he 90's, and it was pretty much a capstone for his 80's material, containing outtakes, re-recordings, etc. nor would I count Pandemonium, as it only contains 5 Prince tracks, the more prominent ones originating from the mid-80's. and Crystal Ball is half '86 and half '93 to '96. The Hits/B-Sides should not count in any way shape or form. and there is nothing particularly experimental about Emancipation except for its 3 CD format.

I do, I believe 1990 was the 90s, just the sound nineteen ninety does not sound 1980s to me and as for the music being 80s, well since when did we draw a discrete line down on 12.00am January 1st 1990 as a cutoff date. A lot of music today on the radio is remake of songs from other decades. As far as I am concerned, the large majority of people did not hear the Graffiti Bridge album until August 1990, and thats why I grade it a 90s, album, I hadn't heard it in 1989 or any earlier so its not 80s, also its impact carried over into 1991.

I am not about to embark on an argument when a decade/century/millenium commences (The old 2000 vs 2001 argument). But the original question in the thread did not

1. Define the years included in the 1990s (If they wanted it to be 1991 -2000, they would have said so)

2. Nearly all music charts, press, magazines declare 1980 as the 80s, 1970 as 70s, and 1990 as the 90s, so why can't you my friend.

Huggiebear said:

errant said:

eh, I dunno. does anyone actually consider Graffiti Bridge a 90's album, as far as Prince's recorded output is concerned? very little of it originated int he 90's, and it was pretty much a capstone for his 80's material, containing outtakes, re-recordings, etc. nor would I count Pandemonium, as it only contains 5 Prince tracks, the more prominent ones originating from the mid-80's. and Crystal Ball is half '86 and half '93 to '96. The Hits/B-Sides should not count in any way shape or form. and there is nothing particularly experimental about Emancipation except for its 3 CD format.

I do, I believe 1990 was the 90s, just the sound nineteen ninety does not sound 1980s to me and as for the music being 80s, well since when did we draw a discrete line down on 12.00am January 1st 1990 as a cutoff date. A lot of music today on the radio is remake of songs from other decades. As far as I am concerned, the large majority of people did not hear the Graffiti Bridge album until August 1990, and thats why I grade it a 90s, album, I hadn't heard it in 1989 or any earlier so its not 80s, also its impact carried over into 1991.

I am not about to embark on an argument when a decade/century/millenium commences (The old 2000 vs 2001 argument). But the original question in the thread did not

1. Define the years included in the 1990s (If they wanted it to be 1991 -2000, they would have said so)

2. Nearly all music charts, press, magazines declare 1980 as the 80s, 1970 as 70s, and 1990 as the 90s, so why can't you my friend.

Bravo on bending over backwards to intentionally miss the point.

2000s. Although the good stuff are pretty even (D&P, TGE, 3121, LF), the previous decade was mostly 'decent' while the 90s had so much shit, like Come or Rave. It's only TRE that's on par with the worst of the 90s.

90's are better than the 2000's (IMO). With the exception of The Rainbow Children and the live version of TRC all the 2000's Prince CD's "spirit" (to use a word) feel constrained musically and lyrically. Not that there aren't great songs spread through out Prince Cd's-but, Prince's producing has sometimes sanitized his music. I just feel the restraint in his music, I want the wild spirit back in his music.

1. Why the need to draw a line? You can enjoy 1978-Now without some arbitrary Prince vs. Prince competition.

2. That said, this IS the internet.

Personally, I think Prince 2000-2010 is a lot more true to himself in terms of sound/style than he was in the 90's. The 90's saw him forcing things a bit more. There was more calculated explicit/shocking lyrics, incorporating "hard" rappers into his mix, and purposefully distancing himself from his own Minneapolis Sound.

Prince of the last decade seems more natural. That said, I do miss some of that FU attitude that his wars in the 90's inspired.

2000's for sure. Music was more consistent and better production.

The only truly great albums in the 90's were TGE and Chaos And Disorder and both of those still had about 2-3 duds.

There were great songs on both D&P and Symbol but half were garbage.

Come and Emancipation were just complete garbage.

NPS and GB only had about two great songs

Rave had a handfull of ok songs

How can you call 1990 part of the '80's? There's a 9 in the decade slot!

Of course, we're living in 2010, which is the 21st century.

Damn, I knew time was a trick.

90's

Truth is, I think Musicology and 3121 can stand up to most of Prince's best work, but overall I'd still say the 90's are better. There was a real fight in him to prove himself, and to try to show that he was still as good as ever...whether he succeeded is up for debate. With Diamonds and Pearls he wanted a major hit and he got it. While Gold Experience had more fire and passion than anything ever since, and Emancipation still seems to me to be his most personal work to date. I love both decades, but the 90's showed an artist with huge ups and bizarre downs -- and full of surprises.

He was hungry in 1994-96...today he seems very...content.

RodeoSchro said:

How can you call 1990 part of the '80's? There's a 9 in the decade slot!

Of course, we're living in 2010, which is the 21st century.

Damn, I knew time was a trick.

If u wanna include Graffiti Bridge in the '90's, that's fine with me...it makes sence

As long as U all know that 20Ten is also part of the 2000-2010 period!!

motherfunka said:

Paisley4u said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a decade starts at the year 1 and ends at 10.

So we can't consider Graffitti Bridge as a 90's album.

I think Graffiti Bridge can be considered a 90s album, considering it was released in 1990. What would you consider it? An 80's album??? Your thought is not making any sense to me.

I always kind of look that one over considering that most of those songs were indeed recorded / wirtten in the mid 80's except:

Release It

Love Machine

Shake

The Latest Fashion

Grafittit Bridge

NPG

Thieves In The Temple