I've never really given this album much of a chance...but I think "Diamonds and Pearls" (the song) is AMAZING and one of his best songs! Its soo good! One of his best 90s songs!

"Cream" is also pretty killer but the rest of the album is a blur to me.

Whats your thoughts on the album? It doesnt get mentioned much around here..

The song is cheese and ham on toast.

The album - half of it is hideously dated (rap stuff), the other half holds up really well (Willing & Able, Strollin') and the band sound works great (same for and Gold Nigga).

I like the whole album with the exception of "Jughead". ("Push", I do not like either, but can stomach it.)

one of the bets songs ever written

NouveauDance said:

The song is cheese and ham on toast.

The album - half of it is hideously dated (rap stuff), the other half holds up really well (Willing & Able, Strollin') and the band sound works great (same for and Gold Nigga).

Agree. D&P the song is one of my least favorite P singles. I think P crafted a pure pop song that was designed to be a hit, but I agree with the cheese analogy.

I think this album signaled a more conventional composer and arranger than what we were used to with the previous daring, experimental, introspective and interestingly weird world of Prince. This was the first P album that I was disappointed in. He went for the hit. But like any Prince album, there are treasures buried beneath. The symbol album is an improvement on the same formula.

For me this may be his most disappointing album. I can't necessarily say that it is his worst because there are some good songs on it but it seemed he was trying really hard to have a hit. I know a lot of folks love it but for me "Gett Off" is one of his worst singles. The other singles are ok but none of them are great. "Insatiable" is a good ballad but maybe not as distinctive as some of his others. Obviously "Cream" was a huge hit but it has been played to death. I do like "Diamonds and Pearls." Songs like "Willing and Able," "Strollin'," "Daddy Pop" and "Walk Don't Walk" are ok but they seem a bit bland. I wouldn't say that I like the song but I don't hate "Jughead" it's just kind of there. The strings on "Push" are nice. "Thunder" and "Live 4 Love" seem like the type of album tracks that I usually like but for some reason they don't do much for me. I guess that "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" is probably the best song on the album. I like that song but if that is the best song on an album you've got a pretty mediocre album to sit through. If you listen to some of the outtakes from this era I think that some substitutions could have made Diamonds and Pearls a better album but maybe Prince had to do an album like this in order to move on?

i liked the whole album.

This could have been a really timeless and excellent album if it wasn´t for those Tony M rap parts.

They seriously ruin the album.

I think it is one of his most underrated albums. Jughead, Push and Tony M´s rapping are horrible but other than that, most of the songs are top notch, and I liked the stylish and elegant feel of it, the artwork, the fonts, the pictures etc., and the tour was one of his last spectacular tours, if not THE last spectacular tour he did. The Gold Experience tour (Ultimate Live Experience) was cool, too, but he left half of the props in England before he arrived in Holland.

The album, the videos, the b-sides and maxisingles and remixes were all very special with this one.

great song. decent album. definitely some duds on there but like most Prince albums I feel the positives generally out weigh the negative. I really love the drums on d&p the song!

MikeyB71 said:

D&P is probably my least listened to album. The tour was great, but I think that the album has not aged well at all. Besides Tony M who is awful, the production in general sounds very dated. Top songs for me would be Money Don't Matter and Gett Off, the rest I could do without.

Yeah the songs are REALLY dated. Way too much New Jack Swing going on.

I do love:

Walk Don't Walk

Push

Insatiable

Gett Off

And while they are good songs from the album, it's the quality and the dated-ness they have. Thunder....Live 4 Love (just cant get into it)...Willing And Able...meh...thought he was trying too hard and it sounded like it did not match with the other tunes...I think that's what was wrong with the album. Too many different styles trying to fit in one album..New Jack Swing did not mix well with live jazzy instrumentation i.e. Strollin. Thunder trying to go against Daddy Pop....Tony M was a distraction..the music was loud and overbearing at times...like too many things trying to happen at once...

It was my first Prince album...and I did play it out when I was little but after I started discovering his other albums it faded more and more into the background.

If you listen to my version of the album, where I pretty much take Ton M. out of about 98% of the album, you'll love it a lot more. I never liked the album much. I was on a bit of a Prince slump during that time period, but once I took the time to take Tony M. out of that album and the album, it's a whole new ball game.

"Thunder" is still my favorite opener - especially the music in the last half!

The album has not aged well - "Daddy Pop" is a strange number that gets little discussion here... I can't stand it. "Jughead", "Push", yuck.

"Cream" nowadays seems incredibly slow, I can't believe it hit #1!

The Cream maxi-single was fun, though, and so is "Violet the Organ Grinder".

I find it interesting that this one of his most commercially successful albums, yet is among the weakest in his catalog. Good publicists, I guess.

another album i enjoyed, loved all the music, didnt look to fault it, figured i was being treated yet again to something great.

this album like most others towered over my limited musical scope at that time, wouldnt have even thought to critique it.

its filled with color, variety, supreme musicianship, great songs, controversy, solid beats, gentleness and humor.

sparkles like a diamond and precious as a pearl.

Jakeasaurus said:

i like this album and i like the concept

Number23 said:

I rarely feel the urge to spin it. For me, it was the first of Prince's releases that had no cohesive production or thematic mosaic - it was like here's the bombastic OTT I-met-with-God opener, here's the I'm-still-still-fonky jam for my urban audience, here's my mainstream radio ballad, here's my catchy pop nugget take on Marc Bolan, here's some jazzy falsetto, here's my 90's take on JB, here's some awful rap, here's the big seduction ballad, here's the bombastic, OTT, I-met-with-God closer. Covered all the bases? Notch up five million sold. Don't get me wrong. The majority of these songs contained top drawer material. There's just too much friction between the styles for me. Parade varies wildly but is lubed by the greater thematic whole which threads all these disparate sounds together in a seamless whole. D&P sounds like product, which is how it was intended. He did exactly what he set out to do and well done to him for it. It's just not my cup of tea. I'm still certain this second heady peak of global megastardom fucked deeply with his artistry, radar and muse for a while. The next few albums - Come aside - were just clones of that ragtag, throw-it-all-and-see-what-sticks formula - albeit with even stronger songs. Lightening very rarely strikes the same spot twice though. For me, he was getting further and further away from what made him so unique and worthy of the label genius in the first place. It took until TRC for the Prince I dig to get his groove back. Musically. Lyrically..another story for another day.

damn I miss reading your posts! I love you

Great song. Memorable bass line. Simple lyrics & chorus with a unique bridge. The great voice of Rosie Gaines duet with Prince.

My wife is not a huge Prince fan...but stack all of Prince's career hits together and "Diamonds & Pearls" is her favorite song by him. In fact, it's one of her favorite songs period.

She will not be denied the enjoyment of singing along with Rosie: "D" to the "I" to the "A" to the "M"..."O" to the "N" to the "D" to the pearls of love.

One of the things I like a lot in Prince's albums is that it sort of flows as a whole but doesn't get repetitive. I find it hard to explain, but for example: the Batman albums is carried by the "flashy" drums, the Around the World in a Day album is build around echos and synths, and so on. The reason I don't like most of his '90s material is because according to me, he let this concept go. If I take a look at the songs seperated from each other, I only really like Cream and Gett Off, find a few songs good, find a few songs bad and most of the songs so-so at most. A really uneven album to me and one of my least favorites I'm afraid.

I love the 5 big 'classic' singles.

Grtt Off

Cream

D&P

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

Insatiable

Thunder is good too and Live 4 Love is great played live.

Even though I like the D&P album it's rare I am listening to it.

Just bought it on vinyl in the hope that it would reinvigorate it for me. Love the first record but the second one is poor. Definitely agree that the album hasn't aged well for the above mentioned reasons. Still a few gems on there tho, like the title track.

Number23 said:

it was like here's the bombastic OTT I-met-with-God opener, here's the I'm-still-still-fonky jam for my urban audience, here's my mainstream radio ballad, here's my catchy pop nugget take on Marc Bolan, here's some jazzy falsetto, here's my 90's take on JB, here's some awful rap, here's the big seduction ballad, here's the bombastic, OTT, I-met-with-God closer. Covered all the bases? Notch up five million sold. Don't get me wrong. The majority of these songs contained top drawer material. There's just too much friction between the styles for me.

You just described every Prince pop/r&b focused album since.

Diamonds and Pearls to me is easily his best 90's album.

I honestly think Jughead minus Tony M is Housequake 2

PurpleColossus said:

Diamonds and Pearls to me is easily his best 90's album.

I honestly think Jughead minus Tony M is Housequake 2

Taken with a full dose of sarcasm, all around.

TGE is his best 90's album.

ernestsewell said:

PurpleColossus said:

Diamonds and Pearls to me is easily his best 90's album.

I honestly think Jughead minus Tony M is Housequake 2

Taken with a full dose of sarcasm, all around.

TGE is his best 90's album.

Maybe I'm just weird but I do truly love D&P and every song on it ..Although TGE is amazing in it's own right, I never got into as much as D&P for some reason. I actually even prefer Graffiti Bridge over TGE, sorry Ernest.. I know your a big TGE fan

PurpleColossus said:

Very good.

D&P, Strollin, Money Don't Matter 2 Night, Push, Insatiable, Live 4 Love my favs