"Sign o'the times was Prince's last classic album... the look, sound, and images all flowed together so well.... actually everything he did back then all fit and made sense.... can prince make one more difinitive classic musical statement... or do u think he doesn't have the passion for that anymore?.. I feel he can't do it.... his lyrics have become affected because of his jw religion.. Prince should just release his vault stuff.. and we all would be happy.. what do u think?

It doesn't matter, as long as he continue to fight the system he wont get any radio play!

Well, for me, Lovesexy was a great definitive musical statement. But after that, I kind of agree (though I still like a lot of it).

The Gold Experience was his last classic album; and a truly great one at that.

Does he have another GREAT one in him? No, I don't believe he does. Gold was the last one, for me. Never thought it would be, but that's how it's happened in the past 15 years or so.

The best thing Prince can release now is vault stuff, but he won't. And if he does, he'll edit and overdub the shit out of it to where it's unrecognizable anyway.

Based on his recent output then I d have to say no. And for that reason I m out.

ernestsewell said:

The Gold Experience was his last classic album; and a truly great one at that.

Does he have another GREAT one in him? No, I don't believe he does. Gold was the last one, for me. Never thought it would be, but that's how it's happened in the past 15 years or so.

The best thing Prince can release now is vault stuff, but he won't. And if he does, he'll edit and overdub the shit out of it to where it's unrecognizable anyway.

I could not have said this better myself!

Define "great".

HE really hasn't stopped putting out great albums, but people have changed the way they listen to music since the '80s and '90s...

I'll say it again... The 'Lotusflow3r' album is as good or better as any album he's ever released.

We all have our own independant tastes though, and let's not forget that Prince's catalog is the most musically diverse catalog of nearly any recording artist ever, hence his diverse fan base.

Of course he has more in him!!!!!!!!!! He has more than 1, he has consistantly put out GREAT music since SOTT!! I can't believe that's all you find classic!! I love The Gold Experience, Emancipation, Planet Earth, Musicology, Planet Earth, Rave, 20Ten especially, but honestly, all of them were great!! I can't name many Prince ablums that I could do without. He will continue to produce genius work because he is a GENIUS!!

Yes. He does. And phooey on anybody who says he hasn't put out a great album since the 90's. Please.

I feel that when lovesexy failed in the U.S..... Prince lost his muse creatively.. from that point on.... Prince was a musical innovator... Prince panicked and started to play catch-up with other musical trends... He went away from his own sound to do rap and added tony m... Prince's image with his music didn't flow as well... Let's face it... Prince WAS IN A ZONE FROM 1980 TO 88 PERIOD...Prince did what he wanted and built up the minneapolis sound... The musical growth between 1980 to 1984 was truly amazing.. going from the new wave sound and his falsetto... to the major leap of his own sound defined on the 1999 album... from 80 to 82... prince's music and he used other registers of his voice to become known...

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

Yes. Prince continues to produce great songs on every album. Maybe there hasn't been a cover to cover classic like Gold (which might have been his last) but almost everything since has at least shown moments of greatness, in many cases at least a few songs that are great..

So, yep, I think so.

One at least, hopefully.

We're all waiting.....

ernestsewell said:

The Gold Experience was his last classic album; and a truly great one at that.

Does he have another GREAT one in him? No, I don't believe he does. Gold was the last one, for me. Never thought it would be, but that's how it's happened in the past 15 years or so.

The best thing Prince can release now is vault stuff, but he won't. And if he does, he'll edit and overdub the shit out of it to where it's unrecognizable anyway.

Ernest, I'm surprised you like the Gold Experience. I dig it, but I always thought it sounded over produced. TOO MUCH going on during some songs, IMHO.

BUT... I love Dolphin, Shhhh..., We March, Billy Jack Bitch, Shy ... and many others. And I LOVE Gold! I also prefer the Mustang Mix of TMBGITW over the version on the CD... although the Mustang Mix was in no way going to make it on the album.

Oh, and I Hate U... I could take or leave. Same with Endorphin Machine.

Just trying to say that I'm surprised that THAT album is what you consider his last classic album.

To answer the question though... Prince will never again (imho) reach commercial success, but he'll release another great album for sure. Many of us will like it, but as for the masses... if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound??

I think not.

I'll take the one a year that he releases................thank u very much.

After 20Ten I'm more inclined to think it's possible.

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

ernestsewell said:

Does he have another GREAT one in him? No, I don't believe he does.

Hmm, so would it be safe to 'ask' or say that you would not buy anymore albums, if one is to follow 20Ten, then?

I on the other hand 'do' believe he has another 'great' album in him ...[img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/3.gif[/img:$uid]

Giovanni777 said:

HE really hasn't stopped putting out great albums, but people have changed the way they listen to music since the '80s and '90s...

I'll say it again... The 'Lotusflow3r' album is as good or better as any album he's ever released.

We all have our own independant tastes though, and let's not forget that Prince's catalog is the most musically diverse catalog of nearly any recording artist ever, hence his diverse fan base.

I totally agree with you , Giovanni.

I'll add my "I'll say this again", too: The way Prince changes up different songs makes them even better for me. They don't get boring for me at all. I'm still listening to stuff I've never heard before and I go "Wow!" when the songs are done. Today, I heard "Feline" for probably only the second time and I played it over 4 times.

rusty1 said:

I feel that when lovesexy failed in the U.S..... Prince lost his muse creatively.. from that point on.... Prince was a musical innovator... Prince panicked and started to play catch-up with other musical trends... He went away from his own sound to do rap and added tony m... Prince's image with his music didn't flow as well... Let's face it... Prince WAS IN A ZONE FROM 1980 TO 88 PERIOD...Prince did what he wanted and built up the minneapolis sound... The musical growth between 1980 to 1984 was truly amazing.. going from the new wave sound and his falsetto... to the major leap of his own sound defined on the 1999 album... from 80 to 82... prince's music and he used other registers of his voice to become known...

spot on x

sure, most of his albums are near misses these days. A tweak here & there and he's got another classic on his hands.

ernestsewell said:

The Gold Experience was his last classic album; and a truly great one at that.

Does he have another GREAT one in him? No, I don't believe he does. Gold was the last one, for me. Never thought it would be, but that's how it's happened in the past 15 years or so.

The best thing Prince can release now is vault stuff, but he won't. And if he does, he'll edit and overdub the shit out of it to where it's unrecognizable anyway.

If anyone else had said that Mr S you would have stated it as subjective. I also know you will come back and go "I know"

whats great anyways?

as long as it tickles my funky bone that shit is going down in the "history books" (aka pickles itunes playlists)

[Edited 9/8/10 16:28pm]

20ten surprised the heck out of me. I'm going with...

" YES, I think he can "

soulfunky said:

20ten surprised the heck out of me. I'm going with...

" YES, I think he can "

I agree. Can he do revelationary music-I'm not sure but I do believe he can do classic

im not gonna agree with all the "of course he does" people who think every thing prince puts out is as great as everything he has ever put out. seriously lotusflower as good as ANY of his records ... seriously? ... im not even gonna say i like gold experience cuz i dont .. personally i think prince mostly ended when prince changed his name and its really not the music that is bad .. its the lyrics and the production ... and every great artist goes through many mediocre years ... i think it might be the midlife crisis years or male menopause er whwatever ... i think thats where we get all the painful prince tributes to himself .. some kinda identity thing goin on there ... but i do believe as he gets older we will here him finally give in and just be himself again .. and then we will get that deep personal record that only prince can make ... until then its gonna be canned product

I think he has tons of great albums in him.

But the problem is similar to the stuff in the vault - it's the getting it out (in tact) that's the problem!

As proven in this thread already though, the label of 'great' is entirely subjective anyway, but in the spirit of the discussion, I do see a time when Prince releases an album which sparks the same level of excitement musicially as SOTT, and quite possibly even as much excitement publicly as Purple Rain.

I believe the only things stopping him are temporary and certainly have not stopped him from consistently releasing my idea of great music for years and years

Chiquetet said:

As proven in this thread already though, the label of 'great' is entirely subjective anyway,

I started to go into all that, because I really dislike the Gold album for the most part. But then I figured, eh, screw it! You're totally right, though. What one person considers great just isn't the same for the next person. Plus, a huge part of the equation (as has been mentioned in numerous other threads) is how WE'VE changed as listeners.