i've read a few reviews on the album and they werent good. Are there any really good songs on the album that u enjoy? Is it worth purchasing?

hhhhdmt said:

i am a pretty big fan, but i still have alot more to discover

hhhhdmt said:

Actually, if you've never gotten any bootlegs before or are new to Prince... Crystal Ball is a great album.

Agreed, Crystal Ball is great.

Great songs are: Good Love, Comeback, Goodbye, She Gave Her Angels, Love Sign, Last Heart, 18 & Over & Others I'm overlooking right now.

RUN and get it...

Genius

Crystal Ball

Great

Dream Factory

Movie Star

Crucial

Good

She Gave Her Angels

Hide The Bone

Goodbye

Lovesign

2morrow

Bad

Tell Me How U Wanna Be Done

Ripopgodazippa

Strays Of The World

What's My Name

Ugly

Cloreen Bacon Skin

PoomPoom

Pointless

P Control remix

So Dark remix

Get Loose

I think a lot of fans (myself included) were a bit stumped by the tracks he included vs. the songs he left off. I think Prince likes the mystique of being a heavily bootlegged artist and I don't think he truly wanted to put all of his best outtakes on one release. There's no other sane explanation for the inclusion of three remixes and loads of sub-par 90's b-sides over true gems like All My Dreams and The Line.

[Edited 10/2/10 8:38am]

MattyJam said:

Genius

Crystal Ball

Great

Dream Factory

Movie Star

Crucial

Good

She Gave Her Angels

Hide The Bone

Goodbye

Lovesign

2morrow

Bad

Tell Me How U Wanna Be Done

Ripopgodazippa

Strays Of The World

What's My Name

Ugly

Cloreen Bacon Skin

PoomPoom

Pointless

P Control remix

So Dark remix

Get Loose

Thank god, to each their own.

I LOVE Crystal Ball. A must have for all Prince fans. That list of Genius, Great, Good, is flawed imo. The only tunes that I skip is Cloreen Bacon Skin (WAY too long) and Tell Me How U Wanna Be Done. I think the other remixes are cool. Whats my Name is awesome as is Strays of the World. Poom Poom is what it is...a silly tune that somehow gets in my head and doesnt want to leave when I hear it. I even like the remixes. Get it NOW!

Spinlight said:

Thank god, to each their own.

SEERRRRRiously! Working along those lines, for me, Crystal Ball is about ten times more enjoyable than Emancipation. And a few other nineties releases for that matter. Definitely try to get one with The Truth disc included, though.

Ultimately the only opinion that counts is yours. Buy it, listen, and judge for yourself.

Best songs IMO:

Crystal Ball title song,

Acknowledge Me,

Days Of Wild

Review from Record Collector 1998:

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[img:$uid]http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/861/recordcollector2.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2343/recordcollector3.jpg[/img:$uid]

yes u should get it for sure! peace

i kinda hated Crystal Ball,

but when you bundle The Truth with it,

it pretty much evens out...

Don't Play Me,

nuff said

I love that that review assumes fans were clamoring for the release of the version of "An Honest Man" that's on Crystal Ball, lol.

hhhhdmt said:

i've read a few reviews on the album and they werent good. Are there any really good songs on the album that u enjoy? Is it worth purchasing?

in general yes, definitely worth getting. I never listen to it in one go though. you probably should cut a bit here and there and edit your own personalized version

To each their own, but here's my opinion:

WORTHWHILE AND/OR MUST-HAVE SONGS

Crystal Ball

Dream Factory

Ripopgodazippa

Love Sign

Hide the Bone

2morrow

Interactive

Calhoun Square

What's My Name

Crucial

Sexual Suicide

Cloreen Baconskin

Good Love

Strays of the World

Days of Wild

Last Heart

Poom Poom

18 & Over

The Ride

Make Your Mama Happy

that's 2/3 parts of the whole album set, but the rest is unnecessary (the remixes), pretty uneven or downright awful...

The Truth album is a corpse for me perhaps his most boring album of all time...why this was called a return to form is beyond me...why anyone would want to see Prince reduced to an singer/songwriter with an AVERAGE set acoustic songs is beyond me...

and talking about Movie Star you'll probably prefer the original 85-86 version, not the Crystal Ball remix which includes annoying sample of Jam of the Year...

hhhhdmt said:

i've read a few reviews on the album and they weren't good. Are there any really good songs on the album that u enjoy? Is it worth purchasing?

Crystal Ball the 4 CD set is an interesting body of work and I say get it, I think it's great. If you are talking about Crystal Ball the boot the sentiments are the same for that album too ...

ernestsewell said:

Ultimately the only opinion that counts is yours. Buy it, listen, and judge for yourself.

... & what 'he' said

This is a reason why I love the org so much. I played the 1st disc on the way to work today because of this thread. Made my commute oh so cool. What a great album.

I'd argue one of his best albums in the last 20 yrs. It's brilliant. I rememebr the |UK Guardian raving about it at the time

Crystal Ball is a must have

Now that i have finally got it and listened to it, i dont think its quite as fantastic as some make it out to be, but definately has some good stuff. What surpries me though is how some of these songs are actually better then alot of what actually ended up in his albums. Either prince made some poor choice not to put this stuff on his albums or warner brothers did.

Crucial, Love Sign, Interactive, The Ride, Sexual Suicide, Interactive, Dream Factory, Last Heart, She gave her angels, acknowledge me. I also quite like ripop despite its ridicolous lyrics. Then again there are tunes that i dont want to listen to again.

hey...what about 'interactive ' ?......thats a great track....bassline to die for...great guitar at the end...thumping tune all the way through....are you ready ?...crystal ball overall is hit and miss but when it is good ...its very good....when its bad...its very bad...the truth album has some cracking tunes as well and some shockers like animal kingdom ....but its a must have for a prince fan..

hhhhdmt said:

Now that i have finally got it and listened to it, i dont think its quite as fantastic as some make it out to be, but definately has some good stuff. What surpries me though is how some of these songs are actually better then alot of what actually ended up in his albums. Either prince made some poor choice not to put this stuff on his albums or warner brothers did.

Crucial, Love Sign, Interactive, The Ride, Sexual Suicide, Interactive, Dream Factory, Last Heart, She gave her angels, acknowledge me. I also quite like ripop despite its ridicolous lyrics. Then again there are tunes that i dont want to listen to again.

Which ones don't you want to listen to again?

i LOOOOOVE CRYSTAL BALL....18 & over,she gave her angels,days of wild,moviestar,lovesign, acknowledge me, crystal ball!! some of my faves!!!!

Spinlight said:

hhhhdmt said:

Now that i have finally got it and listened to it, i dont think its quite as fantastic as some make it out to be, but definately has some good stuff. What surpries me though is how some of these songs are actually better then alot of what actually ended up in his albums. Either prince made some poor choice not to put this stuff on his albums or warner brothers did.

Crucial, Love Sign, Interactive, The Ride, Sexual Suicide, Interactive, Dream Factory, Last Heart, She gave her angels, acknowledge me. I also quite like ripop despite its ridicolous lyrics. Then again there are tunes that i dont want to listen to again.

Which ones don't you want to listen to again?

tell me how u wanna be done, cloreen baconskin

I don't understand these "should i get...?" threads.

4 each and every album u'll find people 2 tell u it's amazing and others 2 tell u that it sucks.

So just download the album 4 free, listen 2 it and then if u like it buy the CD's