A truly underrated album that showcases a wide spectrum of Prince's talents.

Tell Me How U Wanna B Done - the very funky Kirky J remix of The Continental with Carmen Electra on vocals

Ripopgodazippa - probably my favorite reggae song, one of the few bright spots in the movie Showgirls

Love Sign - the Shock G remix, can't go wrong with heavy sampling from Doowutchyalike and D.M.S.R.

Hide The Bone - rocking hard in a funky place

Acknowledge Me - was gonna be on The Gold Experience until it was replace by P-Control

Dream Factory - the downfall of Paul Peterson after leaving La Famiglia

Crystal Ball - from the depths of depression comes a touch of jazz, funk, rock and classical

So Dark - smooth and sexy

Movie Star - so obviously written for Morris Day, this song shows Prince's humorous side and would have fit right in with the Under the Cherry Moon soundtrack

Anybody else want to show some love for the first of the 4-disc set?

[Edited 1/9/11 16:33pm]

First disc is definitely my favorite. The first half is nearly impeccable and acts as a short tour through Prince's timeless genius. When you can bounce from Crystal Ball to Dream Factory to Acknowledge Me, you're listening to a really talented artist.

honestly, "Crystal Ball" should have been WAY better than it was.. seriously.. don't get me wrong, there are a TON of gems on the collection.. but the shoddy remixes, haphazard tracklisting & poor distribution for those who ordered through NEWFUNK (CB is an internet exclusive album! Until we start selling it at BB Music! But we'll give you a tshirt if we don't forget to include it in your package!) just tainted the whole project.

Rzeplica said:

honestly, "Crystal Ball" should have been WAY better than it was.. seriously.. don't get me wrong, there are a TON of gems on the collection.. but the shoddy remixes, haphazard tracklisting & poor distribution for those who ordered through NEWFUNK (CB is an internet exclusive album! Until we start selling it at BB Music! But we'll give you a tshirt if we don't forget to include it in your package!) just tainted the whole project.

I think we, as die hard fans, expected Crystal Ball to be something different than it should've been. We were conditioned to expect thematic pieces like Jewel Box and Fantasia and Dreams, etc. Songs that basically sounded like they fit together cohesively, sometimes chronological in order, etc.

However, I don't think that it matters the same to people who would be coming to the material from fresh eyes. I don't know about you, but I'd heard 99.9% of Crystal Ball by the time it was released (I had not heard Da Bang, Poom Poom, or Calhoun Square at the time). I could point out how haphazard it felt to bounce from 1986 to 1994 to 1982 to 1991, etc. It was a bit jarring because of how noticeable, to my ears, the signature sound shifted from period to period. I don't think the average consumer would feel the same.

I'm sure some of my fellow Nirvana fans who are more hardcore about collecting felt With The Lights Out was not as comprehensive or fulfilling as it could've been, but the album is dream come true to me.

There are a lot of flaws to the Crystal Ball release. Not least of which is the circumstances under which it was released. But that's a whole other story.

From the tracks jumping back and forth between eras and the pointless remixes (So Dark, Tell Me How U Wanna B Done, Pussy Control, a Good Love edit with ambient noise tacked to the end) to the overdubs and Cloreen Baconskin taking up 15 minutes of space while Crucial gets its solo butchered.

The only thing that really still bothers me about the release as it stands is that it's running time is spread over 3 discs when it would have easily fit on 2.

i pretty much love CRYSTAL BALL

i kinda go with disc 2 though

For me it just doesn't flow in any way, shape or form. It's a cherry picker - which it kinda is any way by definition and design

Maybe it's just me, but are compilation albums always supposed to flow?

I think what makes Crystal Ball so great is that it's all over the place, it covers so many different aspects of Prince's talent that at least some portion of the album appeals to each and every fan.

Variety is the spice of life.

The Truth is the best disc in Crystal Ball.

Like the majority of his work since the late eighties, the rest of the stuff on there is ruined with over-production and rushed/shoddy lyrics. Some great tracks, but no consistency as an album. Out of the other 3 discs, there's just enough great tracks to easily fit on one.

If I had to pick a favorite disc, it would be disc 2 (the rocker):

Disc 1:

Crystal Ball (10:28)
Dream Factory (3:07)
Acknowledge Me (5:27)
Ripopgodazippa (4:39)
Love Sign (Shock G's Silky Remix) (3:53)
Hide The Bone (5:04) *
2morrow (4:14)
So Dark (5:14)
Movie Star (4:26)
Tell Me How U Wanna B Done (3:16)

Disc 2:

Interactive (3:04)
Da Bang (3:20)
Calhoun Square (4:47)
What's My Name (3:04)
Crucial (5:06)
An Honest Man (1:13)
Sexual Suicide (3:40)
Cloreen Baconskin (15:37)
Good Love (4:55)
Strays Of The World (5:07)

Disc 3:

Days Of Wild (9:19)
Last Heart (3:02)
Poom Poom (4:32)
She Gave Her Angels (3:53)
18 & Over (5:40)
The Ride (5:14)
Get Loose (3:31)
P. Control (Remix) (6:00)
Make Your Mama Happy (4:01)
Goodbye (4:35)

I love both disc 1 and disc 2, they are a perfect sequence of contrasting moods... much like SOTT the album or Graffiti Bridge was structured with a genre jumping agena... but even more refreshing contrasts (like go from a tight short produced song to a 15 minute raw joking arond jam)... but I dislike disc 3.

My favorites (I still listen to it in my truck at least once a week):

Disc 1:

Crystal Ball (10:28)
Ripopgodazippa (4:39) Love this song
Love Sign (Shock G's Silky Remix) (3:53) One of my faves
Movie Star (4:26) One of my favs
Tell Me How U Wanna B Done (3:16) One of my faves

Disc 2:

Interactive (3:04)
Crucial (5:06)
An Honest Man (1:13)
Cloreen Baconskin (15:37) One of my faves

Disc 3:

Days Of Wild (9:19) All that cursing makes me blush!
Poom Poom (4:32) I only listen to the first set of Poom Poom and get my invisible gun and blow my brains out LOL!
She Gave Her Angels (3:53) I only listen to this song when I'm sad
18 & Over (5:40) Oh yeah a this is gonna b good LOL
Get Loose (3:31) I only listen to the first couple of seconds LOL
P. Control (Remix) (6:00) This song still makes me
Make Your Mama Happy (4:01)
Goodbye (4:35) This song used to make me cry

I really like the album, "Crystal Ball," but I agree with some of the problems that you guys have. I think it is too short as an album (especially for a 3 disc set).

Disc 1 is definitely my fav and disc 3 is my fav.

Spinlight said:

I'm sure some of my fellow Nirvana fans who are more hardcore about collecting felt With The Lights Out was not as comprehensive or fulfilling as it could've been, but the album is dream come true to me.

I don't think that's a great comparison. The Nirvana box covers roughly 1987-1994 while the Prince box had 1976-1996 (maybe even 1997) to draw on. Three discs seems ample to cover an eight year career but rather skimpy to cover a twenty year career. Nirvana didn't really have any fully produced outtakes while Prince had many. It would have been easy for Prince to assemble a three disc/nearly four hour box of quality outtakes covering his whole career but he basically offered us 2 discs of material spread over three discs from a fairly narrow era (mostly 1993-1996 with a sprinkling of '80s material and too many pointless remixes).

The Nirvana box was good for what it was, essentially the Nirvana version of the Beatles' Anthology discs, but I think the Prince box could have been much better.

[Edited 1/10/11 15:20pm]

The Truth is the only good disc from the entire set. Out of the rest of the set most of it is hard to even listen to.

With great songs like "Hide The Bone" and "Ripopgodazippa",Disc 1 is definitely the best disc.I think it flows extremely well too.

errant said:

There are a lot of flaws to the Crystal Ball release.From the tracks jumping back and forth between eras and the pointless remixes (So Dark, Tell Me How U Wanna B Done, Pussy Control, a Good Love edit with ambient noise tacked to the end) to the overdubs and Cloreen Baconskin taking up 15 minutes of space while Crucial gets its solo butchered.

I agree.It's great to have these songs,but it sems like it was thrown together in a sloppy manner.The remixes are unnecessary and I don't understand why some songs are edited.There was obviously plenty of space on the discs.

I like 12 or 13 tracks from it, the rest is mediocre or weak IMO. I am surprised its regarded as highly as it is by the majority

Interestingly prince left off the following tracks:

All Day All Night

Girl O My Dreams

Train

Wonderful Ass

The Dance electric

Lisa

Moonbeam Levels

clearly he likes being a bootlegged artist. The tracks mentioned above and surely better then all the pointless remixes.

SoulAlive said:

errant said:

There are a lot of flaws to the Crystal Ball release.From the tracks jumping back and forth between eras and the pointless remixes (So Dark, Tell Me How U Wanna B Done, Pussy Control, a Good Love edit with ambient noise tacked to the end) to the overdubs and Cloreen Baconskin taking up 15 minutes of space while Crucial gets its solo butchered.

I agree.It's great to have these songs,but it sems like it was thrown together in a sloppy manner.The remixes are unnecessary and I don't understand why some songs are edited.There was obviously plenty of space on the discs.

the running time of each disc being 49:49 is more important to Prince than the music on them.

errant said:

SoulAlive said:

I agree.It's great to have these songs,but it sems like it was thrown together in a sloppy manner.The remixes are unnecessary and I don't understand why some songs are edited.There was obviously plenty of space on the discs.

the running time of each disc being 49:49 is more important to Prince than the music on them.

Had not really thought about it before, so I had a look. I deleted everything but the tracks I love and each disc has 4 that I love, so then I deleted the ones that I don't like and disc 3 came out the winner.

Surprised myself!

Disc 2 is my favorite disc of the CB set, with The Truth and Disc 1 following behind closely. I can put Disc 2 on repeat and drive to a 6 hour destination and never get bored/tired of hearing it!

I gotta go with Disc 2, there's just something I love about Interactive and Da Bang.