skywalker said:

JoeTyler said:

1996-2003: widely known as the era when Prince stopped being relevant and well-known all over the world by the new/younger generations. Poor sales, forgotten albums, Emancipation was, by far, the most famous album of this difficult era...

2004-2010: Prince moderate "comeback", amazing tours/concerts, the era of short-lived deals and Cds released by newspapers...

You are talking about popular taste/$$$/promotion. Not necessarily quality of the art, etc.

whatever

which era do you prefer, anyway: 96-03 or 04-10??

skywalker said:

JoeTyler said:

1996-2003: widely known as the era when Prince stopped being relevant and well-known all over the world by the new/younger generations. Poor sales, forgotten albums, Emancipation was, by far, the most famous album of this difficult era...

2004-2010: Prince moderate "comeback", amazing tours/concerts, the era of short-lived deals and Cds released by newspapers...

You are talking about popular taste/$$$/promotion. Not necessarily quality of the art, etc.

there wasn't much quality to his art from 1996-2000. 2001-2003 are another matter, but everything there felt like noodling on side projects, even though it had his name on them. I think he was truly inspired with TRC, but it's weighed down by lite jazz tendencies. If it had some more meat on its sonic bones, a more visceral edge, even the lyrics couldn't have weighed it down. 3121 aside, and the really generic - or repetitive, rather - setlists of most of his "tours" (if you can call them that) since 2004, I can't really compalin about the quality of the music. Not all of it's great, but if he's not going to be inspired, we might as well be getting some decent tunes out of it. Which I think we have.

If you take out Emancipation...which I think is brillant and love it dearly, then yeah, I'm going for the 2004-2010 era. The albums..Musicology, 3121, PE, Lotus/MPLS, and 20Ten are a greatest run of albums that Prince has. I'm not sure any 5 albums could compare honestly. For me, the weakest album in this bunch is Lotus/MPLS..The others are superb!

The only 5 run that could compare to the greatness of these 5 are Prince, Dirty Mind, Controversy,1999, and Purple Rain, with 1999 being the weaker. And that would be a fight to the death if you compare them song to song. Well I guess SOTT, Lovesexy, Batman, Grafitti Bridge, and Diamonds and Pearls could compete too, Batman being the weaker there. The Rainbow Children and all those ridiculous instrumentals ruined the other era for me!

I'll easily take 2004-2010. There was a lot more that I was feeling on albums like Musicology, The Chocolate Invasion, 3121, Lotusflow3r and 20Ten than on a lot of what came out from 1996-2003, even though I like Emancipation and The Rainbow Children. I felt the quality was better once 2004 came than the late 90's even though I don't like Planet Earth. But that's one album over NPS and Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, even though there are gems in those 2 and PE too. Even with that, I'm glad for the all the eras of Prince. It makes the history of his career that much more interesting.

[Edited 1/11/11 10:34am]

wasitgood4u said:

Why has noone pointed out the arbitrariness of this division???

Are these clearly two distinct periods?

I can see '93-'95 and '96-2000, 2001-2003, 2004-2008, 2009-?

But why bundle the periods in that way? I don't see so much continuity between the successive periods - '96-2000 seems pretty distinct from the TRC stuff. 2004-2008 seems like a unit in itself with LF being a change in direction (irrespective of when the tracks were actually recorded...).

As I said, it all seems to be arbitrary, and if you're going to take arbitrary divisions, why not go by decades like another few recent threads did?

Good point made.

wasitgood4u said:

Why has noone pointed out the arbitrariness of this division???

Are these clearly two distinct periods?

I can see '93-'95 and '96-2000, 2001-2003, 2004-2008, 2009-?

But why bundle the periods in that way? I don't see so much continuity between the successive periods - '96-2000 seems pretty distinct from the TRC stuff. 2004-2008 seems like a unit in itself with LF being a change in direction (irrespective of when the tracks were actually recorded...).

As I said, it all seems to be arbitrary, and if you're going to take arbitrary divisions, why not go by decades like another few recent threads did?

I've seen a few of thoz threads but, this is a valid point ...

PurpleLove7 said:

wasitgood4u said:

Why has noone pointed out the arbitrariness of this division???

Are these clearly two distinct periods?

I can see '93-'95 and '96-2000, 2001-2003, 2004-2008, 2009-?

But why bundle the periods in that way? I don't see so much continuity between the successive periods - '96-2000 seems pretty distinct from the TRC stuff. 2004-2008 seems like a unit in itself with LF being a change in direction (irrespective of when the tracks were actually recorded...).

As I said, it all seems to be arbitrary, and if you're going to take arbitrary divisions, why not go by decades like another few recent threads did?

I've seen a few of thoz threads but, this is a valid point ...

Agreed. Though I would somehow count Emancipation as the end of the period starting in 1993 and then let a new era begin in 1997 (until early 2001). Then everything else as stated above.

However, if I was forced to answer the original question, I don't know... both time periods have their pros and cons.

1996-2003:

+: Emancipation and TRC, two of his best records, and lots of interesting experiments in 2002/2003. The NPGMC as Prince's best online presence so far started.

-: NPS and Rave (though there are enough great songs on these to make one excellent album), the stuff for the shelved High project... Prince's most difficult period artistically imo. And a wasted chance with Crystal Ball - kick out all those remixes and put on another 15 outtakes that people actually want, and you have a dope triple album (it's still fairly good though as it is)!

2004-2010:

+: The music is much less spotted with weak material in comparison to 1998-2000. Consistently high quality of his releases. 3121 being one of his best albums. Great tours and live shows, though a bit more new material live wouldn't do it any harm. Step back into the public limelight, Prince transcends from a weird has-been to a well-respected living legend.

-: Apparent lack of interest to give his albums a certain "flavour" starting ca. from PE onwards. The apparent lack of interest to promote and support his new music. Stupid moves when it comes to using the internet for his own benefit. The change from the one album deal routine (which I liked) to strange distribution pathways such as newspapers and Target exclusives. New albums not officially available worldwide anymore.

EmancipationLover said:

2004-2010:

+: The music is much less spotted with weak material in comparison to 1998-2000. Consistently high quality of his releases. 3121 being one of his best albums. Great tours and live shows, though a bit more new material live wouldn't do it any harm. Step back into the public limelight, Prince transcends from a weird has-been to a well-respected living legend.

-: Apparent lack of interest to give his albums a certain "flavour" starting ca. from PE onwards. The apparent lack of interest to promote and support his new music. Stupid moves when it comes to using the internet for his own benefit. The change from the one album deal routine (which I liked) to strange distribution pathways such as newspapers and Target exclusives. New albums not officially available worldwide anymore.

excellent points

The 2004-2010 era contains the most boring output ever IMO.

It's Prince on auto-pilot, - generic, conventional and uninspired!

A bunch of albums the world doesn't need. Songs over songs which sound like a pale imitation of his past achievements!

funkomatic said:

The 2004-2010 era contains the most boring output ever IMO.

It's Prince on auto-pilot, - generic, conventional and uninspired!

A bunch of albums the world doesn't need. Songs over songs which sound like a pale imitation of his past achievements!

the same could be said about the 1996-2003 era!

I do agree that TRC was not an auto-pilot album, but still the world didn't care for it lol

^I prefer failed experiments over doing lame imitations of past songs any day.

Although I'm far from glorifying the weak 1996-2003 era, I think it's at least a little bit more experimental and daring (the albums of 2001-2003, some sounds of NPS, disc 3 from Emancipation etc.).

funkomatic said:

^I prefer failed experiments over doing lame imitations of past songs any day.

Although I'm far from glorifying the weak 1996-2003 era, I think it's at least a little bit more experimental and daring (the albums of 2001-2003, some sounds of NPS, disc 3 from Emancipation etc.).

I get your point and I do wish that Prince was a bit more adventurous from 2004-2010 but I quite like most of those albums. I think a good compromise would be if he alternated between conventional pop albums and more challenging experimental albums. Best of all would be if he could find a way to combine the two. For the last 13 or so years it seems like he goes to one exreme or the other.

Definately 2004-2010.