i think its an ok album, and i dont see why some people put it above all his others. i know everybodys gonna say the best part about it is kiss... but id like to know what else everyone loves about it so much? its just such an odd sounding album to me. maybe thats whats so appealing to everyone?

and kiss makes me cringe

but then again, lots of my favorites seem to be the ones that everyone dislikes the most. so maybe im just weird? is there anybody who actually doesnt like parade? or dare i ask (again..) kiss?

It's funky as dog shit, that's what.

dyvrdown said:

i think its an ok album, and i dont see why some people put it above all his others. i know everybodys gonna say the best part about it is kiss... but id like to know what else everyone loves about it so much? its just such an odd sounding album to me. maybe thats whats so appealing to everyone?

and kiss makes me cringe

but then again, lots of my favorites seem to be the ones that everyone dislikes the most. so maybe im just weird? is there anybody who actually doesnt like parade? or dare i ask (again..) kiss?

wow i knew they existed i KNEW IT!!!

orgers we have found somebody who DOESNT like parade....

It works within the context of UTCM, and it's a solid album by itself. Kiss is wonderful, but there are better parts of the album to me.

Kiss is a perfect song. You don't have to like it, but it's perfect.

The rest of the album is cool and weird and melodic and interesting and beautiful and funky and fun and lush and crazy...

dyvrdown said:

...whats so great about parade?

Everything.

I used to wonder the same thing for years, but after really finding my ear for good tunes I realized what the hype was surrounding this body of work!

I admit I found the album a challenge when it first came out.

I Wonder U, Under the Cherry Moon, Life Can Be So Nice, Venus De Milo, Mountains, Do U Lie are all somewhat new territory for prince

the sonic sprawl and quirkiness of Parade is what makes it great!! new sounds, and Kiss is my LEAST favorite track (fyi it was a last minute addition and almost didn't make the album). showcases Prince's diversity and skill. Mountains, Girls and Boys, Anotherlover..... for starters. Sometimes it Snows... Our first album instrumental (?). Groundbreaking

Ah, I see from your profile that you're 21 years old, so you don't have the advantage of hearing the album in the context of the time in which it was released. I'll admit the album had to grow on me, but once it did, I began to appreciate not only the album's brilliance but also Prince's genius.

I think part of the reason this album is viewed in such high regard among most Prince fans is that a lot of the music was so different than most of Prince's previous output and was a risky album to release a mere 2 years after the massive commercial success of Purple Rain.

For me, I had always thought Prince was a great artist, but I think this album really made me (and most of the world) take notice of of Prince's versatility as a songwriter, beyond the rock and funk genres. Had you been able to send this album through a time machine a few years back to when Prince put out albums like Dirty Mind and 1999, there's no way in hell I would have believed that the same guy who wrote songs as dirty as "Head" and "Sister" would later write the beautiful (and almost profound) "Sometimes It Snows in April" or that the guy who wrote a song as funky as "D.M.S.R." could also compose an instrumental piano piece as nice as "Venus De Milo". And in true Prince fashion, the album still manages to be funky, too. Who other than Prince could pull that off?

--

[Edited 3/9/11 17:21pm]

Go away and never come back.

[Edited 3/9/11 17:03pm]

sometimes it snows in april.

I love it~

Back in the mid-90s I came home high and drunk and played it. It sounded better that ever, I was amazed at how good it is. The sound of it compared to everything these days is soooooo much more interesting. Life can be so nice - is genius. LoVe ThiS AlbuM!!!!!!!!

I wish Prince would take his time and make more high production (with orchastra) big sound albums like... Around The World In A Day & Parade. They have the finishing touch, all the bells and whistles... 2 examples... Condition of the Heart, Do You Lie?

The Rainbow Children was close but too wrapped up in philosophy. (darth v. voice )

dyvrdown said:

i think its an ok album, and i dont see why some people put it above all his others. i know everybodys gonna say the best part about it is kiss... but id like to know what else everyone loves about it so much? its just such an odd sounding album to me. maybe thats whats so appealing to everyone?

and kiss makes me cringe

but then again, lots of my favorites seem to be the ones that everyone dislikes the most. so maybe im just weird? is there anybody who actually doesnt like parade? or dare i ask (again..) kiss?

Taste is subjective, though. If you don't like it, that doesn't mean there's something wrong with you and you have to learn to like it, or that others need to explain to you what's cool about it. It's just not your style. That's alright.

I love it though. That and "1999" are two of my favorite Prince discs. The one I think is overrated, is "Sign O The Times" .

And yes, I fully expect to get slaughtered for saying that lol.

hmm. i like a couple songs on it. sometimes it snows in april and mountains are pretty good. but the rest are just ok. then... well, i dont have enough time to say what i want about kiss.

The year was 1986.

The music that was out at the time was mostly Prince-style-copy cats...people trying to emulate the MPLS synth sound that

Prince made popular during Purple Rain. Even members of the Jackson family were rockin those fluffy shirts and

coats worn during the PR days that look sort of Vampire-Lestat-Meets-Lita-Ford.

Music was....safe... boring....poppy... people were layering their sounds with synths, drum machines, etc.

It all sounded mostly the same.

PARADE was so unlike anything that was out there, and so unlike anything out now.

Most newcomers to the Prince world don't really get just how insanely re-inventive Prince was then.

There was a time we just took for granted that Prince's forthcoming release would sound nothing

like the albums he released before. Every album came not just with a different set of color

schemes, stage props, haircuts, and outfits---it came with a different sound. And, often the sound

was a hybrid or mesh of things we'd never heard before in Pop Music.

PARADE solidified this. It was so wildly different than his previous material, it often made

me scratch my head when I first listened to it.

Essentially, it's been said before, but if you like the first 45 seconds of the album, you'll

love the entire thing. If not, it's a crap shoot.

The minimalism of KISS really, really, really stood out on radio. I remember they day

I was listening to the weekly top 40 countdown, and KISS actually knocked Manic Monday (another Prince song)

off the top perch.

It's a great, uneven, strange little album And at 41 minutes, one you can listen to without

having to devote a great deal of time.

Well for starters this ain't too bad and the cd was cool too

[img:$uid]http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr337/val34prince/jzp6zf5riii9fzrz.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr337/val34prince/princekiss.gif[/img:$uid]

dyvrdown said:

hmm. i like a couple songs on it. sometimes it snows in april and mountains are pretty good. but the rest are just ok. then... well, i dont have enough time to say what i want about kiss.

New Position? Girls and Boys? Life Can Be So Nice? Anotherlover? Just ok?

Parade is definitely a grower. For me, the genius of it slowly seeped into me...then, one day I woke up and it all just clicked. It's like a killer change up pitch in baseball.

One thing I have come to understand over the years is that much of Prince's best material is not easily appreciated.

Some of his commercial hits are likeable upon first listening - funky as all heck, beautifully melodic etc. but many

other releases take a mature ear, and lots of listens before you "get it".

All of Prince's 80's material sounded like it came from another planet when originally released. Nobody was putting out anything like it and it took a while to get your head around it.

Certainly worth the investment in time.

^^^ Great thoughts

Love Parade era

well i may be young, but im not the typical music fan lol and i may not have been a prince fan for very long, but i sure am a huge one. i dont only like all his mainstream purple rain, 1999, gold experience stuff. i love graffiti bridge, crystal ball, his first 4 albums, etc.. almost all of his stuff really. but i cant wrap my head around most of parade.

ill admit though its mainly just kiss. that song ruins most of the album for me for some reason. and i hate to keep bringing that song up lol im not trying to force it down everyones throats that "im different, i dont like kiss" but i think.. that song sets a mood for the whole album that i cant not think about when i listen to any song on it.

if you haven't been a fan very long, I'd say just keep giving it a try every once in awhile. it's kind of a grower. one day you'll listen to it and the whole thing will just click. it'll sneak up on you that you really do love the whole thing. but you kind of have to appreciate it as a whole. song-for-song it doesn't add up to much, outside of a handful of stellar tracks, but it is a great, great album.

on the first really beautiful day of spring, take a drive and put this on. it is the quintessential spring time album.

how can Kiss "set the mood" when it's track 10 of 12 (or 9 of 11 or whatever)? if you're feeling the rest of the album. skip Kiss when u get to it. i often do, as its my least fave track on the album, not to mention its been played to death by radio.

perhaps you can't appreciate how different and unexpected the stripped down, minimalist funk of Kiss with P's falsetto was at the time and now, its just amongst several songs/albums you're processing all at once, but it is considered by many his best "single" ever with good reason.

btw, The Gold Experience isn't really considered "mainstream" as an album, TMBGIT, and the title track perhaps but it didn't have the run and "commercial success" D & P did

..most people would be lying if they said that the first song they think of isnt kiss when they think of parade. thats what i meant. i cant think of the album without being reminded of that song.

and i was just giving examples, replace tge with d&p then. whatever, it makes no difference.

dyvrdown said:

..most people would be lying if they said that the first song they think of isnt kiss when they think of parade. thats what i meant. i cant think of the album without being reminded of that song.

and i was just giving examples, replace tge with d&p then. whatever, it makes no difference.

One of the keys to getting Kiss is that when released it was unlike ANYTHING that was going on at the time. Remember, this is '86. The sound is big synth/ keyboard driven pop. Think Wham, Duran Duran, Genesis ,Janet Jackson . Even the sound of mainstream Rock& Hip Hop bands were overly glossed , big on synth , and over produced. I was 15 and very much in sync with everything that was going on at the time musically when Kiss dropped and I was totally floored the first time I heard it. It was soooooooooooooo different than anything else that was going on . Prince had some serious balls when he released that song. It was a big 'F You' to all the people who were ripping off the Purple Rain sound from 2 years prior and having hits.

buttcheeks said:

Around The World In A Day & Parade. They have the finishing touch, all the bells and whistles... 2 examples... Condition of the Heart, Do You Lie?

Two of my favourite songs also. Do U Lie? is very underrated.

this thread makes me wanna

Parade is a fine masterpiece.

I don't wanna explain why...... just take a listen..

open your ears and heart for this fine album.

Aside from incredibly funky songs, a breezy atmosphere throughout, fun and othertimes thoughtful lyrical writing, and wonderful pacing and consistency, I have no idea.