JoeTyler said:

OzlemUcucu said:

U surely must be crazy to post this up here?

I basically despise the whole 96-03 era, and off the 04-10 era I didn't like PE / MPLS

To my ears, Emancipation was THE last ever great Prince album and that was in 1996 at the height of the Prince/Mayte lovefest. Prince's music started to really go downhill after that. Granted, Musicology & 3121 were pretty good back-to-back albums before Prince got boring again.

TonyVanDam said:

JoeTyler said:

I basically despise the whole 96-03 era, and off the 04-10 era I didn't like PE / MPLS

To my ears, Emancipation was THE last ever great Prince album and that was in 1996 at the height of the Prince/Mayte lovefest. Prince's music started to really go downhill after that. Granted, Musicology & 3121 were pretty good back-to-back albums before Prince got boring again.

Agreed. But I personally love Lotus and 20Ten. Emancipation is surely his best album of the 96-03 era, but still a disposable and faceless triple album (chore), and the first step of a long decline...

In digital form, I have a piece of every P-approved and released album except NEWS and any of the protege stuff.

In physical form, I don't have anything except for Graffiti Bridge, Symbol, Emancipation, Crystal Ball + The Truth, The Rainbow Children, Musicology, 3121, and Lotusflow3r.

TonyVanDam said:

But I blame Eric Clapton for this more than anything because he started the Unplugged album idea and every other artist (Prince included) just had to go "Unplugged" as well. Well I'm sorry, but most tracks from other artists are better off with electric guitars, keyboard synths, & drum machine than all acoustic guitars & drum kits only.

Folk music and bluegrass has been "unplugged" long before Eric Clapton was even born. Classical music is generally performed with non-electric instruments too.

[Edited 6/29/11 10:29am]

MickyDolenz said:

TonyVanDam said:

But I blame Eric Clapton for this more than anything because he started the Unplugged album idea and every other artist (Prince included) just had to go "Unplugged" as well. Well I'm sorry, but most tracks from other artists are better off with electric guitars, keyboard synths, & drum machine than all acoustic guitars & drum kits only.

Folk music and bluegrass has been "unplugged" long before Eric Clapton was even born. Classical music is generally performed with non-electric instruments too.

[Edited 6/29/11 10:29am]

Indeed. Also, Eric wasn't even the first to release an MTV Unplugged album.

TwiliteKid said:

MickyDolenz said:

Folk music and bluegrass has been "unplugged" long before Eric Clapton was even born. Classical music is generally performed with non-electric instruments too.

[Edited 6/29/11 10:29am]

Indeed. Also, Eric wasn't even the first to release an MTV Unplugged album.

THAT^ much may be true. But Eric's Unplugged album is the biggest selling of all of the MTV Unplugged series. And it's that very episode that I hold blame for inspiring Prince, Mariah, KISS, and too many other artists to do Unplugged-type albums.

MickyDolenz said:

TonyVanDam said:

But I blame Eric Clapton for this more than anything because he started the Unplugged album idea and every other artist (Prince included) just had to go "Unplugged" as well. Well I'm sorry, but most tracks from other artists are better off with electric guitars, keyboard synths, & drum machine than all acoustic guitars & drum kits only.

Folk music and bluegrass has been "unplugged" long before Eric Clapton was even born. Classical music is generally performed with non-electric instruments too.

[Edited 6/29/11 10:29am]

THAT^ is true. But I still blame Eric for giving Prince the inspiration that he was bluegrass & folk.

I think his duds make for a great balance with his classic period.

New Power Soul have always revived my appreciation for his 80s albums.

Answer: None! Although I don't necessarily like every song on every album...

The only ones I dont have are Cnote and Xpectation. I do have Empty Room just not the whole Cnote album. The only reason is I just have not got around to buying them. I will eventually buy a burnt copy since the downloads are no longer available. He has no album I dislike entirely. Only a song or two here and there. My least fave of the last 33 years are For You, Prince, Dirty Mind ( its good but kinda overrated), NPS, Rave, PE, 3121, Emancipation, Batman, and NEWS. All are great but just not as good as the rest to me. I really love Lotus, 2010, and MPLS. Great new material. Musicology is awesome to.

meisme said:

The only reason is I just have not got around to buying them. I will eventually buy a burnt copy since the downloads are no longer available.

Not officially, but they are out there if you are willing to spend a short time searching.

Don't buy bootlegs.