There are a lot of things I hate about the era which gave birth to Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic in its released incarnation. I hate the packaging, the outfits, the attitude, the somber--almost depressed--persona that was Prince at the time. The somtimes angry, sometimes fiercely impressive 1993 Prince had by this time morphed into a mostly preachy, somewhat self-concious and depressing Prince--at least in his live performances.

He had performed Baby Knows live, and appeared absolutely exhausted when he spoek (I believe it was on NBC's TOday show?) about his upcoming Rave Un2 shows. He had gone on TRL and looked so completely out of place and made an ass of himself to Carson Dailey, who more than delivered his smackdown rebutal to an unprovoked Prince ciritcism. Then he introduces Larry Graham and Chaka Khan as something the kids on THAT show would actually give two shits about.

The list just goes on and on, but that era was not a happy time for Prince fans.

However, the one thing I never hated as much as most orgers is the album itself. Sure, it doesn't feel the least bit joyous (Except the hilarious and wonderful Pretty Man), but I thought the album was little or no different from Diamond's & Pearls but lacked the over-the-top Hip-hop embarassments of D&P.

The songs are standard fair, but nicely done, melodic, and catchy. TGRES takes too damned long to deliver it's hooks, but the hooks are soooo sweet when they are delivbered.

Overall, I don't get the hate for this album.

I'm right there with you on this. I actually like the album. Except I hate the cover. OH, and I despise both Baby Knows and the title track. Both are totally offensive to my ears. But I like or love the rest of the album, even Every Day Is a Winding Road. I don't care, I bounce to it.

Still, I will never understand how the awesome version of Rave that is on Small Club could somehow be even remotely related to the version that ended up on the album. How can I love one so much, yet hate the other so vigorously? It is ponderous.

I suppose I could do without the Lenny Kravitz rip-off at the end, because that song is just treacly poo. But other than that, some good stuff on there.

Hate, hate, hate, hate. Fucking hell, it's only an album, it's not worth all that stress....really.

I find Rave mediocre at best. I prefer the remix version, Rave In2....

That album gave us Beautiful Strange which I think is one of his best songs of the late 90's.

I don't hate any of his albums (except maybe Batman). Rave just doesn't have a great vibe to it though. It's one of my least favorite P albums but i just pulled up th folder and there are some good songs on it.

So Far So Pleased

Baby Knows

Silly Game

Strange ButTrue

Whereever u Go Whatever U Do

Pretty Man

All pretty good or very good. Baby Knows is probably my favorite...listening to it now.

But yes it wasn't a good Prince era more than it was a bad Prince album.

.

[Edited 1/9/12 9:12am]

Agree that it wasn't a good era, but the album is alright. I fully understand why some people hate it - it is pretty much an album full of filler, but I find at least half the songs to be very good filler. 'Rave', 'The Greatest Romance', 'Tangerine', 'The Sun, The Moon and Stars' and 'Prettyman' are the songs I like. The rest is entirely listenable, but none of it's anything special.

Never understood why people liked 'Rave In2' better, but I do like the extended 'Prettyman' and 'Beautiful Strange'. As for all the remixes, .

It's not a great Prince album, but it isn't horrible either. I've said before, but it bears repeating, that this album suffers from having New Power Soul as its predecessor. NPS was a turd floating in the punch bowl, so anything that followed was going to be ripped apart unless it was another classic album. It was WAY better than NPS, but that doesn't take much.

Rave DOES have a few great tunes, and one that I consider a true classic ( " Love U, But Don't Trust U Anymore"). It has a whole lotta filler though, and that is its downfall.

[Edited 1/9/12 10:04am]

JediMaster said:

It's not a great Prince album, but it isn't horrible either. I've said before, but it bears repeating, that this album suffers from having New Power Soul as its predecessor. NPS was a turd floating in the punch bowl, so anything that followed was going to be ripped apart unless it was another classic album. It was WAY better than NPS, but that doesn't take much.

Rave DOES have a few great tunes, and one that I consider a true classic ( " Love U, But Don't Trust U Anymore"). It has a whole lotta filler though, and that is its downfall.

[Edited 1/9/12 10:04am]

I like NPS a lot better - the production was bad, but the songs were more lively. 'Rave' sounds lazy to me. The songs are good and pleasant, but I find the album to be pretty boring. NPS was embarrassing at times, but it didn't bore me.

Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic

Undisputed

The Greatest Romance Ever Sold

So Far So Pleased

Tangerine

Baby Knows

Strange But True

Man'O'War

Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do

PrettyMan

that's a tight, nearly B+ pop/rock/funk/modernR&B album, just as good as any of his mainstream albums, D&P, 3121 (well, no, not as good as 3121, lol), Musicology, etc. Relevant? no. Visionary/groundbreaking? NO. Enjoyable? Yes.

Of course, that's not the real version of the album. The real version has some of the worst songs he ever did, Hot With U and Winding Road being the clearest examples. The album has too many overproduced/second-rate/bland ballads. And it was released when Prince was feeling low, very low, for obvious reasons. On top of that, Clive just betrayed him.

Like the OP said, I think people HATE the "Rave era" (personal problems, low sales, exhaustion, ghost of irrelevance, "veteran/done" artist syndrome, etc) but not the album itself. It's more pity than hate, anyway.

[Edited 1/9/12 10:43am]

Don't worry, I have enough hatred for it to cover any spares

JediMaster said:

It's not a great Prince album, but it isn't horrible either. I've said before, but it bears repeating, that this album suffers from having New Power Soul as its predecessor. NPS was a turd floating in the punch bowl, so anything that followed was going to be ripped apart unless it was another classic album.

I agree, NPS is the real TURD of the whole late-90s (sad) era...

One of his all time best songs is on that album, " I love you but don't trust you anymore"

That song is great!

what's so special about ILUBIDTYA ???

FILLER FILLER FILLER!

A lot of it contains extreme amounts of filler which is not even bearable. Haha. These are a list of songs, I can't even bare to listen to:

Baby Knows (Cringe worthy...AHHH! Lol)

Every Day Is A Winding Road (IT SUCKS SOOOO BAD)

Hot Wit U (Not horrible but 'In2 is much better'

Undisputed (Same As Above)

Now 'Rave IN2' was much better than 'Rave Un2'. My favorite song has got to be 'Tangerine Extended Version' It's something about it, that gets me every time. I play is all the time, the guitar is just heavy with emotion. I love 'Man 'O' War' but I wish the remixed version on 'Rave In2' included the guitar, because it doesn't I rather the one on 'Rave Un2'. Some songs are filler but bearable such as: Silly Game, Wherever you go, whatever you do. Everything else fits for me and I listen to it occasionally.

But I agree that the era was depressing, and fake to me. He seemed the least happiest, like he was trying to put on an act that was not him. Ultimately he fell into instrumentals towards 2001-2003. I guess he needed a time to not say as much? lol.

P.S O YES! Love U, But Don't Trust U Anymore. Is one of his best ballads for sure! It's incredible!

[Edited 1/9/12 10:51am]

Efan said:

I'm right there with you on this. I actually like the album. Except I hate the cover. OH, and I despise both Baby Knows and the title track. Both are totally offensive to my ears. But I like or love the rest of the album, even Every Day Is a Winding Road. I don't care, I bounce to it.

Still, I will never understand how the awesome version of Rave that is on Small Club could somehow be even remotely related to the version that ended up on the album. How can I love one so much, yet hate the other so vigorously? It is ponderous.

I suppose I could do without the Lenny Kravitz rip-off at the end, because that song is just treacly poo. But other than that, some good stuff on there.

I think it´s the other way around. As far as I recall, Prince´s song was released first and when Lenny´s song came out many people, including Prince himself, thought that Lenny´s song was a rip-off. Prince even hinted at this several times back then.

Oh, and I CAN´T STAND Every Day Is a Winding Road. That is one song that I strongly dislike. I can´t even listen to it for a few seconds. That song and Wedding Feast and maybe Jughead are my personal "unlistenable" songs.

NouveauDance said:

Don't worry, I have enough hatred for it to cover any spares

EyeJester7 said:

But I agree that the era was depressing, and fake to me. He seemed the least happiest, like he was trying to put on an act that was not him. Ultimately he fell into instrumentals towards 2001-2003. I guess he needed a time to not say as much? lol.

That's true, good post. Normally, "fake" eras don't bug me (I usually like artists/bands that put on an act, a "fake" act, like Bowie or Madonna), but it was clear that Prince HATED the whole Rave project, specially when Clive betrayed him. It was clear that Prince hated the cameos/"collaborations" and the fact that he was seen (then) as an "old" act who needed a big "comeback", considering that he had had a HUGE hit "only" 5 years before (TBGITW)

And that's why I respect the TRC/NEWS era, I don't give a damn about those albums, lol, but I understand that he just NEEDED to do them, like a therapy.

imago said:

However, the one thing I never hated as much as most orgers is the album itself. Sure, it doesn't feel the least bit joyous (Except the hilarious and wonderful Pretty Man), but I thought the album was little or no different from Diamond's & Pearls but lacked the over-the-top Hip-hop embarassments of D&P.

The songs are standard fair, but nicely done, melodic, and catchy. TGRES takes too damned long to deliver it's hooks, but the hooks are soooo sweet when they are delivbered.

Overall, I don't get the hate for this album.

Agree really hard with the underlined portion. It mystifies me because, in many ways, this album is more "classic Prince" than D&P.

[Edited 1/9/12 11:03am]

I hated the outfits, I hated the whole look and attitude, the reheated title song that already sounded dated a long time ago with its namedropping and all, couldn´t stand the Sheryl Crow song, couldn´t stand the over dominant "Larry factor" ( I don´t mind Larry G., I just don´t like him as a member of the NPG, I love some of his solo stuff though), and I think Prince gave some of his weakest TV performances of his entire career during this sad phase, and Baby Knows was an embarrassingly bad song, often performed on equally embarrassing TV shows.And TGRES was one of his weakest debut singles ever.

But other than that the album wasn´t really that bad. I didn´t like Undisputed, Every Day Is a Winding Road and TGRES but there are some real gems on this album. I prefer the remix album but this was still a nice album considering the time it was released.

The fact that the album had several guest stars on it is reason enough to hate it, let alone the weak music that was on it. The title track is one of the only songs I like on it.

JoeTyler said:

what's so special about ILUBIDTYA ???

the way the narrative of the song unfolds, the great melody. I've played that for one girl and she teared up. It's a strong ass song that impresses people who are not even into Prince. The way he does that simple wordplay change to switch to his perspective from her perspective is genius!

The music is so good too. I remember when a friend and I had a listening party for this album to just sit down with the new unheard CD and play it through (like we were watching a movie)

This song played... and we were just like "Jesus Christ." (It was so good).

[Edited 1/9/12 15:19pm]

It wasn't completely awful. It sure wasn't great.

ufoclub said:

JoeTyler said:

what's so special about ILUBIDTYA ???

the way the narrative of the song unfolds, the great melody. I've played that for one girl and she teared up. It's a strong ass song that impresses people who are not even into Prince. The way he does that simple wordplay change to switch to his perspective from her perspective is genius!

The music is so good too. I remember when a friend and I had a listening party for this album to just sit down with the new unheard CD and play it through (like we were watching a movie)

This song played... and we were just like "Jesus Christ." (It was so good).

[Edited 1/9/12 15:19pm]

Such a nice story! I enjoyed it! SO good isn't it? lol

JoeTyler said:

the fact that he was seen (then) as an "old" act who needed a big "comeback", considering that he had had a HUGE hit "only" 5 years before (TBGITW)

The label bought that hit.

It was completely out of step in the same way everything that's Prince and out of step can sound. It's aged well actually, but they previewed that song in a Miss America pageant, previewed the video on Entertainment Tonight, and then had interns sit around ordering it on Video Music Box....in between Nirvana, and Sir Mixalot videos.

It wasn't cool!

Even the lyrics were too obviouse and wholesome for the era. It was like Camille with a Promise Ring.

Same here, definetly better than the early 2000's by FAR!

There are parts of it I love, parts of it I like, and parts of it I loathe.

I do have some vague sentimental affection for it, being that it was the first/only album that I ever bought at a record store midnite release thing.

weak album, but Rave IN2 is a little better.

"Beautiful Strange" is fantastic.

I don't hate it. Matter of fact, I think it's one of his more underrated albums.

ufoclub said:

JoeTyler said:

what's so special about ILUBIDTYA ???

the way the narrative of the song unfolds, the great melody. I've played that for one girl and she teared up. It's a strong ass song that impresses people who are not even into Prince. The way he does that simple wordplay change to switch to his perspective from her perspective is genius!

The music is so good too. I remember when a friend and I had a listening party for this album to just sit down with the new unheard CD and play it through (like we were watching a movie)

This song played... and we were just like "Jesus Christ." (It was so good).

[Edited 1/9/12 15:19pm]

I always like that song, I just didn't like that version on the CD. I like Montreux live version far better than the CD. Same goes for When I Lay My Hands On You, always loved the song didn't like the NPG on line version-love the Montreux live version. The CD suffers from Prince trying to sound to current.

Of course The original live version of Rave unto the Joy Fantastic is far better than the CD version.

(I also prefer Rave in2 version better.)

I love Rave because it was the first "new" Prince album I bought after becoming a fan in c.1998. It was the first Prince album I anticipated, the first time I'd heard new, fresh Prince music. Looking back now, I can see many of the flaws that some people complain about, but it's still got that "fresh" sound to me. It's a nostalgic thing for me.

Plus, "Strange But True" is the sugar!