It all started recently when I was discussing Prince's music catalog with a friend of mine on YouTube. My friend and I admire Prince and both of his masterpieces, Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times, but couldn't agree on which was better. My friend chose Purple Rain, but I chose Sign o' the Times, which I will still argue is, song for song, his best album to date.

The debate attracted so much attention that other people voiced their opinions and more healthy arguments broke out so I now open the floor up to you...

Based on your own taste and preference, from 10 to 1, what are Prince's greatest albums and why?

10 Graffiti Bridge

This was a better movie than Purple Rain, and Purple Rain was better than 1999, so obviously this shit is off the hook.

9 N.E.W.S

Everybody with a grad degree in music theory dreams of a conceptual live jazz album!

8 Come

Some of his best drum programming.

7 Batman

Batdance is the best dance track of the 80s.

6 Chaos and Disorder

Prince saved the best for last at Warner Records.

5 20Ten

OMG GIRRRRL did you hear him call himself the Purple Yoda? HE SAY HE THE PURPLE YODA!

4 The Chocolate Invasion

This one is so great because the critics just never understood what he was doing and it derserves RESPECT.

3 The Slaughterhouse

Listening to this always reminds me of Bamboozled, and that movie was so much better than Do The Right Thing.

2 Kamasutra

I love this album because it always reminds me of the year I was blessed by Jehovah to have spent waiting for my copy of Crystal Ball to be delievered late by conspirators at the post office.

1 Gold Nigga

Tony M. just never got his due in Prince’s work. It’s so good that Prince could put his ego aside and let the real hero of the N P G stand out!

^

You almost had me, jpnyc. Almost.

jesus

rdhull said:

jesus

THAT'S what I said when I heard Prince, JB, and MJ were all on the same stage!!!!! AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!

MarquessMarq said:

rdhull said:

jesus

THAT'S what I said when I heard Prince, JB, and MJ were all on the same stage!!!!! AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!

<---dead

Oh Lawdy

Still have trouble deciding after top five really, but I will try.

5) The Love Symbol Album

I fell in love with this album first listen. The much better follow-up to Diamonds & Pearls. With this album Prince was off to a great start in a new decade, revamping himself and rebuilding his musical reputation with a new band and a refreshing sound. This album has literally everything:

Rap and Hip-hop ("My Name is Prince", "The Max", "Arrogance", "The Flow", "The Sacrifice of Victor"), Old-School Funk ("Sexy MF"), Smooth R&B ("Love 2 The 9s", "Damn U", "Blue Light"), Rock ("The Morning Papers", "The Continental"), Pop ("Sweet Baby", "7"), Jazz ("And God Created Woman"), Reggae ("Blue Light" once again), Electronica ("I Wanna Melt With U"), Progressive Rock ("3 Chains O' Gold")

He does a hell of a lot in the 70 or so minutes this album spans across. I love how each track changes style and consequently changes listener mood. This is probably the most genre-bending of any of his albums to date. It is definitely up there. There are not particularly any standout tracks but the diversity of the album makes each listen thoroughly enjoyable. I would say more but I would probably be beating a dead horse.

4) The Gold Experience

Hands down his best album of the nineties. His best guitar work since Purple Rain and until LotusFlow3r. Probably his best guitar work ever actually.

Either you completely adore this album or you don't get it and find it atrocious. I for one truly reward this album as a "Gold Experience" when listened to and consumed from start to finish.

"P Control" is, in my opinion, his catchiest song since "1999". Not his best, his catchiest. And he sounds very convincing as a "rapper" in this song. Perfect start to the album. His best rap song of course.

Because I love guitar rock, tracks like "Endorphinmachine" and "319" grabbed my ears with no mercy, no looking back. They especially gave me greater respect for Prince. No longer could anyone listen to these two songs and see him as "that short, creepy, gay black guy who wrote those eighties sissy pop hits like Little Red Corvette and Raspberry Beret". (I totally love those songs. I am speaking from the dim and ignorant mind of the underexposed casual fan.)

I totally dig how he can implement those rock riffs into hip-hop tracks "We March" and "Now". Only Prince baby.

I don't want to take up too much more time on this album but the last four tracks/songs work perfectly in conjunction together. The pure emotion and subject matter in "I Hate U" make the song a winner. The overall mood. And the kickass guitar solo of course. Don't even get me started on "Gold".... In the same league as "Purple Rain" without a doubt in my book.

3) 1999

His commercial breakthrough. His Minneanapolis sound magnum opus. Better than Dirty Mind and Controversy put together, capitalizing on the strengths of both records.

Thirty years later and "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" still stand the test of time and remain two of the most memorable songs of the eighties, or even the past thirty years. And here we have his classic long-winded funk jams "D.M.S.R" and "Lady Cab Driver" and dreamy synth-pop smashes "Automatic" and "Let's Pretend We're Married". We find him being most experimental with "Something in the Water" and "All the Critics", and most clever lyrically with "International Lover" and the previously mentioned "Little Red Corvette". This album is perfect from start to finish.

2) Purple Rain

In a league of it's own really. "The Beautiful Ones". "When Doves Cry". "Purple Rain". "Let's Go Crazy". Need I say more? His commercial high. Not that that is most important, but it sure helps, and it means SOMEthing. These songs in particular are of such immense quality that it would be a crime for me to rate Purple Rain otherwise. Sometimes I want to rank it number one actually, but I have my final reasons, after a long and painful struggle.

And so it is:

1) Sign O' The Times

To start off, similar to the Symbol album this has everything, layered with different stylistic approaches and appeals, from the hard-hitting rock of "The Cross" to the heavy-bottom funk of "Housequake".

Prince was at his creative peak with this album, and in the mid to late eighties in general.

Additionally, and perhaps what I dig most album this album is that each and every song tells a story, and shares every side of Prince. There is the social commentary ("Sign O' The Times"), playful enjoy yourself mentality ("Play in the Sunshine"), partying ("Housequake"), keeping guard up to new women ("Ballad of Dorothy Parker", "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"), horndog ("It"), diversity appreciation a.k.a. beat of your own drum ("Starfish and Coffee"), sexual romance ("Slow Love"), charming flirtation Prince style ("Hot Thing", "U Got the Look"), emotional distress and yearning in a relationship or lack thereof rather ("If I Was Your Girlfriend"), unexplainable psyche behind unhealthy relationships ("Strange Relationship"), religious conviction ("The Cross"), concert funkfest ("It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"), commitment ("Forever in My Life"), complete emotional, spiritual, and physical infatuation with one's sweetheart of the opposite sex ("Adore").

That pretty much says it in a nutshell for me.

Albums 6 thru 10 is gonna take me awhile hahaha sorry

Purple Rain, for the most unique Prince album.... Every track is fantastic, every single note is fantastic, this funk-rock-pop style.

Sign O' The Times is a close number 2, excellent and more varied in styles.

1999 is massive, also excellent and so dynamic, I love the use of the Linn drums here. Love. Forever.

Lovesexy.. many layers in the production, maybe a little complex, complicated and difficult to the average "consumer", I think the album is fantastic, a perfect blend of pop and funk, a classic.

Parade, another masterpiece.. the sound is great and the way the songs just flows into each other, no weak song here, only Venus De Milo is beautiful, but maybe a song like 4 The Tears In Your Eyes would have fitted the Parade album better. Ah never mind, this album is fantastic.

01. Purple Rain (10)
02. Sign "O" The Times (10)
03. 1999 (10)
04. Lovesexy (10)
05. Parade (10)

Right outside top 5: The Gold Experience, Around The World In A Day, Dirty Mind, and Controversy.

Imo Prince was the GREATEST in the 1980's, his string of 9 funk masterpiece albums in a row, 1980 to 1988. Beaten by - noone.

Depends on how you define 'greatest'.. most music magazines base their 'greatest' lists on influence, importance, etc.. and in that case, I'd say Purple Rain is his greatest. But my personal favorite is One Nite Alone...

1. Purple Rain --> No other album by Prince has that energy, that loose live feeling...its great!

2. Sign o the times-->its simply great...........

3. Lovesymbol--> After D&P, which i loved, this one blowed my away...1992 was great!!!

4. 3121 --> Great Pop Album

5. Musicology--> a comeback album...a good easy listining album ( good pop songs)

6. Come--> very underrated album...short but damn cool

7. The gold experience: some real pop-classics on it (Dolphin, Beautiful Girl,hate u, B.jack, Gold)

8. Emacipation-well there are some real gems on it...

9. 1999--> some songs are way too long and the sound is very cold, but its a good album...

10. Diamonds and pearls--> this one made me a fan...it holds a special place in my heart

Just a few years ago the consensus was that it's SOTT. A lot of people, myself included, have started to call Purple Rain his greatest album instead. SOTT is Prince at his creative peak, but Purple Rain is incredibly strong all throughout.

I wonder if that has something to do with the SOTT CD(s) sounding so dull on modern playback equipment and a lot of people simply not playing it that much due to it. The CD version is, as widely acknowledged, mastered like crap, and I think it ends up sounding almost intolerable on some playback systems.

1. Purple Rain

2. SOTT

3. 1999

4. Parade

5. Controversy

6. Dirty Mind

7. Around The World In A Day

8. Come/Lovesexy tie

9. The Truth

10. Lotus Flower

10. Emancipation (Loads of filler but the amazing good tracks make up for it)

9. Planet Earth (Underrated. So many songs that to me are just classic)

8. N.E.W.S (Criminally underrated)

7. Lovesexy (Super upbeat and funky. Awesome lyrics too)

6. 1999 (From dancey and lighthearted to cold and mysterious. Very different from anythung else)

5. Sign O' The Times (So many different songs each one seperate from the last)

4. Parade (Makes me feel like I'm in Under The Cherry Moon. Love how he went back to funk)

3. Prince (Everything I love about Prince in one little CD)

2. Controversy (Eveyrthing I love about Prince in one little CD)

1. Come (Takes me on a journey. Such a dark mood and aura. Love it)

V10LETBLUES said:

1. Purple Rain

2. SOTT

3. 1999

4. Parade

5. Controversy

6. Dirty Mind

7. Around The World In A Day

8. Come/Lovesexy tie

9. The Truth

10. Lotus Flower

Finally a list I can understand and respect. These are truly great albums.

Sure, jpnyc's response was funny but Graffiti Bridge is my favorite album.

And Goldnigga is better than almost all new music post Chaos And Disorder.... Or at least: I enjoy it much much much much much more.

1) Sign o The Times

2)Purple Rain

3)1999

4)Dirtymind

5)Parade

6)Controversy

7)ATWIAD

It's hard to judge his albums because the WB albums are just great.

My top 3 have been those three since 1987. The others seem to rotate.

Fo me personally, the album that I listened to the most repeatedly, was most in awe of, had the most mystique, and had me making original music and beats and showed me new ways of creative discipline/theme was...

Black Album (which is not really it's original title) It was nicknamed "The Funk Bible" by Prince but it never stuck.

ufoclub said:

Black Album

For me personally, The Black Album is my least favorite Prince has ever done.

irreverence said:

Finally a list I can understand and respect. These are truly great albums.

You can't understand or respect a list different from your own?

my top 5

5. Lotusflower

4. Chaos and Disorder

3. 1999

2. The Gold Experience

1. Purple Rain

10. Love Symbol - A mixed bag here, but the highlights are great, 3 chains of Gold, seven, I wanna melt with u, morning papers and the Continental along with Sexy MF make this a great album. It may be uneven but symbol covers so much ground there's something for everyone. 85/100

9. Crystal Ball - As above, some of the stuff here is mediocre, but then again, the rest is genius, the title track, Love sign, Crucial and Good Love, wow, some excellent music here. Enough to please everyone, wow, 86/100

8. Controversy - His first real Prince sound album, 2 poorly conceived filler tracks, but the raw funk of the title track, sexuality, lets work and the superlative Do Me Baby. This is great early stuff. Again Prince held on as the greatest new comer to the 80s. - 88/100

7. Lovesexy - He's right, its not music its a trip, you can just dance along to it all night and its funky and has some amazing lyrics and beats. Its onlt flaw is that its massively overproduced. Still it has Anna Stesia and when 2 are in love, the finest of the fine. 89/100

6. The Gold Experience - his finest 90s album, in the wilderness of his self indulgence, name changes, barney with Warners, he gave us this solid rock and rap extravaganza, so many high points, Shh!, Shy, Dolphin, Gold and of course Endorphin machine. If it had Days of Wild It might have got to #3 - 91/100

5. Dirty Mind - The energy and raw sex punk funk that oozes off the album propel it into another universe, the shocking lyrics, popping base line, organs all make this the finest effort so far, and then you have his falsetto. This album made him the trend setter and made him the artist of the 80s, plus the chutzpah that simmers through it , wow 93/100.

4. Parade - Super cool and super smooth, the creamy kiss, the brilliance of Mountains, Girls and Boys and the ballads, wow this is great, and he had so much fun with it. Parade's best point is how effortless it sounds, simple and brilliant - 94/100

3. Purple Rain - the most commercial rock sound and a mega hit, but this was well written and catchy pop songs. Its his first grown up album too, the raw lust of earlier records sees more solidly constructed love songs. Plus the mega hits Lets Go Crazy, When Doves Cry and Purple Rain, but the best track is the Beautiful ones, that joint is the shit, the ultimate slow burner ballad and his best scream apart from Do Me Baby on Controversy - 96/100

2. 1999 - His most adventorous and synthesised album so far, but well crafted, LRC the ultimate seductive pop hit, the breeze of Delirious and the Party chanting of 1999 and DMSR. These songs nail it, it show cased his ability to wibble on, but here it works, plus it was easily his sexiest record to date. Except the sex seemed more grown up than developed than the raw lust on Dirty Mind and the steamier moments of Controversy (Do Me Baby is just sex on wax) The explicitness of Lets Pretend were married, International Lover and Lady Cab Driver are some of his steamiest stuff ever, and the inside photo of him bare chested on a bed with those elfin eyes, I mean wow squared. - 97/100

1. SOTT - This album is almost perfection, every song works, his diversity of sounds and styles make this is a lexicon of music, here Prince takes nearly every style of pop and soul and mixes it into a uniquely Prince sound, the amazing complexity of the title track, the frivoloity of play in the sunshine, the raw funk of Housequake, the sex on It and of course the superlative Adore with its layered soul vocals and acapella, and then there is "If I was ur girlfriend" a song that defies any explanation except pure quirkiness, the album is so great u can follow it and so well written. Its practically perfect, it never gets old and its just brilliant. No such thing as perfect, but this comes close, he will never match it again. 99/100

Honourable mentions 11. Rave 79/100, 12. The Bsides 78/100, 13. 3121 76/100, 14. Prince 73/100, 15. Emancipation 72/100, 16. Black Album 71/100

Around The World In A Day

jpnyc said:

10 Graffiti Bridge

This was a better movie than Purple Rain, and Purple Rain was better than 1999, so obviously this shit is off the hook.

9 N.E.W.S

Everybody with a grad degree in music theory dreams of a conceptual live jazz album!

8 Come

Some of his best drum programming.

7 Batman

Batdance is the best dance track of the 80s.

6 Chaos and Disorder

Prince saved the best for last at Warner Records.

5 20Ten

OMG GIRRRRL did you hear him call himself the Purple Yoda? HE SAY HE THE PURPLE YODA!

4 The Chocolate Invasion

This one is so great because the critics just never understood what he was doing and it derserves RESPECT.

3 The Slaughterhouse

Listening to this always reminds me of Bamboozled, and that movie was so much better than Do The Right Thing.

2 Kamasutra

I love this album because it always reminds me of the year I was blessed by Jehovah to have spent waiting for my copy of Crystal Ball to be delievered late by conspirators at the post office.

1 Gold Nigga

Tony M. just never got his due in Prince’s work. It’s so good that Prince could put his ego aside and let the real hero of the N P G stand out!

too funny

you had for five seconds when i saw graffit bridge (which is a decent album but terrible movie).

1999 is my actual fave.

CrabalockerFishwife said:

irreverence said:

Finally a list I can understand and respect. These are truly great albums.

You can't understand or respect a list different from your own?

Yeah, sorry about that. I can respect other people's taste, but understanding it is sometimes a bit difficult.

I guess I'm just worried that as fans get younger, the genious - groundbreaking genious - of Prince's 80s albums may be lost...

10. 1999

9. Purple Rain

8. Prince

7. Controversy

6. The Gold Experience

5. SOTT

4. Prince

3. Come

2. Parade

1. Lovesexy

[Edited 4/29/12 13:24pm]

ladygirl99 said: