Dear .Org,

It is, admittedly, a stretch to contrast these four incredibly different Prince products, however, a brief analysis of their similarities and differences yields an interesting portrayal of how Prince's music has evolved over 30 years, each being conceived towards the beginning of each respective decade (1980 vs 1990 vs 2000 vs 2010).

Whilst, to me, it is apparent that Dirty Mind is arguably the strongest album in the 'recognised' canon of Prince's most acclaimed works, I would nonetheless conclude that Graffiti Bridge probably contains the strongest songs. Rave is probably my least listened to (as it houses less organic production and my least favoured era in terms of the quality of his musicianship). And, strangely, if it wasn't so recent (and, therefore, if the jury was not still out in terms of how time will critique its value), I think I would still conclude that 20Ten is my favourite music out of all four albums (in other words, I don't believe it is just the recency effect, that I am succumbing to). Perhaps, I should explain myself, given that most fans don't seem to recognise the brilliance of Prince's recent efforts e.g. Planet Earth, Lotus Flow3r, 20Ten.

Dirty Mind saw Prince stretching for the first time in a maverick, ground breaking, manner. It rightfully stands out as a masterpiece of an album, even within what is critically considered his strongest decade (the '80s). Graffiti saw Prince consolidating much of the success of his 80's work whilst also trying to embrace the sound of the current times such as New Jack Swing (unfortunately, without itself creating much in the way of invention or originality). Rave saw Prince consolidating much of the latest evolution of his 90's work (but with a focus on tried and tested contemporary signatures to yield strong commercial results e.g. guest stars, but it would appear the major industry forces were still not working in his favour). By contrast, 20Ten saw Prince just say, "This is me, again", plain and simple, and, at least to my ears, without any blatant attempt towards critical or commercial success. It is perhaps for this latter reason that I find 20Ten one of his most rewarding recent pieces of work; it stands alone as a record without rhyme or reason in terms of proactively trying to do anything other than be listened to, whereas the other records (including Dirty Mind) each seemed to have a point to prove and therefore are/were somewhat contrived.

Yes, I know Prince needs to release a new record, before we all go nuts with over analysis of everything (including the contents of his fridge), but what do you think of each of these records? Which is your favourite album of the four starting points of each decade and which do you find you revisit the most often?

love,

Spirit

Marks from my list

Dirty Mind 90/100 - A+

Graffiti Bridge 66/100 B-

Rave 69/100 B- (I have chosen Rave un2 as I do not have Rave in2 the year 2000)

20 Ten 54/100 C-

Its clear to see if you look at the 4 albums alone, you have a downward curve with a slight kink at the millennium. But if you were to choose say the 05 years, the scores would show a mostly static curve with a peak in 1995 with The Gold Experience (89) and a slight rise on 1985 ATWIAD (85) and for 2005 I would choose 3121 (80), as it was released in March 2006 and the SST single dropped in 05, which was 3121 derived.

Back to the 4, Dirty Mind is the best and GB had the highlights like Still Would stand all Time and Joy in repetition, but also a lot of bad filler (Something missing from the tightness of Dirty Mind). You have to realise too that in 1980 Prince was unknown and eager to please, he was a genre bending upstart with a lot of raw talent, by 1990 he was coming off a long period of major fame and mainstream success and was looking tired, GB was typical that it had pure nuggets and shonky filler like Graffiti Bridge and Love Machine, New Power generation rap with TC Ellis.

That's the next point, in 1980 he was a trend setter and in 1990 he was a trend follower.

Moving ahead to 2000 and the Rave period, by this stage Jehovahdom had sunk in, and his music was suffering, by now his best stuff was mushy ballads like The One and The Greatest Romance, but at least Quality control had set in more, no real stinkers, but the album did not have any more mega gems, instead the albums had evened out to songs being between Very Good and Mediocre in quality, Rave has some good enjoyable material and as a whole package is acceptable, but its dated quickly and overall very forgettable. Prince is treading water here.

Coming up to 20Ten, overall a very poor and short album, only 9 real songs and of these only 3 I would rate as good, Future Soul Song, Laydown and Sticky like Glue, the rest is satisfactory to the super poor Sea of Everything and Everybody loves me which is so bad it could be done by boy bands like One Direction. But if we go back one year to Lotusflow3r and MPLSOUND we can see that he still has great music in him, rather than condemn him, 20 Ten was a rushed misstep in what is an otherwise unblemishable 35 year career.

Let's try 1978, 88, 98, and 2008

For You - Pretty good debut. Crazy You, Soft & Wet, Just As Long As We're Together, and I'm Yours are good songs that show outstanding range. Some of the other songs drag as they are low energy and not the greatest compositions or performances. 7/0

Lovesexy - An amazing album! This solidified my love of his music. Sign of the Times was my first purchase and then I got this. Both were on cassettes. The opening monologue, Eye Know, Anna Stesia, and Positivity (see my signature) are fantastic, epic even. One of the few flaws is that it lacks a great single. I actually really like Alphabet St. as a song, but it doesn't work as a hit single and neither do the others. 9/10

The Truth - Another great album. It should have been released as its own album so that more non-hardcore fans could hear it. 3rd Eye is my favorite. Comeback, The Truth, Circle of Amour, and Don't Play Me are also winners. 9/10

Bonus - Crystal Ball - I love this album. I know the release was botched and it had several remixes that could be replaced by unreleased songs. I get it. But the quality of the music is outstanding. I can't think of one song I dislike (although the original version of P. Control is better). 10/10

Indigo Nights - This is a missed opportunity. He's been doing Whole Lotta Love and The Question of U/Fallin'/The One for your years. The versions on here on my least favorites of all the ones I've heard. How does Prince do that? I mean no lyrics to one, repetitive guitar solo, etc. On the plus side, the versions of Alphabet St. and All the Critics Love You in London are amazing. 6/10

Hey adorecream & controversy99,

I love the 'scientific' analysis of albums/trends across the 4 eras you've briefly glimpsed at; both of you demonstrate excellent critique.

Sorry for my brief response, I am at work. However, perhaps this might be fun if either/both of you, or anyone else, might want to contrast these 4 Prince albums:

1982 | 1999

1992 | Love Symbol

2002 | The Rainbow Children / One Nite Alone

2012 | (TBC release date: Autumn)

Regardless, I will nonetheless come back to you both regarding your analyses above.

love,

Spirit

1st - 20Ten

2nd - GB

3rd - tie for Rave and Dirty

Dirty was an album I got in 2009 although I knew some songs. It's nice, but it sounds 80s to me or 'old' dare I say. The music, not the lyrics or singing.

GB - Nice album with some good tracks but I listened to it a lot when I first got it at the time of release so don't listen much anymore. Except for 4 tracks from it that I put on my ipod.

I have the Rave dvd -( in) I think. Also some nice tracks, 6 on my ipod. Really dig 'Baby knows' that's my favourite.

But 20Ten is the winner here. Pure Prince, so many years after PR, still doing his thing with a mix up of everything and some grand musical pieces of fun and magic, of which I've discussed on prior threads. Listened to Lavaux today on repeat. Great song for driving

Bohemian67 said:

20ten better than Dirty Mind??!? Now I've seen everything. Holy fuck.

SpiritOtter said:

an interesting portrayal of how Prince's music has evolved over 30 years

It's certainly quite accurate in terms of showing the overall downwards trend.

Dirty Mind : great

Grafitti Bridge : some good some bad, overall ok

Rave : bad

20Ten : awful

Also.......

"2012 | (TBC release date: Autumn)"

You are seriously expecting people to discuss what they think about an album they couldn't possibly have heard, even if it does exist anywhere outside of your imagination?

My favorite is of course Dirty Mind,

I always felt GB was't so much a consolidation, but rather Prince cleaning up the vault, getting rid of some old ideas, after all the idea for the movie was already a couple of years old and so were some of the songs. And because back then I already was a bootleg collector, I already nkew those and the official versions were hardly any better than the original bootleg ones. And there wasn't even that much George Clinton on We Can Funk. And working with him and Mavis Staples, plus the fact that the Nude tour was a greatest hits tour, all indicated that for the first time, Prince was looking back rather than forward. But I could forgive him for that, because GB was more of a compilation album than a Prince album.

That's why Diamonds and Pearls was such a disappointment, because this one was hyped as The Big New Prince album. But by then there was really no getting around the fact that Prince"s music was getting predictable, playing a role he thought was expected from him in order to make money A troublesome decade was about to begin.

Rave was even worse and I didn't even bother wit 20Ten...

SuperSoulFighter,

That was a very insightful and useful critique.

It is amazing to me to see the rather widespread difference between those fans who knew of Prince's music during the 80's and those who came on board after the 80's. Overall, 90's fans seem to be less enamoured with the 80's than the ones who were 'there' and 80's fans seem to be less enamoured with the 90's than the ones who were 'there' and yet both camps hold onto the belief that, overall, there's been 'enough' good music to justify the search/fandom.

What keeps you on board, SuperSoulFighter?

love,

Spirit

Even though I called the 90s a troublesome decade, Prince never stopped writing good songs. And he keeps reinterpreting them on stage. Anyone who was at the North Sea Jazz or Melkweg gigs knows what I mean.
And Prince's music has been with me 4 so long, it's just part of me.
Hope that answers your question.
And thanx 4 the compliment!
h

SpiritOtter said:

Wow. Another set of interesting albums. I'm gonna stick to the first 3 and skip the 2012 speculation because I dont wanna get my hopes up too high.

1999 - This is my favorite album (see my username). It's also tied for his greatest album, imo, with SotT, Purple Rain, Lovesexy, and Controversy. Title track = great drum pattern and overall amazing song. DMSR = funk masterpiece. Lady Cab Driver = genius.

Symbol = my second favorite of the 90s, after TGE. The highs are very high and the lows are pretty low. And God Created Woman, 7, Sexy MF are fantastic. The Flow is ... ugh.

TRC = Prince's best instrumental performances with his worst lyrics. The first 3 tracks are unlistenable due to those lyrics. After that, it becomes acceptable. If I didn't know any English, it would be in my top 5. But I do, so it's in my bottom 5.

SpiritOtter said:

Hey adorecream & controversy99,

I love the 'scientific' analysis of albums/trends across the 4 eras you've briefly glimpsed at; both of you demonstrate excellent critique.

Sorry for my brief response, I am at work. However, perhaps this might be fun if either/both of you, or anyone else, might want to contrast these 4 Prince albums:

1982 | 1999

1992 | Love Symbol

2002 | The Rainbow Children / One Nite Alone

2012 | (TBC release date: Autumn)

Regardless, I will nonetheless come back to you both regarding your analyses above.

love,

Spirit

Okay then

1999 is an excellent album, there's his first big album as the seasoned professional, great grooves and anthemic songs. Plus its as funky as hell and the look he was wearing then was so exciting. I gave it a 95/100 on my list and its my 3rd favourite after Sign and Purple Rain. Its more significant, because until then his albums had been building upwards, but this was the first album I could say was classic. It lacks the immaturity of Dirty Mind (But probably also its rawness, and the polished sound of 1999, may just sound a bit too mechanical for perfection). Its still mind blowing, a couple of less great tracks but no filler

Symbol is different again, like GB it has some strong moments, but fortunately there are more and songs like Sexy MF, 7, 3 Chains of Gold and the Continental are supremely high quality, but the rest is badly fleshed out jams and self indulgent ditties. My opinion of it initially was negative and then positive, but now its going down again, I feel Come was better and Diamonds and Pearls was about equal, although this album sounds less plastic. I give a 70/100 a B

TRC/ONA I have to say these are much worse overall, TRC has some okay songs on it and its hooks and sheer musicality are very strong, some great band performances, drumming, guitar riff and jazzy breaks are welcome, but the lyrics are beyond ridiculous, full of hate and bigotry, its the antithesis of 1999. But still the quality of the music lifts it our of the stinker category, although the title track, Muse and a few others meander on and on, but then there's a stand out pair tracks like She loves me 4 me and Last December. Overall its very average to poor 58/100

ONA I have only heard parts, but from what I have heard sounds dull and turgid and is just is not any good at all. I will not rate as I have only heard a few trax.

As for 2012, allow me to rate a bootleg if I can, the bootleg is the Welcome to Australia May 12 2002 Concert (2nd concert in Sydney), I was fortunate enough to go to a Melbourne concert, and this is a 2cd set covering the whole show, outtakes and all. Overall its excellent, Prince and his band were on fire, even if there was an overemphasis on the songs from the 1980s as opposed to modern ones, still the guitar playing singing and absolute funkiness of it, prove that in 2012, Prince is still killing on stage. So far I would 9/10

Adorecream said:

TRC/ONA I have to say these are much worse overall, TRC has some okay songs on it and its hooks and sheer musicality are very strong, some great band performances, drumming, guitar riff and jazzy breaks are welcome, but the lyrics are beyond ridiculous, full of hate and bigotry, its the antithesis of 1999. But still the quality of the music lifts it our of the stinker category, although the title track, Muse and a few others meander on and on, but then there's a stand out pair tracks like She loves me 4 me and Last December. Overall its very average to poor 58/100

ONA I have only heard parts, but from what I have heard sounds dull and turgid and is just is not any good at all. I will not rate as I have only heard a few trax.

Succint & totally accurate description of TRC -- I agree entirely.

ONA is actually pretty decent. You might want to check it out if you can get an affordable copy.