Okay so each of these albums, "Musicology" and "3121" have had some years since being released. What are fans thoughts on how each hold up? One better then the other?

If I remember right, critics really loved "Musicology" and while fans seemed to dig, "3121" - most critics didn't dig it. (Not that critics matter in the big scheme of things but just bringing it up.)

Thoughts ya'll?

I love them!!

I can't say which I like best, because they really hold up great! Now I still can't really bother 'Life O' The Party' but that is about the only song, I can't stand from these two albums! What really holds up great is 'Xpectation' and N.E.W.S. recorded a year prior!

I MEAN! That's some good stuff!!! I love it!!!

I haven't heard much about 3121- I always assumed it was one of his sucky ones- but is it good?

I don’t think Musicology is even on my hard drive these days. It seemed great at the time, but then Lotusflow3r came along and reminded me that Prince was capable of much better. 3121 sucked when it was released, and it still sucks today.

Both title tracks are still strong.

They prevent rings of moisture from forming on my coffee table.

I kid. I kid. Musicology was Prince back to his familiar territory. And 3121 was Prince's version of pop territory. Those are decent albums.

They have held up okay.

I have *ALWAYS* liked 3121 minus "Love" and "Get on the Boat", but I don't hate those songs enough to discredit a solid pop album.

To me, 3121 was a slightly less flashy love child of D&P and Rave Un2.

I used to find Musicology utterly boring, and honestly--it's not one of my favorites. But I do enjoy it sooooooo much better than I used to. It's actually a solid little album, if not overwhelmingly unique. Also, listening to it on a really nice expensive headphones allows you to hear all the tiny little ear-candy that's sprinkled all throughout the production.

The both held up fine. 20Ten, however, was still born and got worse after a week's listening.

I was indifferent to them then, and still am.

If critics were sucking Prince's dick at the time of Musicology it was because of his touring and increased profile - it was his time for that little comeback and Prince made hay whilst the sun shined, good on him. Those albums are not remembered, they contained no classic material, and the closest things they did contain to a hit - Prince did nothing to capitalize on them. People enjoyed the shows and still do, but they didn't go to hear On The Couch or Get On The Boat, they wen't to hear LRC and Kiss. They might've gone to hear Black Sweat too if he'd promoted it some.

Musicology and 3121 are no better or worse than most of the other catch-all plastic pop albums he's released since Emancipation. I don't see any difference between Musicology, 3121, 20Ten, MPLSound, Rave, NPS, and even Lotusflower and PE (although I do personally like the latter two). Just another dozen tracks ticking all the usual 'Prince does it all' boxes.

The usual IMO stuff applies, nach.

NouveauDance said:

Just another dozen tracks ticking all the usual 'Prince does it all' boxes.

This made me realise what is one of Prince's "problems" actually:

I think Prince thinks that he always needs to show off that he is a jack of all trades on his albums, as his legend is partially build around that. His albums therefore end up going from one place to another, and seldom make a coherent whole. While in fact he could probably deliver stronger (selling) albums if he would stick more or less to one format.

For example an all out rock album followed by a commercial pop album, then a funk album followed by a spaced out jazzy album. And after that a dance album followed by a Soul/RnB album.

No double or triple sets like LF, but just a collection of approximately 10 strong songs per album. Accompanied by a tour that focusses on the theme of the new album, where Prince would play most tracks of his latest album, filled out with hits and fan favorites that fit the genre of the album/tour.

So in case of lets say a rock album he would in addition to the album tracks play for example Let's Go Crazy, Bambi, Cream, U Got The Look. While on a funk tour he would instead play Lady Cab Driver, Sexy MF, Controversy, KIss to combine with the album tracks. You get the picture.

I think that could be a really interesting concept! The albums would be coherent, and the accompanying tour would focus on that specific side of Prince's music. The tours and albums should be clearly marketed as "Funk" or "Blues" so that it would be clear for the general public what to expect.

It would probably mean doing tours in somewhat smaller venues, but he could compensate by doing a fullout "hits" tour every once in a while, to make the big cash that he probably (thinks he) needs.

[Edited 9/10/12 5:11am]

And to get back on topic, I think both albums play it very safe and boring for the bigger part. Not a big fan of both, although each one has one or a few good Prince tracks (A Million Days and Black Sweat for example).

Musicology is slightly less horrible than 3121.

Never been a huge fan of Musicology, it's not horrible but for me it's one of the least exciting collections of songs that he's put out.

Really like 3121 though, some really good stuff that I enjoy a lot on there.

Musicology:

01. musicology [held up pretty well. could do without the break in the middle. it got old. fast]

02. illusion, coma, pimp and circumstance [silly humour in songs gets old after a few listens]

03. a million days [held up very well. still reminds me of gold/come era stuff. but good one]

04. life of the party [it was tired when it was first released. grew even worse. shudder]

05. call my name [aged very well indeed]

06. cinnamon girl [didn't get much better with age. sounds a bit dated. the lyrics still grate on me]

07. what do u want me 2 do [aged well. i can listen to this 1000 times and not get bored.

a few lyrics you have to tune out tho]

08. the marrying kind [aged quite well. hated it first. kind of like/tolerate it now.]

09. if i was the man in ur life [see 'the marrying kind'. the jazzy outro should last longer,

it feels cut short.]

10. on the couch [eventho it's elements are timeless, it hasn't aged very well, it's just boring]

11. dear mr man [aged decent enough. felt kind of 'old' first time round. production is fine,

yet it still feels old somehow. it always makes me wanna listen to ben harpers Excuse Me Mr.]

12. reflection [aged best of all. it would still be one of the top 3 tracks on any album since.

just a classic that has a timeless quality to it. and these kind of lyrics never get dull].

all in all the album aged pretty well imo. the instrumental tracks all sound pretty crisp and there

aren't many production flourishes that sound outdated or stale by now. many 'real' instruments,

i guess.

in those places where it sounds dated or off, it already did so when it was first released. songs

like 'life of the party' or 'illusion, coma....' sounded silly after 1 or 2 spins.

humour in songs is a tricky thing. he nailed it at times in the past. but his humor on this album is

more topical or 'of the time' and that just makes you cringe after a few times. a silly 'joke' can in

fact ruin a perfectly fine song for me. altho neither of these songs were perfectly fine to begin.

the break in musicology is kind of unfortunate. i hate it now. the song would be much better with

that break taken out. was it on the single version? i'll have to check.

since about 1988 a lot of prince's stuff has aged worse due to it's lyrical content than it has done

because of production or composition (except diamonds and pearls). there are many examples

of it. one of the most recent ones is mentioning "supposedly to keep us all safe from sadam" on

Act of God. that reference came after sadam was already dead. his lyrics were more ambiguous

in the past, which is why they still relate to current events even 20 or 30 years later.

singing about putting your girlfriend on the same diet missy went on. i don't think that will still be

relevant 30 years down the line. etc etc etc.

Both are as beige as a doctors waiting room.

I've sort of worn out Musicology over the last 8 years. That's how much I loved it when it came out. So I'm a little bit over it. the songs that annoyed me, soncially and lyrically, still annoy me (ICP&C and Life O' The Party). Cinnamon Girl has also started to make my ears hurt.

3121, I didn't really care for when it came out. I think I like it more now than I did then. But I still can't sit through Get On The Boat, Incense & Candles is still stupid, and Fury is still a big let-down.

Love 3121 cd still to this day. Enjoyed some of the tracks on the Musicology cd as well, but liked 3121 over Musicology.

(Taken from orger Istenzak's track list):

From Musicology cd

All 4 of these songs sounded pretty much like they were in relation to one another , kind of like telling a story about a relationship that couldn't be somewhat;and if it was set up on a cd as 'continous' like the Lovesexy cd, they would have fell right into one story being told, which would have been pretty cool. Nice tracks though.

A Million days

What Do You Want Me to do

The Marrying Kind

If I was the man in ur life

[Edited 9/10/12 9:23am]

^It was the complete opposite for me. I considered TRC a glimpse of hope. It showcased Prince at least being passionate about something once again.

Neither Musicology nor 3121 do speak to me from a creative point of view.

[Edited 9/10/12 13:57pm]

I actually like both of those albums myself.

Vanilli said:

Okay so each of these albums, "Musicology" and "3121" have had some years since being released. What are fans thoughts on how each hold up? One better then the other?

If I remember right, critics really loved "Musicology" and while fans seemed to dig, "3121" - most critics didn't dig it. (Not that critics matter in the big scheme of things but just bringing it up.)

Thoughts ya'll?

Between the two album, I like 3121 more than Musicology. Both were THE last Prince albums that I've ever purchase.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Both are as beige as a doctors waiting room.

Agreed. Didn't get into them then and still don't.

I like the overall style and the dry production on Musicology more, but 3121 has the better songs. I'd rate them both as solid "three star" albums.

I had high expectations for the 3121 album, but when I first heard it in its entirety I couldn't really understand why song like "Incense and Candles" and "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed" were on it. Why did he feel the need to chase the mainstream R&B audience when he didn't even promote the record too much? It's not that they're horrible, but really not the reason why most people that dig Prince listen to Prince. Stuff like the title track, Black Sweat and The Dance were more like it though. Love and The Word remind me of the better pop songs of his 90s period, as well.

With Musicology I was just happy that he had ditched the horribly unfocused approach to making records from his late-90s period. Maybe it has a bit of a "clunky" feel, but the production has a similar vibe throughout the record. Reflection concludes it perfectly.

I think both albums are at least on the same level as, say, Batman or D&P. They lack a bit of the "magic" his older stuff has, but at least they don't have bullshit like "Batdance" or "Jughead" on them.

Both are strong pop efforts, more mainstream than Prince's usual output but still very much impregnated of everything that makes Prince's music great to my ears. I personally end-up liking 3121 more, finding it more cohesive somehow, but both are records I still like to listen once in a while when I'm in a good mood, or when I need to be put in a good mood. They're not my favorite Prince records ever but I dig 'em a lot.

lauralevesque said:

I haven't heard much about 3121- I always assumed it was one of his sucky ones- but is it good?

Worth it for "Love" and "The Word" alone. It holds up fine. I was listening to it the other day. "Get on the Boat" is a lot of fun too. 3121 is like all of Prince albums since SOTT, 2 or 3 great songs, 3 or 4 OK ones, 1 or 2 that are a matter of taste and preference and 2 or 3 absolute turds.

Musicology is the same way. Consistency has not been Prince's strong suit when it comes to his albums. Only Purple Rain, 1999 and Sign O The Times are listenable all the way through.

NouveauDance said:

Just another dozen tracks ticking all the usual 'Prince does it all' boxes.

I don't usually agree with you but this is soooo true. I think his records would be stronger if they had more of a running theme and a cohesive approach instead of "here's a ballad", "here's a dance song", "here's a little guitar" and "here's the psychadelic/weird song". Say what you want about "The Truth" or "ONA: Piano" but they had a consistent flow to them.

LotusFlower and MPLS Sound were close in this regard; one "rock" album and one "synth/funk" record but they still bounce all over the place in terms of quality, even though I don't hate MPLS like you do. The last time he tried to do a cohesive "concept album" was Rainbow Children and even that was hit and miss.

I've found myself since the name change really just splicing albums and songs together into mixes that include the tracks I enjoy. When was the last time we could just pop in a Prince disc and let it play without rushing for the skip button?

Musicology is average, 6 or even 7/10 on a good day. The first half is ok.

I really dislikes 3121, bad album.

Only Black Sweat and the title track when played LIVE are ok.. the rest is weak.

Musicology got worse for me and 3121 I still listen to.

I don't know, Musicology just sounds too varied to me, the funk on Musicology and ICP&C just doesn't sit well with the rock of Million Days or Cinnamon Girl or the ballads Call My Name or On The Couch. I know Prince records are usually always kinda varied, but I just don't think this one does it right. Really the only song I still listen to is The Marrying Kind. That fuckin song rocks! Sometimes I'll let it segue into the next one. But then I stop. And I was like the fuckin spokesperson for that album back in 2004. I even made my own "trailer" for it on my voicemail back when. I don't know. I really just hate this album now.

3121 is really, really cool though. I actually had it playing the other day. And while I don't really like the way he's (over)producing his albums nowadays, 3121 just has an amazing cool that Musicology lacks. Even though I hate the synths on Lolita. Somehow 3121, Te Amo, Love, Dance, Get On The Boat mesh a lot better, to me anyway.

I never liked those CD's. Too bland, the magic was gone. The last CD I liked was TRC