Definitely "Around The World In A Day". No, it's not a bad album, in fact it's a great album. But to get better and better with a signature sound on each album and then when it reaches an explosive climax like "Purple Rain" and totally change a sound from ice cold modern/futuristic to retro psycodelic was majorly disappointing at the time. It was like someone giving you great oral sex that gets more and more intense and right at the moment that you get ready to shoot, they stop.

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[Edited 9/16/12 21:14pm]

I agree with Emancipation. Just before it was released, I think Prince said somewhere that this was going to be the best album he ever made. Something along those lines. I remember reading that and thinking: WOW, this is bound to become one HELL of an album..! It was a hell, just not the kind I was thinking of. I think the album is a mess, mainly due to so many damn COVERS..! And to be honest, his own songs on Emancipation weren't as good as songs like 'I can't make u love me' or 'One of us'... And the OP is right: even the artwork doesn't work.

I do agree that there are many, many great songs on it. It was just so overhyped... I think more low-key albums were able to surprise a lot more that this 'should have been masterpiece' was ever able to do.

Gomp said:

At the time, Grafitti Bridge

I already had the first couple of tracks as boots and the final versions were worse than the ones I had.

Don't even get me started on the title track !

20Ten - I was expecting Lotusflow3r part 2, but instead I got MPLSound part 2.

vainandy said:

Definitely "Around The World In A Day". No, it's not a bad album, in fact it's a great album. But to get better and better with a signature sound on each album and then when it reaches an explosive climax like "Purple Rain" and totally change a sound from ice cold modern/futuristic to retro psycodelic was majorly disappointing at the time. It was like someone giving you great oral sex that gets more and more intense and right at the moment that you get ready to shoot, they stop.

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[Edited 9/16/12 21:14pm]

I always feel like I should be paying $3.99 a minute to read your posts.

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

Gomp said:

I agree with Emancipation. Just before it was released, I think Prince said somewhere that this was going to be the best album he ever made. Something along those lines. I remember reading that and thinking: WOW, this is bound to become one HELL of an album..! It was a hell, just not the kind I was thinking of. I think the album is a mess, mainly due to so many damn COVERS..! And to be honest, his own songs on Emancipation weren't as good as songs like 'I can't make u love me' or 'One of us'... And the OP is right: even the artwork doesn't work.

I do agree that there are many, many great songs on it. It was just so overhyped... I think more low-key albums were able to surprise a lot more that this 'should have been masterpiece' was ever able to do.

Prince described it as "the album he was born to make".He really hyped it up but when I finally heard it, I too was a little disappointed.There are some great songs on the album,but there are also alot of mediocre tracks.I can't really call this album a 'masterpiece'.

For me I'll say Diamonds and Pearls, Newpower Soul and Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.

Diamonds and Pearls was very obviously an attempt to have a hit album. It worked but it has aged fairly poorly.

I loved Emancipation and liked Crystal Ball/The Truth so I had high expectations for Newpower Soul. Those high expectations were dashed.

Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic was hyped as being his return to the mainstream but by that point he couldn't even successfully sell-out (as he did with Diamonds and Pearls). I much preferred the WB contractural release that appeared a few months earlier (The Vault-Old Friends 4 Sale).

Graffiti Bridge hands down was the first time I felt like he was losing it. Can't Stop The Feeling sounded old. Great intro weak song. New Power Generation Question Of U, Thieves and Tick Tick Bang are awesome. Elephants and Flowers is ok. the rest of the Prince songs were horrid on there.

Rave and Choas & Disorder would have been great if any other artist did it.

Prince is kinda in an unfair position. He made soo many incredible albums in a row. The slightest decent album he makes is a disappointment

Gomp said:

I agree with Emancipation. Just before it was released, I think Prince said somewhere that this was going to be the best album he ever made. Something along those lines. I remember reading that and thinking: WOW, this is bound to become one HELL of an album..! It was a hell, just not the kind I was thinking of. I think the album is a mess, mainly due to so many damn COVERS..! And to be honest, his own songs on Emancipation weren't as good as songs like 'I can't make u love me' or 'One of us'... And the OP is right: even the artwork doesn't work.

I do agree that there are many, many great songs on it. It was just so overhyped... I think more low-key albums were able to surprise a lot more that this 'should have been masterpiece' was ever able to do.

NEVER listen to someone who is in "love" when they say they say something is the best album they ever made because they aren't in their right mind at the time. It almost always means the album is going to have a ton of ballads. And not great ballads either, they're usually ballads that mean something to them as a couple. The majority of disc 2 was absolutely horrible.

imago said:

vainandy said:

Definitely "Around The World In A Day". No, it's not a bad album, in fact it's a great album. But to get better and better with a signature sound on each album and then when it reaches an explosive climax like "Purple Rain" and totally change a sound from ice cold modern/futuristic to retro psycodelic was majorly disappointing at the time. It was like someone giving you great oral sex that gets more and more intense and right at the moment that you get ready to shoot, they stop.

.

.

.

[Edited 9/16/12 21:14pm]

I always feel like I should be paying $3.99 a minute to read your posts.

rialb said:

Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic was hyped as being his return to the mainstream but by that point he couldn't even successfully sell-out (as he did with Diamonds and Pearls).

I had a feeling it was going to be horrible for that reason alone and when I heard it, I was right. Being mainstream in the 1980s is a great thing because mainstream music in the 1980s was great. But being mainstream in the 1990s on up to today is the worst thing you can be because mainstream music was and still is horrible. Plus, I was turned off when I heard he was with Arista. That label had one of the dullest artists in music history on it and I didn't want him anywhere near that atmosphere in case it rubbed off on him.

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[Edited 9/17/12 6:21am]

KingSausage said:

And having to pay separately for that shitty lyric book? Shit. It's like having to pay a tax for someone to poop on your face.

'Which is, in your opinion, the most DISAPPOINTING Prince album?'

ANSWER : THE NEXT ONE

I'm temped 2 say Planet Earth but I don't consider that a real album. It was thrown 2gether at the last minute 2 give away. That said, I'd go with Rave. Those guess rappers were brutal and the material was substandard.

[Edited 9/17/12 8:39am]

[Edited 9/17/12 10:10am]

Crystal Ball, after the hype and all the fiasco, the fact it was an entirely mediocre hodgepotch was just the cherry on the turdcake.

Emancipation, at the time I was quite into it, it wasn't mindblowing, but I don't remember feeling disappointed by it then, I enjoyed the majority of it.

Rave. This was the final straw at the time, I remember where I was and what I was doing when I first listened to it - I gave up any hope of a half-decent Prince record after that first listen (thankfully I was proved wrong since), but it still ranks as one of the bottom 3 worst albums for me.

All the other cruddy ones, I wasn't expecting anything other mediocrity and Prince delivered, so.....

Graycap23 said:

I'm temped 2 say Planet Earth but I don't consider that a real album. It was throw 2gether at the last minute 2 give away. That said, I'd go with Rave. Those guess rappers were brutal and the material was substandard.

[Edited 9/17/12 8:39am]

As a Chuck D fan I must say even he was on auto pilot.

OzlemUcucu said:

Yeah, and also the love Lotusshit gets here is incomprehensible. MplsSound is where the sound is, he promoted it with Ol'Skool and yet everyone is talking about the other crap. It's same as 20Ten to me, anyway. I have to yet listen to that without skipping every song, Lotus that is.

Lotusflow3r has some of the best studio guitar work Prince has ever released, though, which gives it bonus points. It's not a perfect album, but for me it's head and shoulders above anything else he's released in a long time. Largely due to the guitar playing.

Most disappointing for me at time of release is probably between Emancipation and 20Ten.

also, Purple Rain

I was expecting 9 SUPER-hits, like Thriller (best album of the 80s hands down),... instead I got three "hits" (which basically were an overlong ballad, an underproduced/repetitive dance/rock/rap hybrid without a bassline-CHEAP!!!- and a dated arena-rock like "anthem") BUT ALSO 6 ok irrelevant/weird songs that only make sense to Prince himself

2010/// I like mplsound but 2010 just seemed a bit lack luster

PurpleMedley122 said:

3-Way Tie between MPLSoUND, New Power Soul, and IMO the worst Prince album ever made, 20 FUCKIN TEN

I agree with 20Ten and NPS. I like MPSLOUND.

Both disappointing and the worst of his caree to me.

vainandy said:

Gomp said:

I agree with Emancipation. Just before it was released, I think Prince said somewhere that this was going to be the best album he ever made. Something along those lines. I remember reading that and thinking: WOW, this is bound to become one HELL of an album..! It was a hell, just not the kind I was thinking of. I think the album is a mess, mainly due to so many damn COVERS..! And to be honest, his own songs on Emancipation weren't as good as songs like 'I can't make u love me' or 'One of us'... And the OP is right: even the artwork doesn't work.

I do agree that there are many, many great songs on it. It was just so overhyped... I think more low-key albums were able to surprise a lot more that this 'should have been masterpiece' was ever able to do.

NEVER listen to someone who is in "love" when they say they say something is the best album they ever made because they aren't in their right mind at the time. It almost always means the album is going to have a ton of ballads. And not great ballads either, they're usually ballads that mean something to them as a couple. The majority of disc 2 was absolutely horrible.

That was his ode to Mayte. "I can't wait no more, let's have a baby."

Graycap23 said:

I'm temped 2 say Planet Earth but I don't consider that a real album. It was thrown 2gether at the last minute 2 give away. That said, I'd go with Rave. Those guess rappers were brutal and the material was substandard.

[Edited 9/17/12 8:39am]

[Edited 9/17/12 10:10am]

Much better than the rappers on Emancipation. I'll take Eve and Chuck D over Duddley Dee and the Poet chick.

PurpleMedley122 said:

JoeTyler said:

fellas! FELLAS! I said disappointing! not the "worst"

Exactly. I had high expectations for those three albums

-People were talking about how "back to basics" MPLSound was. I remember one reviewer calling it "Controversey : The Saga Continues". Nowadays, I can only stomach U're Gonna C Me and Here.

-Prince went into full hype gear with New Power Soul, saying that it was "one of the maddest and funkiest records" he's ever made. The result :

-After the fantastic LOtUSFLOW3R album, I was expecting something along those lines with the next album. What I got was 20TEN : his most boring, bland, and tired funk "jams" he's ever put on record. The only good thing about this album is that it makes for a good coaster and frisbee.

ROLLING STONE
Five of MPLSoUND's nine songs sound like lost B sides from assorted classic Prince albums (Dirty Mind, 1999, Controversy, etc.); these days, even a really good Prince song usually reminds the listener of a better, earlier one. What really hamstrings the album, though, is a four-song sequence in the middle: Two syrupy ballads, one overlong tribute to Valente and one Caribbean-inflected number that sounds like a Smoove B seduction.

it was either this album period or 20Ten I believe it was this one, that in some kind of interview John Blackwell said something to the effect of it sounding like Controversy

I don't know what he was hearing ...

Any of the turds he released since Musicology (included).

most definitely 20ten . i like sticky like glue, future soul song and to a lesser extent compassion and laydown, but very weak as a whole