emancipation by far...the 3 disc opus which wasn't very good when I first listened to it.

Over the years I started to appreciate it more, but at the time he released it....oh my

It was actually the first album with tracks (friend, lover for example) which I really hated. That never happened before.

robertlove said:

emancipation by far...the 3 disc opus which wasn't very good when I first listened to it.

Over the years I started to appreciate it more, but at the time he released it....oh my

It was actually the first album with tracks (friend, lover for example) which I really hated. That never happened before.

good point, for me, Emancipation marks the beginning of the "ordinary star/down-to-earth artist" phase of Prince's career (which ended with Musicology, the beginning of the "veteran artist" phase).

The magic touch basically ended after TGE (C&D still had 4-5 songs with that kind of magic, and the rest of the album was decent)...

[Edited 9/19/12 11:41am]

I really like Emancipation...I have since day one...so not sure where that is coming from.

The two I remember being disappointed at the time:

Lovesexy...after Sign o the Times and that super funky 3rd gen boot of Black Album I had it was a huge let down at the time. I have grown to like it since, but man, at the time I wanted to throw it under my bike and roll over it.

Symbol...I didn't mind D&P...in fact I was a HUGE fan of Gett Off, Thunder, and Willing & Able...so I had somewhat high expectations for symbol. First came Sexy MF which was like HUH?? then My Name is Prince...which made me vomit in my mouth. The album as a whole had about 3 tracks I liked (7, and God Created Woman, and The Continental)...the rest was HORRIBLE. Again, a lot of it has grown on me in the years since (esp Sexy MF) but its still not a fave and it has NOT grown well with age.

The Black Album (before it was released years later).

had me searching all over for that shit. People talking about its genius.

For me it's 20ten

Weird that so many were disappointed with 20Ten. Did people really have high expectations for it?

rialb said:

Weird that so many were disappointed with 20Ten. Did people really have high expectations for it?

lol, exactly

personally, I had really LOW expectations, but I was pleasantly suprised, very good album poorly promoted

controversy99 said:

PurpleMedley122 said:

This. Once you cut out the filler, it's a solid double disc album.

Disc 1:
Jam Of The Year (6:09)
Right Back Here In My Arms (4:42)
Somebody's Somebody (4:43) 1
Get Yo Groove On (6:31)
Courtin' Time (2:46)
Face Down (3:16)
Joint 2 Joint (6:52)
White Mansion (4:47)
I Can't Make U Love Me (6:37) 3
Mr. Happy (4:46) 4
Sleep Around (7:41) 8
In This Bed I Scream (5:40)

Disc 2:
Sex In The Summer (5:56)
Soul Sanctuary (4:41) 5
Slave (4:51)
New World (3:42)
Curious Child/Dreamin' About U (7:53)
The Holy River (6:55)
Let's Have A Baby (4:07)
My Computer (4:36)
One Of Us (5:19) 9
The Love We Make (4:38)
Emancipation (4:12)
Goodbye (4:35)

[Edited 9/16/12 16:35pm]

[Edited 9/16/12 16:35pm]

Sorry, but you're gonna need to cut more "filler" than that to convince me. Any album that opens with that ridiculous Jam of the Year is not a good album in my book: "I got a new Puerto Rican score and she's doing it on the floor..." Really? Ugh. And I noticed you snuck iin Goodbye, which is a great song but not actually on the album.

Here's what I would trim from that list:

Disc 1:
Jam Of The Year (6:09)
Right Back Here In My Arms (4:42)
Somebody's Somebody (4:43) 1
Get Yo Groove On (6:31)
Courtin' Time (2:46)
Face Down (3:16)
Joint 2 Joint (6:52)
White Mansion (4:47)
I Can't Make U Love Me (6:37) 3
Mr. Happy (4:46) 4
Sleep Around (7:41) 8
In This Bed I Scream (5:40)

Disc 2:
Sex In The Summer (5:56)
Soul Sanctuary (4:41) 5
Slave (4:51)
New World (3:42)
Curious Child/Dreamin' About U (7:53)
The Holy River (6:55)
Let's Have A Baby (4:07)
My Computer (4:36)
One Of Us (5:19) 9
The Love We Make (4:38)
Emancipation (4:12)
Goodbye (4:35)

Yes, I did put filler (Jam of the Year and Get Yo Groove On) into consideration with this configuration. But, you also have to make the album flow well, which is why I edited some tracks and added silence to some. The album opens well with Jam of the Year and closes perfectly with Goodbye. And I dig I Can't Make U Love Me and One Of Us and have no idea why you crossed it out.

Gaffiti Bridge, like an experimental album with mostly other artists with no talent.

Sam 8)

I would also like to add THE TRUTH

gosh, I remember back in the day those crackhead reviews claiming that the album was a return to form, full of strong demos with AMAZING potential (their words), a little "treasure", a "lush/gorgeous" acoustic sound yadda yadda and then, when I finally heard the album several years later I thought it was just a bunch of dull/boring demos/filler and other criminally underproduced songs, decent at best, but certainly forgettable; and instead of that "lush" sound I got an acoustic guitar which sounded as if it had been beaten, drowned in salty water and buried in sand,...dreadful

dull dull dull album

JoeTyler said:

and hey, I said DISAPPOINTING (not necessarily bad or the worst he has ever released), I'm talkin' bout a P album that left you cold, puzzled, confused, embittered, in other words, an album you WANTED TO LIKE but you couldn't...

for me, it's EMANCIPATION, hands down, I was only a 90s kid when it came out, but even then I could feel that something was not right about that album. The artwork, the song order, the singles, the production (ugh!), the lyrics, etc. everything was meant to be perfect and epic but the actual results were very poor, overall...damn, even the cds/booklet smell weird...

Prince was NOT meant to release a triple-cd of original material, more like a double, during his 80s peak...

discuss

I'd go along with this. It's as much to do with the timeframe as all the things you said. We'd had TGE which was ace, i class the 94/95 years second only to his 80's stuff. He was serious and meant business again. The music was great again for the most part.

Then what? we get him on The Muppets making a boob of himself, "The album he was born to make" considering his new found freedom was less than stellar.

Then he had his desperately sad personal issues and his slide into mediocrity for a couple of years, Then Larry and yeah...

The level of dissapointment largely depends on the level of expectations.

I wasn't really dissapointed with MPLSsound or 20ten, because I didn't expect anything.

And I was very pleased with Lotusflower, because I din't expect anything.

I was dissapointed with NPS and Rave tho' because back then my expectations where much higher still.

Not so much with Emancipation because it still has a lot of great tunes. And certainly not with Diamond and Pearls either.

Batman tho', yeah kind of, and partly also the Symbol album and Come.

This thread makes me realize how many uneven (wildly so, even...lol) albums Prince has put out.

I've been a fan pretty much since the beginning and I would say my 1st major disappointment was with Lovesexy. As some others have stated "Sign" was such an incredible mix of funk and rock, that Lovesexy felt messy and rushed. I appreciated the direction but felt it could have been more cohesive.

More minor disappointments followed...parts of Grafitti Bridge and Diamonds and Pearls. Come had some good moments, but overall not so much...

For me Emancipation is the most disappointing album he's released. I loved how vital and fresh and brave most of The Gold Experience sounded, so Emancipation, with it's dated production and unbelievable amount of filler, was so shocking. I wanted SO MUCH to FEEL the emancipation, but it wasn't happening.

You know, I wasn't too disappointed with New Power Soul because I wasn't expecting much (in fact, I kind of just appreciate that album for what it is)

Rave...just ok, a few gems.

Musicology was the other MAJOR disappointment for me. Hearing the disc for the first time after his performance in Cleveland for the tour left me totally unmoved. Something OFF, not QUITE right...again, a few memorable moments...

Now, I'm depressed...LOL.

NouveauDance said:

EyeJester7 said:

I was thinking about how Jerry Jam And Terry, talked about Prince's process making music.

I skim-read that as "Tom & Jerry" and thought "where the hell is he going with this metaphor!"

Hahaha, You know I actually, almost put Tom and Jerry! LOL

JoeTyler said:

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

Wow. I wonder why you listen to Prince. I guess this is some sort of sarcasm. I rarely listen to Purple Rain myself, as I think 1999 had a better sound. But the songs on 1999 are catchy as hell. And the weirdness just makes him original enough for my taste. But 1999 and Around The World In A Day provides more unusual sounds imo. 1999 has the perfect creative use of effects on the drums, giving it it's own feel on, rather than sounding dated production wise as Purple Rain did.

Graffiti Bridge was my huge dissapointment. It had a few great songs. But the rest is just some dated crap.

20TEN.

Replica said:

JoeTyler said:

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

Wow. I wonder why you listen to Prince. I guess this is some sort of sarcasm. I rarely listen to Purple Rain myself, as I think 1999 had a better sound. But the songs on 1999 are catchy as hell. And the weirdness just makes him original enough for my taste. But 1999 and Around The World In A Day provides more unusual sounds imo. 1999 has the perfect creative use of effects on the drums, giving it it's own feel on, rather than sounding dated production wise as Purple Rain did.

Graffiti Bridge was my huge dissapointment. It had a few great songs. But the rest is just some dated crap.

Seriously...Thriller the best of the 80s? Of course its all a matter of opinion...I like Thriller but it was nowhere near the best of the 80s. Purple Rain blows it out of the water! Who cares about hits... Beautiful Ones alone trumps anything on Thriller. WDC was so damn original esp at that time...there was NOTHING on the radio that even sounded like that. I agree that the production is VERY 80s...and I also think us as fans are too close to see how brilliant Purple Rain is. I love 1999 too as it was the album that got me into the guy, but Purple Rain, again esp at that time, was SO not a disappointment.

Emancipation - for many of the reasons already stated. First album without WB, free to put out what he wanted, "album I was born to make" crap etc. Whilst a lot of the melodies are really good, the production sounds just as horrible today as it did back in '96. Terrible first choice of single.

RUTJF - Yet another attempt at a commercial comeback with a roster of (vaguely) interesting guest stars and the result is unbelievably yawn-enducing. A couple of strong tracks, more horrible production and the start of the Larry Graham-era. Disappointment reigns supreme.

Lovesexy saw Prince struggling, Batman saw his creativity dying.

wow, sorry but some of you are either dumb newbies or have no taste at all:

ooops yeah I said it, because there's nothing disappointing in the albums from Prince: 1980 to 1988.

to me Lovesexy and The Black Album are some of Prince's finest - Prince at his peak 1987/88.

sure, there's different opinions on the Org, but how can you not like these works of genius...?

Lovesexy and The Black Album are sure a "Prince in heaven" compared to 3121/ Planet Earth/ 20Ten - a "Prince in boring hell"..

- at least that's my opinion: some of you are very very wrong if you prefer 3121 or 20Ten to Lovesexy / Black Album.

Ok you are entitled to have another opinion than mine, I just have very hard to digest that.

Sorry, but there have to be something called taste, right?

thedance said:

wow, sorry but some of you are either dumb newbies or have no taste at all:

ooops yeah I said it, because there's nothing disappointing in the albums from Prince: 1980 to 1988.

to me Lovesexy and The Black Album are some of Prince's finest - Prince at his peak 1987/88.

sure, there's different opinions on the Org, but how can you not like these works of genius...?

Lovesexy and The Black Album are sure a "Prince in heaven" compared to 3121/ Planet Earth/ 20Ten - a "Prince in boring hell"..

- at least that's my opinion: some of you are very very wrong if you prefer 3121 or 20Ten to Lovesexy / Black Album.

Ok you are entitled to have another opinion than mine, I just have very hard to digest that.

Sorry, but there have to be something called taste, right?

Arguably expectations were at their absolute highest in 1987/1988 after Sign O' the Times. Keeping that in mind I think it is understandable why some people found Lovesexy/Batman/Graffiti Bridge/Diamonds and Pearls disappointing. Today expectations are probably at their lowest. If your expectations are low it is harder to be disappointed than if your expectations are high.

There is a difference between a "bad" album and a "disappointing" album.

Joe,

I think we can tentatively conclude that the disappointment we have experienced seems to depend on where we joined Prince's artistic journey, whether we spiritually grew with (or without) his art, and how we managed to delineate between his personal life/struggle and the production of his works of art.

In my opinion, every piece of the Prince discography has been, and continues to be, 'necessary' to understand the musical genius "at work", regardless of whether we enjoyed such products or the journey of his evolution.

I don't think we can truly understand our disappointment with Prince's music, at one time or another, unless we retrace how we personally arrived at such disillusion.

rialb's point about expecations is spot on.

love,

Spirit

^^ Ok, I like your posts RialB.

usually - like in this reply above - you sounds clever.. something to reflect on..

but... I still belive Lovesexy and the Black Album are very strong, despite the expectations - either high or low...

I used to have Black Album on cassette tape... a bootleg in 1988, later also on bootleg vinyl LP, and CD.

And when Lovesexy was released, I was like a kid in a candy store..

Memories.. those were great days to be a fan...

.

[Edited 9/22/12 14:15pm]