Since everyone is posting Prince's worst album ever I think it's time for some positivity. What are Prince's TEN BEST albums?

Here's my ten favorite Prince albums:

^ Amazing list..

Only problem:


I would take off TRC... - and put on The Black Album instead.

I would also change the order a bit.

1. Parade

2. Sign `O' The Times

3. Diamonds And Pearls

4. Graffiti Bridge

5. Around The World In A Day

6. Lovesexy

7. Purple Rain

8. 1999

9. The Rainbow Children

10. Love Symbol

My top ten (maybe not his "best" but my favorites)

Sign O' The Times

1999

Parade

Purple Rain

The Rainbow Children

Lotusflow3r

The Gold Experience

The Black Album

N.E.W.S

The Truth/O.N.A-Piano

For the umpteenth (Read 17th time since 2008)


1. Sign o the Times

2. 1999

3. Parade

4. Dirty Mind

5. Purple Rain

6. The Gold Experience

7. Lovesexy

8. Controversy

9. Around the World in a day

10. Lotusflow3r

Just missed the Cut

Crystal Ball

3121

Black Album

And I really hate the Rainbow Children, thats not even on my Top 30 list

[Edited 9/2/13 16:54pm]

[Edited 9/2/13 16:54pm]

SuperSoulFighter said:

Yeah, I was thinking that too. But with a "best of" list, you'll see the same titles pop up again and again, because everybody -mostly- agrees on them. Funny thing about those "worst albums" lists is that everybody has totally different views, so I guess there's something to be said for all of them. Anyway, here we go: Lovesexy Parade Purple Rain 1999 Sign o'the Times Those are the very best. After that, all albums are a bit uneven, but to finish the list: Dirty Mind Controversy Around the World in a Day Lotusflower Musicology

That's so true. Funny how that works. The oder for best Prince albums may change a bit here and there, but for the most part it's the same albums.

That's why I asked for top 10 and not a top 5, because it wasn't granular enough.

Totally, and I am willing to bet that the albums, Parade, Purple Rain, Sign o the Times and 1999 are likely to feature in every list and the albums, Controversy, ATWIAD, Dirty Mind, Gold Experience and Lovesexy in nearly all of the lists.

Its just because all those are brilliant and water always rises to its own level. Not are they great Prince albums, they are great albums full stop by anyone. Its sad so many people who are casual fans think that, Purple Rain was his only great album, when in reality there were at least half a dozen great Prince albums.

[Edited 9/2/13 18:50pm]

[Edited 9/2/13 19:51pm]

1. 1999

2. Parade

3. Lovesexy

4. Around the World in a Day

5. Sign O' the Times

6. Purple Rain

7. Controversy

8. Graffiti Bridge

9. The Gold Experience

10. Prince

I'm actually really surprised to TRC on so many lists. Admittedly, I used to really like the album musically, but the "message" and the Vader voice make it a pretty unbearable experience for me these days.

Right now..?

1. Dirty Mind

2. Purple Rain

3. 1999

4. Sign O' The Times

5. Parade

6. The Gold Experience

7. Lovesexy

8. Lotusflow3r/MPLSound

9. The Black Album

10. Controversy

So far from 9 lists the following albums have appeared in the Top 10

Sign o the Times 9/9

Parade 9/9

Purple Rain 9/9

1999 9/9

Lovesexy 8/9

ATWAID 7/9

The Gold Experience 7/9

Dirty Mind 6/9

Controversy 6/9

The Rainbow children 4/9

Lotusflow3r/MPLsOUND 4/9

Black Album 3/9

Graffiti Bridge 2/9

Albums that have appeared once

Musicology

Diamonds and Pearls

Love Symbol

N.E.W.S

One nite alone Piano

Come

Prince

Albums that have not appeared at all

For You, Batman, The Hits Bsides, Chaos and Disorder, Emancipation, Crystal Ball, Newpower soul, Both raves, 3121 (Very surprsied there), Planet Earth, Ultimate, All the NPGMC stuff, One nite alone and One nite alone aftershow, Very Best of, 20Ten,

Interesting to see how we all agree on some things. I wish we could get a few more lists.

The order of the albums is always changing, but at the moment I'd say:

1. Purple Rain

2. Diamonds & Pearls

3. Parade

4. Love Symbol

5. Sign 'O' The Times

6. 1999

7. 3121

8. The Gold Experience

9. Musicology

10. Around The World In A Day

These are my personal favourites, as in the ones I garner the most enjoyment from listening to, not neccessarily the ones I believe are his best work:

1. Parade

2. Sign O The Times

3. Purple Rain

4. Lovesexy

5. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

6. Come

7. Chaos & Disorder

8. Love Symbol

9. Emancipation

10. Planet Earth

[Edited 9/7/13 4:32am]

Going deeper into analysis with the 9 lists so far. I decided to see which album did best on placings, so I assumed everyones list had them listed best to least best and assigned each placed album a score in points the follwing way.

1st = 10 points, 2nd = 9 points and so on down to a 10th place receiving 1 point, I ignored any albums under 10th place but did allow the tie in one list.

Theoretically the more lists an album appears on the more points, the maximum being 90 meaning everyone ranked the album 1st whereas 1 meaning the album appeared once at 10th place. No album got 90, but one got 75 meaning an average placing of 2nd or 3rd. It also is fairer for an album appearing in 4th place say on 6 lists doing better than one appearing in 8th to10th place on 8 lists.

These are the scores in order

1. Sign o the Times 75 points (This album is universally loved and its easy to see why)

2. Parade 74 points (Both albums appeared on all lists, got 2 1sts and no place lower than 5th)

3. 1999 66 points (Again all lists and only one low place - 8th)

4. Purple Rain 61 points (Again did very well, made a first but several mid placings too)

5. Lovesexy 44 points (Made most lists. mostly 6th and 7ths)

6. Around the world in a day 40 points (Strong start, but died off mid way)

7. Dirty Mind 38 points (Appeared 6 times, but some higher placings)

8. The gold experience 22 points (Appeared on more lists than DM, but many lower placings)

9. Controversy 19 points (Appeared on most lists, but no better than 7th, still a better album)

10 = The Rainbow children 13 points (Most divisive albums, on 4 lists)

10 = Lotusflow3r 13 points

12. Graffiti Bridge 10 points

13. Diamonds and Pearls 8 points (Highest ranked album for one list, a 3rd place)

14. Black Album 6 points (Lowest scoring album for more than one list - an 8th, 9th and 10th place)

15 = Come - 2points, NEWS 2 points, a 9th place on one list each

17 = Musicology, Prince and Love symbol 1 point each (One appearance with a 10th place each).

1. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

2. Batman

3. Crystal Ball

4. Parade

5. Planet Earth

6. Chaos & Disorder

7. Prince

8. Purple Rain

9. MPLSound

10. Lovesexy

Purple rain
The gold experience
Sign o the times
Come
Symbol
Parade
1999
Musicology
Controversy
Around the world in a day

Diamonds & Pearls was a great success for Prince. I dont know why people always wanna skip over it-the album has some nice songs on it and not to mention Insatiable which IMO is Prince's sexiest song ever recorded and of course my fav D&P

1. Sign “O” the Times

2. Dirty Mind

3. Purple Rain

4. Around the World in a Day

5. Lovesexy

6. The Rainbow Children

7. Emancipation

8. Diamonds and Pearls

9. 1999

10. Parade

*

While I think that numbers four through seven are all more musically and lyrically complex than Purple Rain, I don’t know if they could have been created without the gut/essence of Purple Rain. Parade narrowly, and I mean narrowly, beat Musicology and Controversy. The most difficult part of this list is that on every Prince album there are at least three songs that kick the ass of most other people’s work. I mistakenly put Lotusflow3r/MPLS on the list because I was seriously considering it but it ended a bit lower.

[Edited 9/7/13 17:07pm]

Having the new lists with some more unusual choices has definitely spiced the results up a bit. Heres an update.

Rank, album, points score out of 160 (Number of lists out of 16) comment

1. Sign o the Times, 127 points (15) - actually did not appear on one list

2. Parade, 115 pts (16) - Highest score for any album on every list

3. Purple Rain, 104 (16)

4. 1999, 90 (14) - These 4 albums pretty much rule the top from his early - mid 80s peak

5. Lovesexy, 68 (12)

6. Around the World in a day, 55 (11)

7. Dirty Mind, 49 (8)

8. The Gold Experience, 41 (10) - First non 1980s album to be on the list

9. Come, 23 (5) - and next 90s album, big drop off in points from here

10. Controversy, 21 (7) - Another popular album that leaks into most lists

11. Diamonds and Pearls, 20 (3)

12 = Lovesymbol, 18 (4)

12 = The Rainbow Children, 18 (5) - Highest score for a non 80s or 90s album

13. Graffiti Bridge, 17 (3)

14. Rave un2 the joy fantastic, 16 (2) - This album showed up after first count and got 16 points from 2 lists

15. Lotusflow3r, 15 (6) - Includes MPLsound and combinations

16. Prince, 13 (3) - The first and only 70s album on the list

17. Crystal ball, 11 (2)

18 = 3121, 10 (2) - Another recent arrival to the lists

18 = Batman, 10 (2) - Lowest scoring of the 80s albums

19. Chaos and Disorder, 9 (2) - Most of these albums are new to lists

20. Planet Earth, 7 (2)

21 = Emancipation, 6 (3)

21 = Musicology, 6 (2)

22. N.E.W.S, 2 (1) One ninth place keeps this album from the bottom

23. One Nite Alone (Piano), 1 (1) - One solitary 10th place puts this album on the charts

24 = For You, New Power Soul, The Hits Bsides, 20 Ten, Slaughterhouse, Cnote, Xpectation, The Truth, Ultimate, The Vault, Rave in 2 the joy fantastic, One nite alone and the aftershow. Very best of (No one has placed these albums in a Top 10 list yet.

I'm gonna give it a try (prone to change, particularly from rank 5 or so onwards):

1) Sign 'o' the Times

2) The Rainbow Children

3) Emancipation

4) Love Symbol

5) The Gold Experience

6) 1999

7) Purple Rain

8) 3121

9) Lovesexy

10) Lotusflow3r/MPLSound

SOTT

Lovesexy

TRC

Exodus

1999

Purple Rain

ATWIAD

Parade

Come

EmancipationLover said:

I'm gonna give it a try (prone to change, particularly from rank 5 or so onwards):

1) Sign 'o' the Times

2) The Rainbow Children

3) Emancipation

4) Love Symbol

5) The Gold Experience

6) 1999

7) Purple Rain

8) 3121

9) Lovesexy

10) Lotusflow3r/MPLSound

Intersting, I'm not a big fan of Emancipation. Nice to see someone that likes a mix of old and newer...

Today its:

Sign o the Times

Parade

Purple Rain

Around the World in a Day

1999

Controversy

The Black Album

Lovesexy

Emancipation

Lotusflower

Graycap23 said:

SOTT

Lovesexy

TRC

Exodus

1999

Purple Rain

ATWIAD

Parade

Come

Would we count Exodus as a Prince album. Its a NPG album and Prince is only referred to as "Tora Tora".

Adorecream said:

Lemme try:

1) Is and always will be: Parade

2) Is and always will be... into eternity: Sign 'O' The Times

This is where it gets more difficult:

3) Probably: Purple Rain

4) Almost certainly: 1999

5) Could be higher in the chart as well: Controversy

Phew, my brain hurts! OK, here I go:

6) LotusFlow3r

7) Planet Earth (yeah, you heard it)

8) LoveSexy

9) Around The World In A Day

10) The Gold Experience