Prince: Ranking His Albums, Bottom to Top

http://www.metroweekly.com/2014/05/prince-ranking-his-albums-bottom-to-top/

Thirty years ago this month, in May 1984, Prince was readying the release of the first single from his upcoming album and film,Purple Rain. Called “When Doves Cry,” it hit stores on May 16, 1984, and quickly shot to #1. It was just the beginning; Purple Rain, both album and film, dominated the summer of 1984. Suddenly Prince was enjoying a rarified level of superstardom that few artists could equal. Purple Rain spent an astonishing 24 uninterrupted weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, knocking Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. out of the top spot (“When Doves Cry” would also keep the biggest single of Springsteen’s career, “Dancing in the Dark,” out of #1, causing it to peak at #2, something that Springsteen wryly mentions in the liner notes of his Greatest Hits collection). From August 4, 1984 to January 12, 1985, Purple Rain reigned at the top before being knocked out by… Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., as it returned to #1 on January 19, 1985. What goes around, comes around. [continues....]

madhouse records and the truth album are way too behind imo

[Edited 5/12/14 7:52am]

EyeHatechu said:

Really PR number 1? Just a bunch of bologna written by the hype. I still do agree its top 10 though. Cool list.

Really.

I hope you realize the two albums most frequently cited as his best are Purple Rain and Sign "O" The Times. Shouldn't surprise anyone at all.

I think Purple Rain is his best work in every possible way; lyrics, atmosphere, persona, music, groundbreaking material, the whole thing is just a Prince landmark.

I've tried so much on Sign o The Times, for critics it's always his best effort musically, I can see why because of the matters Prince dealt with lyrically, and the evolution of his music covering every possible genre... It doesn't do much for me, though. (I used to say that's my favorite P album, then, I just figured out it's not what I want as a listener, it's not something I'd listen to everyday nor I'd recommend - 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' + 'Sign O The Times' are among his best songs, though)

Parade & 1999 are more enjoyable & funky albums... Parade especially is a masterpiece, the sounds on that album are life

Clueless Journalist said:
When you’ve recorded nearly 40 studio albums, not everything is going to be a “When Doves Cry” or “Kiss.”

.

And that's all I need to know..

"“The Daisy Chain,” one of the singles sold only at his shows, is a classic Prince rocker."

Rocker?

Decent. Far too much of the usual prince fan thing: "if he did exactly what I think it would have worked" but still decent.

disagree about purple rain being his best album..a top 3 yes but it doesnt have the artistic and musical reach of sign o the times...its not a bad list though..good to see lotusflower high up as its a top ten prince album for me..i would have had news a bit higher but not much else wrong with it..

Shawy89 said:

I think Purple Rain is his best work in every possible way; lyrics, atmosphere, persona, music, groundbreaking material, the whole thing is just a Prince landmark.

I've tried so much on Sign o The Times, for critics it's always his best effort musically, I can see why because of the matters Prince dealt with lyrically, and the evolution of his music covering every possible genre... It doesn't do much for me, though. (I used to say that's my favorite P album, then, I just figured out it's not what I want as a listener, it's not something I'd listen to everyday nor I'd recommend - 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' + 'Sign O The Times' are among his best songs, though)

Parade & 1999 are more enjoyable & funky albums... Parade especially is a masterpiece, the sounds on that album are life

Co-sign. It has become almost mandatory among the hardcore fans and critics to favor SOTT or Parade over Purple Rain and I understand why but to me, Purple Rain will ALWAYS be my all time favorite Prince album. It had everything...an almost filler free album ( Baby I´m a Star is not a song I really listen to but I don´t really dislike it either), a cohesive theme and look, a high energy tour with so many spectacular shows, a successful movie and a sound where the rehearsals still sound better today than most artists´ regular albums (including Prince´s own) , and of course lyrics that were on the one hand very personal and yet easy to relate to. And I liked the combination of rock, funk and soulful ballads with the trademark LM-1 sound and the sound of the Revolution.

-

Don´t get me wrong folks, I like SOTT and Parade, and 1999 is also among my favorites but nothing comes close to the masterpiece that is Purple Rain. It just flows so well. SOTT and Parade contain some great songs with great songwriting but sound a bit sketchy and rushed, and 1999 has a unique feel and sound and has some of my favorite songs on it but it also has some songs on it that I skip. Purple Rain on the other hand is just amazingly well sequenced and contains some of my all time favorite songs. Very timeless and perfect, IMO.

KoolEaze said:

Shawy89 said:

I think Purple Rain is his best work in every possible way; lyrics, atmosphere, persona, music, groundbreaking material, the whole thing is just a Prince landmark.

I've tried so much on Sign o The Times, for critics it's always his best effort musically, I can see why because of the matters Prince dealt with lyrically, and the evolution of his music covering every possible genre... It doesn't do much for me, though. (I used to say that's my favorite P album, then, I just figured out it's not what I want as a listener, it's not something I'd listen to everyday nor I'd recommend - 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' + 'Sign O The Times' are among his best songs, though)

Parade & 1999 are more enjoyable & funky albums... Parade especially is a masterpiece, the sounds on that album are life

Co-sign. It has become almost mandatory among the hardcore fans and critics to favor SOTT or Parade over Purple Rain and I understand why but to me, Purple Rain will ALWAYS be my all time favorite Prince album. It had everything...an almost filler free album ( Baby I´m a Star is not a song I really listen to but I don´t really dislike it either), a cohesive theme and look, a high energy tour with so many spectacular shows, a successful movie and a sound where the rehearsals still sound better today than most artists´ regular albums (including Prince´s own) , and of course lyrics that were on the one hand very personal and yet easy to relate to. And I liked the combination of rock, funk and soulful ballads with the trademark LM-1 sound and the sound of the Revolution.

-

Don´t get me wrong folks, I like SOTT and Parade, and 1999 is also among my favorites but nothing comes close to the masterpiece that is Purple Rain. It just flows so well. SOTT and Parade contain some great songs with great songwriting but sound a bit sketchy and rushed, and 1999 has a unique feel and sound and has some of my favorite songs on it but it also has some songs on it that I skip. Purple Rain on the other hand is just amazingly well sequenced and contains some of my all time favorite songs. Very timeless and perfect, IMO.

There are absolutely no filler tracks on Purple Rain. The album had to be edited down and many great songs had to be excluded to make it fit the LP format. Same for SOTT that had to have an entire LP's worth of songs removed from it.

Overall this list is pretty good.

BUT

The Black Album and Madhouse should be much higher imo.

No mention of When The Lights Go Down from The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale. A certain highlight of that album and era imo.

And don't get why symbol album gets so much love...I have never been a fan.

Happy to see Lotusflower and 3121 getting love.

Finally with all this talk about reissues I really hope he revisits the Gold Experience and gives it nice update. Such a great album that is so underappreciated outside of the hardcore fans. That album is the true lost gem. I should've been HUGE at the time.

A nice effort overall, at least the writer took the time to WRITE an article on each record.

The fact that all the instrumental albums are at the bottom of the list says a lot about the writer's objectivity: he doesn't like instrumental music so he'll rank everything above the instrumental albums

The list is also highly incomplete when it comes to side projects: only Kamasutra, 16, 8 and Newpower Soul r on the list. Where r the others?

Where is Crystal Ball?

novabrkr said:

KoolEaze said:

Co-sign. It has become almost mandatory among the hardcore fans and critics to favor SOTT or Parade over Purple Rain and I understand why but to me, Purple Rain will ALWAYS be my all time favorite Prince album. It had everything...an almost filler free album ( Baby I´m a Star is not a song I really listen to but I don´t really dislike it either), a cohesive theme and look, a high energy tour with so many spectacular shows, a successful movie and a sound where the rehearsals still sound better today than most artists´ regular albums (including Prince´s own) , and of course lyrics that were on the one hand very personal and yet easy to relate to. And I liked the combination of rock, funk and soulful ballads with the trademark LM-1 sound and the sound of the Revolution.

-

Don´t get me wrong folks, I like SOTT and Parade, and 1999 is also among my favorites but nothing comes close to the masterpiece that is Purple Rain. It just flows so well. SOTT and Parade contain some great songs with great songwriting but sound a bit sketchy and rushed, and 1999 has a unique feel and sound and has some of my favorite songs on it but it also has some songs on it that I skip. Purple Rain on the other hand is just amazingly well sequenced and contains some of my all time favorite songs. Very timeless and perfect, IMO.

There are absolutely no filler tracks on Purple Rain. The album had to be edited down and many great songs had to be excluded to make it fit the LP format. Same for SOTT that had to have an entire LP's worth of songs removed from it.

-

OK, I agree, you are right. Baby I´m A Star has great music and part of the lyrics are really great, but all the bragging sounds a bit off compared to the rest of the album. Still love it though, so yeah, filler free album.

Thibaut said:

Where is Crystal Ball?

It's not included, like the hits collections, because it is a compilation spanning 13 years of material.