S3V3N said:

I still find it hard to enjoy because it all seems like a lot of horrible 1992 pop culture pastiche. The poorly articulated story at the center seems like a weird ripoff of Disney's Aladdin (1992). Musically - 3 Chains O' Gold must have been influenced by Wayne's World's 1992 revival of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Two words: Kirstie Allie. In the end, what fool would listen to this whole thing and buy that Prince was now the leader of some sort of ghetto street crew?!?

Ugh... the whole affair was just annoying (IMO).

^^^^^

Slamming review -- that would have been a good time for Alan Leeds to complain about focus but the fact remains it is still a major opus. Beethoven composed nine symphonies, but most people know the Firth and the Ninth, maybe the Eroica if they are into classical a bit.

robertgeorgeakabob said:

No it's cool, I get what you're saying. Prince was too dandy to have an affinity with the alpha male hip hop audience and the aesthetics they looked for in hip hop. Prince's rapping also always contains more melody than 'flow'.

2 Noodled24. I would pretty much agree with this above statement. Also an earlier poster said something regarding the charts being a poor place to measure the popularity of hip hop culture, especially in the US.

I am from Los Angeles, born and raised, in 1992 I was 14 years old, and at that age I LIVED and Breathed rap hip hop basically, it was like my life. That was the 1st year of many I was in a LA based rap group (such a sad shame the talent and quality of hip hop has become the laughing stock it is today, but thats another debate alltogether--) and would be the beginning of about a 15 year period for me of writing rap songs, producing hip hop tracks, performing, and studying piano and keyboard composition.

I totally respect your opinions and point of view. Our experiences, and geographical location greatly influence our opinions and how we see things. Not just to Prince's music, but I feel that era of music 1990-1993 produced quite a bit of dance oriented music which focused on greatly over-produced drum loops and samples, which in essence, has not aged well and gives those songs a very dated feel, compared to other musical eras.

Example, the drums from "For You" and "Prince" are natural and authentic. They are real drum sets being used and played By P matter of fact, and it sounds great to this very day. Very organic, rich sounding music.

Compare that to the dance oriented tracks from the Love Symbol album; the drums are clunky and overdone, just as it was on a lot of dance music from this era was.

The 1999, Purple Rain, ATWIAD era, the drums and percussion have that signature "Linn Drum" feel, that is widely associated with some of Prince's most popular jams. I think this is why he's resurrected using the Linn Drums (claps and percussion) on so many records since the mid 2000's, and really went hard with them on Musicology (What do you want me to do?) 20Ten, MPLsSound, and AOA (clouds mostly). The second I hear those sounds, I am immediately taken back to some of P's most heralded work; "Girfriend", and the aformentioned albums PR, 1999, ATWIAD.

Again, this too could be a sense of opinion, but you don't see him revisiting the early 90's style of production and drum programming too often, I would believe, because he also views it as a "dated" style, rather than a "classic" style.

.....now let's funk---and let's ROLL!

[Edited 11/7/14 18:07pm]

Askani said:

HardcoreJollies said:

	5:09
And God Created Woman	No 3:18

10 thumbs-up songs out of 15 is pretty damn good. Mostly the second half is a little spotty. No matter what, to me this was a HUGE improvement over D&P. Much more adventurous and funky.

WTF? No.

WTF,indeed! "And God Created Woman" is one of the most impressive Prince songs of the 90s,imo.I'm still pissed that it wasn't a single.I think it's a stronger single choice than "The Morning Papers",which is kinda dull.

If it was cut in half, it'd b a CLASSIC!!!!! Eas just listening 2 it last week!!!!

Skywalker pretty much put this post in perspective.

I don't know why the 1990s albums are so criticized... Dislike them if you will, but all the talk about how 'the 80s were so original! Prince was TOTALLY doing his own thing! the 90s was pandering!' is false. Even in the 80s, he was copping sounds from other artists and making them his own unique Princely composition. Not to take away from his talent, but it's time to stop over-romanticizing 1980s Prince as if he's a different person than the 90s one

.

The Symbol Album is one of my favorites by him. I always liked the Diamonds & Pearls singles better (those are some of my favorite P songs, period), but Symbol is more cohesive as an album and EVERY track is listenable and pretty much awesome. Top-notch tracks.. My Name is Prince is corny but sometimes catchy and the 12" mix is GREAT. Sexy MF, Love 2 the 9's (masterpiece), Damn U (masterpiece), The Continental & I Wanna Melt with U are terrific dance tracks, Sweet Baby & God created Woman are brilliant, The Morning Papers & 7 are my favorites, The Max is kind of cool, I never got into Sacrifice of Victor but it's ok. 3 Chains is an interesting experiment.

.

This is one of my favorite Prince eras. The gun mic, the chain link police hat, Mayte, Egyptian princess meets frilly pop star masquerading as a gang leader, the 'death' of Prince and 'emergence' of Victor, etc... Arsenio Hall 1992 was awesome, and I even like the 'movie'.. looking at it like a collection of music video clips, it's great. The band was tight too.

peedub said:

this album's got some of my favorite individual tracks, but i rarely (if ever) listen to it start to finish anymore.

i dislike it solely for the fact that it's got those damn segues, the introduction of which i think is the bane of too many subsequent albums. but honestly, the segues make it a more cohesive album.

you got a sense of the man trying to provide artificial cohesion on the diamonds and pearls artwork (stringing the song titles into a sort of rap), but he finally went all the way with this one. he's since ruined a couple of great albums with npg operators and skits and various bs.

strangely, though, the segues on art official age kind of work....took a long time, though.

Segues and talking over music is something that just annoys the hell out of me. Jam & Lewis were not the first to do it, but when Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation had all those somewhat dumb but passable interludes, Prince had to show he could do interludes too...and he's been talking over music over and over.

Like somebody said, "3 Chains O' Gold," was an obvious attempt at showing he could be like Queen and do Opera Rock too..if it didn't sound so REACTIONARY instead of natural....it would be a better song.

I have edited out all the talking on "Way Back Home" and it sounds SOOOOO much better. The stupid interludes with the Cheers actress are HORRIBLE. And in my signature, you get my opinion of the stupid talking at the end of "Gold."

[Edited 11/7/14 20:18pm]

Noodled24 said:

Prince has never had a problem when it came to hiphop. Or taking flavours from it. He's just worked with some clumsey rappers. Had he got into the studio with 2pac or Jay-Z - what could have been, instead we got TC Ellis and Tony M. Housequake, Irrisistable Bitch, Gett Off, SexyMF, MNIP... great songs...

hit #1 in the UK spent 21 weeks on the chart (sales). HipHop wasn't huge at this point. 2Pacs first album was about a year old when was released - 2pac was still relatively unknown in the UK. HipHop wasn't dominating the charts it was rare that rap made the charts. So to say he was chasing trends... I don't think thats true. This was the UK singles chart the week was released:

1	SLEEPING SATELLITE TASMIN ARCHER EMI	Watch Video
2	END OF THE ROAD BOYZ II MEN MOTOWN	Watch Video
3	EBENEEZER GOODE SHAMEN ONE LITTLE INDIAN	Watch Video
4	I'M GONNA GET YOU BIZARRE INC FEAT. ANGIE BROWN VINYL SOLUTION	Watch Video
5	IT'S MY LIFE DR. ALBAN ARISTA	Watch Video
6	LOVE SONG/ALIVE AND KICKING SIMPLE MINDS VIRGIN	Watch Video
7	MY NAME IS PRINCE PRINCE AND THE NEW POWER GENERATION PAISLEY PARK	Watch Video
8	TETRIS DOCTOR SPIN CARPET	Watch Video
9	A MILLION LOVE SONGS (EP) TAKE THAT RCA	Watch Video
10	BAKER STREET UNDERCOVER PWL INTERNATIONAL

[Edited 11/7/14 12:23pm]

[Edited 11/7/14 12:26pm]

Am I the only one who loves Sweet Baby?

Gorgeous track.

MattyJam said:

Blue Light is the only track that makes me cringe.

Prince and reggae don't mix well.

Otherwise a great album, I love the rest of the tracks incl. MNIP and Arrogance..

The Last album i was 'Into' ..I have them all.

Count me as a fan of this one. And I miss when he actually promoted his music -- cheesy vids and all. I worked in a wrecka stow at the time and it was interesting to see which demographics bought which singles from this album. It was all over the map. I played the censored version of Sexy MF in the store (it only said, "You sexy mutha!") and some lady actually complained. That sneaky Prince...putting bad words into people's heads. lol

[Edited 11/8/14 11:07am]

lostangel078 said:

robertgeorgeakabob said:

No it's cool, I get what you're saying. Prince was too dandy to have an affinity with the alpha male hip hop audience and the aesthetics they looked for in hip hop. Prince's rapping also always contains more melody than 'flow'.

2 Noodled24. I would pretty much agree with this above statement. Also an earlier poster said something regarding the charts being a poor place to measure the popularity of hip hop culture, especially in the US.

They're not though are they? Charts are the only way to measure the popularity of any new sound. I'm aware of the history of hiphop. What I'm saying was that it wasn't a mainstream genre the way it is today back when Prince started to experiment with it in the early 90s. It was around and a handful of artists had scored some big success.

For You and Prince both sound equally dated. Also I think much of has a live band sound to it. Obviously there are edits and dubs that sound somewhat dated but this can't be avoided when working with electronic sounds as technology evolves.

Anyway, the actual point I was making, Prince actually embraced hiphop fairly early on. In terms of a huge popstar trying to incorporate rap... Jackson had a verse on the song Black or White, Tony M gets much more time on the album. Tony M was just never a great rapper although to his credit he manages to spit out some tongue twisting lyrics on this album but he never says or contributes anything of importance. At least of the song Johnny there is some interaction as they play out the scene.

thedance said:

MendesCity said:

the lack of great singles, >> what.... fantastic singles imho...

Jughead still sucks, though.>> That is not this album its on: D&P..

Oh duh - right. See, now I like it even more

Forgot to mention this in my post above......this album was the first time I disliked two songs purely because of their lyrics. The extremely creepy I Wanna Melt With U ( "....don´t look now there´s a river of blood...U must´ve been a virgin , what am I guilty of?" ) and the lines "He realized that she was new to love, naive in every way, every schoolboy´s fantasy she was, that´s why he had to wait."

I mean, I liked the melody, the vocals, the beat of both songs, and to some extent still do but for me, the creepy lyrics ruin what would otherwise be two nice songs. He was what, 34 or 35 when he wrote those songs.

Loved it then! Love it now! Sexy MF and Damn U alone - based purely on musical quality - ranks higher than every song he's made in the 21st century so far, in my book. And if AOA/PE is any indication of what's left to come. I really don't see that changing.

Then we have My Name is Prince, Love2the9s, The Morning Papers, The Max, Bluelight, I Wanna Melt With You, Sweet Baby, The Continental, And God Created Woman AND The Sacrifice of Victor rounding out the Albums' musical goodness.

So cringe? Honeychild(rens), bye!

Oh and for the record, the ONLY thing that made me "cringe" about the Album the song 7. I couldn't stand that damn song and couldn't understand why such lengths were gone to for it . Hindsight being everything that it TRULY is, it's still the ONLY thing about the Album that makes me cringe.

Other than that- see my previous post.

lostangel078 said:

robertgeorgeakabob said:

No it's cool, I get what you're saying. Prince was too dandy to have an affinity with the alpha male hip hop audience and the aesthetics they looked for in hip hop. Prince's rapping also always contains more melody than 'flow'.

2 Noodled24. I would pretty much agree with this above statement. Also an earlier poster said something regarding the charts being a poor place to measure the popularity of hip hop culture, especially in the US.

I am from Los Angeles, born and raised, in 1992 I was 14 years old, and at that age I LIVED and Breathed rap hip hop basically, it was like my life. That was the 1st year of many I was in a LA based rap group (such a sad shame the talent and quality of hip hop has become the laughing stock it is today, but thats another debate alltogether--) and would be the beginning of about a 15 year period for me of writing rap songs, producing hip hop tracks, performing, and studying piano and keyboard composition.

I totally respect your opinions and point of view. Our experiences, and geographical location greatly influence our opinions and how we see things. Not just to Prince's music, but I feel that era of music 1990-1993 produced quite a bit of dance oriented music which focused on greatly over-produced drum loops and samples, which in essence, has not aged well and gives those songs a very dated feel, compared to other musical eras.

Example, the drums from "For You" and "Prince" are natural and authentic. They are real drum sets being used and played By P matter of fact, and it sounds great to this very day. Very organic, rich sounding music.

Compare that to the dance oriented tracks from the Love Symbol album; the drums are clunky and overdone, just as it was on a lot of dance music from this era was.

The 1999, Purple Rain, ATWIAD era, the drums and percussion have that signature "Linn Drum" feel, that is widely associated with some of Prince's most popular jams. I think this is why he's resurrected using the Linn Drums (claps and percussion) on so many records since the mid 2000's, and really went hard with them on Musicology (What do you want me to do?) 20Ten, MPLsSound, and AOA (clouds mostly). The second I hear those sounds, I am immediately taken back to some of P's most heralded work; "Girfriend", and the aformentioned albums PR, 1999, ATWIAD.

Again, this too could be a sense of opinion, but you don't see him revisiting the early 90's style of production and drum programming too often, I would believe, because he also views it as a "dated" style, rather than a "classic" style.

.....now let's funk---and let's ROLL!

[Edited 11/7/14 18:07pm]

yAAAAAAS FOR THIS REVIEW

KoolEaze said:

Forgot to mention this in my post above......this album was the first time I disliked two songs purely because of their lyrics. The extremely creepy I Wanna Melt With U ( "....don´t look now there´s a river of blood...U must´ve been a virgin , what am I guilty of?" )

I agree,those lyrics are really terrible I like the song anyway,though

Look, Im not going to give you my opinion on the record since I would be pretty much repeating what the majority of folks have been saying in this thread. However, it WAS my first Prince album at the tender age of 6 (Saw the "My Name is Prince" video and the hat with the gold chains frightened/fascinated me). I bought it at my local K-Mart, and it was an edited version as theres no way in hell any decent parent of a super young child would allow their kid to hear the dirty version of Sexy Mf. So I have a soft spot for it, regardless if I think half of the album is utter bullshit mixed in with utter brilliance.

But one thing that to this day still rubs me the wrong way is that dreaded second half of "Love 2 the Nines". If he ended the song right before he does the "Love me to the..." change-up, it would easily be in my top 20 favorite songs of his. But no, he decided to let out an awful fart after he sprayed some lovely cologne. And that example right there, in my humble opinion, sums up the Symbol album. Half Calvin Klein's "Obsession", half Vegan farts. No wonder why the girl says "Step back, give a sister some room", it all makes sense now lol.

But Holy Calamity, "And God Created Woman" is such a PIMP song. Why cant Prince just finally realize to himself he needs an editor?

And one more thing: I wish I still had the longbox with the giant symbol on it. Was so cool.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Oh and for the record, the ONLY thing that made me "cringe" about the Album the song 7. I couldn't stand that damn song and couldn't understand why such lengths were gone to for it . Hindsight being everything that it TRULY is, it's still the ONLY thing about the Album that makes me cringe.

Other than that- see my previous post.

JHC, you're one opinionated contrarian mofo.

I did not care for 7 at first but it grew on me -- my other half liked it and so the matter was settled.

Aerogram said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Oh and for the record, the ONLY thing that made me "cringe" about the Album the song 7. I couldn't stand that damn song and couldn't understand why such lengths were gone to for it . Hindsight being everything that it TRULY is, it's still the ONLY thing about the Album that makes me cringe.

Other than that- see my previous post.

JHC, you're one opinionated contrarian mofo.

I did not care for 7 at first but it grew on me -- my other half liked it and so the matter was settled.

Why, thank you.

Thanks to this thread, I am going to end my day with this album up loud.

I love this album - old school sound and all. Like listening to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie soundtrack. Straight up OG good times