For me, the title track and Black Sweat are both excellent songs, top drawer post 80's Prince. I'd actually play them to non-fans. The rest is alright, some halfway decent tracks, some real clunkers. I like Lolita more than most on here and Fury considerably less (even the live versions).

I just look at the tracklist, and I can't find a single reason to put that album on. I mean the title track is ok but it's pretty much an NPS leftover. It's got no bite as an album.

NouveauDance said:

I just look at the tracklist, and I can't find a single reason to put that album on. I mean the title track is ok but it's pretty much an NPS leftover. It's got no bite as an album.

Do you like Musicology?

jaawwnn said:

Do you like Musicology?

Musicology is even worse than 3121!

NouveauDance said:

jaawwnn said:

Do you like Musicology?

Musicology is even worse than 3121!

Oh I agree.

the Musicology 3121 Planet Earth years were a fun period to watch Prince

3121 is a great era, not particularly a fav album of mine, but the period was great to watch

Rainbow Children is still my fav album of the 2000s though

NouveauDance said:

jaawwnn said:

Do you like Musicology?

Musicology is even worse than 3121!

Its a close call, neither anything special.

.

I agree there's only the title track I really like on 3121, the rest is pretty average. I'm surprised its so highly rated on here.

.

But on Musicology there's probably 2-3 tracks I still listen to - Reflection, Dear Mr Man and If I Was The Man In Ur Life.

I totally agree, and he has not come close to it again. Of course, when I first heard it, I said this will prolly be his last good album. I hope with each new album, he will out do 3121, it would be nice. AOA was okay, but still missed the mark compared to 3121. (And I am old school with listening to Prince, my fave is SOTT)

dodger said:

NouveauDance said:

Musicology is even worse than 3121!

Its a close call, neither anything special.

.

I agree there's only the title track I really like on 3121, the rest is pretty average. I'm surprised its so highly rated on here.

.

But on Musicology there's probably 2-3 tracks I still listen to - Reflection, Dear Mr Man and If I Was The Man In Ur Life.

I still love, LOVE, the title track to Musicology. James Brown throwback it may be. The rest.... meh. I like On the Couch I suppose.

jaawwnn said:

NouveauDance said:

Musicology is even worse than 3121!

Oh I agree.

Yep, me too.

Musicology is the least ambitious album of Prince's career. It's where Prince realized he was looking at possibly his last big comeback opportunity, and he didn't want to screw it up this time. As a result, he put together the dullest, least interesting patchwork album of previous sounds he's done.

Albums like Rave and are shit, but at least they know how to fail spectacularly where you can listen and shake your head at how badly The Kid is falling apart. Musicology is just....boring. It's absolutely boring.

The most depressing part about Musicology is that last little montage of clips of classic songs near the end of the title track where you remember how fucking awesome Prince was.

[Edited 4/30/15 7:39am]

this is a great album

first prince album I bought after The Very Best Of !

after that I knew I had to get all the rest...

.

but somebody can dislike 3121 and still be a "true" fan...

truth is subjective just like how good a prince album is..

JoeTyler said:

from 1996 to 2015

it has 5 stars material songs and many other 4 or 3,5 stars songs, no filler or at least no stinkers

a solid album and one of the best of the mid '00s, nº1 position well-deserved

the album also paved the way for Prince's APEX = the Superbowl performance

whoever dislikes this album is NOT a true Prince fan

[Edited 4/28/15 11:12am]

3121 is still THE last Prince album that I ever brought thus far. That album was/is an excellent follow-up to Musicology.

I had honestly forgotten what all tracks were on this album, so I guess it's not my personal favorite of the last 20 years.

I'm amazed at how many people really like 'Lolita', tho.

To me, the lyrics are really some of his worst. 'Lolita, you're sweet-ah, but you'll never make a cheetah out of me.'

Embarrassingly bad, even for Prince.

The title track & 'Black Sweat' are okay, I can't really find a reason to listen to anything else on it tho.

I'm sure I liked it when it came out (except for 'Lolita'), just not so much in retrospect.

I had a fleeting crush on 3121, now I ask myself 'What was I thinking?'

[Edited 4/30/15 12:07pm]

VelvetKittyKat said:

I had honestly forgotten what all tracks were on this album, so I guess it's not my personal favorite of the last 20 years.

I'm amazed at how many people really like 'Lolita', tho.

To me, the lyrics are really some of his worst. 'Lolita, you're sweet-ah, but you'll never make a cheetah out of me.'

Embarrassingly bad, even for Prince.

The title track & 'Black Sweat' are okay, I can't really find a reason to listen to anything else on it tho.

I'm sure I liked it when it came out (except for 'Lolita'), just not so much in retrospect.

I had a fleeting crush on 3121, now I ask myself 'What was I thinking?'

[Edited 4/30/15 12:07pm]

Don't you worry, Lolita very regularly gets trashed around here

dodger said:

I'm surprised its so highly rated on here.

I put it down to good vibes from his comeback in the USA at the time. Good memories of shows, him being in the media again etc.

So if you say 20 years that includes The Gold Experience. 3121 is not even in the same stratosphere my friend.

Signed-A true Prince fan

scratch said:

i agree, yeah. i like AOA fine, but this he hasn't matched this level in a while.

Black Sweat was one of his most inspired moments. when that came out, I truly thought a renaissance of Prince was about to happen.

Me too! It's a perfectly funky deconstructed Prince song no one else can do. Perfectly grown n sexy.

Yeesh, even the cover art is boring. Even his freakin' haircut is dull.

Christ.

Oh, yeah, that too.

nah...that was one of Price's coolest haircuts on the 3121 cover....less rock star, more mature....

even if it does look like Halle Berry from the back

Rimshottbob said:

Really?

People really love and defend this album?

Okay. Wow.

You clearly don't hear what I hear, which is a barrel-scraping Prince on autopilot for most of this, devoid of all the personality that made him so special for so long.

I do like 3121, Te Amo Corazon, Black Sweat... er, what else?

Fury is a terrible lyric, and a passionless, flat performance, completely devoid of any fury, in the album version... Get On The Boat should be a funky jam, but it's bloodless, performed robotically...

Love is like a terrible Madonna outtake, The Word sounds like a boyband outtake, Lolita would have sounded dated if it had been released 30 years ago, nevermind in the 00s... Beautiful, Loved & Blessed had its name changed at the last minute, it was originally called 'Banal, Pointless and Dull', Incense And Candles I actually don't hate, but I'd never actually listen to it with another human present in the vicinity...

Satisfied isn't bad, it's just a tired retread of stuff he's done much better before... The remake of The Dance is, by definition, a tired retread of stuff he's done much better before.

So pretty much a miss all round. The average Musicology is much better than this, and of course The Rainbow Children is an actual album with actual music on it, so that's clearly better.

However Planet Earth was so bad it actually made this thrown-together, no-direction-having, jaded, boring, stinky hash of an album seem relatively listenable and cohesive. Boy was this not a good time to be a Prince fan... At least there were the 02 performances, which were good fun, if not exactly legendary.

What makes it worse is that the title track kicks it off in fine fashion, sounding inventive and fresh, and you're thinking, ah, he's going his own way here, trying something interesting, and then the rest of the album is basically a series of letdowns, some passable, some wince-inducing.

There is nothing on here close to being 5-star material. There are several stinkers.

Thankfully Lotusflower, though average itself, painted over this misstep somewhat for me.

Fresh-sounding? Great songwriting? Don't make me laugh.

The production is generic and banal and desperate to fit in to the chart sound of the times (in general), and the songwriting is mostly lacklustre and occasionally embarrassingly juvenile.

Other than all that, yes, this is an absolut classic album...

It's definitely in my bottom 5 Prince albums.

[Edited 4/30/15 0:33am]

[Edited 4/30/15 0:38am]

I'm afraid to ask : what do you think of Art Official Age?

Rimshottbob said:

Yeesh, even the cover art is boring. Even his freakin' haircut is dull.

Christ.

Oh, yeah, that too.

I'd take that over the fro though

KingSausage said:

I like it fairly well, but if we are talking post-Gold Experience I would place it third after Rainbow Children and AOA.

had BIG plans 4 this concept album. It was a brilliant concept! Starting with the beautifully done Te Amo video that was taken from the defunct 3121 movie.

But Mani had other things in mind & put a halt to the whole project, with her surprise divorce filing that left devastated. But he rebounded perfectly! Particually with his surprise,Xclusive, BET Awards 3121 afterparty,that a select few was invited in(including me) . Not to mention the HIGHLY successful, MEGA,3121 Vegas residency that was a whose who in attendance including the late MJ. The album sold close to a million copies with no hit single.

Tamar voices blended so perfectly together on the 3121 album, that U would swear she was a mistress/lover of his.

dodger said:

... pretty average. I'm surprised its so highly rated on here.

I agree, 3121 is so average, at best...

Like you dodger.. I really don't understand the much love it gets here.

3121, one of his worst album imho. I even hate the 3121 cover pic of Prince's backside....

Black Sweat is ok/ maybe in my Prince song top-100, but otherwise none of the other tracks impress me much.

Aerogram said:

Rimshottbob said:

Really?

People really love and defend this album?

Okay. Wow.

You clearly don't hear what I hear, which is a barrel-scraping Prince on autopilot for most of this, devoid of all the personality that made him so special for so long.

I do like 3121, Te Amo Corazon, Black Sweat... er, what else?

Fury is a terrible lyric, and a passionless, flat performance, completely devoid of any fury, in the album version... Get On The Boat should be a funky jam, but it's bloodless, performed robotically...

Love is like a terrible Madonna outtake, The Word sounds like a boyband outtake, Lolita would have sounded dated if it had been released 30 years ago, nevermind in the 00s... Beautiful, Loved & Blessed had its name changed at the last minute, it was originally called 'Banal, Pointless and Dull', Incense And Candles I actually don't hate, but I'd never actually listen to it with another human present in the vicinity...

Satisfied isn't bad, it's just a tired retread of stuff he's done much better before... The remake of The Dance is, by definition, a tired retread of stuff he's done much better before.

So pretty much a miss all round. The average Musicology is much better than this, and of course The Rainbow Children is an actual album with actual music on it, so that's clearly better.

However Planet Earth was so bad it actually made this thrown-together, no-direction-having, jaded, boring, stinky hash of an album seem relatively listenable and cohesive. Boy was this not a good time to be a Prince fan... At least there were the 02 performances, which were good fun, if not exactly legendary.

What makes it worse is that the title track kicks it off in fine fashion, sounding inventive and fresh, and you're thinking, ah, he's going his own way here, trying something interesting, and then the rest of the album is basically a series of letdowns, some passable, some wince-inducing.

There is nothing on here close to being 5-star material. There are several stinkers.

Thankfully Lotusflower, though average itself, painted over this misstep somewhat for me.

Fresh-sounding? Great songwriting? Don't make me laugh.

The production is generic and banal and desperate to fit in to the chart sound of the times (in general), and the songwriting is mostly lacklustre and occasionally embarrassingly juvenile.

Other than all that, yes, this is an absolut classic album...

It's definitely in my bottom 5 Prince albums.

[Edited 4/30/15 0:33am]

[Edited 4/30/15 0:38am]

I'm afraid to ask : what do you think of Art Official Age?

I actually like Art Official Age.

It's patchy and some of it doesn't quite work maybe... but it's far stronger than 3121, Planet Earth, Musicology (though half that record is good), 20Ten and MPLSound.

Much as I like some of the sounds on Plectrum Electrum, however, there's a sinking feeling every time I listen to it... the songs are possibly the poorest of his career, the recording is idiotically distorted and the playing at times ham-fisted... it's kind of fun, especially when you configure it with just the better material, but overall a failure for me.

I do enjoy Lotusflow3r for the most part... I guess I'd say that since the turn of the millennium, and basically since his return to being 'Prince', his best records for me are:

The Rainbow Children

N.E.W.S.

Art Official Age

Lotusflow3r

One Nite Alone...

Probably in that order... certainly that's the order of enjoyment for me.

After that the post-millennium albums descend as follows for me:

Xpectation

One Nite Alone... Live

Musicology

Plectrum Electrum

Altogether, those four above ain't bad. Then:

20Ten

3121

MPLSound

Planet Earth

Ugh, those last four are a depressing string of albums. Our man as a faint shadow of his former self.