Rebeljuice said:

Angelsoncrack said:

I've never made it fully through Rave. I usually make it half way through the album and turn off after Everyday is a winding road.

And TRC as well as many have noted. I've never made it fully through that either.

You mean you actually listen to that song BEFORE hitting the stop button?

yeah I don't mind it but it can be a lil repetitive so I usually turn off half way through

Chosen said:

warning2all said:

Chosen said:

I can't listen to anything after Emancipation.

Thas really interesting! Free from Warners to "free the music"--he never impressed you again. Isn't it ironic? I think he stopped impressing me from Rave onward. 3121 was the last album where I still had hope going forward.

I realize now I spun everything after 3121 based on the past-not the quality of the present because I wanted to believe in the guy who gave us "Parade", "Sign o the Times", etc.

But now I look at "MPLSound", "Purple and Gold", "Plectrum Electrum", "Art Official Age", "Rich Friends", "20Ten", "Planet Earth", "Elixer", "Indigo Nights", "Funk n Roll", "The Ex's Face"....and I realize the party is over & it's been over for a long time.

These are not recordings I would not own if it weren't from the guy who released "1999" & "Lovesexy". He actually is really awful now. It is hope and history that clouds reality.

Ooh, you're being too mean, even for me.

He's just bored with the studio. Live, he gets better and better, it's mind-boggling.
He just need to collaborate outside its court of good-for-not-much wannabees that circle around him for like centuries now.

I'm still wondering if he's just recluse or if he doesn't get along with people generally.

But "Compassion", that's his greatest 50's rockabilly since "Delirious". "The Dance Electric" live with horns, on the 2012 Jimmy Kimmel show was astounding.
There's a "Bambi" recorded on an iPhone from Paradisio, Holland, from the 3rd Eye Girl tour, which is awesome.
AOA is a fine, very fine modern R'n'B album and sends every one else's, and D'Angelo first, please, down the drain.

I would say the last ten years have been no different than the previous. Deceiptevely simple harmonies and gimmicks (but to him, he must be refining his own idioms),
A gem here and there, and big announcements that piss everyone off, for the best ("Purple Rain 30th anniversary masters") or worse ("Baltimore").
Those albums must surely sound fun in Prince's world/head, but yeah, we feel like he's on repeat.

He's just become too isolated.

May I quote Wendy? "You just been paranoid, as usual".

Unless he does not come out of his purple batcave to try something new, it's always gonna be a reprise of a reprise of a reprise.
Nothing good comes from looking at one self in the mirror for too long.
Or listening to one self.

mrsquirrel said:

Man, Love Symbol is not unlistenable - it is the pinnacle of reverbaratory genius. Ok, maybe the guitar riff on Three Chains o' Gold does emote Pepsi Commercial and you wish you could set up a platform in the middle of the town center just for feedback purposes but otherwise it is as set in stone as the culmination of all Prince.

It's like all those people who underrate Final Fantasy VII because they were not there at the time - nice rocket, shame about the FMV sequence, and the fact all time spent together will go its own way and never stay in touch.

And of course MPLSound is like being trapped inside an infinite school with nothing but Naomi Klein essays for assistance. How's that for projection!

In conclusion, all music is unlistenable.

LOL WTF? Whoever helped in assisting you in establishing your sense of humor is getting a beer on me if we ever cross paths.

Chaos and Disorder

bonatoc said:

Phil87 said:

RJOrion said:

warning2all said:

bonatoc said:

Ooh, you're being too mean, even for me.

He's just bored with the studio. Live, he gets better and better, it's mind-boggling.
He just need to collaborate outside its court of good-for-not-much wannabees that circle around him for like centuries now.

I'm still wondering if he's just recluse or if he doesn't get along with people generally.

But "Compassion", that's his greatest 50's rockabilly since "Delirious". "The Dance Electric" live with horns, on the 2012 Jimmy Kimmel show was astounding.
There's a "Bambi" recorded on an iPhone from Paradisio, Holland, from the 3rd Eye Girl tour, which is awesome.
AOA is a fine, very fine modern R'n'B album and sends every one else's, and D'Angelo first, please, down the drain.

I would say the last ten years have been no different than the previous. Deceiptevely simple harmonies and gimmicks (but to him, he must be refining his own idioms),
A gem here and there, and big announcements that piss everyone off, for the best ("Purple Rain 30th anniversary masters") or worse ("Baltimore").
Those albums must surely sound fun in Prince's world/head, but yeah, we feel like he's on repeat.

He's just become too isolated.

May I quote Wendy? "You just been paranoid, as usual".

Unless he does not come out of his purple batcave to try something new, it's always gonna be a reprise of a reprise of a reprise.
Nothing good comes from looking at one self in the mirror for too long.
Or listening to one self.

Good point! Where "Around The World in a Day", "Parade", "Dream Factory" sound informed & from influence- Latter work like "MPLSound" sounds like a man holed up in his studio. If he's so bored with studio trickery, he should perform & record a new album live

What is beyond me is the fact that Warner never released a live album.
Given the fact that the whole Purple Rain project is built AROUND live performances.
I don't know what the contractual obligations were, so who knows, maybe they weren't alowed to do so.

Yes, there is a fair amount of video documentation, and maybe Prince and the Italian Mob considered
it was better to never separate the live takes from their visuals, which were always above everyone else, even in the Parade Tour
which is the most minimalistic of the eighties.
It gave us the incredible romantic poetry of a decaying world on the Sign O' The Times stage set, so in a sense, I'm glad.
I just wish for a Sign O' The Times entire version, Paris takes included
(U Got The Look video was shot in Paris POPB on june 14th 1987, after the concert,
for the happy few in the arena that sensed they had to stay).
And most of all I want Sign Of without overdubs. I don't mind polished mixing. "Bring On The NIght" sounds great,
those were the eighties, and their garage-door snares.

But lead vocal re-recording? COME-ON! It's simply absurd when it comes to Prince, who's the best live singer there is.
Who knows. Then Dortmund is all live, the following year, I mean it was broadcasted live in many countries, for Pete's sake.
So why the overdubs that plague Sign The Movie?
I don't get him, I really don't, he's always been gemini Koo-Koo.

These videos are not live releases in the record sense (Bruce Springsteen 5 disc set, Jacksons Live, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, etc...).
Of course, there's Purple Rain, which is, a strange semi-live record.
Half Studio, half live takes (whether at first avenue or in The Warehouse).
LGC, CB, DN, BIAAS and PR contitute the live half.

There's a certain science to gather the one night, keep it with flaws and everything,

go easy on the oeverdubs please, and put it on record for repeated listening.
Some raw performances, such as the ones from Nirvan or Jeff Buckley (or Prince, for crying out loud)
are nothing short of sipritual experiences : "Just My Imagination", anyone?
and I'll take the 1987 New Morning as well and put them on the same record.
That would be some live album. Heck, with P's live, you can even do thematics!
Purple Rain is a pinnacle amongst the greatest live takes ever put to studio-grade tape,
even if the tracklist isn't made of live tracks only. That's astounding.
The vocals laid on Purple Rain were left untouched. All thanks 2 God, you said it Pal.
When I look at P's mascara running on his cheeks while he's in trance doing the whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo falsetto part,
I go crazy, I fucking go nuts.

I remember listening to my Dortmund '88 cassette, recorded from a french radio station.
Like all radio station outputs, it was EQ'ed and compressed to appeal to the ear,
and it made it perfect, better than the somewhat flat sound of the Laser Disc that came out later.
No to mention the bleeding colours... Imagine it broadcasted today in 1080HD!
With today's cameras and yesterday's Prince , Dortmund would have the world on its knees.

Well, I guess in a sense it was the same for Detroit '86, and the first live boots (London '86 and Paris '87, New Morning)
that began to circulate circa mid-1988. All cassettes that would cause me great expenses in distilled alcohol and Q-tips
(some of you may have a misconception of what this last phrase means).

Small Club being the ultimate scandal of the Prince live discography that never was.

P.S. : ONA is of course great, but it came too late.
It should be part of a larger array of official live releases : If I were Lenny Waronker, I would have gone as far as one live release per year.
Right after Purple Rain. An official Parade Tour release, an official Sign Of, who cares about money.
When you build a legend, it always comes back. Look at the Beatles catalog, made of only what went through their LSD-Marijuanaed minds.
It a big cash-cow, aside of its eternal artistic qualities.
Warner should have let Prince work freely, like Columbia did for Dylan.
WHen you have a guy like this, you facilitate his inspiration, even if it means to lose sometimes.
But the legacy is far greater, even if you're greedy: Dylan will keep Columbia happy for centuries.
It's fair that Warner did not play ball with a "sixties" artist like Prince : explosively creative, constantly
recording, more than one album per year, great on live.

If we'd have more live albums, at least we could have a "Least listenable LIVE Prince album" thread.


P.P.S. : Shark Tank, San Jose (Musicology Tour) is one hell of an example of what I'm talking about.

My first response is Rainbow Children, but on further reflection I would say Chaos and Disorder. Prince didn't have his heart in that album.

V10LETBLUES said:

RJOrion said:

i always thought this was easily the unanimous pick...im shocked at some of the other responses..

No way. Chaos has a lot of redeeming qualities, the title track for instance, but MPLSound has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The dumbest Prince by far, musically, artistically and production wise, just so cringeworthingly bad.

I must admit, it took a while for Chaos and Disorder to climb up in my esteem.
It's an indispensable testament, although not the definitive one, of the Power Trio's grandeur.
Michael B. & Sonny T. truly were the backbone of the insurrection era.

And humour is all over the album, that's what settles this one and Exodus apart.
Prince was finally fun again, spitting lollipop's saliva and captain crunch crumbs on $5000 studio microphones.