Empress said:

Great cd. I love every song and still listen to it often.

Exactly

I used to dig this album in the mid-late'90s when I first got hold of it. Haven't played it for years.

12 songs, too many seques.

Very good/ great tracks imo -

Endorphinemachine (awesome funk rock, the scream rules )

Shhh (a near classic)

Dolphin (I didn't used to like this much, but dig it more now due to live versions with clearer lyrics)

319 (a successful sort of 'Kiss for the 90s')

Shy (Underrated and funky as hell)

Billy Jack Bitch (mainly for the Michael B Nelson's killer horn arrangements)

So-so

TMBGITW (a pretty, Stylistics-style song, but lyrics and production sound too sappy. I still find it weird he had such a massive surprise hit with this).

Eye Hate U (nice sentiment but too OTT, and this is coming from someone who loves 3 chains o' Gold)

Gold (trying too hard to be Purple Rain II, but lacks the soul of PR, Gold sounds a bit calculated)

Poor/ mediocre

Pussy control (a few good lines, but too much going on, too shrill, would have been ok as a B-side, I guess). I love My Name Is Prince; if you don't and think it sounds like noise, this is what Pcontrol sounds like to me

We March (weak agit-funk, talking loud and sayin' nothin')

Now (see We March)

A good album, not as good as many of his other albums from the 90s, but, to describe in a few words - trying too hard.

[Edited 9/21/15 10:49am]

Robert Christgau loves it over Purple Rain:

The Gold Experience [Warner Bros./NPG, 1995]
After two or three plays, convinced that "P Control" and "Endorphinmachine" slam harder than any hip hop I've heard in years, I shrugged and recalled that, after all, I already knew he was the most gifted recording artist of the era. But this album documents more than professional genius rampant--all of them do that. This album is a renewal. It's as sex-obsessed as ever, only with more juice--"Shhh" and "319" especially pack the kind of porno jolt sexy music rarely gets near and hard music never does. And you'd best believe "Shhh" and 319" are hard--not for years has the auteur (as opposed to some hired gat) sounded so black, and not for years has the guitarist sounded so rock. As for the ballads, they suffer only by their failure to dominate. One of them has already stormed the radio--and another, good for him, takes too many risks to follow. A

He's talking about The Most Beautiful Girl compared with I Hate U, which takes more chances than any song in American history.

The whole slow part, into comedy, blues bit is genius, hard to do without falling on your face. He scores aces with a classic bit, especially with the guitar exploding at the end.

Gold and Dolphin are masterpieces too.

He aint as into AOA:

Art Official Age [Warner Bros./NPG, 2014]
Our greatest composer-performer of romantic nu-funk erotica wakes up 40 years later wishing he was Janelle Monae ("Breakfast Can Wait," "Funknroll") *

I loved TGE the day it came out and still do. One of my favorite Prince albums. Probably his last great album in the original old school P style.

When he dealt with modern sounds in a smart way. No more, he just follows trends. Back then he tried to reinvent hip hop.

Pheremone is on Come but it is another good way to be modern but in a great way.

pureTsexy said:

For 20 yrs, I have said this was the best album since Purple Rain. Will go down as my 2nd favorite album of all time. The album had such a powerful feel to it. The guitar, the vocals, the screams, the attitude. It was truly a great era! My one and only complaint about the album is.. the guitar solo at the end of Gold, should have been a little longer. Other than that.. flawless, absolutely flawless!

same here.........and at the time I had a live bootleg of it so I was also blown away by those tracks plus Interactive and Days of Wild like someone said already

Listened to it last night and this morning in the car... I'm sorry... It's just the most over rated album here on th ORG.

It's a good album don't get me wrong, but to have 3 or 4 "The Beautiful One's" on one album is too much icing on the cake. All of those songs are good, I Hate U, Gold, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, Dolphin, etc... But they are too much of the same type of sound on the same album...

Pussy Control IMO is the worst opener on any PRINCE album. Pussy Control is one of the worst aged PRINCE songs, and sounds ridiculous. The segues sound just so outdated now a days, and the production like KingSausage said is just really over done...

Over all as an ALBUM I like to judge everything as a whole, there are some GREAT songs on this album, more than most of his albums released in the 90's that's why I feel everyone feels it's so complete, because it's compared to mediocrity... The Gold Experience is a good album, but too many people here on the ORG really praise this album too high and make it something better than it's not.

Good album, but highly highly overrated.

One thing I really like about TGE....

it's a very "loud" album....just like Purple Rain....you guys know what I mean? It's like the music just 'jumps' out at you when you play the CD.

TGE is a fantastic album, one of my all time favorites. It is so rich and layered, beautiful sounding, the album just explodes. Such a great time in his music, I love it.

RJOrion said:

SoulAlive said:

RJOrion said:

the hook on Pussy Control sounds like someone doing a Prince parody...i usually cringe my way through that song...if i even bother with it at all

I agree.This is the only song on the album that I sometimes skip.It is such a ridiculous song I wish he had opened the album with a stronger,better song.

It's so ridiculous it's great! But it would have been great to have Days of Wild in the album.

SoulAlive said:

RJOrion said:

the hook on Pussy Control sounds like someone doing a Prince parody...i usually cringe my way through that song...if i even bother with it at all

I agree.This is the only song on the album that I sometimes skip.It is such a ridiculous song I wish he had opened the album with a stronger,better song.

One of the most outdated sounding songs in the whole entire PRINCE catalouge... Even the songs on For You still stand the test of time. Pussy Control is one of the worst worst album openers...

It's a great album. I remember the era well too. It was full of confusion and even more mystery, even for Prince. No one knew what he was gong to do next. There was 1-800-New-Funk and the basketball concert.

I rememebr being in a record store in Windsor, Ontario and the guy who worked there (maybe the owner) he went in the back and got me some bootlegs he had stored away. He gave me a VHS copy of a Nude Tour concert in Spain. I actually think he gave it to me.

Anyway, up on the wall of the shop, he had a big giant sign that was a sort of letter to Warner Brothers asking them to release The Gold Experience. It had the Love Symbol on it. It was so funny. Then Prince was on David Letterman and all that silly business. Total performance art. The Most beautiful Girl was out by then and it was big hit. The EPs weren't enough however.

I think Exodus came out around the same time and everyone was still confused. Then the album finally dropped and I loved it right away. I still do. It has to be in my top 5 Prince records of all time. It was great era.

I heard a Gold version a very stripped down, and it was great, but what is so great about Dolphin and Endorphinemachine? the lyrics of both of them are just very foolish

i always prefered the Pussy Control House mix to the album version,
i just love those changes toward the end, with the Get Wild rap and
then that whole house bit with mayte's 'tongue up in that pussy' bit

the stripped back demo version of Gold is SO good though

I've said this before: he should have opened the album with "Hide The Bone" that song is outrageously funky!! A perfect way to start the party.Much,much better than the silly "P Control".

SoulAlive said:

I've said this before: he should have opened the album with "Hide The Bone" that song is outrageously funky!! A perfect way to start the party.Much,much better than the silly "P Control".

it's actually quite a difficult album to just alter, as is 'come'. plus there is so much material

from this period that got cut from those albums. the only release that really captures just

how great the 1993/1995 era was, is the bootleg 3 cd "The Dawn".

IstenSzek said:

SoulAlive said:

I've said this before: he should have opened the album with "Hide The Bone" that song is outrageously funky!! A perfect way to start the party.Much,much better than the silly "P Control".

it's actually quite a difficult album to just alter, as is 'come'. plus there is so much material

from this period that got cut from those albums. the only release that really captures just

how great the 1993/1995 era was, is the bootleg 3 cd "The Dawn".

On constant play on my Ipod.

I love this album. Can't believe it's been 20 years!

.

True story, back when I was around 35 or so, I had a young 19 or 20something try to serenade me with "Shhh". I didn't mean to but I kinda laughed. He said, "Miss Pritty, I'm trying to serenade and you're thinking I'm playing around? I'm being serious about this!" At which point, he started singing "Shhh" again. (He was a cutie, but unfortunately, I had a son that was only about 5 years younger than him and I just couldn't take him seriously.)

.

But this album has so many songs on it that stand out to me musically, lyrically, and even emotionally. "We March" was always inspirational to me, always made me want to do something, to have some impact on the world in a positive way. And the album has some very sexy songs. It (this album) feel good!

IstenSzek said:

IstenSzek said:

SoulAlive said:

I've said this before: he should have opened the album with "Hide The Bone" that song is outrageously funky!! A perfect way to start the party.Much,much better than the silly "P Control".

it's actually quite a difficult album to just alter, as is 'come'. plus there is so much material

from this period that got cut from those albums. the only release that really captures just

how great the 1993/1995 era was, is the bootleg 3 cd "The Dawn".

Yes, The Dawn set is brilliant. So much great material around then.

.

I also agree with you on the P.Control House Mix. The VH1 performance of it was cool.

KingSausage said:

I hate to use the term overproduced, but good lord is TGE overproduced. There's like 14 or 15 extra layers of gloss on top of what should be raw, powerful songs. I listen to some of the bootleg versions from before Prince added all the unnecessary and just shake my head. I enjoy the album because I can listen to it knowing that Prince had a good time making it so glossy. But I wish he had kept the raw power of the early versions. Also, too many damn sound effects.

Agree. And what happens for me is that with every layer of synthetic sound wallpaper, my interest goes out the window. I bet there are good songs buried under there, but they escape me every time. The two simplest songs in my book (production wise) stands the test of time: Shy and 319.

time flies (though all that sub par output from our boy really dragged out)

thedance said:

^ really 20 years? I am old lol...