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How Do You Rank Prince Albums TODAY? Yeah it's been done to death but opinions change so here is how I view it as of today:
Best to worst (exclusing compilations & live albums)
1. Sign O The Times 2. Purple Rain 3. LoveSexy 4. 1999 5. Dirty Mind 6. Parade 7. Love Symbol 8. Controversy 9. Around The World In A Day 10. The Gold Experience 11. 3121 12. The Black Album 13. Come 14. Batman 15. Prince 16. Chaos And Disorder 17. Planet Earth 18. Newpower Soul 19. Diamonds & Pearls 20. Emancipation 21. MPLSound 22. For You 23. Art Official Age 24. Graffiti Bridge 25. 2010 26. Lotusflow3r 27. Musicology 28. Plectrum Electrum 29. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic 30. The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale 31. The Rainbow Children 32. HitNRun Phase One
I've excluded the following since I don't have them
Xpectation N.E.W.S One Nite Alone Slaugterhouse Chocolate Invasion The Truth
Crystal Ball is a compilation album in my book [Edited 11/20/15 18:59pm] [Edited 11/20/15 19:00pm] [Edited 11/21/15 9:20am] | |
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I am more friendly towards HitNRun than you seems to be.. Prince 4Ever. | |
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Indeed you are . We seem to be in total agreement about the Top 15 or so tho | |
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^ yes haha.... Prince 4Ever. | |
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the lists here show how out of touch fams are to Prince's own music... But hey it's "OPINION" right...
The only three that should be on TOP are Purple Rain, SOTT and 1999. No debate. | |
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^ lets see your list mr. feeluupp! Prince 4Ever. | |
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No need to... I don't rank anything by "opinion". | |
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Meaning that it's based on facts vs opinions.
Oh. | |
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musical sophistication.
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Mainly by scores out of 100, using the Adorecream, Princerator system. . Each album has it's songs rated out of 10, these marks are added together and the total is expressed as a percent. As I know very few of his albums has 10 tracks, this can be scaled. Hence Dirty Mind has 8 songs and I give them a total score of 71/80, meaning the score is converted to a mark out of 100 = 88.75, in the case of .00 being .50 or more, it is rounded up and .49 ore less, rounded down, so hence how I arrive at a score of 89/100 for Dirty Mind. . To be fair I do not score segues, talking breaks, anything under 90 seconds (The Sister rule, being as Sister is 91 seconds long). Same with instrumentals, except for the album NEWS. I also review albums yearly, which ensures that love affairs with recent albums recede over time. . The 2015 ratings are. Have commented on climbers and droppers
1. Sign o the Times 98/100 - Quality stays still 2. 1999 95 like a fine wine 3. Parade 93 I need to get my beret out! 4. Lovesexy 92 Biggest climber - 7th to 4th this year - It is like having sex on a record with ballet. 5. Purple Rain 91 - The rain will reign 6. The Gold Experience 90 - Prince's most cohesive mid career record. 7. Dirty Mind 89 - Still shocking and sexy, but a slight drop at Lovesexy's and TGE experience 8. ATWIAD 87 - Overlooked mid 80s gem, had the bad luck to be issued in the midst of Purple Rain. If Purple Rain is his Thriller, and SOTT his Dangerous, this album is Prince's Bad! 9. Art Official Age 85 - This album shows nosign of dropping from his best in years 10. Controversy 83 11. 3121 82 12. Symbol 80 13. Diamonds and Pearls (I just love it again) 78 14. Crystal Ball 77 15. 20ten 77 16. Planet earth 76 17. The black Album 75 18. Come 74 19. Prince 73 20. Chaos and Disorder 71 21. Graffiti Bridge 70 (I can thank Nightchild Ethereal on Youtube for this!!) 22. Plectrum Electrum 69 23. Rainbow Children 68 (A big climber love the musical backing) 24. Lotusflow3r 68 - Very average, dating badly 25. MPLSOUND 66 - used to love it, but find it very cloying now 26. For You 65 - Great start and climbed this year 27. Hitnrun 63 - Very underwhelming still 27= Truth 63 - Not a bad album in parts, some angry songs and some sweet ones 28. Emancipation 61 - Boring as fxxk, dated, bloated and self indulgent 29. Batman 60 - Very uneven 30. Musicology 58 - Most boring and trite record of his, adventorous as vanilla flavored ice cream 31. Rave un2 57 - Yuk, plastic sounding, dated millenial aspic 32. Rave in2 55 - Even worse 33. One nite alone 51 - Why did he even bother 34. NEWS 46 - Yuk! boring as fuck jazz music 35. Newpowersoul 42 - Pure dreck, dancing and sex 36. Slaughethouse 40- Unlistenable 37. C Note 36 - Herad it finally and hated it 38. Chocolate Invasion 33 - Deeply unsexy 39. Kamasutra 30 - Not really an album,. but I rated it anyway . Others - Collections, outakes The Hits/ BSIDES - 89 Essential guide to Prince and indispensable B sides disc, pure cream Ultimate Prince 85, almost as good WB era hits and some cool 12 inch mixes The very best of 80 - Not necessary for the hardcore fan, but this is perfect recruiting material and a must for casual fans. The Vault 65 - Underwhelming WB kiss off with some average sounding mid 90s Prince cuts, could have been better with an original Old friends or sale. Got some kind of love for you, and I don't even know your name | |
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1. The Love Symbol Album 2. The Gold Experience 3. Chaos & Disorder 4. Diamonds & Pearls 5. The Rainbow Children 6. One Nite Alone... Live 7. LotusFlower 8. Purple Rain 9. 1999 10. Batman 11. Around The World In A Day 12. Dirty Mind 13. Controversy 14. Emancipation 15. Crystal Ball 16. Come 17. The Truth 18. HITnRUN 19. 3121 20. Planet Earth 21. Art Official Age 22. Parade 23. The Black Album 24. Sign "☮" The Times 25. Plectrum Electrum 26. Lovesexy 27. Graffiti Bridge 28. Prince 29. For You 31. MPLSound 32. 20Ten 33. The Chocolate Invasion 35. Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic | |
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^ Chaos & Disorder ahead of Purple Rain...... [Edited 11/19/15 22:09pm] Prince 4Ever. | |
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Surprising indeed but in the end there are many angles from which one can appreciate P's music. For example as a whole I think the 96-01 "plastic years" are my favorite Prince era, before the 80-88 "golden age". This is for a lot of personal reasons that also have to do with how those records relate to my own personal life and the time period they were released in. I became a fan in 89 with Batman and drowned into all the previous albums and side projects between 90-93. The golden age was never contemporary to me. I tripped on those records to DEATH, but it was some years after they made the hype. Then 91-95 is my late teenage years and 96-01 is me between 20 and 25 y.o. In the end "my" Prince, i.e. the Prince of my prime years is the Prince of the plastic years: I was a grown-up at long last, ready to eat the world and hell did I eat it indeed: those years were insane! In a similar way than I feel that I "own" trip-hop because it was my generation's music, as in our music, our own private musical revolution, P's "plastic years" is my own private Prince era. [Edited 11/19/15 22:51pm] A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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... exactly what i was talking about... about ranking by "opinion" | |
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Eh, gave it a shot. Fairly standard list really. I feel a bit bad for the instrumental albums but I haven't a clue how to really view them 37. N.E.W.S. 39. MPLsound 40. Kamasutra [Edited 11/20/15 3:36am] | |
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post your sophisticated ist or ferk off | |
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nope. | |
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3121 over Sign O' The Times... | |
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TOP 20
1. SOTT 2. 1999 3. Parade 4. Lovesexy 5. Symbol 6. Purple Rain 7. Gold Experience 8. Rainbow Children 9. Black Album 10. Crystal Ball 11. LotusFlow3r 12. 3121 13. Around the World in a Day 14. The Truth 15. Controversy 16. Batman 17. Art Official Age 18. Come 19. Dirty Mind 20. Grafitti Bridge
Then all the rest
[Edited 11/20/15 11:49am] If you've got funk, you've got style. | |
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Too much mediocre albums to list after these but i feel in terms of musical, and cultural impact as a Prince fan these should always be in the Top:
Purple Rain Sign O' The Times 1999 Parade Lovesexy Dirty Mind Around The World In A Day Controversy
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Yep. Those are the essentials. I wouldn't trade out any of those for any other Prince album. Man, he was great then. | |
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This is from rateyourmusic.com. A fairly accurate basis imo. Ratings out of 5:
For You-3.01 Prince-3.38 Dirty Mind-3.83 Controversy-3.58 1999-3.87 Purple Rain-4.04 ATWIAD-3.63 Parade-3.80 Sign o' The Times-4.01 Black Album-3.28 Lovesexy-3.51 Batman-3.02 Grafitti Bridge-3.01 Diamonds and Pearls-3.37 Love Symbol-3.41 Come-3.09 Gold Experience-3.57 Chaos and Disorder-2.99 Emancipation-3.10 Crystal Ball-3.37 The Truth-3.28 New Power Soul-2.80 The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale-3.09 Rave Un2-2.72 Ranbow Children-3.41 One Nite Alone..Piano and Voice-3.38 NEWS-3.05 Musicology-3.30 3121-3.35 Planet Earth-2.95 LotusFlow3r/MPLSound/Elixer-3.14 20ten-2.84 Art Official Age-3.13 Plectrumelectrum-2.93 Hit n' Run-2.75
We're here, might as well get into it. | |
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Parade Sign 'O' The Times Lovesexy Purple Rain 1999 Around The World In A Day Dirty Mind Diamonds And Pearls Come Black Album Prince Controversy Batman Graffiti Bridge O+> The Gold Experience Musicology Art Official Age The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale Emancipation 20ten For You Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic New Power Soul MPLSound 3121 HitnRun Crystal Ball Chaos And Disorder The Truth Lotusflow3r The Chocolate Invasion Planet Earth The Slaughterhouse N.E.W.S. The Rainbow Children One Nite Alone Plectrum Electrum
[Edited 11/21/15 2:03am] [Edited 11/21/15 2:05am] | |
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Here is my list
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The Masterpieces
The Great Ones
The Good Ones
The OK
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... Graffiti Bridge isn't that bad... It has Joy in Reptition on it... | |
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1999 Around The World In A Day Sign 'O' The Times Purple Rain Lovesexy Parade that black album The Rainbow Children Dirty Mind Graffiti Bridge (just the Prince tracks) The Gold Experience Controversy Lotus Flower Chaos And Disorder Emancipation The Vault The Truth Come Crystal Ball (all albums are compilations, really) Prince Batmaaan Diamons And Pearls 3121 20ten Art Official Age Musicology Rave Into The Joy Fantastic (the "Un-version doesn't count for me) One Night Alone N.E.W.S. For You Newpowersoul Hit 'N' Run: Phase One MLPSound Planet Earth
that's 35. I think there's alot more, though! Prost!
more albums edit (4) [Edited 11/21/15 9:28am] [Edited 11/21/15 10:34am] [Edited 11/21/15 10:36am] [Edited 11/21/15 10:37am] "Whatever skin we're in
we all need 2 b friends" | |
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Parade Purple rain Sign o the times The black album Around the world in a day 1999 lovesexy Controversy Dirty mind AOA Graffiti bridge Batman The gold experience Prince Crystal ball Emancipation Lotus flower The vault 3121 Diamonds and pearls Musicology Hit n run NPS Come Planet earth Rave Symbol For you The truth | |
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Lovesexy Sign O The Times 1999 Purple Rain The Black Album Parade Around The World In A Day Graffiti Bridge Symbol Art Official Age Dirty Mind Controversy Emancipation Prince Batman Diamonds And Pearls 3121 Lotusflower The Rainbow Children The Gold Experience Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic HitnRun 20Ten MPLSound For You Plectrum Electrum Musicology Come Chaos And Disorder The Vault...Old Friends 4 Sale The Truth Planet Earth News Xpectation One Nite Alone
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I decided to a series of Youtube videos on this topic, lets get them out of the 50 or so views each guys. .
(youtube) <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aXwTIEXK_fg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> (/youtube) [Edited 11/25/15 1:50am] Got some kind of love for you, and I don't even know your name | |
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