Depends what you like.

I personally love Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999). It has I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore which is one of his most spine-chilling, autobiographical moments on wax, truly breathtaking. It's a great, commercial sounding album (songs like The Greatest Romance Ever Sold and Wherever U Go Whatever U Do should've been huge hits).

If you want something a bit more leftfield, I guess you could try LotusFlow3r, which is basically Prince does The Jimi Hendrix Experience, it's very guitar-orientated, loads of feedback and reverb and guitar solos. It also comes with the album MPLSoUND which is completely different, and is more of a throwback to his earlier work, but has some good, funky tunes on it.

I personally don't recommend 3121 or Plectrum Electrum. But the rest of his 00's output is pretty solid, so you can't really go wrong.

[Edited 5/28/16 8:56am]

anangellooksdown said:

I've been listening to Prince's older albums daily and as much as I love them, I'm finding that I want to listen to his more recent stuff. I want to hear the older more mature musician and man he grew into. I know a few of his more recent songs. I loved "Fury" live on SNL (somewhat recent; watched it over and over). My favorite is his live Montreax performance of "The Love We Make". In fact I loved that whole show. Anything spiritual of his helps me cope and I want to know him as the artist he grew into. I heard the last two albums were co-produced and I don't know if I can appreciate something that's mostly somebody else's? Any suggestions for a good album? Is the Montreax show on DVD anywhere? I love watching him on my TV.

art official age.

have tissues for way back home.

.

"The Chocolate Invasion / Slaughterhouse" -- two albums released on the same day (2004) are a great place to start for recent material.

.

Though some stuff on those two albums has been dated back to 1998, it is still recent, unheard by many, Prince music. Those two albums have hits and misses on them, but it is worth it just to check out some of the wild things Prince was doing. You haven't lived until you hear "Hypno Paradise." A true WTF Prince listening moment.

.

Also "Judas Kiss", "Silicon," "My Medallion," "Supercute" and a lot of other songs are worth hearing.

Here's a list of songs well worth checking out:

Silicon

My Medaillon

When I lay my hands on U

When will we be paid

A Case of U

Pearls before the swine

She Loves me 4 me

Family Name

The Work Part. 1

Musicology

Cinnamon Girl

Call My Name

The Marrying Kind/If Eye Was the Man in ur life

Dear Mr. Man

Black Sweat

Fury

Dance 4 Me

Colonized Mind

Crimson and Clover

Wall of Berlin

Dreamer

$

No More Candy 4 U

Compassion

Act of God

Xtralovable Reloaded

Rock n Roll Love Affair

Screwdriver

Art Official Age (the entire record)

Anotherlove

Wow

PlectrumElectrum

Fixurlifeup

HitnRun Phase 1 (from the Xface to the end)

HitnRun Phase 2 (the entire record)

That's just off the top of my head, there are other worthy songs, The Rainbow Children, Musicology, Lotus Flow3r, AOA and HitnRun Phase 2 are actually mostly great from start to finish if you overlook TRC segues and Musicology's Life of the party.

Art Official Age is the best overall experience for me, even Art Official Cage sounds totally on point for what he was doing with this record, which should be considered his last true Album with a capital A.

HitnRun Phase 2 acts as a masterful epilogue on the art of Prince music.

We are lucky we got at least two very strong albums out of him before he passed away, I think this will become increasingly clear with time.

MattyJam said:

EmmaMcG said:

MattyJam said:

Depends what you like.

I personally love Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999). It has I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore which is one of his most spine-chilling, autobiographical moments on wax, truly breathtaking. It's a great, commercial sounding album (songs like The Greatest Romance Ever Sold and Wherever U Go Whatever U Do should've been huge hits).

If you want something a bit more leftfield, I guess you could try LotusFlow3r, which is basically Prince does The Jimi Hendrix Experience, it's very guitar-orientated, loads of feedback and reverb and guitar solos. It also comes with the album MPLSoUND which is completely different, and is more of a throwback to his earlier work, but has some good, funky tunes on it.

I personally don't recommend 3121 or Plectrum Electrum. But the rest of his 00's output is pretty solid, so you can't really go wrong.

[Edited 5/28/16 8:56am]

I agreed with everything you said until you said you don't recommend 3121... How could you? You monster!!! But seriously, 3121 is fantastic.

I don't hate 3121, but I'm not a huge fan of the vocoder vocal stylings and the R&B-lite stuff like Incense & Candles or Beautiful, Loved & Blessed. And then you have crap like Get On The Boat and Satisfied...

Black Sweat and the title track are cool, but there's nothing else on there that I find myself wanting to return to. For me, it's his weakest post-00's album (sans NPGMC releases).

MattyJam said:

Lotusflower is a must

anangellooksdown said:

Lately, I've been playing 'Art Offical Age' far more than is probably healthy.

Marrk said:

Lately, I've been playing 'Art Offical Age' far more than is probably healthy.

first album in years i had on repeat for days. love love love it!

Everything!,,, but start with Art Official Age.