This is not an original question, may have been done many times before and if there is one current up now let me know and I will delete. As I continue to think about Prince's legacy, the period between "1999" and "Lovesexy" still amazes me, the creativity in that 6 year stretch is nothing short of phonemenal. Considering that this is the period that got his Hall of Fame ticket punched, how do you rank the albums from best to worst (worst being a relative term, the worst of this group is likely on par with the best of many other artists). Here is mine:

1. Sign O The Times: Prince at the absolute peak of his powers. Songwriting, musically, thematically this album is virtually flawless. The fact that it can go from the commercial (U Got the Look) to the unusual (Dorothy Parker) to the simple (Starfish and Coffee) to the most complex (Girlfriend). It is not music, it is a trip for me. I listened to this CD so many times during my teen years and then as a young adult and now as a middle aged man and can relate to it on so many different levels. To me this album defines Prince even more than Purple Rain, it shows more sides.
2. Purple Rain: It feels like a copout to select this so high. But commercially it put Prince into the stratosphere, gave him his defining theme song and there is not a single wasted track. It's hard to hear Appolonia sing on TMWU but that is virtually the only criticism I have of this album. Too many iconic songs not to rank near the top but Sign O the Times moved me more as a whole.
3. 1999: Another copout. But this is another CD that there are just too many vital Prince songs to not put it near the top, almost as a co number 2 with PR. Just such a bold and otherworldly album and dang he was what 23 or 24 when it came out. Almost unreal to think about.
4. Around the World in a Day: Here is where it starts to get more challenging. ATWIAD is a hard album to peg. It has great songs but also shows some of the shell shock that Prince had after PR. I still don't know exactly what Temptation is. The usual suspects like Raspeberry Beret, Pop Life and America are great songs of the era. Thematically was Prince trying to do the Beatles one better, every album doesn't have to be a statement album but if you do make a statement album the statement needs to be clear. Or at least clearer than the sentence I just wrote.
5. Parade: Is your list upside down of mine? I know many of you have Parade higher. I love Mountains. I love Kiss. I love Anotherloverholenyohead. The song sequencing of the first three songs is sick, who does that? Sometimes it Snows in April was sad enough without tying it into Prince's death, now it's just get the Kleenex box every time you hear it. All this and yet as an album it doesn't tie as well together as the albums above. I respect it more than I love it. But it's brilliant.
6. Lovesexy: Once again, I know this is higher on a lot of your lists. I want to love "Lovesexy" more. I have always been jealous of those fans who seemed so moved by the album. But I think it helps to buy the concept , to buy the whole thing as a collective hole, and I still wish that he would not have made the decision not to track it. When I want to hear Glam Slam, I don't want to have fast forward through other songs to get there, even if one of those songs is the great Alphabet St. Of the 6, this is probably the CD I have listened to the least (20,000 times instead of 25,000 times) so maybe I need to revisit. I think if anyone tried to do anything close to this today, in 2016, they would fail miserably, it's that hard to pull off. But of the Power 6, it moves me the least.

1. Purple Rain - For me everything clicks on this album, but what stands out for me is the power and raw emotion in Prince's voice. I don't think he made an album since where he is so vocally powerful from track to track.

2. Sign O The Times - Probably the most imaginative and consistent set of songs.

3. 1999 - Not a weak song. For me, hist first truly great album. Kinda like the Beatles and Rubber Soul.

4. Parade - By this time he was flexing his musical muscle and venturing into new sounds with ease. The opening 3 songs for me are among his best.

5. Around the World in a Day - I had a hard time with this when it first came out. For me, it resumed some of the vocal power and emotion from PR, but it was also like Prince was saying "Ok now you have to meet me on my terms if you want to be my fan." This is the only album from the Power 6 where I skip some songs.

6. Lovesexy - I like this album all the way through, especially the title track and I Wish U Heaven. But it's missing "something", and I can't put my finger on what it is.

To rule out Controversy is a crime on this case. It's superior to Lovesexy. You could easily, and would be better, to shift those power 6 to be Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day, Parade, & Sign O The Times.

So if I'm rating those...

1. Sign O The Times
2. Controversy
3. 1999
4. Purple Rain
5. Parade
6. ATWIAD

TrivialPursuit said:

To rule out Controversy is a crime on this case. It's superior to Lovesexy. You could easily, and would be better, to shift those power 6 to be Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day, Parade, & Sign O The Times.

So if I'm rating those...

1. Sign O The Times
2. Controversy
3. 1999
4. Purple Rain
5. Parade
6. ATWIAD

Valid argument, I'm looking more at the commercial zeitgeist that started with 1999 but one could probably pick 6 of any of albums before Batman and make a reasonable argument.

GottaLetitgo said:

Valid argument, I'm looking more at the commercial zeitgeist that started with 1999 but one could probably pick 6 of any of albums before Batman and make a reasonable argument.

Well, for the original 6 you noted:

1. Sign O The Times
2. 1999
3. Purple Rain
4. Parade
5. Lovesexy
6. ATWIAD

Does the Power 6 sound like a new lottery game? An elite force of super heroes? Maybe it's not the best way to refer to these albums? The Purple 6?

As I type that I'm surprised how low down Parade is in my list, but man, it's almost like I should my 1-5 a joint top-1 placing with ATWIAD a distant 6th. Never an album I could get my head around. Something about the songs and the production just irritates me. That said, one of my ALL TIME favourite Prince tracks is on here: Condition of the Heart. And I have warm-fuzzy memories of Prince performing 'America' at Wembley Stadium in 1993. I'd only just discovered the album months before the show and totally fell in love with 'America'.

1) Parade...2) S.O.T.T....3) 1999...4) Lovesexy....5) Purple Rain...6) ATWIAD

Wow. That's difficult. Or at least, 2-6 is difficult for me.

1. Sign 'O' The Times (hands down)

2. Around the World in Day (really underrated imo)

3. Lovesexy

4. Purple Rain

5. Parade

6. 1999

In terms of sheer enjoyment

1. Parade - Evokes so many emotions by great songs that were completely unique. Always loved it!

2. ATWIAD - Prince waves his freak flag all over the place, much to my delight.

3. Purple Rain

4. Sign O' times

5. Lovesexy

6.1999

In terms of how great I percieve it to be musicallty:

1. Sign O' Times - for its incredible variety of musical styles

2.Purple Rain - for having a consistent and coherent yet brilliant musical style

3. Parade

4. ATWIAD

5. Lovesexy

6. 1999

Aw hell, they are all great in their own way!

1980-1988 1st golden age

1992-1996 2nd golden age

aND DIRTY MINDp?

1. Around the World in a Day
2. 1999
3. Parade
4. Purple Rain
5. Sign O the Times
6. Lovesexy

1. Purple Rain

2. Sign O' the Times

3. 1999

4. Parade

5. Lovesexy

6. Around the World in a Day

[Edited 6/1/16 22:23pm]

Aerogram said:

Power 6? You should get your Prince card revoked, no way Dirty Mind and Controversy can be excluded.

my list of these albums :

.

1 PARADE

this album would be my all-time favorite by Prince

had he not already made the seminal DIRTY MIND

.

2 1999

Prince rising. Prince hitting on all cylinders. Prince continuing to push the envelope musically.

.

3 SIGN "O" THE TIMES

Prince still at the top of his game.. but about to start the gradual downturn..

.

4 PURPLE RAIN

obviously a great album & could easily be in any position above this

.

5 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY

also (still) a great album.. mainly because it separated the just-jumped-on-the-purple-rain-bandwagon Prince fans from those who had already been fans &/or those who would stick around.

.

6 LOVESEXY

understanding that it was either (officially) this or "the black album".. eh..

this album had some good tracks - Alphabet St, Anna Stesia, when 2 r in love - but overall was less.. focused (for lack of a better word)

in my opinion, this was officially the start of the downturn for Prince - in terms of overall music quality as well as how all the previous 9 albums were basically very solid from beginning to end

SOTT

Purple Rain

1999

Parade

Lovesexy

ATWIAD

I used to place "Parade" higher in the past, but my appreciation for the original MPLS sound has just grown over the years.

PURPLE RAIN

SIGN O' THE TIMES

1999

PARADE

LOVESEXY

AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY

imho.. all 6 deserves maximum 10/10.


01. Purple Rain (10)
02. Sign "☮" The Times (10)
03. 1999 (10)
04. Lovesexy (10)
05. Parade (10)
06. Around The World In A Day (10)

1 - "Parade" - Wonderfully weird in its arrangements, stylstic shifts, and sounds like nothing else.

2 - "Sign O The Times" - Spoiled for me only by two tracks (I won't name them). A real showcase of the man's talent.

3 - "Purple Rain" - Where I came in. I don't play it very often, possibly because I played it so much back in the day, but whenever I do listen to it I'm reminded of just how good it is, and where I was at the time.

4 - "Around The World In A Day" - Probably the best move he made, releasing something almost completely different after the previous album. Some of the tracks on here are still among my favourites.

5 - "Lovesexy" - I know some people love it, but it never really worked for me. The first half is pretty great, but I don't like the second half ("Dance On" onwards) at all. I think "The Black Album" is far, far better than "Lovesexy" and for me, this album was the start of his creative downturn.

6 - "1999" - Never liked it at all. The first two tracks and "Something In The Water" are great, but the rest leaves me cold. All of the tracks go on way too long for my liking, and I find the whole album quite boring. One of my least favourites of his actually.

If you threw in "Dirty Mind", "Controversy" and "Black", my list would probably be "Parade", "SOTT", "Black", "Purple Rain", "ATWIAD", "Dirty Mind", "Lovesexy", "Controversy", "1999", although the placement of "PR" & "Black" is switchable dependent on my mood.

Nasalhair said:

2 - "Sign O The Times" - Spoiled for me only by two tracks (I won't name them).

Oh, go on... name and shame.

[Edited 6/2/16 1:56am]

MattyJam said:

Nasalhair said:

2 - "Sign O The Times" - Spoiled for me only by two tracks (I won't name them).

Oh, go on... name and shame.

[Edited 6/2/16 1:56am]

Nope - find the whole routine of someone naming a track & being greeted by a wave of scorn and "that's the best song ever!" type comments utterly tiresome.

Nasalhair said:

MattyJam said:

Oh, go on... name and shame.

[Edited 6/2/16 1:56am]

Nope - find the whole routine of someone naming a track & being greeted by a wave of scorn and "that's the best song ever!" type comments utterly tiresome.

Well, the only reason I ask is because I too feel that there are two songs on SOTT which are filler and was curious if they were the same as my picks. I personally don't rate Hot Thing or It.

MattyJam said:

Nasalhair said:

Nope - find the whole routine of someone naming a track & being greeted by a wave of scorn and "that's the best song ever!" type comments utterly tiresome.

Well, the only reason I ask is because I too feel that there are two songs on SOTT which are filler and was curious if they were the same as my picks. I personally don't rate Hot Thing or It.

Not those ones. I like both of them.