With The Gold Experience and Emancipation being released fairly close to Chaos and Disorder I've always felt the album has gotten a little lost in the shuffle. I'm a big fan of this album, and I love how many of the songs have a more guitar heavy sound.

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Anyone else a big fan this album? What are some of your favorite tracks from it?

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It's one of his best works and one of my favorites.

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Yes, it is more guitar-centric than most of his albums; but, heck, one of the best songs on the album doesn't even feature guitar ("Dig You Better Dead").

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I love most of the tracks. The stand out for me, though, is "Into The Light" / "I Will." Real tasty guitar work on that (even backwards guitar!). The first half is full blown arena rock and then that abrupt change into the smooth "I Will"...oh, great stuff.

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I do feel the album is hurt tremendously by Prince's dismissive attitude towards it. That "Originally intended for private use only" liner note I feel was uncalled for. It is conveying to the listener that the stuff on the album is not worthy of release. Also the album's artwork -- that shattered bits and pices motif - conveys the same message: this album is just thrown together piecemeal, pot luck.

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Nonetheless, one of Prince's greatest works. A Prince album you listen to straight through with nary a bum track.

A few of the songs sound like half a song, or come off as a medley (besides "Into The Light"/"I Will"). And at under 40 minutes, it comes across more like a mix tape. I ain't hating that. The album is a "dark" one to me. Not miserable, emo, or angry - just pointedly moody. There's a lot of kiss off to WB on it, of course, but moments of lighter fare here and there. Overall, it could easily be in my top 15 probably. However, I sort of keep Prince stuff separate from stuff, so it's obviously one of the better albums for me. Here's my break down:

1. Chaos and Disorder: Great rocking number, great hook
2. I Like It There: Kind of an intermediate track, but good
3. Dinner with Delores: People panned this, but I really dug it.
4. The Same December: There's a lot of syncopation type stuff in this that breaks up the flow, but I dig it.
5. Right The Wrong: People just slam this song sometimes, but I like the country-rock vibe.
6. Zanalee: Love it. "Big ass".
7. I Rock: Better with Scrap D edited out.
8. Into The Light: See #9
9. I Will: Moments of light on an otherwise darker album.
10. Dig U Better Dead: It's a bleaker track for me. Mood, production. Yet oddly fits.
11. Had U: A perfect ending track with "fuck u", considering he started his WB career with "For You". He once said it was fate that it ended that way (we know better).

Overall - out of 5 stars, a solid 4.

Love it. I remember reading the hype online before it was released; "This is his most heavy guitar album since 'Dirty Mind'!!!"....I don't know about that, but it still rocks pretty good. "I Like It There" reminded me of alternative garage rock the first time I heard it......"Delores" has a nice psychedelic feel to it and I love the guitar work..."The Same December" reminds me of the "S.O.T.T" era and "Into The Light" and "I Will" are two beautiful pieces of work that seque just right.....I always thought "Chaos" was right up there with "P.R" as one of his coolest guitar rock records.

^^^ Thanks for all your points. I agree about 'I Like It There' being very garage rock...I actually get that whole mid 90's rock vibe from the whole album.

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I also think if Prince released this album in 2012 fans would see it as his greatest album ever, back in 1996 not so much...It might be one of the most lost in the shuffle albums that Prince has?

I think it got lost too. He didn't do much TV promotion except Letterman and the "Today" show. And the few print interviews he did about "Chaos", he mainly hyped up "Emancipation" and talked about his freedom from Warners. The artwork for "Chaos" was pretty graphic and had aimed at the WB.

to this day, this is the way i prefer to listen to this album. it's so good:


01. Chaos and Disorder

02. I Like It There

03. Dinner With Delores

04. Same December
05. Calhoun Sq
06. Zannalee

07. Into The Light

08. I Will

09. Da Bang

10. Empty Room

11. Had U

Basically a companion album of outtakes for TGE. Great to see how many different paths he was taking all at one time. With the Emancipation stuff so close behind, it really shows you how quickly he could sonically pivot.

A strong contender for the most underrated album.

Reviews were pretty negative at the time it came out,
but when the dust settled, it appeared like one of his most fun,
joyous, rebel records ever.

It was probably disappointing for everyone to see Prince
coming back to 12 bars blues structure, and 3 chords rock.
The public still expected for him to go back to the subtleties and sophistication
of "Parade" and "Around The World In A Day", but that time had passed for him.
we had to wait for "Rainbow Children" to get some "intellectual" music again.

The Warner Wars is the most interesting part of his career,
after the eighties golden era. Lots of throwouts, errors, bad hip-hop,
boring tunes, but still an unrelentless search, and of course
some masterpieces came out of it.

An orger suggested that women had nothing to do with his inspiration, but that's just stupid.
It's fairly obvious that if Vanity and then Susannah were the propeller for the eighties winning streak, his passion for Mayte brought him out of his comfort zone (from Batman to D&P).

"Intended for private use only": if this is the main reason
for the light-hearted mood of it, so be it.

Yes it's a pretty good album, but not one of his special ones. But solid and enjoyable enough to listen to. The title track is excellent.

A strong contender for the most underrated album.

Reviews were pretty negative at the time it came out,
but when the dust settled, it appeared like one of his most fun,
joyous, rebel records ever.

bonatoc said:

A strong contender for the most underrated album.

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Agreed

I like Dinner With Dolores, Into The Light, I Will and Had U.

Cover Art

I like it.

It's pretty unfoccused in my opinion. I hate I Rock Therfore I Am for some reason I can never put my finger on. Into The Light must be the cheesiest chorus he ever came up with. It sounds like Barry Manilow on Acid crossed with Kenny G or something. The Title track is great as is Dig You Better Dead.

Had U is fantastic though. The guitar notes at the end of that are sublime. Too short however.

Overall, I'd say it's a middling Album and not one I revsit much.

maplesyrupnjam said:

It's pretty unfoccused in my opinion. I hate I Rock Therfore I Am for some reason I can never put my finger on. Into The Light must be the cheesiest chorus he ever came up with. It sounds like Barry Manilow on Acid crossed with Kenny G or something. The Title track is great as is Dig You Better Dead.

Had U is fantastic though. The guitar notes at the end of that are sublime. Too short however.

Overall, I'd say it's a middling Album and not one I revsit much.

Indeed.

This album is Exibit A that the "Prince hasn't done anything great since the 80's mentality" has resulted is some amazing stuff being ignored.

Always have had this album close by since the release- even have a huge poster of it AND in a conversation with Mr. Hayes in Tampa Bay after a aftershow.... he confirmed " That's a good album"....at that time I thought I was the only one who recognized....also I saw it only sold 100,000 copies so with my 2 that= 99,998....I have live Zannalee on boots - been to 11 shows total never saw it done live= bummer.

IstenSzek said:

IstenSzek said:

to this day, this is the way i prefer to listen to this album. it's so good:


01. Chaos and Disorder

02. I Like It There

03. Dinner With Delores

04. Same December
05. Calhoun Sq
06. Zannalee

07. Into The Light

08. I Will

09. Da Bang

10. Empty Room

11. Had U

Nice. I've always loved it but as above it could have been even better if he added the likes of Calhoun Square, which would have fitted perfectly.

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Regarding Empty Room - I'll always associate that with the Gold era after seeing the video pre-show on the tour so I was surprised to learn the video used 'the original 1985 music' (according to PrinceVault).. Of course it could have been originally wrote/recorded back then but that video version has that 94-95 NPG sound to me so I thought it must have been re-recorded

dodger said:

IstenSzek said:

to this day, this is the way i prefer to listen to this album. it's so good:


01. Chaos and Disorder

02. I Like It There

03. Dinner With Delores

04. Same December
05. Calhoun Sq
06. Zannalee

07. Into The Light

08. I Will

09. Da Bang

10. Empty Room

11. Had U

Nice. I've always loved it but as above it could have been even better if he added the likes of Calhoun Square, which would have fitted perfectly.

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Regarding Empty Room - I'll always associate that with the Gold era after seeing the video pre-show on the tour so I was surprised to learn the video used 'the original 1985 music' (according to PrinceVault).. Of course it could have been originally wrote/recorded back then but that video version has that 94-95 NPG sound to me so I thought it must have been re-recorded

Definitly not re-recorded, all original. The only thing I suspect about it, is that it might be an edit.

bluegangsta said:

dodger said:

Nice. I've always loved it but as above it could have been even better if he added the likes of Calhoun Square, which would have fitted perfectly.

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Regarding Empty Room - I'll always associate that with the Gold era after seeing the video pre-show on the tour so I was surprised to learn the video used 'the original 1985 music' (according to PrinceVault).. Of course it could have been originally wrote/recorded back then but that video version has that 94-95 NPG sound to me so I thought it must have been re-recorded

Definitly not re-recorded, all original. The only thing I suspect about it, is that it might be an edit.

Yes, I believe that to be true as it's on the reliable PrinceVault.

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But don't you think it has that 94/95 sound? Or is it just a psychological thing with me because the NPG are playing along to it in the video and I've just always associated it with the Gold era

I've always liked it a lot. It's a strangely rewarding record to listen to despite being supposedly a throwaway release.

There's something of a, dare I say, "classic album" vibe to the first three tracks. They're not his best songs, but I really just like the way the album opens with those three.

I don't mind the "dance" tracks on it. Actually, "Dig U Better Dead" works very well after "I Will". The "ragga" stuff from "I Rock Therefore I Am" I could have done without. It's a pretty nice tune otherwise.

Oh yeah, and "Into The Light" is sublime. Maybe his best "proggy" track.

2 b honest it's a great rock album. very underlooked, and much better than Emancipation in my opinion.

i dig it

One of my favourites and his only "rock" album, really

lynx said:

This is not an album I listen to a lot. I have to say though that - just like with 'The Vault : Old Friends 4 Sale' - it has a very consistent overall vibe. If I'm not mistaken most of these songs were recorded very close to each other in time? I don't consider it a classic album. 6 tracks are really keepers to me (see asterisk)

1. Chaos and Disorder: high energy (*)
2. I Like It There: lacks originality but it's okay
3. Dinner with Delores: LOVED the lyrics (*)
4. The Same December: solid (*)
5. Right The Wrong: sometimes I dig it, sometimes it just makes me LOL (so cheesy)
6. Zanalee: love the guitar on this, bluesy rock. good vocal performance too (*)
7. I Rock: meh, I feel the same about this as on 'I like It There'
8. + 9. Into The Light: nice intimate moment (*)
9. cf above
10. Dig U Better Dead : a lot of bark, lacks some bite
11. Had U: this is the most cynical I have ever heard Prince. love this track (*)

[Edited 6/1/16 10:38am]

feeluupp said:

2 b honest it's a great rock album. very underlooked, and much better than Emancipation in my opinion.

This is what I have always felt. The only track I'm not that wild about is "I Rock."