I'd love to help but...suggestions for what? (You didn't really say.)

It sort of depends which of his music you loved. If you loved Lovesexy, I'd suggest starting with Art Official Age and working backward through the discography. The Emancipation era was a different style, as were many others. In a way, I'm envious that you get to explore everything fresh!

I've always recommended to buy and listen to his albums chronologically. This way you get to listen to his music in the order they were originally released.

There's no one good place to start. Dive in and go forward if you want to hear modern things and backward if you want to hear older (but still somehow modern sounding) things.

It really is very difficult to give solid advice. I was actually going to suggest Crystal Ball (has both old outtakes and some songs that were relatively new at the time of the release) but I think it's hard to find. Same goes for The Gold Experience, which is a solid 90s release. So problems like these make it a bit harder.

.

For lack of better advice and seeing as you reasonably can't spend that much money I'd say go to the wrecka stow and do either of these 3 things :

.

*pick up his most recent release 'HITnRUN Phase II', which the stow will definitely have in stock

.

*pick up 'The Hits / The B-Sides'. Yes, you have a lot of these songs. But chances are you haven't heard any of the B-sides (don't know whether you just bought albums or singles as well). That's a full disc right there. Then there are the songs from 'Graffiti Bridge', 'Diamonds & Pearls' and the 'Love Symbol' album. These are the albums that followed after 'Lovesexy'. (There was 'Batman' too but due to contractual obligations there are no .songs from this album on the compilation.) And there are some songs on there that are exclusive to this release. I counted the songs that could be new to you on this release : 30 songs (that's 20 B-sides and 10 other tracks).

.

*go to the wrecka stow and pick up a random album you haven't heard yet. There's nothing wrong with being surprised. There are bound to be at least a few tracks on every release you will love.

.

If you really don't know what to pick and must have one album title I would go for 'Art Official Age'. It's recent (2014), there are definitely some quality tracks on there, it has a contemporary sound but still sounds very much like Prince, moreover the album is very cohesive in sound and - something which might draw you in - some of the lyrics seem rather personal.

.

Welcome to the Org btw!

[Edited 5/31/16 14:31pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:33pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:33pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:34pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:35pm]

limoncello said:

It sort of depends which of his music you loved. If you loved Lovesexy, I'd suggest starting with Art Official Age and working backward through the discography. The Emancipation era was a different style, as were many others. In a way, I'm envious that you get to explore everything fresh!

That's an excellent suggestion to go from Lovesexy to AOA. I'd then proceed to:

Hit n Run Phase 2

One Nite Alone Live

Musicology

The Gold Experience

Or you can try joining Tidal and check out his stuff for a month or two, see what you like.

mightycow said:

It really is very difficult to give solid advice. I was actually going to suggest Crystal Ball (has both old outtakes and some songs that were relatively new at the time of the release) but I think it's hard to find. Same goes for The Gold Experience, which is a solid 90s release. So problems like these make it a bit harder.

.

For lack of better advice and seeing as you reasonably can't spend that much money I'd say go to the wrecka stow and do either of these 3 things :

.

*pick up his most recent release 'HITnRUN Phase II', which the stow will definitely have in stock

.

*pick up 'The Hits / The B-Sides'. Yes, you have a lot of these songs. But chances are you haven't heard any of the B-sides (don't know whether you just bought albums or singles as well). That's a full disc right there. Then there are the songs from 'Graffiti Bridge', 'Diamonds & Pearls' and the 'Love Symbol' album. These are the albums that followed after 'Lovesexy'. (There was 'Batman' too but due to contractual obligations there are no .songs from this album on the compilation.) And there are some songs on there that are exclusive to this release. I counted the songs that could be new to you on this release : 30 songs (that's 20 B-sides and 10 other tracks).

.

*go to the wrecka stow and pick up a random album you haven't heard yet. There's nothing wrong with being surprised. There are bound to be at least a few tracks on every release you will love.

.

If you really don't know what to pick and must have one album title I would go for 'Art Official Age'. It's recent (2014), there are definitely some quality tracks on there, it has a contemporary sound but still sounds very much like Prince, moreover the album is very cohesive in sound and - something which might draw you in - some of the lyrics seem rather personal.

.

Welcome to the Org btw!

[Edited 5/31/16 14:31pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:33pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:33pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:34pm]

[Edited 5/31/16 14:35pm]

SO helpful! I am leaning towards either HitnRun Phase II or AOA. Though I want to try some older things, I wonder why I wasn't moved to buy after hearing Daimonds and Pearls and others on the radio. I didn't love it. I typically enjoy the funk more than the ballads though I have had Way Back Home and It Could be Us on so much my kids are complaining. But what drew me back was FunknRoll. My teens run crying because I've played it so much. lol And my seven year old sings along. I had the hit's/b-sides in my hot little hands over the weekend and didn't pull the trigger. I am holding out for Vinyl since I got a record player for my birthday and all the Prince in stock was on CD.

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I may do more than one of them!

Aerogram said:

limoncello said:

It sort of depends which of his music you loved. If you loved Lovesexy, I'd suggest starting with Art Official Age and working backward through the discography. The Emancipation era was a different style, as were many others. In a way, I'm envious that you get to explore everything fresh!

That's an excellent suggestion to go from Lovesexy to AOA. I'd then proceed to:

Hit n Run Phase 2

One Nite Alone Live

Musicology

The Gold Experience

Or you can try joining Tidal and check out his stuff for a month or two, see what you like.

Thank you! I am leaning toward AOA first. I JUST heard Musicology for the first time last week. (the title track) OMGoodness, I love it so. I must have it all. Eventually.

I almost forgot: The Black Album

Yes I agree..The Black Album is a good choice. If you liked "Purple Rain", "Around The World" and "S.O.T.T", get "The Gold Experience", "Chaos And Disorder" and "Rave". They have almost those same adventurous and quirky bits that made those 80's records cool.

I thought the same thing back then when I picked up a bootleg of it. It was pretty tame compared what I was expecting to hear. But when Sirius radio starting playing the cuts during their tribute, I re-discovered how unique it is.

justtracy said:

I too have been waiting patiently to finally post. I could've written your post! I haven't even scratched the surface. I've just been watching his concerts on YT while I can. They are slowly going away... I rented Under the cherry moon and fell in love with the Parade album. I hear a sound I like, look it up and figure out what album it was on. I missed SO much and felt like a fair weather friend 😥. Songs I thought I would have never liked are my jam as of late so maybe it was meant for me to hear them later in life.

Awww, what a sweet post. And what a great way to look at the missed years. Maybe we are meant to hear them now. I think part of why I want to hear the more recent things is because, like Prince, I have matured...had so many life experiences. I want to hear the things I missed, but I feel drawn to what Prince became more than the journey.

I watched Under the Cherry Moon on Youtube as well. I remember it vividly from it's first release. I have Sign o the Times on VHS! lol In fact, I only have Lovesexy on Cassette and my tape deck recently ate my Sign O the Times. So, I really plan on getting those again at some point.

Please pop back in and mention what you are enjoying.

foreverfan1984 said:

justtracy said:

I too have been waiting patiently to finally post. I could've written your post! I haven't even scratched the surface. I've just been watching his concerts on YT while I can. They are slowly going away... I rented Under the cherry moon and fell in love with the Parade album. I hear a sound I like, look it up and figure out what album it was on. I missed SO much and felt like a fair weather friend 😥. Songs I thought I would have never liked are my jam as of late so maybe it was meant for me to hear them later in life.

Awww, what a sweet post. And what a great way to look at the missed years. Maybe we are meant to hear them now. I think part of why I want to hear the more recent things is because, like Prince, I have matured...had so many life experiences. I want to hear the things I missed, but I feel drawn to what Prince became more than the journey.

I watched Under the Cherry Moon on Youtube as well. I remember it vividly from it's first release. I have Sign o the Times on VHS! lol In fact, I only have Lovesexy on Cassette and my tape deck recently ate my Sign O the Times. So, I really plan on getting those again at some point.

Please pop back in and mention what you are enjoying.

Go for the B-sides, the side projects / protégés, the unreleased projects (Camille, Dream Factory), and then the live concerts, aftershow included.

You'll have to google like a maniac before finding the stuff (don't stop at the first page of results), possibly using some peer-to-peer software, but I promise it'll be worth it.

First, pick up "The Hits/The B-Sides". It's a good primer for some of the stuff that he recorded between "Lovesexy" and "The Love Symbol" album. After that, I would pick up "The Gold Experience", "Musicology" and "Art Official Age". If you can get past the preachiness, "The Rainbow Children" is a great record.

Later, I would also start hunting for some of the "unofficial" stuff.

MIInsane said:

I would start with Crystal Ball and work my way back all the way to For You. I started losing interest after the Crystal Ball fiasco. But yet I still bought everthing that came out after that. Enjoy the ride.

Aerogram said:

I almost forgot: The Black Album

Damn, you're right. If you love Lovesexy you have to get the Black Album. It does feel so tame by today's standards, but Bob George remains as weird and funky as music will ever get.

OP, don't stress. You have so much fun and music ahead of you! I hope you report back on your journey.

foreverfan1984 said:

What to purchase after Lovesecy. I'm loving some of the tunes I can hear on YouTube from AOA. But wonder about HitnRun and older things too.

Prince had a different look and a different sound for so many different phases in his career and not everyone in here likes them all. You'll get different opinions from all over the place. The Essentials are the music that coincided with his commercial prime, 1999 and Purple Rain. Those two albums are him at his most influential in the music world and with Purple Rain, one of the great commercial albums. Many people believe Prince tired of the megastardom which accompanied the movie and soundtrack thus his major departure in his next album, Around The World In a Day which sold only a fraction of what Purple Rain did and pissed off a lot of the fair weather fans. Effectively getting rid of a good chunk of his newfound fanbase, he further alienated himself with Parade and SOTT, both albums full of brilliance but which intentionally went away from the marketplace and away from any creative stagnation. Kurt Loder surmises in his review of SOTT that maybe Prince was scared or bored with the purple rain success and intentionally went in another direction. Loder says that Prince was right on the brink of some new fusion of black/white,funk/rock and he stopped dead in his tracks. The review is a frustrated review praising the album as, how did he say it? about a quarter of it being brilliant and the rest merely being better than 90% of the stuff on radio, accurate statement. after praising the album and saying that brilliance was no surprise from Prince, that he wanted that bold statement that was promised by Purple Rain, i for one, will be interested if any of the albums held back from that era are anything of that ilk.

justtracy said:

I too have been waiting patiently to finally post. I could've written your post! I haven't even scratched the surface. I've just been watching his concerts on YT while I can. They are slowly going away... I rented Under the cherry moon and fell in love with the Parade album. I hear a sound I like, look it up and figure out what album it was on. I missed SO much and felt like a fair weather friend 😥. Songs I thought I would have never liked are my jam as of late so maybe it was meant for me to hear them later in life.

Welcome to the Org, Tracy!

I decided to try AOA first. Called every Wrecka Stow within 50 miles. They have Purple Rain and 1999. Plenty of those. I didn't realize I might not be able to just get what I want. One of the stores told me there are so few places that make vinyl that I would probably have to wait 2+ months. I am so disappointed. I want my Prince now.

foreverfan1984 said:

I decided to try AOA first. Called every Wrecka Stow within 50 miles. They have Purple Rain and 1999. Plenty of those. I didn't realize I might not be able to just get what I want. One of the stores told me there are so few places that make vinyl that I would probably have to wait 2+ months. I am so disappointed. I want my Prince now.

if you're not out in the middle of nowhere, getting vinyl shouldn't be that hard, saw some at fry's yesterday. don't really see the need for them really.

foreverfan1984 said:

I decided to try AOA first. Called every Wrecka Stow within 50 miles. They have Purple Rain and 1999. Plenty of those. I didn't realize I might not be able to just get what I want. One of the stores told me there are so few places that make vinyl that I would probably have to wait 2+ months. I am so disappointed. I want my Prince now.

I am very sorry to hear that. You could buy AOA on Tidal right now, but I could see how you would not want to pay for an album twice if you're looking forward to playing it on vinyl afterwards.

foreverfan1984 said:

I decided to try AOA first. Called every Wrecka Stow within 50 miles. They have Purple Rain and 1999. Plenty of those. I didn't realize I might not be able to just get what I want. One of the stores told me there are so few places that make vinyl that I would probably have to wait 2+ months. I am so disappointed. I want my Prince now.

my local wal mart has it!