From beginning to end, this is probably one of my top Prince albums. So - rating the songs is hard cuz I do like almost everything...but I listen repeatedly (and I do mean a LOT!) to Time, U Know, Clouds, & What It Feels Like.

Way Back Home (coupled with the Affirmations) is just a stunning work of art that brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it...it has brought different tears during the last 6 months. An amazing insight into his world and his mind that I am now forever grateful to have. So, my answer would be Way Back Home . (But very close behind is Time... incredible and moving...love the interplay between Prince and Andy)!!

I forgot FunknRoll ALWAYS makes me turn up the volume!!

jaawwnn said:

U know.

It was the song that instantly caught my attention when I first heard the album, and it´s still my favourite.

Lovejunky said:

PeteSilas said:

, i'm just glad he never listened to the people here, he would have given up a long long time ago. People here were vicious for the most part.

You know...I used to come to the org whenever something new came out...but I was always so put off ,by what I would call HARD CORE vitriol...for years It didnt compute with me that this was a FAN Community every time I looked there was some kind of heavy criticism ..

It used to hurt ME then now it breaks my heart that Prince might have read some of those things..

How crestfallen he might have been at times....after all the Love and Devotion he put into his Art,

and how much FUN he made it to be a fan...You had to search him out..and it was always a trippy ride.....

anyway

Back to the topic ..I Love the whole album ...

Its Profound in so many ways THe Artificial Cage is this body within which "I " reside

I hear him yearn for Freedom beyond this Earthly Realm...

Way back Home confirms it

That freedom from body thing all completely glossed over me - I merely thought he was reasserting some digital disconnect malaise rather than an actual affliction (but I don't ever meditate or practise anything transcendental so that's easy to miss), or he was going a bit spacey because he'd chatted to Elon Musk at the Whitehouse or something

.

Still, best way to codify an "I'm leaving soon" message would be inside of a high-concept sci-fi love soul workout.

.

Plus he literally phoned it in on Time because he's literally dialling up and singing the vocals down the phone! Genius!

.

I was so internet alert inept I missed every Yahoo Livestream! Probably in bed though. Clouds is my favourite.

NorthC said:

Nobody likes The Gold Standard, the only funk song on here?

I remember crying to Breakdown after most of a bottle of wine so The Gold Standard cheered me right up afterwards - was flapping around the living room like a arm waving inflatable tube man with wheels, and a huge grin on me face

nonames said:

jaawwnn said:

U Know

I have never changed my opinion so radically and so quickly about a song as I did about U Know. I distinctively remember a colleague coming into my classroom when I was first listening to it and asking me why I was listening to such modern music. I said to her 'it's Prince; he just doesn't rememeber how to write songs anymore". But by the time e album came out I loved this - such a brilliant song!

It's like a computerised Clever Trevor.

It's tie for me. Way Back Home and Clouds

Breakdown or Clouds.

The first album he released since i became a fan.

Every book I read

Said that I would meet somebody like you (somebody like you)

Whenver I was sorry (so sorry) for the things I used to do...

Too many on this album. Almost seems like a modern single disc version of SOTT?

Clouds is my most played iTunes track ever. Beating out the 80s tracks.

I was fortunate to see him perform Breakdown during Montreux 2013's 3rd night. There was a feeling you were hearing something special for the first time.

U Know is Hot Thing's hypnotic, seductive cousin.

Time is a grower that stomps on you w/that bassline.

[Edited 10/21/16 23:00pm]

Way Back Home, Clouds (heard this one on SNL) and This Could Be Us (sorry, hard to choose just one, lol).

[Edited 10/22/16 7:45am]

AlgeriaTouchshreek said:

Way back home, Clouds and Breakdown are my favourites. I can't pick.

AlgeriaTouchshreek said:

dance4me3121 said:

AudreyA said:

dance4me3121 said:

Way back home and Affirmation 3

Completely agree. Absolutely beautiful music and words, and the way the piano is used to enhance the whole sequence is so so moving. I always found it emotional; since April, even more so.

I'm glad I had two years to listen to it and absorb it in a different way than after Prince passed on... I hope to go back to hearing it that way again... Of course, it will always be more poignant since his passing, but the album held a lot of personal meaning for me before then that I would like to retain.

bobgeorge77 said:

Breakfast Can Wait

Clouds!!

Or Time.. That part at 6.11 min. is heavenly.

Totals from the thread so far. If people included more than one jam, that's cool and most have, one person chose 12 out of 13 songs and another 9.

.

Results so far

.

1. Way back home - 29 votes!!! There was no contest here, this song is great, but also so prophetic and eerie in a way too. The aural soundscape is just incredible, it makes you feel like you are flying.

2. Clouds - 15 votes, a distant 2nd, but a popular choice for this accessible slice of pop.

3. Time - 12 votes, the sister song to Way back home, another great selection.

4. U know - 10 votes, sex has a place to with creamy vocals

5. This could be us - 9 votes, one of my favourites and initially not that popular, but the song is s agrower despite the remix on Hitnrun Phase 1 attempts to derail from this original.

6. Breakdown - 8 votes, the teary power ballad still rules.

7. Affirmation III - 7 votes, amazing a spoken almost gimmick track can do so well, is it the sound of Lianne LaHavas?

8 = Art Official cage, What it feels like, Breakfast can wait - 5 votes a piece, all cute pieces that are neither good or bad. I actually think they are all lesser on this album of nuggets.

9. Gold Standard - 4 votes and 2 were the big 12 and 9 song votes, this is a robbery, a fantastic 80s sounding jam finished 2nd to last and last of the actual songs. Did it give people nightmares of the terrible MPLSOUND album?

10. Affirmations I and II - 2 votes (Both the party votes of 9 and 12 songz), its talking and mostly drivel about objects seeking your attention. This drivel got 3 votes too many

said it many times, way back home was Prince's "change is gonna come" (sam cooke) and way down, burning love, hurt (elvis). It was his requiem, in fact i should have got in my car and tried to stop it from happening.

PeteSilas said:

said it many times, way back home was Prince's "change is gonna come" (sam cooke) and way down, burning love, hurt (elvis). It was his requiem, in fact i should have got in my car and tried to stop it from happening.

It would seem to be a requiem, now that you mention it...

purplethunder3121 said:

PeteSilas said:

said it many times, way back home was Prince's "change is gonna come" (sam cooke) and way down, burning love, hurt (elvis). It was his requiem, in fact i should have got in my car and tried to stop it from happening.

It would seem to be a requiem, now that you mention it...

I think there are many who would agree on that...

THis link has a wonderful article on AOA

http://prince.org/msg/7/433066