FragileUndertow said:

26ten said:

I'm being totally serious. To me Rave is just as good as SOTT. No joke.

Exactly.

Rave is better than SOTT? I really hope you are joking. Sometimes I feel like the only one who likes the Come era. There were some pretty good songs on the album. I also love post 3121 era and post TGE era

206Michelle said:

Guitarhero said:

1994-96 I think most hardcore fans did not like his hairstyle and clothes during these years. Just to add i was still on board during this era, love the gold album and Chaos album. Some cool concerts too.

[Edited 12/1/16 10:36am]

GH, I wonder if some of P's hardcore female fans who were in love with him may have been turned off by this era, due to jealousy, because of his relationship/marriage to Mayte. I don't know the answer, I'm just putting this thought out there.

--

There are some great songs on Emancipation. "The Love We Make" is a masterpiece, one of my top 5 Prince songs of all time. He did some great live performances of this song, namely this one: https://www.youtube.com/w...RRSdRhfRA.

I don't know about jealousy over Mayte you would have to ask them but seeing the comments from some of his female fans that most did not like his look during this era. But i totaly dig the music in this era too and thanks for that clip , wonderful performance of that beautiful song.

DarlingKris said:

Rave is better than SOTT? I really hope you are joking. Sometimes I feel like the only one who likes the Come era. There were some pretty good songs on the album. I also love post 3121 era and post TGE era

I like the album a lot.

To me he seemed a bit lost during the 1997-1999 years but you have to consider all the personal stuff he was going through and with that in mind, I think he still gave his best and was a great live performer even during his worst phase. And he gave us gems such as the Truth album and some cool songs that got lost (Madrid 2 Chicago, Supercute etc. ) ,and some songs that sounded mediocre (Daisy Chain , etc.) . But it takes a lot of strength ,talent and dedication to do what he did during that era.

What got on most people´s nerves were the band and especially Kirk on the drums (though personally I don´t dislike Kirk as a drummer at all), the endless Sly Stone medleys and the omnipresence of Larry but I guess in hindsight those factors can be discussed ad nauseum and we still wouldn´t come to a conclusion.

.

The Rave era had a lot of potential and I quite liked the album when it was released but I didn´t like the way he handled the promotion of it. The TV performances did absolutely nothing for me and the songs he played to promote the album were boring (TGRES, Baby Knows) but the album as such was pretty good, albeit flawed (The Sun, Moon And Stars is a nice song but I hated the fake patois at the end, Rave was never really my favorite song and sounded dated, Every Day Is a Winding Road sounded horrible to me, and the HitNRun tour was pretty boring and even the good songs sounded a bit lame). Then again, I liked most of the songs on it except for those tiny details that almost ruined those songs for me.

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I think TRC, as controversial as it still is, brought back a very passionate Prince with a great tour that focused on the album and some rare, oldschool songs.

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The 3rdEyeGirl era is very underrated. I didn´t like their album but the live shows were amazing, and the era was really good and the setlists were good.

Diamonds and Pearls era, people always accuse it of being too pop and too commercial sellout/trend chasing rap wannabe and the rest. When in reality it was his most fertile period since Lovesexy. Prince returned big time to the commerical music scene with the album, but he also made up for the lacklustre Batman and Graffiti Bridge eras. Both were morose and dull times with the long hair and so called pseudo intellectual feel. Diamonds and Pearls bought the party back.

.

It seems that Tony M is being redeemed a bit now (Peach and Black did a great interview with him) and we are waking up to the fact songs like Gett Off, Cream, Insatiable and Thunder are masterpieces that deserve to be with his 80s classic. It was also the album where the original New Power generation were smoking and had gelled as a group, from Tony's raps to Rosies vocals and the rhythm section of Sonny, Michael B and Levi. Plus Prince seemed younger acting and more loose, leaping around on stage and singing more sexually forthright songs. The dancing became freer and a lot better than the lumbering bodyguards and boringness of the Nude tour.

.

Plus Diamonds and Pearls sold, with 4 top 30 singles, his last #1 hit and the Tour. Some people detest it because it was so successful and apparently he sacrificed his innovator laurels by following trends, okay with the rapping - but whose trend is Insatiable or Money don't matter 2night following? There was enough on that album for the hardcore. Yes Jughead was a misstep, but how many albums of his do not have at least one or two jokers on them?.

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Would you guys have liked it more, if the album was a colossal flop?, probably not you would still be knocking it and attributing the lack of success to the reason why it sucks. And then most of you love Lovesymbol, when in reality, it is Diamonds and Pearls part 2 with less quality control, both albums sound similar, but D and P is more concise and Tony's rap is even worse on Symbol. Yes symbol has Damn u and a few other fine songs, but its larded down with filler and songs like 3 Chains of Gold that have Byzantine levels of overproduction.

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So maybe it was his cherry boy look then with the doo rag, permed hair and pouty lips make up making him look like a model for same 90s gay porno by Pierre et Giles, and the provocatie ass fucking dance he had on stage. Prince was effeminate looking and acting at this stage and suggesting his guitar penetrate his anus on the Cream video, along with the Jamie Foxx butt out jeans sketch and those assless pants, have made us all question his sexuality more since.

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I know its a hated era too, when the posts I see, ranking 90s albums have Diamonds and Pearls in last place behind real shit like Newpowersoul and Rave.

[Edited 12/5/16 14:21pm]

Whereas I disagree about Rave, I have really tried to like this album, but it is just too boring and unadventorous.

.

I pretty much went off Prince between 1997 and 2004. I did not buy any new albums as they came out between Crystal Ball and Musicology. I returned to the Prince fold in 2005 with SST and then quickly bought Musicology and though "Meh". I did start listening to all my old Prince albums again though and by the time Black Sweat dropped I knew Prince was back and bought 3121 the day it came out and loved it, and have been back to the hardcore since then.

.

It was 2006 that I caught up by getting NPS (Hated it), Rave (Meh!), TRC (Yuck, most overrated pile of shit ever made), and Crystal Ball (Got in 2009 and loved). I did not do the NPG Music club, because I was too poor at the time for a computer and only became netconnected in 2001, with full access to my own computer in 2005.

.

So most underated - Diamonds and Pearls, Planet Earth

Overrated to death - The Rainbow Children

I love Come! Pheremone is my jam!!!

DarlingKris said:

Rave is better than SOTT? I really hope you are joking. Sometimes I feel like the only one who likes the Come era. There were some pretty good songs on the album. I also love post 3121 era and post TGE era

LRCdancer88 said:

I love Come! Pheremone is my jam!!!

DarlingKris said:

Rave is better than SOTT? I really hope you are joking. Sometimes I feel like the only one who likes the Come era. There were some pretty good songs on the album. I also love post 3121 era and post TGE era

Its mine too! I also like Dark and the title track

FragileUndertow said:

26ten said:

I'm being totally serious. To me Rave is just as good as SOTT. No joke.

This made me laugh so much.

CherryMoon57 said:

Emancipation, The Truth and Crystal Ball are fantastic albums from that era, and deserve a lot more love than they got when released.

Lack of (or problems relating to) promotion are probably to blame.

I agree with you. There are many gems on these albums, specially The truth. I really love this one.

all of them after 1989...they are all hit and miss but still filled with gems. I am always stunned by how critical people are of Prince's later music. Prince at his worst makes later-day Elton John or Billy Joel sound like Barry Manilow.

26ten said:

Question:

.
What range of years do you feel is most underappreciated by the hardcore fans?

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I feel 1996-2000 is terribly underloved. Haven't been able to stop listening to the studio albums from this period for some time now (CB and the vault I don't really count since they're comps - although I really like them).

.

Some people may accuse me of trolling by saying this, which is ridiculous - I'm being totally serious. To me Rave is just as good as SOTT. No joke.

I'm writing a review of Rave that sums up my feelings and reasoning for loving it as much as I do. I'd post it here but it's just too long and would take up too much room. Well, actually - what would be the forum rules for that? Would that be a new thread or would I just wanna post it here?

.

Also - I think it's so funny what unlikely or rare opinions get in terms of responses in here. We got people who turn into George Costanza over that here and I am just happy to be able to discuss with my fellow Prince fans. I would not want opinions that were not honest, and even better if they're strong opinions, so it's all good!

26ten said:

I'm writing a review of Rave that sums up my feelings and reasoning for loving it as much as I do. I'd post it here but it's just too long and would take up too much room. Well, actually - what would be the forum rules for that? Would that be a new thread or would I just wanna post it here?

.

Also - I think it's so funny what unlikely or rare opinions get in terms of responses in here. We got people who turn into George Costanza over that here and I am just happy to be able to discuss with my fellow Prince fans. I would not want opinions that were not honest, and even better if they're strong opinions, so it's all good!

if its on topic i dont see anything wrong with you posting here.

Turning into Goerge is partly joking, light humor.. Its just my way of disagreeing

Some might find it funny.. some may not

There is nothing wrong with loving 1 album over another, we all like stuff for diffrent reasons

theres a few albums i like that gest no love here. but im good with that

FragileUndertow said:

26ten said:

I'm being totally serious. To me Rave is just as good as SOTT. No joke.

.

I'm a big Seinfeld fan so I dig this gif..

.

for me, my answer would be "the era after Sign O the Times in 1987..

.

serenity now.

The Slaughterhouse/Chocolate Invasion era

26ten said:

I'm writing a review of Rave that sums up my feelings and reasoning for loving it as much as I do. I'd post it here but it's just too long and would take up too much room. Well, actually - what would be the forum rules for that? Would that be a new thread or would I just wanna post it here?

.

Also - I think it's so funny what unlikely or rare opinions get in terms of responses in here. We got people who turn into George Costanza over that here and I am just happy to be able to discuss with my fellow Prince fans. I would not want opinions that were not honest, and even better if they're strong opinions, so it's all good!

Start a new thread. As a fellow Rave lover, I would like to read it.

Not exactly an era, but I think lots of fans didnt care much about his ´jazz oriented´ stuff.
I really LOVE his ´musician´ side that showed so much on albums like The Rainbow Children, The Vault and Lotus Flower, but these albums were very overlooked.

Rave has some great tracks : Tangerine, Man O War, The sun the moon... ; in my opinion, the main problem with this album, as others said, is that it lacks of adventurous stuff and cohesiveness.

I wish he had released more albums in the orchestral/psychedelia style of the mid-eighties era (Around the world in a day), but perhaps he has saved this kind of albums in the vault.

BlueLantern said:

Rave has some great tracks : Tangerine, Man O War, The sun the moon... ; in my opinion, the main problem with this album, as others said, is that it lacks of adventurous stuff and cohesiveness.

I wish he had released more albums in the orchestral/psychedelia style of the mid-eighties era (Around the world in a day), but perhaps he has saved this kind of albums in the vault.

.

"Not exactly an era, but I think lots of fans didnt care much about his ´jazz oriented´ stuff." - Gustavo

.

Hahaha!!! You know it's funny - right about the time of Rave 99's release he said that those were the things that were in the vault. On youtube the interview is titled "Prince - MTV Interview with Kurt Loder 1999" - right about 10:20.

MattyJam said:

26ten said:

I'm writing a review of Rave that sums up my feelings and reasoning for loving it as much as I do. I'd post it here but it's just too long and would take up too much room. Well, actually - what would be the forum rules for that? Would that be a new thread or would I just wanna post it here?

.

Also - I think it's so funny what unlikely or rare opinions get in terms of responses in here. We got people who turn into George Costanza over that here and I am just happy to be able to discuss with my fellow Prince fans. I would not want opinions that were not honest, and even better if they're strong opinions, so it's all good!

Start a new thread. As a fellow Rave lover, I would like to read it.

Noted! As a Rave fan I'm glad that you're out there! As soon as it's done I'll post it!

Emancipation.

People should just take their heads out of their asses and listen to it properly again.

novabrkr said:

Emancipation.

People should just take their heads out of their asses and listen to it properly again.

i've been trying to but it just sounds more and more syrupy and plastic with each listen.

wavesofbliss said:

novabrkr said:

Emancipation.

People should just take their heads out of their asses and listen to it properly again.

i've been trying to but it just sounds more and more syrupy and plastic with each listen.

Ok. Sorry about the expression I used above, I just tried to be funny.

Everyone is arguing about about lesser albums like Rave and Emancipation, yet no one has batted an eyelid over the gold that is Diamonds and Pearls.

.

Emancipation is not that bad, some of the songs are incredible and at least 6 are classics (Holy River, love we make, In this bed I scream, One Kiss at a time, One of us, My computer), but there are at least 10 fillers and easily 2 of his very worst songs ever made - Mr Happy and Da da da. The album is reviled as it was too big, had NO quality control of any kind (Prince's version of MADE IN CHINA) and pretty much a ghetto $1 shop product. The fact he charged top follar for it on release ($69 NZ) and now its been in every bargain bin since early 1997 and it can be bought for under a fiver. Plus the booklet used cutting edge mid 90s photoshop which is so fey and dated incredibly quickly.

.

Plus the fact most of it commemorates a relationship that fell to bits, also leaves a sour taste to Emancipation, the fact there was no promotion after the 1st single and the superior Holy River limped out, EMI went belly up and collapsed. It was like it was cursed. No such problems with Diamonds and Pearls, which was full steam ahead!

Adorecream said:

Everyone is arguing about about lesser albums like Rave and Emancipation, yet no one has batted an eyelid over the gold that is Diamonds and Pearls.

.

Emancipation is not that bad, some of the songs are incredible and at least 6 are classics (Holy River, love we make, In this bed I scream, One Kiss at a time, One of us, My computer), but there are at least 10 fillers and easily 2 of his very worst songs ever made - Mr Happy and Da da da. The album is reviled as it was too big, had NO quality control of any kind (Prince's version of MADE IN CHINA) and pretty much a ghetto $1 shop product. The fact he charged top follar for it on release ($69 NZ) and now its been in every bargain bin since early 1997 and it can be bought for under a fiver. Plus the booklet used cutting edge mid 90s photoshop which is so fey and dated incredibly quickly.

.

Plus the fact most of it commemorates a relationship that fell to bits, also leaves a sour taste to Emancipation, the fact there was no promotion after the 1st single and the superior Holy River limped out, EMI went belly up and collapsed. It was like it was cursed. No such problems with Diamonds and Pearls, which was full steam ahead!

Diamonds & Pearls is fantastic. Maybe it wasn't as groundbreaking or adventerous as some other albums, but it's still a great album. Isn't Diamonds & Pearls the third best selling Prince album (not including compilations) after Purple Rain and 1999? Personally, I like D&P better than 1999.

206Michelle said:

Adorecream said:

Everyone is arguing about about lesser albums like Rave and Emancipation, yet no one has batted an eyelid over the gold that is Diamonds and Pearls.

.

Emancipation is not that bad, some of the songs are incredible and at least 6 are classics (Holy River, love we make, In this bed I scream, One Kiss at a time, One of us, My computer), but there are at least 10 fillers and easily 2 of his very worst songs ever made - Mr Happy and Da da da. The album is reviled as it was too big, had NO quality control of any kind (Prince's version of MADE IN CHINA) and pretty much a ghetto $1 shop product. The fact he charged top follar for it on release ($69 NZ) and now its been in every bargain bin since early 1997 and it can be bought for under a fiver. Plus the booklet used cutting edge mid 90s photoshop which is so fey and dated incredibly quickly.

.

Plus the fact most of it commemorates a relationship that fell to bits, also leaves a sour taste to Emancipation, the fact there was no promotion after the 1st single and the superior Holy River limped out, EMI went belly up and collapsed. It was like it was cursed. No such problems with Diamonds and Pearls, which was full steam ahead!

Diamonds & Pearls is fantastic. Maybe it wasn't as groundbreaking or adventerous as some other albums, but it's still a great album. Isn't Diamonds & Pearls the third best selling Prince album (not including compilations) after Purple Rain and 1999? Personally, I like D&P better than 1999.

In hindsight people love to criticize D&P but I think it was very well received when it came out, it has some great songs on it marred by a few flunkers and it is very versatile without sounding too formulaic.

There´s some political songs or social awareness songs on it such as Money Don´t Matter2Nite and Live 4 Love, a great ballad such as Insatiable, a club banger such as Get Off, lots of rock guitar here and there, some jazzy feelgood songs such as the lovely Strollin´ and the positive Walk Don´t Walk (which is a nice little song but I don´t like the honking sounds on it).

All in all a very uplifting, positive album with some profound messages but deemed too commercial by many hardcore fans.

I still like it and I probably even like it more than back in the day when it came out.

And it came with so much extra stuff....for example all those maxi singles with remixes or extra songs....Violet the Organ Grinder, Clockin the Jizz, Gangster Glam, Get Some Solo.

Good times.

KoolEaze said:

206Michelle said:

Diamonds & Pearls is fantastic. Maybe it wasn't as groundbreaking or adventerous as some other albums, but it's still a great album. Isn't Diamonds & Pearls the third best selling Prince album (not including compilations) after Purple Rain and 1999? Personally, I like D&P better than 1999.

In hindsight people love to criticize D&P but I think it was very well received when it came out, it has some great songs on it marred by a few flunkers and it is very versatile without sounding too formulaic.

There´s some political songs or social awareness songs on it such as Money Don´t Matter2Nite and Live 4 Love, a great ballad such as Insatiable, a club banger such as Get Off, lots of rock guitar here and there, some jazzy feelgood songs such as the lovely Strollin´ and the positive Walk Don´t Walk (which is a nice little song but I don´t like the honking sounds on it).

All in all a very uplifting, positive album with some profound messages but deemed too commercial by many hardcore fans.

I still like it and I probably even like it more than back in the day when it came out.

And it came with so much extra stuff....for example all those maxi singles with remixes or extra songs....Violet the Organ Grinder, Clockin the Jizz, Gangster Glam, Get Some Solo.

Good times.

Maybe I misunderstand the meaning of "commercial," but wouldn't "Purple Rain" be the most commercial album since it is Prince's best-selling album and has gone something like 14x platinum?

A good question. It is true that all albums that sell in the millions are commercially successfully. In this case, it is a fact and not a judgment. on the other hand, some albums/movies etc. are criticized for being made with so much focus on the music selling well that the art of the music is severely compromised. These are "commercial" in their intent, and it is the intent that is criticized. Sometimes they aren't even commercially successfully despite their intent (some have argued that this is the case with Rave). Occasionally, the commercial and artistic forces come together which was the case of Purple Rain.

For me, Diamonds and Pearls was one of Prince's few albums that seemed so focused on turning around his commercial viability that there just didn't have the artistic zest that most of his other albums did before then. I liked most of it okay but just wasn't exciting. I am glad it was loved by others though!