I remember Hit N Run Phase 1 causing a major shitstorm when it first came out, and I wonder, in light of Prince's passing, have the people who thought this album was "beneath him" softened in their opinions on it with the passing of time?

I also recall a big ruckus around the release of Crystal Ball, obviously not helped by the fact that many fans ordered the album online and had to wait months and months for their product. But also, I think many were dismayed and baffled by some of the song choices. I also remember Rave causing a bit of a fan backlash back in the day, a lot of disgruntled fans none too pleased with the duets and guest cameos.

I wasn't a fan in the eighties (seeing as I was only born in '85), but I'd be curious to know how albums like ATWIAD, Lovesexy, Batman and D&P were received back then, but then I guess fan community shitstorms never really existed back then, without the internet....

New Power Soul was one of those...

TRC certainly neeeds to be mentioned here. It is arguably his most hated album, at least at the time of it's release. It was hard to listen to the stident JW lyrics and the ridiculous sounding narrator. For me, my initial reaction was tempered by how good the music sounded in concert and that his subsequent albums were mostly lyrically less dogmatic in the way they expressed his views. My concern that his music would become confined to JW music proved to be unfounded .

The Rainbow Children, probably the most.

From what I've read over the years on the Org...definitely The Rainbow Children.

I think ATWIAD had alot of folks scratching their heads when it was released. Everyone was waiting for another Purple Rain album and were instead treated to a very 'soft' opening song. Add that to what Prince says at the end of the last song ('I have to go away now. I don't know when I'll be back.') had people wondering if he was going to stop singing/recording/playing any more music. Don't get me wrong- I think ATWIAD is brilliant, with some of his most spiritual songs (I Wish You Heaven, The Ladder) but it is rather light-hearted to the casual listener. I don't think the casual listener understood just what Tamborine was really about.....

kingricefan said:

I think ATWIAD had alot of folks scratching their heads when it was released. Everyone was waiting for another Purple Rain album and were instead treated to a very 'soft' opening song. Add that to what Prince says at the end of the last song ('I have to go away now. I don't know when I'll be back.') had people wondering if he was going to stop singing/recording/playing any more music. Don't get me wrong- I think ATWIAD is brilliant, with some of his most spiritual songs (I Wish You Heaven, The Ladder) but it is rather light-hearted to the casual listener. I don't think the casual listener understood just what Tamborine was really about.....

You do know I Wish U Heaven is not on ATWIAD, don't you?

MattyJam said:

kingricefan said:

I think ATWIAD had alot of folks scratching their heads when it was released. Everyone was waiting for another Purple Rain album and were instead treated to a very 'soft' opening song. Add that to what Prince says at the end of the last song ('I have to go away now. I don't know when I'll be back.') had people wondering if he was going to stop singing/recording/playing any more music. Don't get me wrong- I think ATWIAD is brilliant, with some of his most spiritual songs (I Wish You Heaven, The Ladder) but it is rather light-hearted to the casual listener. I don't think the casual listener understood just what Tamborine was really about.....

You do know I Wish U Heaven is not on ATWIAD, don't you?

Oh, Man, chalk that up to not enough sleep! Sorry about that!

The Rainbow Children like others have said is one 4 sure. Having LG always by his side when promoting that only made things worse.

I'm surprised no1 has mentioned The Black Album yet.

I don't remember any shitstorm before the internet: just, as said above, progressive disappointment after Lovesexy. I think the first mass outrage online was CB, though I wonder how Emancipation was received (I didn't have the internet and the Org didn't exist back then, but I think Usenet or some other online communities were already there?).

.

After that honestly it's been shitstorm after shitstorm, I don't remember any album not causing some sort of mass outcry save maybe Musicology, 3121 and Lotusflow3r. I think a lot of people should have moved on in the mid 90's instead of keeping buying Prince records and having this weird emotionally disturbed love/hate relationship with his music.

.

Regarding CB, putting aside the pre-orders fiasco, someone else analyzed the situation pretty well a few months ago on a CB thread: it was judged much more for what it was not than for what it was. I hope Prince got around finalizing CB2 before it was shelved, I'd love to hear what he did with it.

Emancipation got mixed reactions back then.

I'd say that they were more positive in overall than what some of the later shitstorm threads on it have been like.

I can remember people complaining about the plastic overall sound back then too.

"My Computer" was certainly among the favourites of the fans that used the Internet then.

NPS was not well-received at all. I think most agreed that "The One" and "Wasted Kisses" were good tracks, but not even "Come On" seemed to get the type of positive comments that it started to get later.

The Truth. I also remember a silly review from uptown, btw.

MattyJam said:

fabriziovenerandi said:

NorthC said:

fabriziovenerandi said:

The Truth. I also remember a silly review from uptown, btw.

I still have that! It was written by Magnus Nilsson. Here's a quote: "Many of the songs on The Truth are harmonically too monotonous with melodies that hardly move up or down (...) The result is music that is uneventful at the risk of being boring." I have to say that I somewhat agree with this; songs like Man In a Uniform and Animal Kingdom are a bit boring and don't have much of a melody. Others like Fascination and Welcome to the Dawn are much stronger. I read this review before hearing the album, so when I finally did, I could only think: it's not that bad.

OK, The Truth is one of my favorite. So when I read the review I was thinking "whaaat are talking about?". 3rd eyes, Circle of Amour, Dionne... I think uptown had a limitate point of view about Prince's music and did not see the armonic/acustic project of The Truth (and some times after they wrote a silly entusiastic review of a not-so-good album like Rave, btw).

fabriziovenerandi said:

The Truth. I also remember a silly review from uptown, btw.

I love The Truth. It showed me a different side to P's music (acoustical) that I hadn't really heard before. It sounds like I'm sitting in a room with him while he's doing these songs on his guitar, just him and I.

databank said:

I don't remember any shitstorm before the internet: just, as said above, progressive disappointment after Lovesexy. I think the first mass outrage online was CB, though I wonder how Emancipation was received (I didn't have the internet and the Org didn't exist back then, but I think Usenet or some other online communities were already there?).

.

After that honestly it's been shitstorm after shitstorm, I don't remember any album not causing some sort of mass outcry save maybe Musicology, 3121 and Lotusflow3r. I think a lot of people should have moved on in the mid 90's instead of keeping buying Prince records and having this weird emotionally disturbed love/hate relationship with his music.

.

Regarding CB, putting aside the pre-orders fiasco, someone else analyzed the situation pretty well a few months ago on a CB thread: it was judged much more for what it was not than for what it was. I hope Prince got around finalizing CB2 before it was shelved, I'd love to hear what he did with it.

I love, love, love Emancipation. It's Prince at his happiest. You can hear his joy in almost every song.

MattyJam said:

I remember Hit N Run Phase 1 causing a major shitstorm when it first came out, and I wonder, in light of Prince's passing, have the people who thought this album was "beneath him" softened in their opinions on it with the passing of time?

I'm pretty much the same on Hit N Run Part 1, same with AOA, I wasn't a huuge fan of that album either. Still listen every now and again, but my opinion on the music hasn't changed.

Hit n Run Part 2 though is sublime.

kingricefan said:

fabriziovenerandi said:

The Truth. I also remember a silly review from uptown, btw.

I love The Truth. It showed me a different side to P's music (acoustical) that I hadn't really heard before. It sounds like I'm sitting in a room with him while he's doing these songs on his guitar, just him and I.

Make it three!

Man in an uniform, Don´t play me, One of your tears...I`m always listening to this album.

TrivialPursuit said:

The Rainbow Children, probably the most.

I'd agree - if it wasn't the lyrical content, it was people angry that their October 2001 NPGMC download was the full album and not something else, because all of us wanted to buy the physical album anyway.

Runner up would be Crystal Ball because of the delivery fiasco. I was one of those who pre-ordered, waited months, and then saw it in Best Buy and called to cancel my order.

Third place for me was The Gold Experience. Probably the album everyone had heard the most from before it eventually got released, and then to find Days of Wild had been removed was really disappointing. DoW defined that era of Prince music to me, and I had my heart set on an awesome studio version at the time.

Telecaster5 said:

kingricefan said:

I love The Truth. It showed me a different side to P's music (acoustical) that I hadn't really heard before. It sounds like I'm sitting in a room with him while he's doing these songs on his guitar, just him and I.

Make it three!

Man in an uniform, Don´t play me, One of your tears...I`m always listening to this album.

Hey! I said it was just me and Prince sitting in a room! Well, I guess we can make room for one more.....

I know that Around the world in a day caused a real shit storm from millions of fans who bought Purple Rain and were expecting Purple Rain Mark 2. Of course they abandoned him in droves, sales of it were 1/5 of what Purple Rain was, then again how do you follow up a triple uranium hit like Purple Rain.

.

The only artists topping mega albums, people like Whitney and Michael Jackson waited at least 2 years before the next blockbuster came out, Prince fostered ATWIAD on the world just 10 months after Purple Rain and 2 weeks after the tour had ended. Plus it did not help ATWIAD is a great but challenging album and only 2 songs and a B side were Top 10 chart material (Raspberry Beret, Pop Life and She's always in my hair).

.

For fairweather teeny boppers, songs like Condition of the Heart and the Title track would lose them with their mad mozart dripping in byzantine arrangements feel. Anyway the fall off was quick and swift and Prince's star had fallen so fast that the super brilliant SOTT was cut to 2 discs from the 3 album vision of Dream Factory/Crystal Ball, and Prince left the Michael Jackson/Whitney Houston league forever.

.

Other albums that caused a shitstorm were the Rainbow Children in 2001, with its blatant religious propaganda and nonsensical JW dogma which divided some fans, some loved it but many like me hated it to death.

.

Also a stream of underwhelming albums in the mid and late 1990s caused a shit storm as many abandoned Prince and only rejoined in the mid 2000s renaissance of Musicology and 3121. Albums like Choas and Disorder, Emancipation, Truth, Crystal Ball, NPS and both Raves threw amny fans with lots of substandard filler and wack jams amongst a handful of gems. Even the better albums (Like the first 4 mentioned) either had bizarre distribution, or songs so offensively bad they tainted the rest of the album.

Doozer said:

TrivialPursuit said:

The Rainbow Children, probably the most.

I'd agree - if it wasn't the lyrical content, it was people angry that their October 2001 NPGMC download was the full album and not something else, because all of us wanted to buy the physical album anyway.

Runner up would be Crystal Ball because of the delivery fiasco. I was one of those who pre-ordered, waited months, and then saw it in Best Buy and called to cancel my order.

Third place for me was The Gold Experience. Probably the album everyone had heard the most from before it eventually got released, and then to find Days of Wild had been removed was really disappointing. DoW defined that era of Prince music to me, and I had my heart set on an awesome studio version at the time.

Agree with these 2. I remember the old black and purple org going ape shit over the whole TRC / JW thing.

.

I was also so disappointed to not have Days Of Wild on TGE. As Doozer says it really did define that era (my favourite by the way).

kingricefan said:

Telecaster5 said:

Make it three!

Man in an uniform, Don´t play me, One of your tears...I`m always listening to this album.

Hey! I said it was just me and Prince sitting in a room! Well, I guess we can make room for one more.....

I´m sure it will soon turn into a party !

Telecaster5 said:

kingricefan said:

Hey! I said it was just me and Prince sitting in a room! Well, I guess we can make room for one more.....

I´m sure it will soon turn into a party !

I'll bring the Fireball!!!

NorthC said: