I'm halfway through this album right now and what a ride it is. I never realized what a moody unsettling album it really is. From the eerie album art alone, you know this isn't a party record by any means.

The sexually charged songs on the album are like the yin to Dirty Mind's yang; whereas "Dirty Mind" is youthful, playful and relatively innocuous (aside from maybe "Sister") in its portrayal of sex, "Come" is quite aggressive and even scary in some parts. The 'gun / masturbation' verse in "Pheremone" stands out for me, as well as the 'don't breathe' portion of the title song.

Then, of course, there's "Papa," which is quite frightening and unusually personal for Prince. "Solo" also creeps me out for how minimalist and emotionally naked it is. I close my eyes and I see just a sort of darkscape, kind of like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" but much grimmer.

Any thoughts on this one? Also, any other Prince songs or albums that strike you as dark or edgy? I'm intrigued by that side of his music.

Yes, it might well be. It's also in my opinion, his most under-rated album.

If you're interested, I did a whole podcast about this album for a show called Transatlantic Rebels!

67Cadillac said:

I'm halfway through this album right now and what a ride it is. I never realized what a moody unsettling album it really is. From the eerie album art alone, you know this isn't a party record by any means.

The sexually charged songs on the album are like the yin to Dirty Mind's yang; whereas "Dirty Mind" is youthful, playful and relatively innocuous (aside from maybe "Sister") in its portrayal of sex, "Come" is quite aggressive and even scary in some parts. The 'gun / masturbation' verse in "Pheremone" stands out for me, as well as the 'don't breathe' portion of the title song.

Then, of course, there's "Papa," which is quite frightening and unusually personal for Prince. "Solo" also creeps me out for how minimalist and emotionally naked it is. I close my eyes and I see just a sort of darkscape, kind of like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" but much grimmer.

Any thoughts on this one? Also, any other Prince songs or albums that strike you as dark or edgy? I'm intrigued by that side of his music.

The Black Album with songs like Bob George and Superfunkycalifragissexy or Cindy C. comes to mind, and of course the 1999 album with its cold, dark and lustful songs such as Automatic with its BDSM undertones, or the even colder Something In The Water (Does Not Compute) about rejection and pain, or Lady Cab Driver. Sure, there are also more upbeat songs on 1999 such as DMSR but the overall vibe of the album is, in my opinion, rather cold and dark, and I love that aspect about it.

To me , even the album cover artwork by Prince looks a bit dark and mysterious, and the inner sleeve with him on his bed while it´s dark outside adds a lot to the dark, sexy and yet also cold feel of the album, which I still consider one of his best and which is still growing on me after all these years.

Militant said:

Yes, it might well be. It's also in my opinion, his most under-rated album.

If you're interested, I did a whole podcast about this album for a show called Transatlantic Rebels!

Interesting podcast and nice summary of what was going on at the time, including Prince badmouthing and partly sabotaging the success of Come in order to gather more support for the Gold Experience.

I remember that Vibe interview that Alan Light did where Prince made him listen to songs from both albums, dissing the Come songs and praising the Gold Experience.

I like both albums and see the songs of part of the same phase and era, and basically same project when you look at the bigger picture.

I think adding Strays of the World as the last song on the album like he originally planned to do would have given the whole album a bit of a more positive vibe but since the song also deals with loneliness it still would have left a rather "dark" feel.

I like how the song ends with the word "Come!" as some sort of invitation.

The fact that he decided against it makes the album feel a bit incomplete in hindsight.

Then again, it probably would have taken a bit away from the sexual innuendo of the title song and would have changed the meaning of the slogan to some extent. But it would have been a nice way of showing two sides of the same coin.....one being orgasm (Come) as a way of transformation, the other being more of a spiritual awakening or entering something new (Strays of the World) and finding consolation, refugee and inner peace.

He hinted at that spiritual awakening message in those earlier versions of Come .

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The song 18 and Over feels to me like it´s connected to Come, like some sort of remix or additional idea, like he did in 1991 with Get Off and Violet the Organ Grinder (also rather dark and sexual songs).

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Org member Scififilmnerd once created a great thread dedicated to the Come album and its many different configurations.

That thread was very informative.

Militant said:

Yes, it might well be. It's also in my opinion, his most under-rated album.

If you're interested, I did a whole podcast about this album for a show called Transatlantic Rebels!

It is indeed.

In my opinion not only is it his most underated album, it actually has aged best out of all the 90's albums. Even though TGE may have more standout quality songs... Overall COME has aged better and still has lasted all the years... Many of the productions from TGE, EMANCIPATION has not aged as well as COME.

KoolEaze said:

67Cadillac said:

I'm halfway through this album right now and what a ride it is. I never realized what a moody unsettling album it really is. From the eerie album art alone, you know this isn't a party record by any means.

The sexually charged songs on the album are like the yin to Dirty Mind's yang; whereas "Dirty Mind" is youthful, playful and relatively innocuous (aside from maybe "Sister") in its portrayal of sex, "Come" is quite aggressive and even scary in some parts. The 'gun / masturbation' verse in "Pheremone" stands out for me, as well as the 'don't breathe' portion of the title song.

Then, of course, there's "Papa," which is quite frightening and unusually personal for Prince. "Solo" also creeps me out for how minimalist and emotionally naked it is. I close my eyes and I see just a sort of darkscape, kind of like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" but much grimmer.

Any thoughts on this one? Also, any other Prince songs or albums that strike you as dark or edgy? I'm intrigued by that side of his music.

The Black Album with songs like Bob George and Superfunkycalifragissexy or Cindy C. comes to mind, and of course the 1999 album with its cold, dark and lustful songs such as Automatic with its BDSM undertones, or the even colder Something In The Water (Does Not Compute) about rejection and pain, or Lady Cab Driver. Sure, there are also more upbeat songs on 1999 such as DMSR but the overall vibe of the album is, in my opinion, rather cold and dark, and I love that aspect about it.

To me , even the album cover artwork by Prince looks a bit dark and mysterious, and the inner sleeve with him on his bed while it´s dark outside adds a lot to the dark, sexy and yet also cold feel of the album, which I still consider one of his best and which is still growing on me after all these years.

I agree with you especially on 1999; I always found that to be a very dark and edgy album; even the seemingly joyful sexual freedom that's celebrated in "Let's Pretend We're Married" and "D.M.S.R." seems to only come about because the world around them is one without rules ("police ain't no gun..."), seemingly an offshoot of the apocalyptic chaos implied in the title track.

Also, "Lady Cab Driver" kind of reminds me of Travis Bickle for some reason.

Some other songs I think are dark or have dark undercurrents:

- "Darling Nikki"

- "Starfish and Coffee" (I'll elaborate more on this later)

- "Power Fantastic"

- "Moonbeam Levels"

- "The Question of U"

- Shockadelica

There's some more obvious picks ("There's Others Here With Us," "If I Was Your Girlriend") that I didn't bother to mention.

[Edited 8/10/17 17:28pm]

Let's not forget, this album came out around the same time he finally released "The Black Album," which was considered his most explicit and darkest album. IMO, "Come" is even more so, because you have songs about child abuse, fetishes for guns and it creates a much more disturbing picture in your mind when you listen to it.

I also just reviewed the album on my blog, the link is in my sig.

KoolEaze said:

Militant said:

Yes, it might well be. It's also in my opinion, his most under-rated album.

If you're interested, I did a whole podcast about this album for a show called Transatlantic Rebels!

Interesting podcast and nice summary of what was going on at the time, including Prince badmouthing and partly sabotaging the success of Come in order to gather more support for the Gold Experience.

I remember that Vibe interview that Alan Light did where Prince made him listen to songs from both albums, dissing the Come songs and praising the Gold Experience.

I like both albums and see the songs of part of the same phase and era, and basically same project when you look at the bigger picture.

Yep... Very much two sides of the same coin.

I find Come to be more cohesive than TGE. It's also not over-produced - I think Prince had it in his head that TGE was supposed to be this big grandiose statement, and so songs like "Endorphinmachine" suffer from over-production, whereas that didn't happen with the "Come" songs.

Neither album is perfect, but there's a perfect Prince album between the two (of course, nobody will agree on what the tracklist would be!) - My personal opinion is that if you take 80% of what's on "Come" and around 20% of what's on TGE you've got a flawless album right there.

Depends what you mean by dark? like depressing, satanic, brooding, angry? regrettful, spiteful?. I would not say so. Papa is a bit dark, but Space is etheral, Come is some joyful and raunchy sex, Pheromone mentions masturbation at gunpoint, but there is pleasure "I can see tears heading down towards her smile". Loose is a dancefloor jam, Race is about equality and struggle, Dark is a near perfect she done me wrong ballad, Solo is a bizarre opera experiement, and Letitgo is an upbeat pop song about moving on from a life of adversity. The Prince death them was more about his barney with Warners.

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I don't really think Prince has done a "Dark" album, but he has dark songs on most albums, but these are interspersed by joyful party music and lots of raunchy sex romps. I would Chaos and Disorder is Darker, Had U, Dig u better dead, Right the Wrong, some dark shit right there.

I think so. And it's my favourite album of his from the 90s.

Nope - The Rainbow Children has that on lock down.

Dark only in the sense of what it represents in terms of his career. His first deliberately, knowingly, intentionally shit album. "Dark" in the sense that it marked a turning point in his career from which he never fully recovered.

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In terms of content, the emotionally bleakest, most desolate, "darkest" thing on the album is the poem by David Henry Hwang that he set to music, "Solo." Next would be "Papa," but even that has a rather positive-minded coda.

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Mostly it's just an aimless, poorly-paced collection of generally uninspired songs.

Probably is....


I don't get why people say "THE BLACK ALBUM" is dark... if anything it's a lot of ridiculous stuff (bob george, 2 nigs united...., Le Grind, Rock hard, Supercalifragisexy err whatever that turd is called) and it's playful. (bob george, cindy c) and has one soulful emotive sexy romantic song "WHen 2 R In Love" [also heard as when 2 are alone w/i the voc arrangement]

The lone darkness is the allusions to exstacy in SUperCalifragisexy (that turd of a song) and the uninhibited stuff that could have been a driving force in changing P's life

Aside from that there's nothing really dark (theme) but the cover.

darkness top 5

1) Come/BATMAN (thematically)

2) 1999

3) Chaos & Disorder

4) The Slaughterhouse

5) The War

notable mention

HIT N RUN PHASE I - for its rancorous self absorbed cliche "party" boasting "bitchy attitude" cameos and generally dull arrangements.... it was a dark time to be a Prince fan when hearing that was his new release

[Edited 8/11/17 8:37am]

This is in my top 5 Prince albums. It essentially announced the death of Prince and yes, there is a lot of yearning and pain throughout. I love love LOVE this album

Adorecream said:

Solo is a bizarre opera experiement,

People so mischaracterize this song. He is telling you how he felt at the time, completely and utterly alone. One of my favorite songs. So unusual for him and his voice expresses the isolation he clearly felt.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Adorecream said:

Solo is a bizarre opera experiement,

People so mischaracterize this song. He is telling you how he felt at the time, completely and utterly alone. One of my favorite songs. So unusual for him and his voice expresses the isolation he clearly felt.

No one said they don't understand the message of the song. It's pretty clear. Adorecream's comment was based more on production and arrangement, not lyrical content.

TrivialPursuit said:

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

People so mischaracterize this song. He is telling you how he felt at the time, completely and utterly alone. One of my favorite songs. So unusual for him and his voice expresses the isolation he clearly felt.

No one said they don't understand the message of the song. It's pretty clear. Adorecream's comment was based more on production and arrangement, not lyrical content.

they called it bizarre and an experiment. Musically it was very different than anything he did in the past but to call it bizarre? It was like a plea for help.

COME is one of my favorite 90s Prince albums. It's sorta the Parade of its day. Lotta black and white visual elements, an interesting flow from one song to the next. It's interesting how other songs with a much different feel were recorded around the same time.

I reconfigured the album, putting in remixes, and added new ocean sounds. I removed the "Poem" elements but kept the ocean sounds where they were originally placed. Because another version of "Come" I use cuts off near the end, I did mix the last 15% of the album version in to complete the song. "Loose!" ends differently on Versace, so I mixed in some album elements to complete the track and send it into "Papa".

I just wanted a second version of the album as well as the original. It's a fun listen. It's actually shorter than the album version by only a few seconds.

Come (alternate version #1 mixed with album version)

Space (Universal Love Radio mix w/o rap)

Pheromone (album version)

Loose! (from Versace & Other Experiences mixed with elements from album version)

Papa (album version)

Race (from Versace & Other Experiences)

Dark (from Crystal Ball)

Solo (album version)

Letitgo (Caviar Radio Edit)

Orgasm (altered with new ocean segue)

I redid the album cover, just a bit. I called the playlist COME AGAIN.

the glam slam ulysees version of the album might have gone over better with everyone...but as is it is part of the 2nd golden era.

TrivialPursuit said:

COME is one of my favorite 90s Prince albums. It's sorta the Parade of its day. Lotta black and white visual elements, an interesting flow from one song to the next. It's interesting how other songs with a much different feel were recorded around the same time.

I reconfigured the album, putting in remixes, and added new ocean sounds. I removed the "Poem" elements but kept the ocean sounds where they were originally placed. Because another version of "Come" I use cuts off near the end, I did mix the last 15% of the album version in to complete the song. "Loose!" ends differently on Versace, so I mixed in some album elements to complete the track and send it into "Papa".

I just wanted a second version of the album as well as the original. It's a fun listen. It's actually shorter than the album version by only a few seconds.

Come (alternate version #1 mixed with album version)

Space (Universal Love Radio mix w/o rap)

Pheromone (album version)

Loose! (from Versace & Other Experiences mixed with elements from album version)

Papa (album version)

Race (from Versace & Other Experiences)

Dark (from Crystal Ball)

Solo (album version)

Letitgo (Caviar Radio Edit)

Orgasm (altered with new ocean segue)

I redid the album cover, just a bit. I called the playlist COME AGAIN.

Fantastic!

The Universal Love remix is one of his best remixes EVER.

Dark? Not at all. There is a song called Dark, but I never considered the album Dark.

Anyway, the album is a masterpiece.

Gotta go with KoolEaze and say that 1999 was much darker. It starts off with a party at the apocalypse, then slowly devolves into a mechanical sex nightmare that only lets up at "International Lover". Reminds me of Pulp's This is Hardcore in it's tone.

Black Album only felt dark when you could only hear a 7th-gen cassette in early '89 and you knew you weren't supposed to be listening to it. Once it was officially released, it lost most of its "menace".

[Edited 8/11/17 13:15pm]

'Pheromone' is pretty weird, disturbing and dark. Voyeurism, That gun pointed towards her noise, masturbation. that tear heading down towards her smile. Fap material.

I agree with all of those who say 1999 is his darkest album, the sound and the lyrics tell you that. Besides the cover and Papa there is not much darkness to it. I like a lot the album, but it could have been much better with Interactive, Endorphine Machine and What's My Name.