It's one of his most unique, special, outstanding, one of a kind albums. I think between his 90s releases this one aged better than everything else. It takes me somewhere else. Deserved better. A top 5 Prince album to me.

Pretty underrated album marred by bad publicity...which is kind of the case for many later P albums. Read the reviews, the reviews hardly ever really discuss what was wrong inherently with the music. The critics bitch about symbols, packaging, Prince overdoing his output, etc--everything but the music itself. I just read the 3 1/2 star review from Rolling Stone of Crystal Ball (which included the Truth). I kept wondering what in the actual music itself indicates that the box set didn't warrant a higher score, other than the writer stating that P had too many songs that didn't seem connected together thematically...Since when do tight little concept albums only merit our approval???

[Edited 6/17/18 12:34pm]

earlier tonight (i was sitting on the toilet with a bit of time on my hands) i suddenly thought
"i should really do a search in my 'live' folder and compile a little playlist of all the early live
performances of 'come' (the title track) since those were pretty amazing".

so i'm going to do that in the coming week.

which will no doubt lead me back to listening to the whole album and it's single mixes again.

never really understood the negativity toward this album, it's just the twin release to "gold".
almost all these tracks were recorded during the same period and changed between album
configurations several times before ending up where they did.

yet because 'come' was labeled "contractual obligation" it gets a bad rep, as if prince didn't
care for it at all (if he didn't care for it at all and just threw left overs together, then why is
there, for example, a test pressing with a different tracklist?).

anyway, i'm digressing, as usual just wanted to say, great album, just a bit miffed, still,
that he didn't put the electronic or the early (sticksnstonesnbugmyphones) version of the
title track on the album. the opening song is a bit too long and drags toward the end so you
kind of lose a bit of interest right at the start when it should open with a bang. and it also
closes of on a weird, half assed note with 'orgasm'. if it would open with the early "come"
and close with something else, perhaps "lovesign", to leave the album on a positive note
after all that darkness, it might feel much more like a solid album and would be rated much
higher by people, even those who consider it contractual filler.

but it is what it is and i love it just as well for that.

[Edited 6/17/18 12:50pm]

Muzak is kind of like elevator music, right? Have you been in an elevator lately?? Well, we know Prince loved elevators..I didn't know he like his porn inside them too....LOL. You and the Rolling Stone critic (whose review spent half its time bitching about P's contract issue/album releases and name change) are stating what laymen commonly call an "opinion". We CAN; you don't have to.

NorthC said:

No, we can't because it isn't great. First he turned the haunting funkrock of the title track into muzak, then he followed it with more muzak called Space... Etcetera etcetera... In Rolling Stone, reviewer Tom Moon called it "soft porn pillow talk" and that's exactly what most of it is. Papa, Race and Dark are the only good songs on it...

[Edited 6/17/18 13:20pm]

[Edited 6/17/18 13:22pm]

NorthC said:

No, we can't because it isn't great. First he turned the haunting funkrock of the title track into muzak, then he followed it with more muzak called Space... Etcetera etcetera... In Rolling Stone, reviewer Tom Moon called it "soft porn pillow talk" and that's exactly what most of it is. Papa, Race and Dark are the only good songs on it...

i'm not going to say that you are wrong, because if you hate these songs so much, that's how
you feel, and that's cool. but i can't really wrap my head around a prince fan thinking "space"
is muzak i think it's one of his most dreamy, billowing tracks ever. from the album track,
to the amazing 'univeral love' version to the beautiful, lovely acoustic version.

it's always interesting to see how we as prince fans differ so much in our takes on songs. it's
because prince did so many types of songs, i guess.

purplerabbithole said:

Pretty underrated album marred by bad publicity...which is kind of the case for many later P albums. Read the reviews, the reviews hardly ever really discuss what was wrong inherently with the music. The critics bitch about symbols, packaging, Prince overdoing his output, etc--everything but the music itself. I just read the 3 1/2 star review from Rolling Stone of Crystal Ball (which included the Truth). I kept wondering what in the actual music itself indicates that the box set didn't warrant a higher score, other than the writer stating that P had too many songs that didn't seem connected together thematically...Since when do tight little concept albums only merit our approval???

[Edited 6/17/18 12:34pm]

the problem with a lot of reviews (and it's gone from bad to worse) these last 20 or so years
is that they talk less and less about the release they are supposedly reviewing and spend a
huge chunk of their space to cut and paste bits of information that every single article and
review mentions about said artist/group. over and over and over and over again.

it wouldn't be so bad if they had say 1000 words to write a review and spent about 300 on
their usual 'introduction' and the rest on the actual content of the album.

but somewhere along the line the balance has shifted to a 'review' being an 800 word bio
on the artist or group, filled with things even non fans have known for eons and then, if
you are lucky the last 200 words are spent discussing the actual album.

at this point most of the reviewers will pick the worst song on the album as a 'standout
track' or a track that epitomises 'what this band/artist is all about/their signature sound'
(even if it's not) and in the case of prince often things that made you scratch your head
and think 'did they listen to the album at all, for more than 5 minutes?' where they will
call something like, i don't know, say 'everybody loves me' -a classic funk romp like only
prince can do and label 'sea of everything' a balad that will have ladies everywhere
drop their panties.

no one discusses the actual music, the lyrical content, the arrangements, the production,
the solo's etc.

or perhaps they've started to do so again and i'm just reading the wrong reviews. but i've
stopped reading them for the most part. they hardly ever make sense anyway.

COME is not completed... It is literally the product of the feud at the time with WB... Come had a lot of potential... It's missing something... A big something... But I will agree with you... Out of all his 90's albums... This album has indeed aged the best. I mean play TGE, those seuges and rapping is so cringeworthy to listen to now.

NorthC said:

No, we can't because it isn't great. First he turned the haunting funkrock of the title track into muzak, then he followed it with more muzak called Space... Etcetera etcetera... In Rolling Stone, reviewer Tom Moon called it "soft porn pillow talk" and that's exactly what most of it is. Papa, Race and Dark are the only good songs on it...

Have to agree with this...original versions of the title track were far, far superior. Also. the last track remains just as much of a mess as it was then. So, some good stuff in between but bookended by nonsense.

feeluupp said:

COME is not completed... It is literally the product of the feud at the time with WB... Come had a lot of potential... It's missing something... A big something... But I will agree with you... Out of all his 90's albums... This album has indeed aged the best. I mean play TGE, those seuges and rapping is so cringeworthy to listen to now.

Exactly!!

IstenSzek said:

dodger said:

Agree on all this, especially the 'contract filler' tag. Fact is he had a great batch of songs at this time but they ended up scattered across Come, Gold, Exodus, C&D and some out-takes on Crystal Ball. . Anyway as for Come (the song); was a shame the EP never materialised. To have all the different versions on an official release would have been awesome. . My favourite studio version is the one on 10,000 Wallpaper that segues into Endorphinmachine. . My favourite live version is from the DNA aftershow. The way he starts with the C-O-M-E and gets the crowd chanting it makes me smile every time

yes, yes and YES!

I think a key to interpreting Prince's whole persona and body of work is found on this album: "Space" opens with "I've never been one to hide my feelings," "LetItGo" opens with "All my life I've kept my feelings deep inside."

LOVE IT....

After U Letitgo

it always ends with Orgasm

mtlfan said:

I think a key to interpreting Prince's whole persona and body of work is found on this album: "Space" opens with "I've never been one to hide my feelings," "LetItGo" opens with "All my life I've kept my feelings deep inside."

interesting! i never made that connection before.

SPACE is everything. Everything!

we could...but i have more minutes of how bad it is.... sorry.

was just listening to the Come album on the bus today on my iPhone. kind of realised it was about escaping the "Prince" character and becoming . Like, Have a lot of Positivity for this album. It is great!

Apollo85 said:

Can't say it's an album of his that I've ever rated much. I wouldn't count any of the tracks as being classics of his, or even ones I'd hurry to listen to again. But as always, we can't all like the same things.

pricetag said:

NorthC said:

No, we can't because it isn't great. First he turned the haunting funkrock of the title track into muzak, then he followed it with more muzak called Space... Etcetera etcetera... In Rolling Stone, reviewer Tom Moon called it "soft porn pillow talk" and that's exactly what most of it is. Papa, Race and Dark are the only good songs on it...

Have to agree with this...original versions of the title track were far, far superior. Also. the last track remains just as much of a mess as it was then. So, some good stuff in between but bookended by nonsense.

.

I've heard this more often, so I've looked everywhere for these great versions of Come. But nothing beats the funk of the album version. Those horns were just great. It is quite a unifying theme between Come and Old Friends 4 Sale to me.

.

To me, the album is a lot better than the Gold Experience, but that's simply because I think that album is very weak. Come itself has its problems, for instance, why was the universal love version of Space not included, as opposed to what is on the album? Why add those cringeworthy pretend sex-noises? The tracks and album would have been better without them.

.

But Come and Let It Go are great and some of the other tracks are passable. So that's 20 minutes of great Prince on one album. He released albums where he didn't score half that much.

Pheromone is dope.

Love me some Come, all versions. While we are on the subject; what did Prince say about the bass line with both Come and Come On from NPS? Something about timing or tempo being the same, I can't remember.

I always like the fact of re-evaluating albums many years after released... I remember when COME was released it really got average to below average praise, but when TGE came out everyone was calling it his best since SOTT... As a matter of fact, it became almost a "cult" favorite amongst his fans to being one of the top Prince albums...

I never got into TGE. I remember buying it on Amazon because of the ORG, back when I first became a fan in the early 2000's... I remember all the hype the ORG would talk about with TGE... It wasn't as popular on other forums like pfams or housequake, but it was so hyped here on the ORG...

Anyway... TGE deff has some strong moments, Shhh for example is one of his best ballads imo... But to listen to TGE as a whole now... It is severly outdated, maybe the most outdated sounding and aged Prince recording since I guess Gold Nigga album... While there are many strong moments on TGE, COME by far flows better as an album if you lsiten to it today. Maybe there are more streaks of brilliance, stronger songwriting on TGE, but the musicianship on COME is far under rated... COME imo is a better album than TGE, as unpopular of an opinion that might be. Just listen to the albums back to back now in 2018... Yes it's aged due to time, but COME still sounds so much more modern than TGE, just sounds so cliche 90's and tacky.

Also no one ever talked about the beats... I think his "beats" kind of went downhill in the 90's, but Pheromone beat was sick... Probably one of his coolets beats of all time, especially for his 90's era...

It actually sold pretty strong for no promotion on Prince's part... I mean the only real promotion for that album was they used the song for the opening of a BET show, and his Letterman appearance but he wasn't even promoting Come, he was promoting TGE that wasn't even released yet.

purplerabbithole said:

Muzak is kind of like elevator music, right? Have you been in an elevator lately?? Well, we know Prince loved elevators..I didn't know he like his porn inside them too....LOL. You and the Rolling Stone critic (whose review spent half its time bitching about P's contract issue/album releases and name change) are stating what laymen commonly call an "opinion". We CAN; you don't have to.

NorthC said:

No, we can't because it isn't great. First he turned the haunting funkrock of the title track into muzak, then he followed it with more muzak called Space... Etcetera etcetera... In Rolling Stone, reviewer Tom Moon called it "soft porn pillow talk" and that's exactly what most of it is. Papa, Race and Dark are the only good songs on it...

I don't see the point in sabotaging a thread like that, it's a kind of trolling. Going on a Prince board, of all places, and calling Come "muzak" or, as happened recently from another orger in another thread, Exodus "shit", is so unreasonable and exaggerated that it calls for flaming.

And if indeed it truly reflects the posters' true feeling, I agree with you Purplerabbithole that just because one CAN speak nonsense doesn't mean they SHOULD.

There are certainly many other ways to come-up with constructive criticism and a developped reasoning if one wishes to express their disapproval of a work of art.

COME is one of the best 90s Prince records. It's such a delightfully dark journey through emotions. It's very sexual, yet there is a struggle in the sexuality. It's not just him trying to bang someone. There is some weird violent or animalistic slant on some of the songs. It's not a dismal view of sex but the struggle is real. Couple that with some social and personal commentary about race, abuse, etc., and it's not a happy record. But there is something comforting about the whole thing. Despite the internal struggle in the lyrics, the lush and sharp production on songs like "Come", "Space", "Race" continues to engage the listener. It's almost as if we are just curious enough to see where his struggles lead him by the end of the record.

It's an interesting juxtaposition to the brighter and crisper sound of The Gold Experience, which is arguably more digital sounding. Very crisp, high treble, levels pushed way up, lots of layering. Yet still songs like "Endorphinmachine", "Now", "Billy Jack Bitch", " hate u" and more shine through as wonderful power pop songs.

Come has always been in my top tier.

And, yes - Space is everything.

NorthC said:

No, we can't because it isn't great. First he turned the haunting funkrock of the title track into muzak, then he followed it with more muzak called Space... Etcetera etcetera... In Rolling Stone, reviewer Tom Moon called it "soft porn pillow talk" and that's exactly what most of it is. Papa, Race and Dark are the only good songs on it...

I absolutely agree with the comments about the title track here but - I enjoy Space. Papa, Race and Dark are good songs, yes. I also enjoy Loose and Solo...I must be odd. Pheromone has some interesting lyrics but the song is a by the numbers Prince song and Letitgo I never appreciated. It wasn't for me.

I prefer this album to The Gold Experience. I do not prefer this album to Exodus.