Almost every week i am reading here how great lovesexy is. I dont know what people are hearing. Out of the 9 tracks, just 3 are great. the rest is just ok. There are no real molodies at all. And it was his lowest selling album.

Graffiti Bridge on the other hand, shines with great melodies, funky-poppy tunes, hard funk and really great vocals (prince tracks).

Lets compare:

i know - new power generation: NPG wins this one for me with its poppy-Funky sound. And prince vocals are great on this one. Dont like that jazzy tone of i no.

alphabet St. - thieves in the temple: The hitsingles. Well both are cool, but i go with Thiesves. Very nice vocals. Alphabet st. is cool but too much sesam st.

Glam Slam - i cant stop: The pop-rocker . Well both not that great, i prefer i cant stop. GS ist just meh.

Anna Stesia - question of u: Very hard one. The vocals on Question are just beautiful and the melody is great (under the cherry moon , but after the guitar solo that just repeats the sung melody, it goes nowhere..this time i go with Anna

Dance on - tick tick bang: weakest tracks on both albums. Dance on has nothing that make me want to hear it again, no melody, no singing at all. I think i go with tick tick bang

Lovesexy - We can funk: well i really like the beat and the vocals on LS, but we can funk funks simply harder. Great tune.

i wish u heaven - elephants and flowers: well nice little tunes. But i think i go with the Elephants. Love his vocals on that one. He really tried to copy George Michael on that one (Faith anyone).

when 2 are in love - Still would stand all time: Still would stand all time wins this one. The second part of this song marks one of his most beautiful vocals ever.

Positivity - Graffiti Bridge/NPG PT 2: GB ist a great pop song, i really like, cant understand the hate. And NPG pt 2rocks too, so i go with GB/npG pt. 2

oh i forgot Joy in repetition - well that one kicks every track on LS. So GB wins this one.

And the GB - look was just great.

Whats your opinion?

Both albums are amazing

I will say that upon release, GB was good and only in time has it been relegated to being a bad album. I know when I first heard it, I liked it a lot. Thing is, We Can Funk was mindblowing to me then. Never heard the other versions at that time and to be fair, the released GB version is still good. I remember listening on headphones hearing the coda screaming and being real pleased etc. The beginning dramatic opening to a movie strings of the title track made me gooey inside as did Mavis' openng speaking lines intro to her song. New Power Generation had me hyped. Overall, GB has received a bad wrap over the past decades. Im not going to get into it being worse or better than Lovesexy because hell, I disliked Lovesexy when it came out and now love it.

.

[Edited 7/7/18 13:00pm]

i loved it, how music is accepted by the fickle tastes of critics or fans never swayed me. GB had some of his genius stuff. Joy In Repetition, i absolutely loved the question of u with the classical bachianesque instrumental being completed by rock guitar solo. only prince could do those things.

I always liked Graffiti Bridge, both the songs and the movie.Yes I know everyone did not like the film but to me .... actually .... for me and 'the most beautiful of all the movies he did (k now I'll be slaughtered by you ahhaha). You want for the songs, you want for the atmosphere, cabbage we want to talk about how he dressed and combed, that his look I always loved and 'always been my favorite, I was literally drooling for that look ^^

misiu said:

NorthC said:

rdhull said:

No, it really doesn't... both albums are great

misiu said:

Almost every week i am reading here how great lovesexy is. I dont know what people are hearing. Out of the 9 tracks, just 3 are great. the rest is just ok. There are no real molodies at all. And it was his lowest selling album.

Graffiti Bridge on the other hand, shines with great melodies, funky-poppy tunes, hard funk and really great vocals (prince tracks).

Lets compare:

i know - new power generation: NPG wins this one for me with its poppy-Funky sound. And prince vocals are great on this one. Dont like that jazzy tone of i no.

alphabet St. - thieves in the temple: The hitsingles. Well both are cool, but i go with Thiesves. Very nice vocals. Alphabet st. is cool but too much sesam st.

Glam Slam - i cant stop: The pop-rocker . Well both not that great, i prefer i cant stop. GS ist just meh.

Anna Stesia - question of u: Very hard one. The vocals on Question are just beautiful and the melody is great (under the cherry moon , but after the guitar solo that just repeats the sung melody, it goes nowhere..this time i go with Anna

Dance on - tick tick bang: weakest tracks on both albums. Dance on has nothing that make me want to hear it again, no melody, no singing at all. I think i go with tick tick bang

Lovesexy - We can funk: well i really like the beat and the vocals on LS, but we can funk funks simply harder. Great tune.

i wish u heaven - elephants and flowers: well nice little tunes. But i think i go with the Elephants. Love his vocals on that one. He really tried to copy George Michael on that one (Faith anyone).

when 2 are in love - Still would stand all time: Still would stand all time wins this one. The second part of this song marks one of his most beautiful vocals ever.

Positivity - Graffiti Bridge/NPG PT 2: GB ist a great pop song, i really like, cant understand the hate. And NPG pt 2rocks too, so i go with GB/npG pt. 2

oh i forgot Joy in repetition - well that one kicks every track on LS. So GB wins this one.

And the GB - look was just great.

Whats your opinion?

No way lovesexy is way better! well that's my opinion

jaawwnn said:

rdhull said:

I will say that upon release, GB was good and only in time has it been relegated to being a bad album. I know when I first heard it, I liked it a lot. Thing is, We Can Funk was mindblowing to me then. Never heard the other versions at that time and to be fair, the released GB version is still good. I remember listening on headphones hearing the coda screaming and being real pleased etc. The beginning dramatic opening to a movie strings of the title track made me gooey inside as did Mavis' openng speaking lines intro to her song. New Power Generation had me hyped. Overall, GB has received a bad wrap over the past decades. Im not going to get into it being worse or better than Lovesexy because hell, I disliked Lovesexy when it came out and now love it.

.

[Edited 7/7/18 13:00pm]

Interesting. I wasn't around at the time (well I was but I was about 7) but when I got into Prince I listened to his stuff chronologically, kind of as a project. Took about a year to get through the basic album discography cos I went slowly. I noticed a MASSIVE drop in quality on Graffiti Bridge. Over the years it's grown on me but at first I was like "oh he really did lose it immediately in 1990".

Well you didnt live it as it happened so there's a difference. I know that statement is loaded as hell and may bring up a response of "doo doo is doo doo no matter when you expererience it" but this is different.

To be honest Graffiti Bridge had the potential to be imo his "BEST" album of the 90's, maybe one of his best albums even, but the other acts on it and poor song choice to a poor "soundtrack" really hindered the sound for the album...

To be honest even though most of the gems on this album were obviously recorded in the 80's... I don't think at least in my opinion, any album of the 90's had as many strong singular tracks of that quality such as THE QUESTION OF U, WE CAN FUNK, JOY N REPETITION, THIEVES IN THE TEMPLE, ELEPHANTS & FLOWERS...

Those songs alone if you take everything else off that album are alone standouts... I mean could you imagine if he added a few more tracks of his own, GB deff would've been one of his best albums...

Overall Lovesexy flows better as an album, but GB was a serious contender if not for the rest of the filler songs.

Lovesexy is a brilliant album.It's almost like a concept album.....a story being told from one song to the next.Alot of people didn't "get" it....they didn't understand the vibe,but I think it's truly one of Prince's most consistent albums.Best moments: "Anna Stesia","I Wish U Heaven" and the title track (which really should have been a single).

Graffiti Bridge has some great moments,but as a complete album,it just doesn't hold together very well.There are some strong tracks ("Thieves In The Temple","We Can Funk") but there are also some throwaway/filler tracks ("The Latest Fashion","the surprisingly uneventful "New Power Generation").

Lovesexy is a more focused singular statement---so much so that Prince tracked it as only 1 track on the CD. I know he's dead, but he'd really hate this dissection.

Grafitti Bridge is a grab bag. Comparing these two albums in this way is like comparing Abbey Road to the Beatles #1 hits collection. GB is just not a cohesive album, whereas Lovesexy is probably his MOST cohesive album aside from The Rainbow Children.

I feel like you have actually found a way to listen to Prince incorrectly. If an album is not more than the sum of it's parts, it is not a good album. Grafitti Bridge is a good collection--especially if you like Tevin Campbell and people who are not Prince singing all over your "Prince record", but Lovesexy is a great Album.

It's like two paintings; you can compare which painting has a better shade of red or green, but that isn't the point of the painting. You may find you prefer every color in 1 painting but when you step back and look at the whole, the other painting whose colors you liked less actually creates the better picture,

rdhull said:

I largely agree with the OP, though I think there are 2 different ways in which these LPs are appreciated.

Lovesexy works as a cohesive, trim, unifed album, whereas Graffiti Bridge is a superior collection of fairly random songs (if you ignore a few of the weaker ones). I mean, some of those Graffiti Bridge songs were started in, like, 1981, weren't they?

So, I think that's the difference.

I've noticed that Graffiti Bridge (seems to) suffer(s) from its association with its all-time turkey film, while Parade doesn't. Just an observation.

Anyway, I started a thread some time ago where I "re-did" Graffiti Bridge to make it more to my liking (basically got rid of the supporting artists to make it a Prince-only album and dropped one or of the weaker songs) and I ended up with, I think, this:

1. Can't Stop This Feeling I Got

2. New Power Generation

3. The Question of U

4. Elephants & Flowers

5. We Can Funk

6. Joy In Repetition

7. Tick, Tick, Bang

8. Thieves In The Temple

9. Still Would Stand All Time

10. Graffiti Bridge

I think this is a really strong album, and I do like it more than Lovesexy. The thing is, though, Lovesexy had an awesome tour (many fans think the best one he ever did), and it's just right at the tail-end of Prince's peak years, so in general I think it (fairly or not) gets lumped in with that classic 1981 to 1988-ish era. By contract, Graffiti Bridge feels like it's from a different, later era, and truthfully Prince was kind of losing it, business-wise and so on, in the 1990-period.

Anyway, both great albums overall, but the 1988 album I find more a cohesive listen than a collection of particularly great songs, and the 1990 album (esp. with the fluff removed) I find a great collection of random songs.

ThePanther said:

I largely agree with the OP, though I think there are 2 different ways in which these LPs are appreciated.

Lovesexy works as a cohesive, trim, unifed album, whereas Graffiti Bridge is a superior collection of fairly random songs (if you ignore a few of the weaker ones). I mean, some of those Graffiti Bridge songs were started in, like, 1981, weren't they?

So, I think that's the difference.

I've noticed that Graffiti Bridge (seems to) suffer(s) from its association with its all-time turkey film, while Parade doesn't. Just an observation.

Anyway, I started a thread some time ago where I "re-did" Graffiti Bridge to make it more to my liking (basically got rid of the supporting artists to make it a Prince-only album and dropped one or of the weaker songs) and I ended up with, I think, this:

1. Can't Stop This Feeling I Got

2. New Power Generation

3. The Question of U

4. Elephants & Flowers

5. We Can Funk

6. Joy In Repetition

7. Tick, Tick, Bang

8. Thieves In The Temple

9. Still Would Stand All Time

10. Graffiti Bridge

I think this is a really strong album, and I do like it more than Lovesexy.

This is amazingly strong but you need to get the title track off of there and put "Release It" back in there somewhere because that track is funky and fun. Besides that song, the guest artist spots REALLY drag the record down. I think you're right though. Overall, it's easy to pick ten tracks off GB that top Lovesexy.

It doesn't matter how great the album was, or is, the movie absolutely killed it. It could be the greatest music ever, and a lot of it is really great but, as the soundtrack to a stinking pile of garbage, you don't have anything good to connect those songs to, so the album doesn't stand up. You can't have one without the other, so to speak. You can, but even if you try not to, you're going to lament how great the music is, even though the movie is trash.

i simply don't think there is anything on lovesexy nearly as good as joy in repetition (maybe his best lyrics ever), the question of u. Lovesexy was a rushed project, how long did it take to make? a week? it shows, too much arrangement and too little song to hide the fact that there isn't much song. Good? yes, by normal standards, for Prince? Not up to his standards.

PeteSilas said:

TheBigBang said:

It doesn't matter how great the album was, or is, the movie absolutely killed it. It could be the greatest music ever, and a lot of it is really great but, as the soundtrack to a stinking pile of garbage, you don't have anything good to connect those songs to, so the album doesn't stand up. You can't have one without the other, so to speak. You can, but even if you try not to, you're going to lament how great the music is, even though the movie is trash.

Parade did OK. Then again, that dismal movie probably cut into its performance sales wise so maybe you're right. Thing is, by the time of GB, no one I knew even KNEW that Prince was making another film or had even heard about it so, overall, I'm having trouble equating the horrible nature of teh movie with the perception of the album.

I (regrettably) saw GB opening weekend with about 5-10 other people. UTCM hads SOME hype due to the success of PR. Plus, UTCM at least had SOME promotion behind it. Speaking of that, and come to think of it, Prince didn't promote the GB, the film NOR the album, at ALL - at least that I can recall. Probably just as well.

A single CD (or a double with the tracks from Tevin, The Time and Mavis on a "bonus CD" would have made more sense. Panther's track list is pretty darned strong; on par with Lovesexy and Love Symbol and better than Batman or D&P. Truth is, a LOT of fans jumped ship for misguided reasons, often of Prince's own doing. ATWIAD turned off a LOT of people who were just baffled and I know for a FACT that a LOT of male fans (and some females) that remained couldn't handle the Lovesexy cover nor the SoTT single cover with Cat, who many mistook for Prince going "full homo".

In the mid to late 80's, a LOT of the New Wave (and Glam) homo eroticism and gender bending of MTV bands (of whom Prince was a part) like Wham, Eurythmics, Culture Club, Bowie, Adam Ant, The Cure, etc. gave way to edgier metal and hip hop. Which is strange because the metal that took over (Poison, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Cinderella) was as gender bending as anything Prince did. I didtinctly remember people I worked with (many of wom were black) denounce Prince as a "fag" and just couldn't handle his act, but still worshipped the hair metal guys in make up. A fellow fan commented on the aforementioned SoTT single and lamented "why did he turn into a fucking drag queen, man?"

Not saying it made sense, just that it happened and it was palpable. They must have forgoten Dirty Mind and Controversy. But it WAS absolutely a factor. When i saw SoTT in an all black theater, there was audible laughter, snickers and giggling when Prince appeared, along with a whole slew of people who didn't know it was a concert movie and were let down. Homophobia crashed Prince's popularity as much as his idiosyncrasies did and by the time GB rolled around, he had boiled his following down to the more hardcore, musician centered and selective listening types. this trend continued full bore, D&P notwithstanding which I view as a blip on the radar and chalk up to massive promotion, throughout the 90's; leading to some critic I read write that

"Prince is the worlds most famous underground artist". Forget who said that but it's the most apt, succinct and accurate description of the man and his music that I've ever read. The name change exacerbated the whole trend to the point that, by the mid 90's, only the most hardcore remained...and I'd argue it was for the better overall.

Sorry for the rant.... Shit...what's this thread about? Oh yeah. GB vs. LS.

I think that GB edited down is better than Lovesexy overall but, as they stand, LS is superior. I'd put "We Can Funk", "Joy in Repetition", "The ? of U" and "Elephants and Flowers" up against anything on Lovesexy save for "Anna Stesia". Then again, like someone else said, it's apples and oranges since, tonally, the two albums are SOOOOO much different. SAme for a LOT of his records really andspeaks to Prince's talent and vision that he delivered albums as diverse, wide ranging and broad as LS, Parade, SoTT, ATWIAD, 1999, Purple Rain, Love Symbol and GB.


TL/DR: GB has better songs on it but Lovesexy is the better record overall.Thanks for reading that whole mess if you made it to the end.

NorthC said:

PeteSilas said:

i simply don't think there is anything on lovesexy nearly as good as joy in repetition (maybe his best lyrics ever), the question of u. Lovesexy was a rushed project, how long did it take to make? a week? it shows, too much arrangement and too little song to hide the fact that there isn't much song. Good? yes, by normal standards, for Prince? Not up to his standards.

I agree that most of the songs on Lovesexy aren't that great, but the music more than makes up for that. I don't see it as a collection of songs, but as one piece of music. "This is not music, this is a trip." Which is why I never understood the folks complaining about the 1 track CD. That's the whole idea behind it! I also agree about Joy In Repetition being great. I heard The Question of U live before the album was out, so I never cared much for the album version. I also love Thieves In the Temple and Still Would Stand All Time, but four great songs on a 17 track album isn't enough to make it a good album in my not-so-humble opinion. Also, being rushed isn't a bad thing. Bob Dylan once recorded an album in one evening.

i hear you, there are some clunkers on graffiti bridge, as far as lovesexy being one track, i assumed it was prince playing his power games, if he was serious about one track, he'd have never released singles. and bob dylan recorded an album in one eveing? was it any good? I can't write a good song without a lot of hard work, either hours or weeks or months i'm talking, before i'm satisfied. I don't know how some people like prince just write songs and release it, i don't get it. they said controversy was done in a week, i'd be very curious to know when the songs were actually written and how much time he had to work on them before he recorded them. If he could, more power to him, but I can't. My best songs on average take two weeks to do all the parts and really, they are never done.

misiu said:

I think Lovesexy is a better album than GB. That being said, I still feel that GB has stronger songs on it than Lovesexy. Joy in Repetition became my favorite Prince song on the album after listening to the album for he first time. I'm not a real fan of the title song on GB or Can't stop this feeling I got.

I just have to laugh at the idea of Prince copying George Michael (ever).

BTW Elephants and Flowers was written many many years before Faith.

Anyway, I love both Albums, but Lovesexy was extremely coherent and even groundbreaking in its day.

They are such different albums, I never deemed to compare them. Like others have stated in the thread, GB has the benefit of some great songs while Lovesexy has more cohesiveness as an album. That said, I loved GB when it came out. I played it just as much as I did the 80s classics for the first year after it came out. At some point, the album lost it's luster though the top songs didn't. I never binged on Lovesexy the way I did on GB, but I have always respected it and still enjoy it on occasion. No need to slam either album.