It has the possibilities of being a better album

I wish he was not working on/toward Graffiti Bridge at the time

I wish he devoted more time to promoting it. I wouldn't need a tour to promote it like the Nude Tour

But doing shows, like the SNL show, with that band.

And again the background, the unreleased stuff adds to the hype: Dance With the Devil, Me Touch Myself etc 18(R U Legal Yet?) feels like it's a part of this

No, it's not safe to say that. In fact, you probably just cut off five years from your life expectancy.

Good album, but not one of his best IMO.

It might have been the first Prince album since, well, at the very least 1999 if not earlier, to have a few things that sounded a tiny bit generic, which might be why it's usually considered slightly inferior to it's predecessors. And while brilliant, Batdance may have been the first time where Prince blatantly chased a trend (in this case house music) instead of making the trend. It was also some kind of a return to form after 5 years of Prince expanding his sound palette, Batman sounded like a brutal return to the more barebone sound of his earlier minneapolis sound, even though there was more toitthan met the eye (or, more accurately, the ear). On the other hand, I think the idiosyncracy of the industrial funk atmosphere and particularly creative drum machine patterns that appeared on some tracks (mostly The Future, Tust and Lemon Crush, as well as some other 1989 tracks such as Shall We Dance) was dramatically overlooked at the time, maybe because it was dissolved in a more predictable Prince aesthetic.

So IDK what "best" means but if you aim at comparing it to other 80's Prince albums, I'd be tempted to say no: his run from 1999 to Lovesexy was so insanely, uniquely strong and original that Batman may have sounded a bit bland at the time, by comparison. Regardless, as with most Prince records, it remains a very strong record in the absolute. But it's a little less radical and makes a few more compromises than what had come before.

SignOthetimes1987 said:

Batman is his weakest 80s album in my opinion.

It felt like a light outs after a flawless run of classics, Dirty Mind-Lovesexy.

I was so dissapointed and to this day it's one my least played P albums.

It took me years to get into it. I hated the Batman hype around the time the album and film came out even though I would consider myself a Batman fan of the comicbooks.

I liked Partyman and The Future but a couple of years later I learned to appreciate the album. Still don´t like the era or phase though.

databank said:

It might have been the first Prince album since, well, at the very least 1999 if not earlier, to have a few things that sounded a tiny bit generic, which might be why it's usually considered slightly inferior to it's predecessors. And while brilliant, Batdance may have been the first time where Prince blatantly chased a trend (in this case house music) instead of making the trend. It was also some kind of a return to form after 5 years of Prince expanding his sound palette, Batman sounded like a brutal return to the more barebone sound of his earlier minneapolis sound, even though there was more toitthan met the eye (or, more accurately, the ear). On the other hand, I think the idiosyncracy of the industrial funk atmosphere and particularly creative drum machine patterns that appeared on some tracks (mostly The Future, Tust and Lemon Crush, as well as some other 1989 tracks such as Shall We Dance) was dramatically overlooked at the time, maybe because it was dissolved in a more predictable Prince aesthetic.

So IDK what "best" means but if you aim at comparing it to other 80's Prince albums, I'd be tempted to say no: his run from 1999 to Lovesexy was so insanely, uniquely strong and original that Batman may have sounded a bit bland at the time, by comparison. Regardless, as with most Prince records, it remains a very strong record in the absolute. But it's a little less radical and makes a few more compromises than what had come before.

Couldn't have said it better...

But to substitute BEST with GENIUS... I think would be more clarity... His 80's albums were genius, 1999 - LOVESEXY were all genius albums or albums with many genius traits upon the album. BATMAN was Prince being attached to a commercial smash due to the movie and tried his best to contribute tracks that would some way "fit" in or with the movie... So that being said I believe Prince's creativity wasn't 100% "free" for this album due to the concept of the movie being attached, obviously the project he was working on before BATMAN was Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, but by that being said, I think BATMAN is an average album, it's not a great album, it has great moments, but it is not his "BEST" at least in my opinion. I agree this was the biggest example of Prince beginning to chase trends however BATMAN as a whole is very average and really doesn't compare to works like 1999, PURPLE RAIN, SOTT, PARADE, etc...

The paradox of this though, as it wasn't his best release of the 80's... To be honest I'd choose this album over a lot of his 90's albums, if not almost all of them.

I think the real "issue" with BATMAN as many fans have agreed it's one of his "worst" albums out of the 80's masterpieces, is the fact it wasn't really his project fully... Yes he had all the creative control to come up with all the songs, writings, music for the film, but don't forget it was for the FILM... You could see each and every song on that album was written for a conceptual fact taht it had to fit the film or mood or tone of the film in some way... With the exception of Vicki Waiting which was reworked a little from the original Anna Waiting... You could see it was a contrast of Prince creating music for a conceptual album like he always does vs creating music to fit the tone for a film. Which in my opinion is why the BATMAN album is a completely average album.

feeluupp said:

The paradox of this though, as it wasn't his best release of the 80's... To be honest I'd choose this album over a lot of his 90's albums, if not almost all of them.

.

I second that. And it's miles above most of his 2000's output, in my opinion.

Lianachan said:

Purplegarden said:

It is about as safe as being a Orthdox Jewish evangelist in Iran outside the Ayatollah Khomeini mosque in downtown Zahedan.

.

I rank it in DISTANT last place for the 80s, on my scale the marks out of 100 for each 80s album are

.

1. Sign o the Times - 98.3

2. Purple Rain - 95.6

3. Parade - 94.4

4. 1999 - 92.5

5. Lovesexy 91.1

6. Dirty Mind 90.0

7. ATWAID 85.6

8. Controversy 82.5

9. Black Album 76.3

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

10. Batman 60.0

.

Electric Chair, Future and Scandalous are great songs, Batdance, Partyman are good songs

Trust, Vicki Waiting are meh! to poor, Lemon Crush and Arms of Orion are the very worst songs he ever made on the same level as Da da da, The Plan, The Flow and Boytrouble.

I'm curious how your scale works. Those ratings are extremely precise.

I take every song on a Prince album over 90 seconds in length and exclude all Segues, skits, songettes of under 90 secs and NPG Operators and Affirmations and give these items a number out of 10. The number is a whole number from 1 to 10.

.

I don't do 0 as each song is at least a sign of work and they get 1 point for the fuss of making it.

Then all the marks are added together. Say Dirty Mind has 8 tracks and the song marks = 72.

.

I take the 72/80 and change that to a percent out of 100 which makes it 90.0

Black Album got 76.3, that is because it got 61 marks out of 80 = 76.25% and I round everything to one decimal place.

.

Parade got 94.4 as it got 113/120 and this is 94.33% etc.

.

Batman only got a score of 54 points out of 90 and thus gets 60.0.

.

Lust the bit about the evangelist was to create context and example of extreme polar opposition to the ops statement. No offense was intended towards either Jewish or Muslim people.

[Edited 9/28/18 2:52am]

Purplegarden said:

Lianachan said:

I'm curious how your scale works. Those ratings are extremely precise.

I take every song on a Prince album over 90 seconds in length and exclude all Segues, skits, songettes of under 90 secs and NPG Operators and Affirmations and give these items a number out of 10. The number is a whole number from 1 to 10.

.

I don't do 0 as each song is at least a sign of work and they get 1 point for the fuss of making it.

Then all the marks are added together. Say Dirty Mind has 8 tracks and the song marks = 72.

.

I take the 72/80 and change that to a percent out of 100 which makes it 90.0

Black Album got 76.3, that is because it got 61 marks out of 80 = 76.25% and I round everything to one decimal place.

.

Parade got 94.4 as it got 113/120 and this is 94.33% etc.

.

Batman only got a score of 54 points out of 90 and thus gets 60.0.

.

Lust the bit about the evangelist was to create context and example of extreme polar opposition to the ops statement. No offense was intended towards either Jewish or Muslim people.

[Edited 9/28/18 2:52am]

No bonus points for an album that's more than the sum of its parts? or takeaways for the opposite?

It's safe to say it is at least in the top 10 of his 80's albums

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I love the Batman album by Prince. The songs are quirky and rock n' roll. Even the music videos are excellent ("Partyman"). Your thoughts?

Batman is, if I'm being generous, a bit of a mixed bag. By no means a disaster, but it pales compares to earlier works. The Future and Electric Chair are excellent. Dance With The Devil, 200 Balloons and I Love U In Me suggest that there was a "better" album that could have been released in 1989.

If I'm being harsh, the best thing about it is the "punchline" it provides in Sean Of The Dead.

All just my opinion of course. If you love it, who really cares what anyone else thinks!

It's a fun album...and The Future, Electric Chair, and Vicki Waiting are 3 of my all time favorite Prince tracks. But compared to other 80s album it doesn't quite rank up there.

No it isnt. Its been revered in the past decades is all. Its one of the first albums where it seemed he was uninspired. By that, songs he could do in his sleep. It, like damn near everything he has done, has been romanticized. This was the album where the Prince magic was cracked. The lyrics in some of the songs, omg. Trust (trying to remake Baby Im A Star cause they used BIAS in the filming), Lemon Crush (my fav)..jobba..etc lmao gawd. Lazy assed lyrics. Partyman..rock a party like, nobody can? Thats some june/moon tripe right there. So is it safe to say its one of his best 80's albums? No. Its one of the worst. It was his first B album of the 80s. And fittingly, the last release of the 80's.

200 Balloons (@ 2:59min...that is Boni Boyer right?)

If I did a Batman deluxe release, this would be the album cover

.

.

The Future

.

Electric Chair

.

200 Balloons

.

18(R U Legal Yet?)

.

We've Got the Power

.

God Is Alive

.

The Line

.

Dance With the Devil

.

Me Touch Myself

.

Sex

.

Feel U Up

.

Vicki Waiting

.

Pink Cashmere

.

Scandalous

.

Batdance

.

.

I would release Batdance as a B side to 200 Balloons,

I would have God Is Alive/Dance With the Devil as A/B sides singles

• "Who do U trust if U can't trust God, who can U trust? ..Nobody! Don't dance with the devil in the pale moonlight. The curious try and always die.""

with this band (too bad Cat was gone)

[Edited 10/2/18 5:42am]

For me it's not his best because I feel the songs I don't care for are super weak, Trust, Partyman, and Arms of Orion. I think Batdance, Scandalous, Vicki's Waiting, and Electric Chair are some of his best songs, and Lemon Crush is just a slight tier below. The Future is decent. He was doing some interesting things in this period but the Graffit Bridge debacle sent him off in a different direction for the nineties.

Safe as houses

OldFriends4Sale said:

with this band (too bad Cat was gone)

I actually wanted to create a thread about that: do we know anything about why and how Patrice Rushen ended-up in the band on this occasion, and whether there were ever any talks of her joining the band permanently? I know Prince and her were kinda friends in the For You era and they probably kept in touch, but she was totally out of the picture for a decade and then boom! here she is!

.

It's kinda funny because here you had Margie and Patrice acting as replacement for Bonnie and then they were both replaced by Rosie.

jaawwnn said:

Purplegarden said:

I take every song on a Prince album over 90 seconds in length and exclude all Segues, skits, songettes of under 90 secs and NPG Operators and Affirmations and give these items a number out of 10. The number is a whole number from 1 to 10.

.

I don't do 0 as each song is at least a sign of work and they get 1 point for the fuss of making it.

Then all the marks are added together. Say Dirty Mind has 8 tracks and the song marks = 72.

.

I take the 72/80 and change that to a percent out of 100 which makes it 90.0

Black Album got 76.3, that is because it got 61 marks out of 80 = 76.25% and I round everything to one decimal place.

.

Parade got 94.4 as it got 113/120 and this is 94.33% etc.

.

Batman only got a score of 54 points out of 90 and thus gets 60.0.

.

Lust the bit about the evangelist was to create context and example of extreme polar opposition to the ops statement. No offense was intended towards either Jewish or Muslim people.

[Edited 9/28/18 2:52am]

No bonus points for an album that's more than the sum of its parts? or takeaways for the opposite?

Nope - my system, my rules. And even if I was marking for sequencing and sum of parts, what percentage of the mark in addition to track ratings, an album with only 8 tight tracks like Dirty Mind is always be at advantage there compared to a sprawling opus like Love Symbol of TGE, whichj would get amrked down for the stupid segues and NPG Operators disrupting the flow.

Purplegarden said:

jaawwnn said:

No bonus points for an album that's more than the sum of its parts? or takeaways for the opposite?

Nope - my system, my rules. And even if I was marking for sequencing and sum of parts, what percentage of the mark in addition to track ratings, an album with only 8 tight tracks like Dirty Mind is always be at advantage there compared to a sprawling opus like Love Symbol of TGE, whichj would get amrked down for the stupid segues and NPG Operators disrupting the flow.

Just wondering is all. If I was to mark Parade myself using your method it'd probably get around an 8, but i'd bump it up to 10 anyway, because it's my fav Prince album.

that's right, it's a non-proselytizing relgion, wish some of the other sects were that way. The last thing Jews wanted as a persecuted group was attention.

lust said:

Purplegarden said:

It is about as safe as being a Orthdox Jewish evangelist in Iran outside the Ayatollah Khomeini mosque in downtown Zahedan.

.

I rank it in DISTANT last place for the 80s, on my scale the marks out of 100 for each 80s album are

.

1. Sign o the Times - 98.3

2. Purple Rain - 95.6

3. Parade - 94.4

4. 1999 - 92.5

5. Lovesexy 91.1

6. Dirty Mind 90.0

7. ATWAID 85.6

8. Controversy 82.5

9. Black Album 76.3

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

10. Batman 60.0

.

Electric Chair, Future and Scandalous are great songs, Batdance, Partyman are good songs

Trust, Vicki Waiting are meh! to poor, Lemon Crush and Arms of Orion are the very worst songs he ever made on the same level as Da da da, The Plan, The Flow and Boytrouble.

I'm curious how your scale works. Those ratings are extremely precise.

There’s no such thing as Jewish evangelism!

did they ever do a show with the sNL appearance band?

Prince had quite a few good songs and albums out in the '80's

Lianachan said:

Purplegarden said:

It is about as safe as being a Orthdox Jewish evangelist in Iran outside the Ayatollah Khomeini mosque in downtown Zahedan.

.

I rank it in DISTANT last place for the 80s, on my scale the marks out of 100 for each 80s album are

.

1. Sign o the Times - 98.3

2. Purple Rain - 95.6

3. Parade - 94.4

4. 1999 - 92.5

5. Lovesexy 91.1

6. Dirty Mind 90.0

7. ATWAID 85.6

8. Controversy 82.5

9. Black Album 76.3

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

10. Batman 60.0

.

Electric Chair, Future and Scandalous are great songs, Batdance, Partyman are good songs

Trust, Vicki Waiting are meh! to poor, Lemon Crush and Arms of Orion are the very worst songs he ever made on the same level as Da da da, The Plan, The Flow and Boytrouble.

I'm curious how your scale works. Those ratings are extremely precise.

Like an old computer game magazine

luvsexy4all said:

did they ever do a show with the sNL appearance band?

Probably not. Patrice Rushen was in there temporarily until Rosie came along and took the keyboard role. And aside from Damon, Kirk, and whatshisfuckingface, the rest were intact. Fink, Bland, Seacer, Weaver, and Dulfer (which was in and out around that time but I am not sure she toured on The Nude Tour, off hand).

OldFriends4Sale said: