It's fair to say that it flopped commercially, because facts are facts & you can look at chart sales to see what those are, but whether you think it's a good album or not - that's entirely up to you. I think that it has a number of good tracks & interesting collaborations, though many of his collaborators are drowned out in the mix to the point of barely being there (though unfortunately someone left Larry Graham's mic on).

I think it's also fair to suggest that it was a VERY calculated effort, by both Prince & Clive Davis, for commercial success & notoriety, like Santana's similarly designed album. Lightning doesn't always strike twice.

[Edited 11/19/18 4:50am]

As someone wrote above, it's a fair assessment to call it a flop based on album sales (I don't remember if it was critically acclaimed or not).

I've read a lot of reasons why . . . copying Supernatural too much, Gwen Stefani on lockdown from her own label, Arista folding, Prince losing interest. I do think that the world had had enough of Prince at that moment in time, kind of what WB warned him about: oversaturation.

I love the album, but I'll admit that I don't play it often. More than the album itself, I love his look during this era. He did not look like a 41 year old man!

RODSERLING said:

Fair enough : . 1) Poor choice of thé lead single 2) No music vidéo 3) No promotion in thé US 4) No second single 5) not allowed to chart in thé Uk (does anybody Know why?) 6) thé best track of thé album IS a cover . But on the other side : 1) It went gold un thé US, and that s a miracle 2) It sold a million worlwide, another miracle 3) Prince earned 11 millions$ in advance, so he couldn t Care less about thé promotion of the album 4) It made Clive Davis fired from thé company hé created, so Prince had thé last laugh 5) 1999 re-released Was top 40 both in thé UK and US, so Prince had nevertheless a hit that year [Edited 11/19/18 8:23am]

Prince was certainly unhappy with Clive Davis and that version of "Rave" at the time... I wonder if more people prefer Prince's subsequent remake "Rave Into The Joy Fantastic.."

TrevorAyer said:

It has exactly one song that stands amongst his great works ... that song is so obviously better than anything else on the album that i don’t even need to mention it by name ... i give him credit for that one song ... the rest of the album was stale, undercooked and overseasoned from the second it was released... nostalgia has caused me to revisit this period but always leaves me uninspired... yes it was an inevitable flop

You like Hot With U that much?

rdhull said:

TrevorAyer said:

It has exactly one song that stands amongst his great works ... that song is so obviously better than anything else on the album that i don’t even need to mention it by name ... i give him credit for that one song ... the rest of the album was stale, undercooked and overseasoned from the second it was released... nostalgia has caused me to revisit this period but always leaves me uninspired... yes it was an inevitable flop

You like Hot With U that much?

ya, i like the album so i can think of at least two candidates, man 0' war and I love you but don't trust you anymore. I still remember, i was living in a furnace room in a grocery store, putting the finishing touches on my own album when rave came out, I took the poster from the inside where he's looking like the mad genius he was and hung it up on the old furnace.

rdhull said:

TrevorAyer said:

It has exactly one song that stands amongst his great works ... that song is so obviously better than anything else on the album that i don’t even need to mention it by name ... i give him credit for that one song ... the rest of the album was stale, undercooked and overseasoned from the second it was released... nostalgia has caused me to revisit this period but always leaves me uninspired... yes it was an inevitable flop

You like Hot With U that much?

Say what you will about Hot Wit U, it and its remix are two of his most accessible "hip hop" tracks.

.

I enjoy both of his collaborations with Eve, the Greatest Romance Remix is great love the guitar solo.

.

Interesting also that Greatest Romance featured a remix by Pharrel's Neptunes (with the laughable "i aint a thug tonight") featuring Q-Tip who would later appear on 20Ten. I like Eve's features on both much more than Tip's.

RODSERLING said:

Fair enough : . 1) Poor choice of thé lead single 2) No music vidéo 3) No promotion in thé US 4) No second single 5) not allowed to chart in thé Uk (does anybody Know why?) 6) thé best track of thé album IS a cover . But on the other side : 1) It went gold un thé US, and that s a miracle 2) It sold a million worlwide, another miracle 3) Prince earned 11 millions$ in advance, so he couldn t Care less about thé promotion of the album 4) It made Clive Davis fired from thé company hé created, so Prince had thé last laugh 5) 1999 re-released Was top 40 both in thé UK and US, so Prince had nevertheless a hit that year [Edited 11/19/18 8:23am]

Christ it sold a million AND he got an $11m advance?! Rave unto the Bank fantastic!

as close to a Compromise as you will hear on ANY Prince album...the desperation seeps through. However there are some bloody gems on here, Baby Knows, Where ever U go..., I love u But I dont trust u.... etc.

The usual clusterfck of Prince spitting his dummy out, record company shenannigans, poor choice for a lead single, delayed videos etc = flop project & a sad Prince performing on shit TV shows he would normally never do including day time kids TV!

Perhaps he thought it was going to be D&P 2 in terms of commercial crossover & big numbers?...BUT the songs just weren't good enough.

[Edited 11/20/18 9:27am]

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

RODSERLING said:

Fair enough : . 1) Poor choice of thé lead single 2) No music vidéo 3) No promotion in thé US 4) No second single 5) not allowed to chart in thé Uk (does anybody Know why?) 6) thé best track of thé album IS a cover . But on the other side : 1) It went gold un thé US, and that s a miracle 2) It sold a million worlwide, another miracle 3) Prince earned 11 millions$ in advance, so he couldn t Care less about thé promotion of the album 4) It made Clive Davis fired from thé company hé created, so Prince had thé last laugh 5) 1999 re-released Was top 40 both in thé UK and US, so Prince had nevertheless a hit that year [Edited 11/19/18 8:23am]

Christ it sold a million AND he got an $11m advance?! Rave unto the Bank fantastic!

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

RODSERLING said:

Fair enough : . 1) Poor choice of thé lead single 2) No music vidéo 3) No promotion in thé US 4) No second single 5) not allowed to chart in thé Uk (does anybody Know why?) 6) thé best track of thé album IS a cover . But on the other side : 1) It went gold un thé US, and that s a miracle 2) It sold a million worlwide, another miracle 3) Prince earned 11 millions$ in advance, so he couldn t Care less about thé promotion of the album 4) It made Clive Davis fired from thé company hé created, so Prince had thé last laugh 5) 1999 re-released Was top 40 both in thé UK and US, so Prince had nevertheless a hit that year [Edited 11/19/18 8:23am]

Christ it sold a million AND he got an $11m advance?! Rave unto the Bank fantastic!

I doubt it sold a million world wide... I don't want to get into another match with Rod, but Rave barely went GOLD in USA , and I do not believe it ever surparssed a million world wide... Don't forget one of his biggest markets, the UK it sold extremely poorly... Also in Europe it had very modest chart debuts, the only high chart debuts for Rave were in Canada peaking at #5, Holland at #17, and #19 on the Swiss charts... The rest of Europe it charted very poorly ex: France #37, and had a relatively short run and fell off the other charts....

I don't see it selling an extra 500,000 world wide, but no real sales figures for this album has been released except for the RIAA certification of GOLD in the U.S.

The DVD is cool though. Oh wait.
There comes Larry. "Lord", you can sing that again. On second thought, don't.
At least the piano is motorized.
Wait, what?
Flop.

Once Eric and Candy and Maceo and Sonny and Michael came back, and John came in, so did Soul.
Oh, did I mention Rhonda? Now that's some background singer. Uh, wait,
no more quarter notes burps, for real?
it was like nothing happened.
Back from the future.

StrangeButTrue said:

Say what you will about Hot Wit U, it and its remix are two of his most accessible "hip hop" tracks.

Se7en said:

feeluupp said:

NouveauDance said:

The fairest flop of his career.

This^

I think it was a mistake to release "TGRES" as the first single.It's not a bad song,but it's just not the type of song that would get people excited to buy the album.If Gwen Stefani's label wouldn't approve the release of "So Far,So Pleased",Prince and Arista should have went with "Baby Knows".

SoulAlive said:

I think it was a mistake to release "TGRES" as the first single.It's not a bad song,but it's just not the type of song that would get people excited to buy the album.If Gwen Stefani's label wouldn't approve the release of "So Far,So Pleased",Prince and Arista should have went with "Baby Knows".

Baby Knows would have flopped so bad as well, I can't really think of any song that would have hit as a single off that. Maybe Eye Love You but Eye Don't Trust you Anymore would have worked because it would have been really different to what people expected/were used to and it's a great track.

Some outstanding tracks (I Love U..., Tangerine), some excellent ones (Prettyman, ManOWar, Rave, The Greatest Romance) and several very decent ones. But it just doesn't work as a whole.

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

as close to a Comprise as you will hear on ANY Prince album...the desperation seeps through. However there are some bloody gems on here, Baby Knows, Where ever U go..., I love u But I dont trust u.... etc.

The usual clusterfck of Prince spitting his dummy out, record company shenannigans, poor choice for a lead single, delayed videos etc = flop project & a sad Prince performig on shit TV shows he would normally never do inc day time kids TV!

Perhaps he thought it was goint to be D&P 2 in terms of commercial crossover & big numbers?...BUT the songs just weren;t good enough.

Yes, that MTV TRL appearance was pitiful. He was so out of place and it was embarrassing having Ananda Lewis explain to the teenagers on the set how relevant he was.

.

As others have said the album is a real mixed bag. Goes from the sublime (I Love U, But I Don't Trust U Anymore) to the ridiculous (his Jamaican style rap on The Sun, The Sun, The Moon and Stars).

RODSERLING said:

Fair enough : . 1) Poor choice of thé lead single 2) No music vidéo 3) No promotion in thé US 4) No second single 5) not allowed to chart in thé Uk (does anybody Know why?) 6) thé best track of thé album IS a cover . But on the other side : 1) It went gold un thé US, and that s a miracle 2) It sold a million worlwide, another miracle 3) Prince earned 11 millions$ in advance, so he couldn t Care less about thé promotion of the album 4) It made Clive Davis fired from thé company hé created, so Prince had thé last laugh 5) 1999 re-released Was top 40 both in thé UK and US, so Prince had nevertheless a hit that year [Edited 11/19/18 8:23am]

Are you saying Everyday Is A Winding Road is the best track on the album or is this lost in translation

jaawwnn said:

SoulAlive said:

I think it was a mistake to release "TGRES" as the first single.It's not a bad song,but it's just not the type of song that would get people excited to buy the album.If Gwen Stefani's label wouldn't approve the release of "So Far,So Pleased",Prince and Arista should have went with "Baby Knows".

Baby Knows would have flopped so bad as well, I can't really think of any song that would have hit as a single off that. Maybe Eye Love You but Eye Don't Trust you Anymore would have worked because it would have been really different to what people expected/were used to and it's a great track.

The Sun, The Moon And Stars then, Silly Game then, Hot Wit U then, TGRES. For the steppers.







(God, I miss him.)

dodger said:

dodger said:

RODSERLING said:

Se7en said:

, Gwen Stefani on lockdown from her own label

My opinion? That s bullshit. No Doubt's Don t Speak Was a huge success in AirPlay, being #1 during what ?8; 10 or 16 weeks? And It wasn t released physically as a single. Most artist in thé 1990's Didn t release singles physically. . So, if It s true that Gwen's label Didn t want It to be released physically, there IS nothing in thé World that prévented Arista to make It a huge AirPlay hit, in order to sell thé album. . Thé cancellation of so far so pleased IS only thé result of TGRES being such a flop. And I dont think Prince wanted It to bé released. Clive Davis wanted "So Far" and Hot Wit U" that were potential hits, while Prince wanted potential flops such as Baby Knows and Manowar. Hé pushed himself thé promo releases

I've googled it and it's consistant with what I could find from Ronan Ro's book: the single project was an afterthought at a point when things had already spiraled down to hell for the whole projects, circa March 2000. Ro is consistant with Interscope saying no, though. Releasing a promo single and promo video without their consent might have been possible, but Arista wasn't going to collaborate much anyway.

I disagree however with the fact that most artists didn't release physical singles in 1999/2000. Peer-to-peer filesharing was still a new practice, digital singles were non-existent, most people still had horribly slow dial connection and, record sales were at their historic peak and from what I recall, pretty much everything got a CD single.

RODSERLING said:

dodger said:

RODSERLING said:

Yes. Just like One of us and Lalala...were thé best trackS from Émancipation... Just like thé best track from Lotus Flower IS Crimson and Clover... Just like thé best track from 3rdEyedGirl is Another love... . And each Time I Was "wow It s great!" And then I read thé crédit...éven if for Lotus Flower, there are of course No crédits at all, since no booklet...Really disappointed...If "Everyday" Was Really Princes, then It should have been thé lead single of Rave, by far thé most enjoyable track ! And I love thé album, don t get me wrong... . But éven So far So pleased would have been a Bad choice for thé lead single, since his voice IS Lost in the mix. . This IS surely why Arista Didn t éven try to promote So far...Thïs Gwen Stefani label Story IS BS. . [Edited 11/20/18 12:26pm] [Edited 11/20/18 12:28pm]

Opinions eh. But even though those songs you mention are covers, does it detract from your enjoyment? I agree with you on Anotherlove. . IIRC Prince made some comment on NPG online about Gwen Stefani's label blocking So Far So Pleased. Of course he could have been bullshitting. Or I could be imagining it [Edited 11/20/18 13:03pm]

Ro's book also says that. IDK if he had another source to corroborate the story.