prince put out few albums i didn't like, rave was great, some top shelf tunes in my mind, some ok ones and some that left me indifferent. he and clive tried something that wouldn't work for prince, they did the santana thing with all the guests, prince didn't need any of that, unlike santana, he could do a lot more than play guitar.

The fairest flop of his career.

NouveauDance said:

The fairest flop of his career.

NouveauDance - could you just once resist the urge to dog Rave???

I love Rave. My favourite Prince record of the 90s, no word of a lie. Love U But Don't Trust U Anymore, The Greatest Romance, Man O War and Wherever U Go Whatever U Do being the picks of the bunch, but there really isn't a song I dislike on the album.

[Edited 11/17/18 3:07am]

Rave Into was better.

This is one of the albums that I revisited after his passing that I enjoyed the most. No, it doesn't compete with the pure artistry of his best work. However, it is one of his most melodic albums, which is not surprising given that it was aimed for commercial success. So, it was a relative flop given it's commercial ambition but it wasn't a flop in terms of quality.

[Edited 11/17/18 13:31pm]

MattyJam said:

NouveauDance said:

The fairest flop of his career.

NouveauDance - could you just once resist the urge to dog Rave???

.

NouveauDance said:

Rave is not a good album,because Prince didnt put

any heart in making it except few songs.it was a calculated

attempt to cash in on Santana formula.do

you know that Prince argue with Clive Davies because

Clive didnt want guitar solo on a song

Man Of War because it wont be played on rnb radio with s guitar solo.

A bloated, guest filled mess with, yes, some really great tracks. It could have been a hit though, it was pretty on-trend for the crap that was successful in 1999. I think he was just in that part of his career where he had been around too long to appeal to anyone new but not long enough to be considered a legacy act.

Maybe they should not have said it was the greatest album ever. Wasn't

2freaky4church1 said:

take out ther filler and u have a great album

luvsexy4all said:

take out ther filler and u have a great album

Like 3 songs.
I call it a maxi-single.

It's a mixed bag.There are some really good songs ("So Far,So Pleased","Wherever U Go,Whatever U Do") and some mediocre tracks.

"Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do" is some post "Holy River" gem.
It's also one of the sweetest songs ever, in the vein of "Sweet Baby".
There are fantastic moments, but it's like Prince restraining himself.
I hate Larry and his quarter notes and his preachy-preacha, as the french say, I can't help it.
I think I hate all the denial phase and the music it produced. He got Mayte sad, when they both were.
I'm so glad he got that sorted out. But the Smurf Spandex®, the squeaky clean rastas, the emboss in metallic electric blue,
and so little on the inside (starting with a disaster for those who raved about the savagery of the Trojan Horse live version to their friends).

No thematic link between the songs, just fragments, in no special order.
He looks bored and looking the other way even on the sleeve. He's not into it, right from the visual.
This is not "sexy". This is "bored".

Like "So Far, So Pleased". So far, I'm still waiting for the song to excite me.
Strange but True, I don't expect it to get better with time. Some wine goes sour after a while.

[Edited 11/17/18 13:28pm]

Rave was the first album I purchased from his music at the time it was released. Flop or not, always a have fondness toward that album for starting it all

Hamad said:

Rave was the first album I purchased from his music at the time it was released. Flop or not, always a have fondness toward that album for starting it all

Same.

It was a flop because Prince and Clive Davis had a row and Arista ceased all promotion of the records hardly 2 months after its release. Prince did his short European TV shows mini-tour, there was the Rave 2000 pay-per-view in the US and that was it.

.

That + the poor choice of the first single ("Prince ballad for yo momma") + the fact that it didn't have a music video for a month after release + the fact that Gwen's label wouldn't allow a single release of So Far, So Pleased.

.

The album had a great commercial potential, so did TGE, those two could have been the next D&P, but D&P wasn't just huge because the music was accessible, it was huge because WB worked their asses to promote it for a whole year, and Prince played ball.

Nah, it was pretty bad; and fairly out of touch with "what's cool". There's some good tracks on it (Where Ever U go, Greatest Romance, Hot Wit U, Strange But True) but there's something sort of plastic and artifical about it and it lacks coherence. Feels manufactured and not from the heart. I'll still defend the DvD and think that "rave IN2" was a step up but I don't spin this one too much.

It's the "Produced by Prince" (after all these years of absence, blah blah).
We had to much expectations. Even hardcore fans saturated a bit on this one.
But I'm glad some orgers got on the boat with an album I'm not crazy about.
It just goes to sho how much diverse people Prince can gather with his music.

databank said:

It was a flop because Prince and Clive Davis had a row and Arista ceased all promotion of the records hardly 2 months after its release. Prince did his short European TV shows mini-tour, there was the Rave 2000 pay-per-view in the US and that was it.

.

That + the poor choice of the first single ("Prince ballad for yo momma") + the fact that it didn't have a music video for a month after release + the fact that Gwen's label wouldn't allow a single release of So Far, So Pleased.

.

The album had a great commercial potential, so did TGE, those two could have been the next D&P, but D&P wasn't just huge because the music was accessible, it was huge because WB worked their asses to promote it for a whole year, and Prince played ball.

morris hayes tells a story about seeing prince standing on a desk and screaming at clive davis and other execs, he told clive something like "you can't play anything" not those words but something to that effect, he told morris "i ain't afraid of these guys" Prince had a lot of heart. Most stars get bullied by someone, not Prince. i do wonder what went wrong, prince blamed the company, the company blamed him but sometimes the public just don't buy the stuff. George Michael, Michael Jackson and terence Trent Darby have blamed record companies for sales but I don't really know, it's easy to blame someone, why wouldn't the record companies want these guys to sell? lots of it is just timing.

no

To me it was even worse then Emancipation. Even Musicology was better. That Rave period was all too weird in a bad way.
And that album was cringeworthy, a real winner in that category. Starting the awkward album cover, that title what was 10 years due the 'rave' hype. And that song was strained of any good idea or harmony. The rest of the album wasn't any better... Don't even talk me about its ugly nephew 'in2'.

TheFman said:

To me it was even worse then Emancipation. Even Musicology was better. That Rave period was all too weird in a bad way.
And that album was cringeworthy, a real winner in that category. Starting the awkward album cover, that title what was 10 years due the 'rave' hype. And that song was strained of any good idea or harmony. The rest of the album wasn't any better... Don't even talk me about its ugly nephew 'in2'.

Add rhythm to the list.
Maybe his worst programming ever. These sounds!
It's the pre-Breakdown Lasers era, here we have Super Mario jumping over mushrooms.
"Peew. Pee-Peew." goes the cowbell. After a minute comes the first yawn.
Lawd Alfred, bring yo hat back home! He's gone plastic mad!

[Edited 11/19/18 3:17am]