Just last week, I purchased my copy of the RaveUn2 reissue and it's my first ever experience with the tracks from this album.

I was way too young to have an appreciation of Prince in 1999 (outside of a few select hits that I knew), but how was this album received? I've never heard any of these songs on the radio. I assume, during the era of NuMetal that this album would have been snubbed and forgotten fairly quick?

As for me, it's growing. First couple of listens, it was just ok but i've found some tracks that i'm really loving:

Greatest Romance

Man O War

Baby Knows

I love you but don't trust you

So Far So Pleased

Not sure if i'm sold on the Sheryl Crow cover.....

It was a big letdown.

Not very well.

The cons incl:

.

His suit on the cover

Everyday Is A Winding Road

Larry's dulcet tones on above

His Jamaican rap on The Sun, The Moon and Stars

.

Out weigh the pros

It was something like "a good commercial album with no hits inside".

It does feel like an album intent on cashing in on trends that were popular at the time. But, it also feels like an album where Prince was trying to retain his signature sound and marry it up to what was contemporary at the time. That's why the album lacks a certain sincerity or urgency. Some nice tracks, but the weakest of his 90s output from the albums of that era which I own.

OperatingThetan said:

Commercially, it undelivered and caused a rift between Prince and Clive Davis and Arista. The perception among fans differs, but I think it contains some very strong material. Prince originally conceived the 1999 'Rave' as a psychedelic rock/pop album, but he was asked to include more r&b songs by Arista and subsequently, some of the songs were removed. I'd certainly like to hear Prince's original configuration.

I was under the impression that songs were added, rather than removed.

It wasn't received well, and the promotion was completely botched (some kind of giveaway at Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus made sales at the UK's leading store ineligible for the charts, TGRES video wasn't ready in time for the single release in US, the single not released at all in the UK until months later etc etc).

I recall a pretty scathing review in NME. Although it loved Everyday is a Winding Road ("dogshit-to-diamond alchemy"), it was personally hard to read the conclusion, using as it did my favourite movie director to criticise my favourite musician - "To paraphrase Woody Allen, genius is like a shark; it has to move forward or it dies. And what we have here is a patchily impressive, fleetingly satisfying, but very, very dead shark."

Maybe it's the part of his career where Prince's humaity was the most apparent; the moment fatigue entered through the front door.

just the title and the 'artwork' alone was sufficient to never listen to this record. Never have listened to it to this day.

[Edited 9/23/19 5:56am]

This was one if his biggest all around let-downs. It was not well received, got no airplay, and imo was not a good album. It had some good songs, the best being the buried Prettyman.

I hated his look, hated the cover, and hated the album. I was not alone at the time.

Prince allegedly told Santana that he was going to do what Santana did: get Clive Davis and a bunch of guest stars to have a huge hit. But he chose odd guests (Chuck D and Ani DiFranco weren't going to get you big hits in 1999, Eve wasn't a huge star yet, Sheryl Crow was big but he buried her in the mix, and the Gwen Stefani song wasn't able to be released due to No Doubt putting a new record out at the time). TGRES was the first single and managed to get to #63 on the Hot 100, but the video was delayed for months by which time the song had died. Prince became furious at Clive Davis, saying he had promised to deliver some "real hits to the top of the charts", and it became a mini version of the WB battle all over again. What started out with a lot of promise quickly dissolved into a mess all parties involved with wanted to walk away from and never speak of again. It would take Prince 5 years to figure out how to do mainstream success on his own terms.

[Edited 9/23/19 8:03am]

It was considered a flop based on intent and hype. First single stalled at #63, no other singles charted, came and went fast. Album was weak sauce. 4 or 5 keepers buried in mediocrity.

dodger said:

Not very well.

The cons incl:

.

His suit on the cover

Everyday Is A Winding Road

Larry's dulcet tones on above

His Jamaican rap on The Sun, The Moon and Stars

.

Out weigh the pros

I edited Larry out of that song, and it flows quite nicely without his stupid chant in the middle.

I don't even remember - which tells you all you need to know.

A small bunch of the songs leaked before the album ever came out. I had a good half-dozen months before. So I was sorta already into it. I liked it. But the problems aren't the songs, because many albums have eh-songs.

The problem was the lead single. Prince has a shitty history of picking a lead single from an album sometimes. "TGRES" should never have been a single, evar. The singles, in any order, should have been:

• So Far, So Pleased
• Baby Knows
• Prettyman
• I Love U But Don't Trust U Anymore
• Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do

Not to say other songs aren't good, but they're not truly radio friendly and single-worthy. Clive & Prince got in a slap fight and the album fell thru the cracks. There was a lot of build-up with no support afterward. (It makes me think about how Island failed on Janet's Discipline for similar differences between artist & record company.)

But I can see where comments by rdhull etc have validity because there was a lot of hype with the then-forthcoming "album by , but produced by Prince," and then - nothing. Even a simple video for TGRES was months after the song had been released. I remember some story about the Neptunes having a hard time remixing the song for the single because it was just a shitty song in general. (Didn't someone else decline to do a remix because they didn't like the song?)

Too bad. It could've been a moderate hit album for him, especially with it being 1999. But he refused to do any appearances to play "1999" and simultaneously promote Rave. Oh sure, he was on The View, Today, and TRL, but whoopie.

[Edited 9/23/19 11:55am]

quite sure prince's own website at the time compared it to Sign O The Times,
when it was in the early recording stages. also mentioned that he was putting
a song a day down to tape and that he had to pace himself or something like
that.

first dangersign came with the news that he had changed the album since he
had a meeting with clive/arista and they told him they needed more singles
or commercial sounding material on it.

still, he could have released his own intended early version as "In2", which
would have been more interesting than the remix album was. instead those
remixes could have gone on singles as b-sides or been web exclusives etc.

aaanyway, back to the initial reaction to rave. i don't know. i felt so-so. there
are some really great tracks on it but it felt a bit lightweight somehow.

i've never hated it or considered it one of his worst albums ever, although i'm
also not a big fan of it.

it sold decently from what i remember, although nowhere near what they'd
hoped for, as we all know. the marketing of the singles/videos was a mess
and the guest spots were not utilised in any commercial, marketable way.

then prince blamed arista and arista kind of went under, iirc? or whatever.
much like emancipation is was sort of dead in the water from the release day,
but it sold a fair amount to his loyal fans.

but going on what they had in mind as a reference point (santana's album) it
was a commercial disaster.

TrivialPursuit said:

dodger said:

Not sure releasing Prettyman twice would have been a good idea . The obvious single choices were So Far, So Pleased and Hot Wit U. Gwen Stefani and Eve surely would have helped them gain traction with videos. . I like The Jason Nevins Remix of TGRES and it got a lot of radio play here in Liverpool. I also like The Adam & Eve remix, that guitar man. Again a video with Eve could have helped. . His TRL appearance was embarrassing. That shown how desperate he was for a hit. Ananda Lewis was having to explain to the teenagers in the audience how great he was and Carson Daly made a bit of a tit of him.

OOPS. Fixed it.

I wasn't ever a huge fan of "Hot Wit U", but on Urban radio it would've played well I bet. The thing is, No Doubt had no album since 1995, and Gwen didn't have a solo album until 2004. Yet she still would have been so relevant on a single. Eve was new, but she was around, and was recognized. So I totally agree w/ those ladies.

TrivialPursuit said:

A small bunch of the songs leaked before the album ever came out. I had a good half-dozen months before. So I was sorta already into it. I liked it. But the problems aren't the songs, because many albums have eh-songs.

The problem was the lead single. Prince has a shitty history of picking a lead single from an album sometimes. "TGRES" should never have been a single, evar. The singles, in any order, should have been:

• So Far, So Pleased
• Baby Knows
• Prettyman
• I Love U But Don't Trust U Anymore
• Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do
• Prettyman

Not to say other songs aren't good, but they're not truly radio friendly and single-worthy.

Too bad. It could've been a moderate hit album for him, especially with it being 1999. But he refused to do any appearances to play "1999" and simultaneously promote Rave. Oh sure, he was on The View, Today, and TRL, but whoopie.

Good choice of potential hits but I never really liked Baby Knows nor do I think it had any hit potential, especially not in that year, yet Prince seemed to really like that song. I found it a bit corny as far as the music goes and I didn´t like the lyrics at all....especially the part about her making him feel so good that he thinks his shit doesn´t smell. That was, in my opinion, a totally stupid and un-Princely line.

.

Prettyman is a great little Prince song for fans but as much as I like the funny lyrics and the music, it is just one of many paint-by-numbers James Brown-esque sounding songs and is more for the hardcore fans than for the average or casual listeners.

.

But I totally agree with you as far as So Far So Pleased and Wherever U Go are concerned. Those really had some potential, and many of my friends back then who were not Prince fans really liked Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do. I´d say of all the songs on Rave, that song had the biggest hit potential and I´ll never understand why he released TGRES instead. I first heard TGRES while I was shopping in some department store and it felt so weak and cringey to me and when I read that Rolling Stone interview back then where he told the journalist that TGRES had "hit" written all over it I was wondering why and how he could be so utterly wrong, and yet he felt so enthusiastic about that song.

.

Hot Wit U and Manowar are two other songs with some mild hit potential....maybe for the RnB or dance charts, or maybe if the remix had been the album version.

.

The whole Rave era was weird......weird interviews, very strange choices of TV show appearances (at least in Europe), and bad song choices for the TV appearances. And his appearances on American TV shows were a bit strange, too, for example when he was on TRL. Most of his interviews for German TV were particularly bad but that wasn´t necessarily Prince´s fault.

.

This being said, in hindsight I think Rave could´ve been much more successful if the songs had been slightly different or edited a bit...just a few lyric changes here and there, maybe get rid of the fake patois accent in Sun, Moon and the Stars, get rid of the unlistenable Every Day Is A Winding Road, maybe less bragging and it could´ve been much more successful.

It´s one of those many "coulda-woulda-shoulda" albums, and while Rave In2 was a little better, it still had many of the flaws of Rave Un2.

.

TrivialPursuit said:

dodger said:

Not sure releasing Prettyman twice would have been a good idea . The obvious single choices were So Far, So Pleased and Hot Wit U. Gwen Stefani and Eve surely would have helped them gain traction with videos. . I like The Jason Nevins Remix of TGRES and it got a lot of radio play here in Liverpool. I also like The Adam & Eve remix, that guitar man. Again a video with Eve could have helped. . His TRL appearance was embarrassing. That shown how desperate he was for a hit. Ananda Lewis was having to explain to the teenagers in the audience how great he was and Carson Daly made a bit of a tit of him.

OOPS. Fixed it.

I wasn't ever a huge fan of "Hot Wit U", but on Urban radio it would've played well I bet. The thing is, No Doubt had no album since 1995, and Gwen didn't have a solo album until 2004. Yet she still would have been so relevant on a single. Eve was new, but she was around, and was recognized. So I totally agree w/ those ladies.

Oh, I was still typing my reply to your post when you posted this ^ .

Yes, Hot Wit U (and Manowar) had some Urban radio or dance charts, RnB charts potential.

KoolEaze said:

Good choice of potential hits but I never really liked Baby Knows nor do I think it had any hit potential, especially not in that year, yet Prince seemed to really like that song. I found it a bit corny as far as the music goes and I didn´t like the lyrics at all....especially the part about her making him feel so good that he thinks his shit doesn´t smell. That was, in my opinion, a totally stupid and un-Princely line.

.

Prettyman is a great little Prince song for fans but as much as I like the funny lyrics and the music, it is just one of many paint-by-numbers James Brown-esque sounding songs and is more for the hardcore fans than for the average or casual listeners.

.

"Baby Knows" always reminded me of The Cars's "You Might Think".

"Prettyman" would've been an urban radio song more than Top 40. It wasn't 1984, after all.

Romeblu asked in another thread what the Rave vinyl reissue is like, and his thread was redirected here.

Even though this doesn't really have anything to do with how the album was received on initial release, I'll answer the vinyl reissue question here.

I have both the original vinyl of Rave and the recent Sony vinyl reissue.

The original is actually very good soundwise, but I think the reissue is a little better. It seems a little deeper and richer to me. It's not a huge difference, but it's there.

Also, the biggest difference between the two, is that the original vinyl issue ended with Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do.... it did not contain the 'bonus'/hidden tracks. The recent reissue DOES contain these tracks, finishing with the 1-800 NEW FUNK ad and then Prettyman.... That may be enough to sway you... but I think that in general they did a great job with the recent vinyl issue.

I totally agree.Prince should have never released TGRES as the first single.It's an OK song,but it's not exciting enough to be the leadoff single."So Far,So Pleased" and "Baby Knows" should have been the first two singles."Wherever U Go,Whatever U Do" would have made an excellent third single.

TrivialPursuit said:

The problem was the lead single. Prince has a shitty history of picking a lead single from an album sometimes. "TGRES" should never have been a single, evar. The singles, in any order, should have been:

• So Far, So Pleased
• Baby Knows
• Prettyman
• I Love U But Don't Trust U Anymore
• Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do

renfield said:

Prince allegedly told Santana that he was going to do what Santana did: get Clive Davis and a bunch of guest stars to have a huge hit. But he chose odd guests (Chuck D and Ani DiFranco weren't going to get you big hits in 1999, Eve wasn't a huge star yet, Sheryl Crow was big but he buried her in the mix, and the Gwen Stefani song wasn't able to be released due to No Doubt putting a new record out at the time). TGRES was the first single and managed to get to #63 on the Hot 100, but the video was delayed for months by which time the song had died. Prince became furious at Clive Davis, saying he had promised to deliver some "real hits to the top of the charts", and it became a mini version of the WB battle all over again. What started out with a lot of promise quickly dissolved into a mess all parties involved with wanted to walk away from and never speak of again. It would take Prince 5 years to figure out how to do mainstream success on his own terms.

[Edited 9/23/19 8:03am]

Prince: Hey, wanna do an album together?

Santana: fuck yeah!

There's a parallel universe where that conversation happened.