ChickenMcNuggets said:

LovePaisley said:

FunkJam said:

Art Official Age!

Funknroll! Number 1 EDM song. Also only EDM song?

Get Loose?

Defining "classic" as top-50 makes it hard to guarantee each album has at least one given how many albums he has. Based on my last list, these are the albums that would contain at least 1 classic song, by that definition:

Dirty Mind x3
Controversy x3
1999 x6
Purple Rain x2
Parade x2
Sign o' the Times x4
Lovesexy x4
Graffiti Bridge x1
Diamonds and Pearls x1
Symbol x1
The Gold Experience x3
Crystal Ball x1
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic x1
3121 x1
Art Official Age x1
Odds and ends (B-sides, outtakes, etc.) x16

That seems too strict. There are many songs I would consider classic that aren't among my top 50. The albums that jump to mind without obvious classics are things like Xpectation, NEWS, Kamasutra, the NPGMC albums, etc. But even albums I don't necessarily love as a whole usually have at least one song I completely love.

Moonbeam said:

jdcxc said:

datdude said:

not even Way Back Home for you?! Definitely for me! Many would say The Breakdown, others still BCW, but yeah AOA too has at least one classic,

“Time” is potentially Top 50 material. “U Know” is another Jam.

"Time" is my fav on this album

ChickenMcNuggets said:

When I saw the thread title, 20Ten was the album that came to my mind that lacked an obvious ‘classic’ track for me. So I’d be interested to hear people’s suggestions for that one.

"Sticky like glue" is my fav, but not sure if it cracks top 50?

Rev said:

Rev said:

Thing is, Top 50 is borderline one-track-per-album with Prince.

And that word. "Classic". I dunno. Great, sure. I'm gonna go with great. And Top Hundred... and Twenty-Five.

WhisperingDandelions said:

Top 50 would be too restrictive.. indeed, in light of the amount of albums he released. So I went through his albums and checked the ones where I couldn't think of the standout track. Of those, about half did have them.. and then I was left with these albums:

-N.E.W.S.

-The Slaughterhouse

-C-Note

-Plectrum Electrum

-Art Official Age

-HitnRun Phase One

Only 6 albums out of his many many albums, that's quite an achievement.

TrivialPursuit said:

jdcxc said:

Disagree. 1996+ Albums have a boatload of underrated great songs. Ppl make the mistake of comparing his 79-88 Genius Period with the rest of his catalogue. That is unfair...that was one of the greatest creative runs in pop music history and shouldn’t diminish the great music that followed.

I'm not comparing anything. Any Prince album should be judged on its own, since they are all so different. But that's also the problem, though. 1996 was a time mark, not a comparison of different decades. It was a falling off, for me. His music started to mesh together. Nothing stands out.(3121 and Planet Earth is practically a 2-CD album, as an example.) And while there are nice songs on most albums in this time period, nothing is "classic".

To be fair, most of 3121, Planet Earth, and Lotus Flower were recorded during the same sessions. I think, with hindsight, it helps those records make more sense. Not total sense, but more sense than just "why do these sound so similar".

Besides, Planet Earth is probably the weakest of those 3 and it has a grammy award winning track on it so that's gotta account for something.

mediumdry said:

Top 50 would be too restrictive.. indeed, in light of the amount of albums he released. So I went through his albums and checked the ones where I couldn't think of the standout track. Of those, about half did have them.. and then I was left with these albums:

-N.E.W.S.

-The Slaughterhouse

-C-Note

-Plectrum Electrum

-Art Official Age

-HitnRun Phase One

Only 6 albums out of his many many albums, that's quite an achievement.

but alls them albums have at least one great one

jfenster said:

mediumdry said:

Top 50 would be too restrictive.. indeed, in light of the amount of albums he released. So I went through his albums and checked the ones where I couldn't think of the standout track. Of those, about half did have them.. and then I was left with these albums:

-N.E.W.S.

-The Slaughterhouse

-C-Note

-Plectrum Electrum

-Art Official Age

-HitnRun Phase One

Only 6 albums out of his many many albums, that's quite an achievement.

but alls them albums have at least one great one

.

Really? Please help me identify them. Listening to the records doesn't show it.

mediumdry said:

Top 50 would be too restrictive.. indeed, in light of the amount of albums he released. So I went through his albums and checked the ones where I couldn't think of the standout track. Of those, about half did have them.. and then I was left with these albums:

-N.E.W.S.

-The Slaughterhouse

-C-Note

-Plectrum Electrum

-Art Official Age

-HitnRun Phase One

Only 6 albums out of his many many albums, that's quite an achievement.

1000 X's & O's

feeluupp said:

mediumdry said:

jfenster said:

but alls them albums have at least one great one

.

Really? Please help me identify them. Listening to the records doesn't show it.

NEWS: West and South are decent if you can stomach 14 minutes of aimless jamming.

The Slaughterhouse: Peace, Radical Man, Silicon

CNOTE: Empty Room

Plectrum: Wow, title track, Anotherlove

Art Official Age: Way Back Home, Time (others tend to love U Know and Clouds)

Phase 1: Hardrocklover, 1000 X's & O's

jdcxc said:

feeluupp said:

1000 X's & O's

Slaughterhouse- U Make My Sun Shine is an underrated Gem. Princely Gospel C-Note- Empty Room is a classic to many Prince fan HNR1- X’s Face! AOA- 2/3 Princeworld Classics Does anyone know why this cool well-written list didn’t include the Top 62 of the 500 best Prince songs? Would love to find. http://www.500princesongs.com/about/

BTW, U Make My Sun Shine is on Chocolate Invasion.

Suprised nobody said "June" from Hit N Run Phase One

djdaffy1227 said:

Suprised nobody said "June" from Hit N Run Phase One

I love it, it moves me everytime.

LoveGalore said:

The only one I genuinely have trouble finding a song is 20Ten. Skimmed by the YouTube playlist for those real quick yesterday.... yeah.... Closest I got was "Future Soul Song" but I feel like it's kind of been done better before, you know?

FunkJam said:

Art Official Age!

Clouds has a special place in my and would therefore always make my top 50, and AOA would even make my Top 10 album list!

WhisperingDandelions said:

The only one I genuinely have trouble finding a song is 20Ten. Skimmed by the YouTube playlist for those real quick yesterday.... yeah.... Closest I got was "Future Soul Song" but I feel like it's kind of been done better before, you know?

Maybe not classic but I'd say Future Soul Song and Sticky Like Glue are 'top tier'