1999 Deluxe is popping up in several "best of 2019" lists, but UK music monthly Classic Pop hasn't forgotten about Originals: in their list "Best of 2019: Reissues" (in the January 2020 issue), Originals takes the fourth spot.

The album is also mentioned in "Best of 2019: Editor's Choice" in the same issue of Classic Pop:

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On the soul and R&B front, a fair slice of my attention was given over to various Prince-related offerings this year, from the intriguing Originals album to the exhaustive 1999 boxset. The Purple One's unfinished autobiography The Beautiful Ones was a glimpse into what could have been and further underlined just what an extraordinary, much-missed talent Minneapolis' most famous son was.

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[Edited 1/2/20 6:43am]

Why is Originals in best of reissues, it's the first release of the material.

alandail said:

Why is Originals in best of reissues, it's the first release of the material.

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Well, no. It contains Prince's "original" version of already released tracks. By your logic 1999 Deluxe is a "fresh" release, since the majority of it was previously unreleased.

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"Reissues" is a broad term in this context, look at it as "archival releases". Is the new Leonard Cohen album a "reissue"? I'd argue it is, since it is basically a compilation of outtakes his son finished. What about a previously unreleased album that gets released decades after its original intended release date, supervised by the artist? I'd argue it is a "reissue". For instance, I'd label the 1994 release of TBA a "reissue" and not a "fresh" Prince album. Ditto the 1998 Crystal Ball. Where this gets tricky is with The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale: arguably a "fresh" album when it was submitted to Warners, but somewhat of a "from the vaults" release when it only got released years later.

Where are these lists that include "Originals" and "1999?" Links? Evidence of such?

BartVanHemelen said:

alandail said:

Why is Originals in best of reissues, it's the first release of the material.

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Well, no. It contains Prince's "original" version of already released tracks. By your logic 1999 Deluxe is a "fresh" release, since the majority of it was previously unreleased.

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"Reissues" is a broad term in this context, look at it as "archival releases". Is the new Leonard Cohen album a "reissue"? I'd argue it is, since it is basically a compilation of outtakes his son finished. What about a previously unreleased album that gets released decades after its original intended release date, supervised by the artist? I'd argue it is a "reissue". For instance, I'd label the 1994 release of TBA a "reissue" and not a "fresh" Prince album. Ditto the 1998 Crystal Ball. Where this gets tricky is with The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale: arguably a "fresh" album when it was submitted to Warners, but somewhat of a "from the vaults" release when it only got released years later.

The word 'reissue' doesn't really work, as it was never issued in the first place. But it still makes sense for these releases to be on that list rather than a 'new releases' one.

sro100 said:

Where are these lists that include "Originals" and "1999?" Links? Evidence of such?

Kind of hard to link to a magazine article. Page 76 of Classic Pop has the best of reissues list. 1999 at number one and Originals at number 4. Like Bart says, originals is also mentioned in the editor's choice write up as is 1999 and the memoir.

sro100 said:

Where are these lists that include "Originals" and "1999?" Links? Evidence of such?

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https://prince.org/msg/7/461512?pg=14 for the 1999 ones.

[Spambot - luv4u]

It's popped up on a few other lists.

#32 at Ondarock (Italy): https://www.ondarock.it/c...e/2019.php

#4 reissue/compilation at EFE EME (Spain): https://www.efeeme.com/lo...acionales/

Included in unranked best albums at Fader (US): https://www.thefader.com/...ms-of-2019

Included among the top 5 "groove" albums at Telerama (France): https://www.telerama.fr/m...566526.php

[Edited 1/6/20 14:12pm]