In a few recent album ranking threads, I've been noticing a considerable division on how fans view 'Come'. For some, (including myself), it is ranked very highly, and for others it clearly is not. I think its funky hypnotic grooves and dark haunting atmosphere easily make it one of his greatest. Prince's vocals and different vocal layers throughout the album are also incredible. I remember when I first heard the album, I was like...

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What is your overall feeling of the album? Do you place it among his greatest? If your not a fan of the album, what are some of the elements you dislike? No judgements if you don't like it, I'm just curious about what some of the album's criticisms could be.

To be frank, we have discussed this a few times on this forum. To answer your question, Come has always been my guilty pressure from when it first came out! I have always loved it! It got pretty bad reviews at the time, and I remember buying it and thinking how wrong the critics was at the time. To me its a very good album that i can listen too with out skipping a track.

It is an alright album, it has some good songs but I wouldn't call it a classic.

masterpiece. underappreciated. top 10 prince album.

lustmealways said:

masterpiece. underappreciated. top 10 prince album.

Co-sign 100%.

No comparing it to The Gold Experience or anything either for the sake of this argument.

COME's aural aesthetic was just really interesting to me. It was dark, gothy, equally electronic and organic.
Things like "Space" or "Solo" felt natural, real.
Then you had funk workouts like "Pheromone," and "Race."
Dancefloor assassins like "Loose!" show up.
There there are these storytelling songs like "Papa" (which only add to the darker mood on the record), "Letitgo" (all about his fight with WB and his career) and "Come" (the sexual journey narrative rivaled only by things The Scandalous Sex Suite or "International Lover").

Somehow the weirdness of "Orgasm" bookends the album perfectly, since it started with a sexually explicit romp in the title track. It's really a moody journey, almost like two people fucking, and having these occasional conversations about race, life, or whatever in between moments of passion.

The only album that really gets in the same vein is 1999, as far as the sexual narrative ("International Lover," "Little Red Corvette"), the drawn out lidibo ("Automatic"), the career examining songs ("All The Critics"), social commentary ("Lady Cab Driver"), and so on. Not that Prince didn't delve into those things on other albums here and there, but as a whole, Come is sort of 1999's 2nd cousin.

TrivialPursuit said:

lustmealways said:

masterpiece. underappreciated. top 10 prince album.

Co-sign 100%.

No comparing it to The Gold Experience or anything either for the sake of this argument.

COME's aural aesthetic was just really interesting to me. It was dark, gothy, equally electronic and organic.
Things like "Space" or "Solo" felt natural, real.
Then you had funk workouts like "Pheromone," and "Race."
Dancefloor assassins like "Loose!" show up.
There there are these storytelling songs like "Papa" (which only add to the darker mood on the record), "Letitgo" (all about his fight with WB and his career) and "Come" (the sexual journey narrative rivaled only by things The Scandalous Sex Suite or "International Lover").

Somehow the weirdness of "Orgasm" bookends the album perfectly, since it started with a sexually explicit romp in the title track. It's really a moody journey, almost like two people fucking, and having these occasional conversations about race, life, or whatever in between moments of passion.

The only album that really gets in the same vein is 1999, as far as the sexual narrative ("International Lover," "Little Red Corvette"), the drawn out lidibo ("Automatic"), the career examining songs ("All The Critics"), social commentary ("Lady Cab Driver"), and so on. Not that Prince didn't delve into those things on other albums here and there, but as a whole, Come is sort of 1999's 2nd cousin.

Excellent points...Very well said I also think the darker vibe on the album gives a good sense of where Prince was personally. I recall someone posting that 'Come' sounded like he was going through a lot, which was probably fueled by the WB fight. 'Letitgo' as you mention is probably the most direct reference to the WB issue. For me though, I find most of the tracks have an undercurrent of restlessness and frustration.

Baby cried..."I'm sorry! I won't do it no more." Papa said, "Yeah, I know. That's what this here's for.."

I love the album, always have done.

But like all Prince albums (except Dirty Mind), it is flawed for me.

Come, the title track, the version that is on the album is far inferior to the version from the Beautiful Experience film. The album would have been much better with 11 mins of that mix.

Space is good but often flits in an out of my Prince best of, play list.

Pheremone is fantastic. Always up there and extra good with headphones / earphones.

Loose is meh.

Papa is great, but not always an easy listen. Does a longer version exist?

Race, I could take or leave. But if I'm auditioning new Hi-Fi equipment it is one of my reference tracks for the bass sound. Weirdly many speakers struggle with it.

Dark - I love this track. Always in my best of / playlists. Much better than the version (So Dark) from Crystal Ball.

Solo - Absolutely love this track. Always in my best of / playlists.

I know this track really divides the fans though. Would be interesting to know what annoys the haters so much.

Letitgo - Absolutely love this track but I can't listen to the album version due to the channel of distorted noise that has been added seemingly just to piss people off and canines too.

So I add Letitgo (On the Cool-Out Tip radio edit) instead as that is awesome too.

Is there a longer (full version) of this mix kicking around?

Why release something and call it an edit when there's only one version - why not just On the Cool-Out Tip Mix? Prince Vault lists Letitgo (On The Cool-Out Mix) as unreleased - have any bootleg perusers noted its actual existence?

I think the Come / Gold Experience period is one of Prince's most awesome moments.

I'd love a Come / GE Super Deluxe edition as one package. Musically they blend really well into each. Third on my list of SDE requests after ATWIAD and SOTT.

lustmealways said:

masterpiece. underappreciated. top 10 prince album.

I agree, specially when it comes to cohesiviness of the album and the dark sound and vibe, however and as usual it could have been better if What's My Name, Interactive and the other one I dont remeber right now.

lustmealways said:

This thread makes me miss damosuzuki!

I like Come a lot. It has great atmosphere and its brevity was a nice change from the massive ambition of the 3 previous studio albums. That said, none of the tracks are among my very favorites of his. Many great songs, but no all-timers for me - the closest being "Papa". I'm not huge on the singles, either.

Last time I made a list, it came in as my 17th favorite of the 39 Prince albums, so I view it as a mid-tier Prince album. For an artist of Prince's caliber, that still means it's very, very good!

Moonbeam said:

FragileUndertow said:

ThePersian said:

Come, the title track, the version that is on the album is far inferior to the version from the Beautiful Experience film.

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That's the popular fan narrative. I never understood it. It is what made me search out the other versions of the song. This is by far the best. Sure, we could do without the fake (?) cunnilingus sounds that go on forever, but none of the other versions have the same funk. Great horns, bass... The version we got is, imho, the absolute best version.

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So.. let's hope for a SDE that has all versions so that finally all fans can agree that the best version is on the SDE.

FragileUndertow said:

Moonbeam said:

. I'm not huge on the singles, either.

I actually loved The Universal Love remix and the Account mix? (I dont recall the exact name) Letirgo remix (Shermstick,) was cool too

The remixes are decent enough, but "Letitgo" and "Space" are my two least favorite songs on the album, bar "Orgasm".

My favorite remixes from the Come singles are:

Space (Acoustic) - The acoustic guitar adds a lighter feeling to the song. For me, the acoustic version feels like the daytime version of Space, and the one on the album is the nightime version.

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Letitgo (Sherm Stick) - The Ballad of Dorothy Parker effects and guitar makes this version of Letitgo feel much more haunting.

I consider Come a top 10 on his discography and one of the most interesting things he did in terms of sounds, concepts and execution.

All the songs/alternate versions left off this record that every other fan clamors for were better not on the record. They usually sound all glammy-Gold Experience-esque, completely unrelated to the dark cold jazzy funk night vibe of Come.

A perfect example of the parts being greater than the sum and sequencing being important.

He cut too much off and it suffers as a whole.

WhisperingDandelions said:

All the songs/alternate versions left off this record that every other fan clamors for were better not on the record. They usually sound all glammy-Gold Experience-esque, completely unrelated to the dark cold jazzy funk night vibe of Come.

I prefer most of the alternate versions but you do have a point. I think you could make a better album if you mix the alternate versions with various, often alternate as well, tracks from the Gold Experience, but what you wouldn't have is Come.

Space to Letitgo is a great string of songs that I think go really well together. Come the track is too long. Solo is interesting but not one of my faves. Orgasm is a waste.

dodger said:

Poplife88 said:

Space to Letitgo is a great string of songs that I think go really well together. Come the track is too long. Solo is interesting but not one of my faves. Orgasm is a waste.

If 10 minutes is too long to Come, you're doing it wrong.

"Orgasm" is there for a reason and we all know why.

Come is too long indeed.

The Come album is a better coehesive album than GOLD Experience. Although, GE has better songs on it as an entire album the COME album is better.