EmmaMcG said:

I personally never liked the album. A few good songs, but nothing great, and some truly horrific songs put this album amongst my least favourite Prince albums. I disagree regarding SoulAlive's take on it being "dated" though. I don't understand that as a criticism at all. All the best music sounds "dated" because most of it is old. Diamonds and Pearls isn't bad because it's dated. It's just bad.

This is so true...

...using the 'dated' thing says something (more often than not) about the individual reviewing it.

Songs in the key of life sounds dated... right? One of the greatest albums ever....

I listened to D&P a lot when it came out..... I remember thinking when listening to Thunder - what an awesome opener, if this is the first track then the rest of the album will blow my mind. I was very wrong.

Whilst it's an 'enjoyable' album there is absolutely nothing on the album that would rank in my top 20 Prince songs, and I'm guessing its the same for most Prince fans.

There's nothing as quirky and brilliant as Joy in Repetition or Anna Stesia, nothing as funky as Lady Cab Driver or Erotic City and nothing as heart-breaking and sad as The Beautiful Ones or It's Gonna Be Lonely.

It's all conjecture (obviously) but I think Prince's ego had taken a bash with Batman and Graffiti Bridge. Batman was a safe album designed to sell rather reasonably well whilst not being a fair reflection of his creative powers and Graffiti Bridge was supposed to be his Purple Rain MkII, whilst having moments of utter brilliance was (and still is) a mess and did not sell in the same way that Purple Rain did, notr did it achieve the same critical success.

He wanted success and sales AND to feel relevant musically and be popular. I find the album liner notes a bit crass and ego massagy. So perhaps the choices he made (artistically) seem to back it up. The hip-hop & rap influences on the album are pretty poor.

It would be interesting to hear the arguements that support the theory that the album is a strong artistic statement / piece of work. I just can't see it.

In my OCD world I see the album track score as follows:

Thunder 7

Daddy Pop 5

Diamonds and Pearls 4

Cream 7

Strollin' 7.5 (love his voice on the second half of the song)

Willing & Able 9

Gett Off 6 (This is just for the album version, the Urge and Thrust Mixes both score 8.5)

Walk Don't Walk 5 (the car and engine sound effect are just annoying)

Jughead 2

Money Don't Matter 2Nite 7.5

Push 2

Insatiable 6

Live 4 Love 3

That's a 5.4 score overall.

Yet the album is his somewhere between 2nd and 4th biggest seller world-wide, depending on which list you look at.

I love how people call parts of Prince's output garbage yet spend quite a bit of time on this website.

dustoff said:

kpowers said:

I think Get off was an edgy song, especialy the video

I agree, Gett Off isn't bad. I don't really think of D&P as a bad album in general, just one that feels a bit flat, a bit 'meh.' The assless chaps were fun, but the less said about the Game Boyz the better, IMHO.

Whoa!

.

A family was born, and God bless them cause they were funky.

.

Everything they did was on the positive tip.

.

And they got a message for you if you gonna be a sucker with lip!

OperatingThetan said:

SimonCharles said:

lust said:

Someone tell me damn it!

Well, I find it hard to believe you are bored with songs Anthony Keidis, then of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame, labelled the funkiest songs he'd ever heard, in a no way contractually obligated fashion, for the Diamonds and Pearls tour book/merchandise.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the fifth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 24, 1991 by Warner Bros. Records.

No way contractuall obligated. Not at all!

Milty2 said:

Milty2 said:

Milty2 said:

I love how people call parts of Prince's output garbage yet spend quite a bit of time on this website.

Not everything the man did was perfect you know.

EmmaMcG said:

Milty2 said:

I love how people call parts of Prince's output garbage yet spend quite a bit of time on this website.

What does one thing have to do with another? Part of his output WAS "garbage", as you out it. But fortunately, I'd say about 75% of it was good to great. Being a fan of an artist doesn't mean you ignore when they put out tripe. There's not one artist who has a 100% faultless catalogue. And sometimes it's good to have a discussion about what you dislike about certain projects from the artist because this place, and others like it, would be pretty fucking boring if everyone liked everything and all shared the same opinions.

Couldn't said it better myself.

Milty2 said:

When you're talking about an artist with 39 studio albums under his own name, and loads of other stuff besides, it's quite easy anyway to dislike a significant proportion of his catalogue and still be a massive fan. There isn't really a contradiction there like there would be if you were talking about an artist with three or four career albums.

As for D&P, TBH, it's grown a lot on me lately. I wouldn't regard it as being in my top 10 Prince albums, but it might well be in my top 20. Love Symbol's a more artistically rewarding project for sure, though. It eradicates a lot of the blandness that D&P suffers from, while upping the proportion of 'edgier' stuff.

lust said:

I find people who say stuff like “no real Prince fan doesn’t like x” or “how come there’s people that don’t like certain stuff but hang out here?” creepy as fuck. I bet they’d play wedding feast at their own ceremony if they could and think Purple and Gold is better than We will rock you. Prince didn’t seem to mind fans who who could critique his work without gushing over every thing he did. The peach and black boys got flown to NY from Aus to hang out with him. He seemed to find the “I love every damn thing you’ve done” gushy mob as creepy as I do.

I never really consider that as a song. I consider it more like a segue, like through out the Gold experience.

lust said:

Se7en said:

I'd be curious to know if you're still listening to/energized by other artists who had huge albums that year?

MJ Dangerous
Metallica - Metallica
Nirvana Nevermind
U2 Achtung Baby
Pearl Jam Ten
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion
Etc.

No but I don’t usually listen to albums much. I wasn’t a huge fan of Dangerous at the time though I tried to be as I was still a fan back then.

I didn't care of Dangerous much either. Too many "beats" from Teddy Riley IMO.

Also - I didn't like that there was ANOTHER Dangerous song after we'd just had Dangerous songs from Roxette and Depeche Mode!

tab32792 said:

This Milty2 said:

I love how people call parts of Prince's output garbage yet spend quite a bit of time on this website.

And yet there is some pretty loose responses (justification) on their part. God bless them

Big disappointment for me. Felt watered down, too clean, commercial. It did open up the mainstream for him again though, was a massive hit in the UK. I don't really listen to it anymore. Strollin' was the best song on it for me

Se7en said:

I remember,before this album came out,it was reported that Lisa Bonet would be directing the video for "Walk Don't Walk".I also recall MTV airing a promo commercial for their Unplugged show,saying that Prince and The New Power Generation would appear on an upcoming show.

Anyone remember that?

ThePersian said:

I listened to D&P a lot when it came out..... I remember thinking when listening to Thunder - what an awesome opener, if this is the first track then the rest of the album will blow my mind. I was very wrong.

Whilst it's an 'enjoyable' album there is absolutely nothing on the album that would rank in my top 20 Prince songs, and I'm guessing its the same for most Prince fans.

There's nothing as quirky and brilliant as Joy in Repetition or Anna Stesia, nothing as funky as Lady Cab Driver or Erotic City and nothing as heart-breaking and sad as The Beautiful Ones or It's Gonna Be Lonely.

The consensus surrounding Prince's Golden Age largely cuts off at 1988, so I generally agree.

In my OCD world I see the album track score as follows: let's see . . .

Thunder 7 5

Daddy Pop 5 5.5

Diamonds and Pearls 4 7

Cream 7 8

Strollin' 7.5 7

Willing & Able 9 7.5

Gett Off 6 7 (Housetyle 8.5)

Walk Don't Walk 5 4

Jughead 2 3

Money Don't Matter 2Nite 7.5 8.5

Push 2 3

Insatiable 6 7.5 (one of his better slow jams)

Live 4 Love 3 3

That's a 5.4 score overall. Funny, I'm coming up with 5.8, not too far off from your score. It seems the sum of the parts was definitely greater than the whole, which was true for many of his albums over the next 25 years.

[Edited 8/17/20 11:27am]

wasitgood4u said:

I see a lot of parallels between Musicology-3121 and D&P-Symbol.

Makes sense.

dustoff said:

wasitgood4u said:

I see a lot of parallels between Musicology-3121 and D&P-Symbol.

Makes sense.

I agree as well

SoulAlive said:

I remember,before this album came out,it was reported that Lisa Bonet would be directing the video for "Walk Don't Walk".I also recall MTV airing a promo commercial for their Unplugged show,saying that Prince and The New Power Generation would appear on an upcoming show.

Anyone remember that?

Yes I remember the MTV Unplugged promo. It was quite an exciting moment in Prince lore. But only a moment.

looby said:

Milty2 said:

I love how people call parts of Prince's output garbage yet spend quite a bit of time on this website.

Not everything the man did was perfect you know.

Is this a part of what you are complainging about the Org?

It seems a lot of folks don't rate the song "Diamonds & Pearls", and I understand that because it has a lot of aspects that I normally dislike myself:

- schmaltzy & slick

- mid-tempo

- middle-of-the-road aesthetics

- clearly aiming at mainstream pop radio
- lyrics not particularly interesting by Prince's standards


So, yeah, I get it... BUT I LOVE THIS SONG, and have done so ever since it caught my ear back in 1991. (It was a huge hit, too -- #3 in the USA, and I remember it hanging around the top-5 for several weeks.)

I just like it. It has a really, really strong and indelible melody, and I think the arrangement is fantastic. The little drum 'solo' break in the middle, and especially Rosie's vocals are just great and really elevate the track. It's a 100% score on the "listenable" scale, even if the song itself isn't exactly screaming 'vitality'.


For me, the three most superb tracks on this LP are

- Diamonds & Pearls

- Gett Off

- Money Don't Matter 2Nite

I enjoyed this album immensely when it came out, and even extending into the album.

The Gangster Glam look was a cool new look for him.

The one thing (to me) that dogs both albums is the rapping/hip-hop presence. On D&P, it's just too much. On , it's the right amount.

ThePanther said:

It seems a lot of folks don't rate the song "Diamonds & Pearls", and I understand that because it has a lot of aspects that I normally dislike myself:

- schmaltzy & slick

- mid-tempo

- middle-of-the-road aesthetics

- clearly aiming at mainstream pop radio
- lyrics not particularly interesting by Prince's standards


So, yeah, I get it... BUT I LOVE THIS SONG, and have done so ever since it caught my ear back in 1991. (It was a huge hit, too -- #3 in the USA, and I remember it hanging around the top-5 for several weeks.)

I just like it. It has a really, really strong and indelible melody, and I think the arrangement is fantastic. The little drum 'solo' break in the middle, and especially Rosie's vocals are just great and really elevate the track. It's a 100% score on the "listenable" scale, even if the song itself isn't exactly screaming 'vitality'.


For me, the three most superb tracks on this LP are

- Diamonds & Pearls

- Gett Off

- Money Don't Matter 2Nite

I LOVE Diamonds and Pearls, I remember when they started uploading his music videos to his youtube channel, I was eagerly waiting for Diamonds and Pearls. I didn't have spotify at that time, so I hadn't heard the song in a long time.