RODSERLING said:

The howlings on Something in The Water are so cringe worthy that it ruins the song for me.

That's one of the elements that makes the song.

yxl1 said:

"If I was your girlfriend" Princes chipmonk vocals ruins the track

This is just wrong

slyjackson said:

slyjackson said:

That and My Name Is.

It does sound like a parody "if Prince was a rapper" skit. It was nice to hear him call himself Prince though. P Control on the other hand is ridiculous good fun with a good chorus if you ignore the knick knack paddy wack rest of the song.

RJOrion said:

slyjackson said:

That's one of the elements that makes the song.

word ... the demonic howlings are the climax of the recording

Right?

The "joke" part on Vicky Waiting. Ruins an otherwise fun track for me.

(and Vicky even didn't laugh at all anyway)

the corny "the dream we all dream of... boy vs girl in the world series of love" bit, on U Got The Look

RJOrion said:

the corny "the dream we all dream of... boy vs girl in the world series of love" bit, on U Got The Look

Yeah, that's awaful and what that means anyways.

Hot Thing - The lead line is not in key with the bass lick at all, and it totally kills the song for me, live it's not out of key. It's either one of two things, he left the synth on too long and because it's analog it detuned like hell and he just didn't care, or it's a FOML moment where it just fucked up.

Forever In My Life - No need to explain, you know the story, it bugs me and gets on my nerves. The background vocals before the main vocals is very annoying and I'd love to hear the harmonies. So if the multi tracks ever come out....

slyjackson said:

RJOrion said:

the corny "the dream we all dream of... boy vs girl in the world series of love" bit, on U Got The Look

Yeah, that's awaful and what that means anyways.

Sex, he's comparing it to the World Series and the rounds to innings like in Baseball. Im pretty sure

skipthecharades said:

The "joke" part on Vicky Waiting. Ruins an otherwise fun track for me.

(and Vicky even didn't laugh at all anyway)

I find Vicky Waiting to be in the same vain as Dorothy Parker, so I love that weird quirkiness.

Temptation - without all the extra nonsense

Any song that has Tony M. as said element

sro100 said:

Temptation - without all the extra nonsense

Yeah, that type of thing works ONCE. And then after that you're left thinking, "couldn't we maybe have another song right here?"

The pointless Latin-flavored coda to "Damned If Eye Do".

.

The weird, Impressionistic free-form jam at the end of "Holy River". It's like a rough first take that they forgot to edit out of the song.

GiggityGoo said:

The pointless Latin-flavored coda to "Damned If Eye Do".

.

The weird, Impressionistic free-form jam at the end of "Holy River". It's like a rough first take that they forgot to edit out of the song.

A lot of that stuff was likely added to fill out the 60-minute gimmick for each disk. I don't mind the "Damned If I Do" bit, but I'd agree about "The Holy River." (Same for "Planet Earth"'s weird mid-jazzy section.) I think some of the songs on Emancipation are long for the sake of being long and filling out that space, not because it was his vision for the song (like you'd see on 1999).

P. Control. The word "pussy" in the chorus and end of each verse. This song could've been a hit, if it was called "She's in Control" or something like that. Keep the same song, but wherever he says "pussy control" (chorus, end of each verse), replace it with "she's in control." Suddenly, the song becomes the female empowerment jam that he was trying to create.

FunkiestOne said:

funkycat00 said:

FunkiestOne said:

Eye Hate You - it goes off into that "courtroom" part in the middle and just ruins a great song.

That's why I prefer the radio edit over the album version.

That's when it gets good for me.

jfenster said:

The truth whole album ...too many sound effects

Indeed they are awful

RJOrion said:

the recital of "the lords prayer" on "Controversy"

What are you talkin about, that's genius

-

Obviously everyone has a different take on what they like or dislike.

And the reactions of liking or disliking parts in a song are to be expected.

It's such an incredible richness that Prince was able to fool around with so much unconventional and even conventional musical ideas.

Yet his music was always so melodic, with simple sometimes even childish choruses, or even whole song structures. But he alwyas was able to hold our focus, to have us gasping/craving for novelties, etc.

But the way he kept on embellishing troughout his whole catalogue with the most inventive and original sounds is breathtaking to me.

Whithout all that, he would've been just another (very good) R'nB artist in my humble opinioin.

He put the bar very high for his competitors, and tried to keep on doing that.

-

I clearly remember when I heard '1999' for the very first time, and 'When Doves Cry'.

It all sounded out of this world !

And I regret somehow that I will never be able to go back to that very first feeling.

Or like that small guitar part in 'Shockadelica'. It just hit me with a baseball bat when I played that 12'' for the very frist time.

I know most songs (like most of us) by heart. But i'll never put up Prince music as background music. Never!

I now sparcely listen to those albums I've heard a million times.

Like, listening to those new SOTT releases is starting to get saturated - which I hate of course.

-

Honestly there are very few songs or parts I truely 'SKIP', even if there are songs i'm not particularly fond of (and there sure are).

Prince to me always has been an 'album artist'. His albums are always such a joyfull ride.

Even the lesser ones. They always had a beginning middle and end, that was thouroughly constructed that way inmho. Filler or no filler. His 'fillers' were still better than on othere people's albums.

And isn't it obvious that a guy with such a tremendous prolific output made some lesses wonderful pieces. The variety of chosen stand out tracks here shows how enormous his range is.

I for one am not a fan of his 90's and later output. But, when I listen to an album, I try to listen from beginning to end, and everytime there is something new to discover. Something i didn't pay that much attention to.

The 'Planet Earth' album for instance. It starts to grow on me.

Same with 'New Power Soul' (don't kill me)... isn't that (positively) weird?!

There are still some albums hard to digest (to me) and that's for instance 'Chaos And Disorder' and 'ArtOffical Age' or 'The Symbol Album', but one day something on there will find me and blow me away.

-

[Edited 11/2/20 6:43am]

TraSoul82 said:

Strollin' (album version). It's difficult to take those drums seriously. While I understand that playful randomness can be used to express creative intent, the concept falls flat for me on this endeavor. Live versions of this song with tight drumming are delightful.

The drums are my favorite part of that song.