i was reading various comments, like on the housequake facebook page, then a review of emancipation on their website, and thinking a lot of mostly male prince fans seem to overlook princes ballads, and softer songs. they just want the funkier, fun stuff or the harder, wilder rock stuff. this is a shame i think as in his later years, it def wasnt the harder, or funkier stuff that he did well IMO..... in fact, id say it was that kind of material that led to a lot of embarassing songs.

[Edited 8/19/21 5:58am]

[Edited 8/19/21 5:59am]

The ballads are some of my all time favorite Prince songs!

For me I like his older ballads as much as the rockier and funkier or poppy stuff.
Around Emancipation I thnk his ballads became kind of stale with evry now and then a classic gem.

I can speak for my husband because I know he loves Prince's ballads. He doesn't dismiss any of them and why would he, they're amazing songs and his voice is incredible.

When We're Dance Close & Slow is one that I gravitated toward when Prince passed away. The music was meloncholy, especially when it went into the 2nd half

1. Leaving 4 New York

2. When We're Dancing Close & Slow

3. Do Me Baby

4. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
5. Gigolos Get Lonely Too

6. Little Red Corvette

7. Next Time Wipe the Lipstick Of Your Collar

8. The Beautiful Ones

9. God the Love Theme

10. Desire

11. Nothing Compares 2 U

12. Condition of the Heart

13. Girl

14. Empty Room

15 I Wonder U

16 Under the Cherry Moon

17 The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

18 If I Was Your Girlfriend

19 When 2 R in Love

20. Adore

21 Scandelous

22 She Loves Me For Me

23Sea if Everything
24 June

etc

I always enjoyed his ballads, probably up to Batman. Crazy You was probably the best thing on For You. However from 1989 some sickly sweet stuff started coming out, Arms of Orion, Still Would Stand All Time, Diamonds & Pearls....errr

I'm male, I love most of his ballads.

Male here and not a big fan of ballads in general, Prince has a few that I enjoy though.

Not me, I love them!

Insatiable, Scandalous, Crucial, When 2 R In Love, Pink Cashmere and One Kiss at a Time are some of my favourite songs.

[Edited 8/19/21 12:18pm]

Love his slow songs and im a male.

SquirrelMeat76 said:

I always enjoyed his ballads, probably up to Batman. Crazy You was probably the best thing on For You. However from 1989 some sickly sweet stuff started coming out, Arms of Orion, Still Would Stand All Time, Diamonds & Pearls....errr

I'm the same. I absolutely love many of his ballads, but most are pre-1989:

When We're Dancing Close and Slow
The Beautiful Ones
Condition of the Heart
Sometimes it Snows in April
Adore

Like you, after '89 I thought most of his ballads were either saccharine or rehashes of earlier, better ballads.

I'm probably in the minority since I'm not too big on some of the over-the-top songs like Do Me Baby and International Lover. However, some of the ballads (Adore, When I Lay My Hands on U, Revelation...) rank as all-time favorites of mine.

For me it's not being male so much as my age. I was 26 the first time a ballad jumped out at me as a favorite on a Prince album - Damn U from Symbol. Before then I wasn't interested in the ballads at all. Maturity and life experience shaped my tastes. Not so much gender.

I admit I was a lot more into ballads when I was younger...maybe I was more romantic...heheh. I like Prince´s ballads a lot, but it´s not usually what I listen mostly to. Maybe because lots of them are too keyboard-heavy, dont know.

fms said:

For me it's not being male so much as my age. I was 26 the first time a ballad jumped out at me as a favorite on a Prince album - Damn U from Symbol. Before then I wasn't interested in the ballads at all. Maturity and life experience shaped my tastes. Not so much gender.

That's interesting and got me thinking about my own experience.

I noted above that I (a straight male) absolutely love most of his '80s ballads, but not many since '88. Looking back, when I'd first hear a new Prince album in the '80s I wouldn't initially appreciatd the ballads. I wanted to hear the faster, danicer stuff. But being an obsessive fan I would listen to the full ablums, start to finish, without skipping anything, over and over again. Eventually, after a handful of listens the ballads would grow on me. After a few more listens I'd decide I absolutely loved them.

Perhaps one of the reasons I don't like any of his ballads post '88 is that I've not given any of them a chance to grow on me. Starting wtih Diamonds and Pearls I was less patient with new albums and would hit skip on songs I disliked, including nearly ever ballad.

With that in mind, I suspect it's possible that if I was more patient with his later ballads some might grow on me, just as Condition of the Hear, STISIA and Adore did. But I'm also pretty confident I would still hate a lot of them because they're either cheesy or they'd sound like bad attempts to rip-off Adore.

NO

The "Beautiful Ones" is my favorite song.

Condition of the Heart, Eye hate U, Take me with U, Under the Cherry Moon, Do U lie, Sometimes it snows in April, Adore, Slow love, Eternity, When 2 R in Love, Insatiable, Scandalous Sex Suite, I luv u in me, The Question of U, Money Don't matter 2 night, And God Created Woman, Sweet Baby, Pink Cashmere, The most beautiful girl in the world, Crucial, I will, future baby mama, The morning papers, one night alone ...............................

Yes Prince has some amazing ballads. I think you sleep on this and you miss essential Prince. I will say while his ballads are incredible there was a time I did want to go heavier into his funk and rock mode. I felt he fell back onto average ballads at times and that was like a comfort food or go to for him. I felt that more funk and rock could snap him into creativity. Balladry was an essential part of the Prince experience.

No. I love his ballads. Always have.

JorisE73 said:

For me I like his older ballads as much as the rockier and funkier or poppy stuff.
Around Emancipation I thnk his ballads became kind of stale with evry now and then a classic gem.

IMO the ballads are the best songs of the album. Soul Sanctuary, Lets Have a Baby, One Kiss at a Time, Friend/Lover are glorious.

Not this one.

I have been a Prince ballad fan (Stan) since For You, and have found a lot of them to be quite lovely.

Adore has taken the forefront as my favourite Prince song, as of now.

Do Me Baby caused many people, whom I knew, who had just copped their new Prince album, and they would rush home to hear what the "new ballad" would be. Those were fun times!

The Ladder, from ATWIAD, was a surprisingly good ballad, but if I had to pick a ballad from that album, it would be Temptation. Love it!

I will say this, I cannot listen to Power Fantastic without crying.

fms said:

Unromatic people usually.