Poplife88 said:

Cindy said:

Lurker, I love that you gave another listen to one of your albums.

Please give another listen to Old Friends 4 Sale. My favourites are (in order) When the Lights Go Down, 5 Women, Extraordinary, Old Friends 4 Sale.

I rate my first 3 song favourites all a 10/10. Thanks for allowing me to chime in.

Old Friends 4 Sale is THE most underrated Prince album out there imo. It's become one of my absolute faves of the 90s. When the Lights Go Down 5 Women, She Spoke 2 Me, and Extraordinary are all top tunes. The title track loses some of its umph with the new lyrics, but is still great.

Me too. It's just a fun summer album, and the musicianship is top-shelf. They don't all have to be masterpieces.

More of an anthology than an "album" proper really, but OF4S was great, yeah.

[Edited 9/10/21 23:00pm]

I think we've all erased from our memory the one that seems to be truly banished by everyone:

1999 The New Master

- fine, not an album per se, but... what a major misfire. Only surpassed in my personal scale of horribleness by Kamasutra...

hyperpessimist said:

I think we've all erased from our memory the one that seems to be truly banished by everyone:

1999 The New Master

- fine, not an album per se, but... what a major misfire. Only surpassed in my personal scale of horribleness by Kamasutra...

Maybe it'll get reissued on vinyl by the Estate

Milty2 said:

hyperpessimist said:

I think we've all erased from our memory the one that seems to be truly banished by everyone:

1999 The New Master

- fine, not an album per se, but... what a major misfire. Only surpassed in my personal scale of horribleness by Kamasutra...

Maybe it'll get reissued on vinyl by the Estate

Maybe Prince erased it!

kewlschool said:

Milty2 said:

Maybe it'll get reissued on vinyl by the Estate

Maybe Prince erased it!

Hehe I've actually never heard it.

Milty2 said:

kewlschool said:

Maybe Prince erased it!

Hehe I've actually never heard it.

Me neither. The 'Purple Medley' completely put me off any future reinterpretations of his own work (except live stuff of course.)

eyewishuheaven said:

Milty2 said:

Hehe I've actually never heard it.

Me neither. The 'Purple Medley' completely put me off any future reinterpretations of his own work (except live stuff of course.)

Oh, Purple Medley is a masterpiece compared to this... 1999TNM was a desperate attempt at charting higher than the inevitable WB re-release of the original single, so Prince just gathered everything he could think of that might help sell... and came up with this frankenstein of a release that flopped spectacularly.

From crediting it to "Prince and the Revolution" to having Rosie Gaines scat aimlessly (she'd just had a garage hit), from the Doug E. Fresh rhymes to Larry Graham replacing Dez on vocals, from awkward samples to "dope beatz"... nothing worked

Purple Medley is a fucking masterpiece next to New Master!

Echoing what folks have said about Dirty Mind and 1999. There are songs on both I still like.

And more recently, ART OFFICIAL and Phase One.

Milty2 said:

kewlschool said:

Maybe Prince erased it!

Hehe I've actually never heard it.

Your ears are better for it. It's horrible. It's the Jughead of music singles (but not that interesting).

Cinny said:

Purple Medley is a fucking masterpiece next to New Master!

Poplife88 said:

Old Friends 4 Sale is THE most underrated Prince album out there imo. It's become one of my absolute faves of the 90s. When the Lights Go Down 5 Women, She Spoke 2 Me, and Extraordinary are all top tunes. The title track loses some of its umph with the new lyrics, but is still great.

.

- YES! It made me sad because Prince abandoned it to promote Rave Un2 (an album that had some cool songs, but plastic production overall)

SantanaMaitreya said:

He didn't abandon Old Friends. He never cared much for it to begin with. So it was a pleasant surprise when he started playing songs from it live.

.

True. It was an album he gave to WB as contractual obligation, so he would be a lot more interested in promoting something fresh and free from WB. Ironically, after some time, he played more songs from it than from Rave, you are right.

His first 2 albums and everything after The Gold Experience (though I at least find Rainbow Children to be interesting).

Vannormal said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

Are there any people here who don't like Kamasutra but love instrumental music in general?

-

Absolutely.

Big big fan of artists like Nils Frahm, Glass, Reich, Sakamoto, Dupree, Alva Noto, Sylvian, Beuvinck, Max Richter, Gonzalez, Johannsson, Cage, etc...

-

WHat Prince concerns; all Madhouse albums are stunning (to me), N.E.W.S. is good and Xpectation is fair atleast to me.

Kamasutra is pretty impossible to listen to, not even understand what he tried with that, as if he completely lost it, IMHO of course.

-

I listen to Glass and Reich but most of those names I don't recognize. I'm guessing they're big on atonality which is hard to make sound vital. What I've heard of Cage I don't like and 4'33" is just boring.

I like the Madhouse stuff but some of it is too repetitive like Xpectation. For me, N.E.W.S. is his best instrumental album. There are too many genius eyebrow raising moments on Kamasutra for me to dismiss it. Probably his most unfairly maligned album.

coldcoffeeandcocacola said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Graffiti Bridge

Diamonds & Pearls

the Gold Experience (I'm actually trying to listen to it again, because the era VISUALLY is very interesting)

Newpower Soul

Rave... (I cannot even finish type it out)
AOA

Minneapolis Sound

Of4s gold is to me his finest work! Someone else said this to me and I rejigged the order of tracks, see if you can get into it beginning with endorphin machine and without the segues?

Old Friends For Sale is WAAAAY underrated. I'd been told almost exclusively that it was in his top 5 weakest albums and for the life of me I can't see it. It has She Spoke To Me for f*** sake imo his greatest guitar solo probably.

Still, maybe that just speaks to the overall quality of his work even if some people don't like his more mid tempo jazzy/rnb phase.

I know it's a weird change up between Batman and Graffiti Bridge. That seems to be the moment when the change happened (likely due to the use of live drums on the records). It really altered his sound and that is when it starts to get contentious.

Poplife88 said:

It's funny because I recognize that album as being of immense quality but even I have had issues connecting with it in the past, despite like 10 incredible songs on it.

The one that I've had the hardest time with is probably The Rainbow Children, despite some really incredible music on it and 3 of his best songs.

I'm a really huge jazz and RnB fan and the narration takes a lot away from the album imo. I need to listen to it again with a fresh set of ears though.

I always feel like "wow this is really well produced and it *sounds* nice" but the songs don't work for the most part outside Mellow and 1+1+1=3 and the final track.

People who don't get Kamasutra must have shits for brains!

fortuneandserendipity said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

People who don't get Kamasutra must have shits for brains!

Ok tell you what....I only ever had one listen to it and put it away because I could hear the cheesy synth strings he was playing. I know there is a real orchestra on it but the synth atrings annoyed me.

I will give it another go.

alphastreet said:

I had musicology, I couldn’t get into it aside from the title track and pimp, coma, circumstance

What about Dear Mr Man? That track is absolutely the high point for me, and the first few listens I was similar and didn't even remember the track until recently.

Never properly binged Musicology-Lotus Flower like I should have.
Interestingly I played 20ten and MPLSound a lot though. Always had a soft spot for 20ten and initially hated MPLSound until a recent reappraisal and was shocked at how solid it was, even if quirky and a bit throw away lyrically.

Pretty much all of his older albums and some 90s stuff. 00s and 10s are the best IMO.

26ten said:

FullLipsDotNose said:

Emancipation was the first Prince album that disappointed me.

I was expecting utter brilliance after all the hype and his new new found freedom.

I thought he'd save his best for that album.

Don't get me wrong, there are some gems on it. But for me it marked the end of the run for his great albums. I suppose there was a lot going on for him at that tumulteous time. It mustve had a profound effect on him. His albums never found the lofty heights again after that.