Rank the albums from 2004-2015

Reply #31 posted 09/12/21 2:19pm

leecaldon

EmmaMcG said:
1. HitnRun Phase 2 If not for Baltimore dragging the overall quality down, I would put this right up there with some of his best work. His best album since Sign O The Times. 2. 3121 The album that made me a fan, it will always have a special place in my heart. 3. Musicology Perhaps one of his most formulaic albums but nevertheless, still an absolute classic for me. 4. LotusFlow3r Despite the moronic lyrics on Dreamer, a very enjoyable album. 5. MPLSound A mixed bad. Some really good songs but also some dreadful ones. Decent album overall. 6. Art Official Age Same as MPLSound. Some good, some bad. Decent. 7. Planet Earth One or two good songs, some really bad ones and mostly just forgettable. 8. Plectrum Electrum Most if the songs Prince sings range from ok to good. All of the female vocalist songs are shit. 9. 20Ten Future Soul Sing is one of my favourite Prince songs. Sticky Like Glue is good too. The rest is awful. 10. HitnRun Phase 1 1000 Hugs & Kisses is phenomenal. X's Face and Hardrocklover are passable. The rest are some of the worst songs I've ever heard and are, quite frankly, embarrassing for a man of his talents. [Edited 9/11/21 13:16pm]

Baltimore is a masterpiece cool

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funkbabyandthe
babysitters

Reply #32 posted 09/12/21 3:25pm

i need to hear what you guys are hearing on lotus flower.

i heard a lot of cool guitar playing, but nothing that strong, song-wise.

maybe i need to relisten.

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Reply #33 posted 09/12/21 3:30pm

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funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

i need to hear what you guys are hearing on lotus flower.

i heard a lot of cool guitar playing, but nothing that strong, song-wise.

maybe i need to relisten.

Colonized Mind and Dreamer are greak rock songs.

Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful is a great funk song.

Love Like Jazz is weird (sounds like '70s lounge music), but I love that one too.

I think it also gets credit for being a concept album with a unified sound and theme.

[Edited 9/12/21 15:31pm]

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Reply #34 posted 09/12/21 3:50pm

EmmaMcG said:

1. HitnRun Phase 2
If not for Baltimore dragging the overall quality down, I would put this right up there with some of his best work. His best album since Sign O The Times. [/b]

Whoa whoa whoa… i love hearing other opinions but Baltimore lowers the quality?? I don’t think so tbh. And the Gold Experience is better than Phase 2… also Lotusflower slightly beats Phase 2

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Reply #35 posted 09/12/21 3:54pm

1) Lotusflower
2) Phase Two
3) 3121
4) Art Official Age
5) Phase One
6) MPLSound
7) Musicology
8) Welcome 2 America
9) PlectrumElectrum
10) 20Ten
11) Planet Earth

Fixed the rankings for y’all. Y’all welcome (just kidding, i know we all got our opinions lol)

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Reply #36 posted 09/12/21 4:58pm

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AvocadosMax said:

Wow, this is super close to my own rankings. I’m so use to the diversity of opinion on the Org that I’m amazed when I’m in sync with someone.

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Reply #37 posted 09/12/21 5:01pm

avatar

AvocadosMax said:

EmmaMcG said:

1. HitnRun Phase 2
If not for Baltimore dragging the overall quality down, I would put this right up there with some of his best work. His best album since Sign O The Times. [/b]

Whoa whoa whoa… i love hearing other opinions but Baltimore lowers the quality?? I don’t think so tbh. And the Gold Experience is better than Phase 2… also Lotusflower slightly beats Phase 2

I like Baltimore and think the music is great. But its perky tone is a bit odd. You’d expect a protest song to be either angry/defiant or somber.

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Reply #38 posted 09/13/21 3:25am

EmmaMcG

AvocadosMax said:

EmmaMcG said:

1. HitnRun Phase 2
If not for Baltimore dragging the overall quality down, I would put this right up there with some of his best work. His best album since Sign O The Times. [/b]

Whoa whoa whoa… i love hearing other opinions but Baltimore lowers the quality?? I don’t think so tbh. And the Gold Experience is better than Phase 2… also Lotusflower slightly beats Phase 2

I don't generally like preachy songs. Even when I agree with the subject matter. There are some exceptions to that but Baltimore is not one of them. It's just not my cup of tea at all.

I like The Gold Experience but not as much as Phase Two. Phase Two, for me, is almost a perfect album and a shining example of what Prince should have been doing more of. Phase One was embarrassing, trend-chasing nonsense that was, quite frankly, beneath an artist of Prince's calibre (and age). So when Phase Two came out it got me excited again to be a Prince fan. A reason to look forward to his future output. And the singles "Free Urself" and "If I Could Get Your Attention" further solidified that. So perhaps I rate Phase Two so high because it brought me back into the Prince-fan fold and rekindled my interest in his music.

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Reply #39 posted 09/13/21 3:30am

ChickenMcNugge
ts

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1 HITnRUN Phase Two - his best since The Gold Experience, IMO.

2 HITnRUN Phase One - This ranking will raise some eyebrows, but I just never really understood the hate for Phase One. It flows well, and is very energetic and 'hooky' - kinda like a 2010s equivalent of the Love Symbol album to me, if that's not too heretic a thing to say.

3 Art Official Age - I played this one like a current chart-topping album when I first got into it. Quite sharp, not really a bad song on it. Felt like a 'return to form' to me after 20Ten.

4 MPLSound - it gets slagged off a bit, but f*ck it, I personally like the shameless throwback vibe. Relatively short, sweet and focused.

5 Plectrumelectrum - has some personal favourites of mine. Like Chaos and Disorder, it kinda feels like a Prince album I "shouldn't" like due to the cheesiness in parts, but I do.

6 Lotusflow3r - a strong all-round album, but not very 'hooky' and it just isn't an album I feel a need to compulsively listen to that often.

7 Musicology - formulaic, sure, but with enough good stuff to keep it above the below inclusions.

8 3121 - a strong all-round album, but it just doesn't score very highly for me in terms of 'personal favourite' tracks... sorry.

9 Welcome 2 America - feels too early to have a 'settled' ranking for W2A, but I'd consider it a solid three-stars-out-of-five effort, or I would, if I even felt it was a finished album.

10 Planet Earth - would say similar as for 3121. Feels like a 3121 'bonus disc', in a way.

11 20Ten - Pretty much nothing on here ranks among my personal favourite Prince material. Not an abysmal effort by a long way, though, and I'm open to warming to it in future.

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Reply #40 posted 09/13/21 4:12am

Thibaut

1. 3121 - One of his best pop albums

2. Hitnrun Phase II - Similar to Rainbow children but without the dogmatic lyrics

3. Lotusflow3r - One of his best guitar oriented albums

4. Musicology - Follows a formula but does it perfectly.

5. Art Official Age - Some questionable production choices but some of his best songs in years at that point.

THe first 5 I would recommend to people without any caveats and I believe to be some of his better albums ever. The 5 below I would advise only to hardcore Prince fans.

6. Planet Earth - Some great songs but it does not work well as an album

7. MPLSound - Better produced throwback to his 80s sound than 20Ten with some stronger songs.

8. Welcome 2 America - I don not understand the rapturous reception compared to some of his more deserving albums.

9. Plectrumelectrum - 3 great songs, the rest is forgettable and the sound is all over the place.

10. 20Ten - Bad production, average to bad songs.

11. Hitnrun Phase I - 3 good song but probably his worst album ever. feels more like an EP addition to AOA

[Edited 9/13/21 4:20am]

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Reply #41 posted 09/13/21 4:20am

lurker316 said:[quote]

AvocadosMax said:

I like Baltimore and think the music is great. But its perky tone is a bit odd. You’d expect a protest song to be either angry/defiant or somber.

Ok i’ll give you that one. But maybe he wasn’t going for anger, even though he himself may have been after learning about the story. Prince was going for peace while making a strong case for Freddie Gray and asking for justice for others that went through the same

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Reply #42 posted 09/13/21 4:21am

Dang i messed that last one up lol

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Reply #43 posted 09/13/21 5:23am

thisisreece

1. Lotusflower (A few slights from being a top tier Prince album)

2. Musicology (A solid funky album from start to finish. Surprised that it is so high in my ranking, but there you go)

3. 3121 (The title track is a monster, I love it. Love 'The Word' too. Unfortunately songs like 'Love' and 'Incense and Candles' really drag it down.)

4. Welcome 2 America (It's a good album. '1010 Rin Tin Tin' is one of his best post 80s songs, I was grinning from start to finish the first time I heard it)

5. Hit and Run Phase 2 (Great production and a couple of great songs. 'Revelation' is a late career highlight)

6. Plectrumelectrum (It doesn't live up to its promise, but it's not as bad as people say)

7. MPLSound (Too sterile, but there's a few good songs and some lovely little guitar bits. 'No More Candy 4 U' is fun and 'Here' is surprisingly emotive)

8. Planet Earth (The epitome of a middle of the road Prince album. Nothing too bad, nothing too good)

9. 20ten (A little bland. 'Future Soul Song' is its saving grace. 'Sticky Like Glue' is funky though)

10. Art Official Age (A little better than Hit and Run Phase 1. 'Time' is brilliant)

11. Hit and Run Phase 1 (Generally horrid. Love 'June' and '1000 X's and O's)

Hundalasiliah!

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Reply #44 posted 09/13/21 6:00am

LILpoundCAKE

ChickenMcNuggets said:

2 HITnRUN Phase One - This ranking will raise some eyebrows, but I just never really understood the hate for Phase One. It flows well, and is very energetic and 'hooky' - kinda like a 2010s equivalent of the Love Symbol album to me, if that's not too heretic a thing to say.

I'm divided on HnR Phase One.

On the one hand there are some songs that I love love love:

Shut This Down

Fall In Love 2Nite
Xs Face
HardrockLover
1000 Xs And Os
June

On the other hand there were some weird choices made. For instance, including a song sung by Judith Hill as the opening track. The songs is 'ok' but it would be 'solid' if it were P on lead vocals. It feels too
distracting to have someone else opening on his album, well for me anyway.

Ain't About 2 Stop is cool enough, in fact I would love it if it weren't for that horrible lyrics about not being a rita bot and being a blood clot. The Salad crusher is silly but I can deal with that. The Ritabot thing just makes the songs almost unlistenable for me and that is a shame because I love the energy
and the pulse of it otherwise.

Like A Mack I guess I could take or leave. It's just there. The main gripe I have with it is that it could
have been replaced by something stronger lol

The This Could B Us remix and Mr Nelson are both pretty cool but they would have been best suited as digital B-sides. He had several websites and youtube channels where he was releasing material at this time. Songs like "Ain't Gonna Miss U When U're Gone" were releasd obscurely online, yet remixes like these two were released on an official album eek

It makes the whole album feel like a remix and b-sides EP to the full album of Art Official Age, of sorts.

As such it is pretty damn cool. As a stand alone album it isn't too good.

All it would have needed was another 3 or 4 strong tracks to add to the ones I mentioned as ones that I love and you would have a kick ass album to follow AOA.

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Reply #45 posted 09/13/21 6:08am

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ChickenMcNuggets said:

2 HITnRUN Phase One - This ranking will raise some eyebrows, but I just never really understood the hate for Phase One. It flows well, and is very energetic and 'hooky' - kinda like a 2010s equivalent of the Love Symbol album to me, if that's not too heretic a thing to say.

I feel the same. I recognize that HNR ONE is no artistic or technical masterpiece, but it's catchy as hell.

Possiby my favorite song on it is "Like a Mack". I realize I'm probably alone in my opinion. Even people who generally like HNR ONE tend to dismiss that song as one of the worst on it. For me, the horns in that song are funky as f' and infectious. I can't get them ut of my head. I also like the girl's voices.

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