I'm looking for new ways to view all these LPs while I go through them all again. Are there any sort of interesting ways you mentally sort certain albums?

For example:

Musicology, 3121, and Planet Earth are essentially a trilogy due to their hugely similar sound. Dirty Mind and Controversy are also really similar and surrounded chronologically by albums that don't really sound much like either one of them.

Something non-chronological might be the connection between Rainbow Children and Lotus Flower, which are real similar sounding production wise with their jazzy out there styles. I view them as sister albums.

Or even thematically how the black album, Batman, and Come are his sort of trilogy of dark music that he didn't really explore afterward.

At the risk of making the initial post too long I also noticed recently that MPLSound and 20ten basically a pair too, both being looks back at his 80s sound but through a modern lens. No surprise that they were released back to back chronologically. They're *way* more similar than MPLSound and Lotus Flower are.

Anyway - thanks all - and anything you can think of - the more far out the better.

I've often thought of Controversy, Lovesexy and The Rainbow Children as a religious trilogy - basically, Prince's journey into faith. In Controversy, he's asking 'Do I believe in God? Do I Believe in Me?". In Lovesexy, he's answered yes to both of those. By the Rainbow Children, he's come to understand his faith from the inside out. I'm not a religous person myself, but his trajectory in these three albums has always moved me.

paraded said:

For me, I sorta group them as such:

For You

Prince

Dirty Mind

Controversy

1999
Purple Rain

ATWIAD

Parade

SOTT

Lovesexy

Batman

GB

(themes from one bleed into the next)

D&P

Come

The Gold Experience

Exodus

Chaos & Disorder

Frankly, Musicology, 3121, and Planet Earth can be whittled into a good one-disk album.

3121 / Planet Earth / LotusFlower (not sure why anyone would put Musicology in there)

Controversy / 1999 / PR

ATWIAD / Parade / SOTT

Come / Gold / Chaos

TrivialPursuit said:

LoveGalore said:

26ten said:

LoveGalore said:

3121 / Planet Earth / LotusFlower (not sure why anyone would put Musicology in there)

Controversy / 1999 / PR

ATWIAD / Parade / SOTT

Come / Gold / Chaos

Wow this is interesting. Planet Earth and Lotus Flower are so different in sound, and I've always viewed 3121 as a Musicology followup in execution. Can you elaborate on your views into those three as a trilogy? Making me really reconsider the connections I've made and real intrigued.

Take a look at the Prince Vault entries for these 3 albums. They share a shit ton of songs between each other. In fact, LotusFlower was the intended follow-up to 3121 until the sessions continued to progress.

There are 3121 outtakes on both Planet Earth and LotusFlower/MPLSound.

26ten said:

paraded said:

I've often thought of Controversy, Lovesexy and The Rainbow Children as a religious trilogy - basically, Prince's journey into faith. In Controversy, he's asking 'Do I believe in God? Do I Believe in Me?". In Lovesexy, he's answered yes to both of those. By the Rainbow Children, he's come to understand his faith from the inside out. I'm not a religous person myself, but his trajectory in these three albums has always moved me.

That's interesting. Controversy is a sort of provocation isn't it? At least the title track. Interesting that a track like Annie Christian is a sort of call out to religious hypocrites.

Definitely a provocation, but also a plea. The Lord's Prayer is still startling to hear in that song.

26ten said:

Interesting. I definitely group Dirty Mind and Controversy together due to their near identical sound, but with that being said I make the break there and view 1999 and Purple Rain in their own category since they're both his attempts at mainstream glory. 1999 is really similar subject matter wise to the prior two but each time I hear his non-falsetto voice hit on the title track it feels like something very new and different in his discography. I almost posted a discography break down myself but didn't want the OP too unwieldy. Many thanks to those who did though. I'll add mine once behind a keyboard.

Dirty Mind didn't even have a piano on it. It also didn't have the Linn on it. I think they're quite different in sound, but there is a cohesive segue sorta feeling with those two; a growth or progression, if you will.

coldcoffeeandcocacola said:

Hamad's grouping is the "traditional" way I've always heard things, but i've tried different combos-

.

.

Lovesexy + Madhouse 24 + Batman

.

.

Symbol + Come; Come is almost always associated with Gold (for good reason), but the horn work and overall "slinkiness" of the basslines match a lot of what he was doing on Symbol.

.

.

Diamonds & Pearls + The Vault... Vault works with Symbol too (for good reason)

.

.

I know they're not thematically or sonically the same, but Chaos & Disorder + Newpower Soul for some reason go really well back-to-back.

I group them this way;

before "Purple Rain"

and

after "Purple rain"

-

And then more specific as;

The 1978-1984 era

and

The 1984-1989 era

Grafitti Bridge is an in between for me that doesn't belong anywhere in particular.

The era's

1991-1992

1994-1999

2000-2003

2004-2010

2010-2014 (where nothing really happened official release wise as an album)

2014-Death

-

billymeade said:

26ten said:

paraded said:

I've often thought of Controversy, Lovesexy and The Rainbow Children as a religious trilogy - basically, Prince's journey into faith. In Controversy, he's asking 'Do I believe in God? Do I Believe in Me?". In Lovesexy, he's answered yes to both of those. By the Rainbow Children, he's come to understand his faith from the inside out. I'm not a religous person myself, but his trajectory in these three albums has always moved me.

That's interesting. Controversy is a sort of provocation isn't it? At least the title track. Interesting that a track like Annie Christian is a sort of call out to religious hypocrites.

I never thought of that songs as a call out to religious hypocrites

I thought it was just a way of saying Anti-Christian

For me to do that across the span of his albums I connect by themes. Utopian ideas begin and end with Prince albums so even though the albums might be very different or almost unrelated, that them is related.

Overall I tend to related them by periods. It might be 1978-1980 1982-1984 or 1978-1989

2003-2007 etc

Hamad said:

It’s more goofy than interesting, I put each other era in a playlist, I included songs from associated artists/or artists he worked with from each era, in addition to covers that came in those years. The Patrice Rushen era: For You & Prince The Rude Boy era: Dirty Mind & Controversy The Purple Bitch era: 1999 & Purple Rain The Paisley Park era: ATWIAD & Parade The Noname Band era: SOTT & Lovesexy The Joker era: Batman & Graffiti Bridge The Great Depression era: D&P & O+> The Big Purge era: Come, Exodus & The Golden Experience The Great Escape era: C&D & Emancipation The 1-800-NewFunk era: The Truth, Kumasutra & NPG The Purple Matrix era: Rave/Slaughter House/Chocalate Invasion The Celebration era: Rainbow Children/Xpectation/ONA piano The Prince’ JB revue era: Musicology/3121/Planet Earth The Chemtrails era: LotusFlower & 20ten The CLOUDS Era: Art Official/Phase One & Two

Very..VERY...VERY nice breakdown.