nosajd said:

I love Stare and agree it's much better than the Gold Standard... but I don't mind the Gold Standard. It's nothing great, but I find it inoffensive.

If you got back 2 more albums, I also love Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful. That's funky.

lurker316 said:

lurker316 said:

LoveGalore said:

lurker316 said:

I love Stare and agree it's much better than the Gold Standard... but I don't mind the Gold Standard. It's nothing great, but I find it inoffensive.

If you got back 2 more albums, I also love Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful. That's funky.

Yup I love that one too. But I love that whole album, that was his last hurrah for me. The rest is good in fits and spurts but I think LF ulis perfect. It's like a modern 1999.

Agreed. Lotusflower is an amazing album. Personally, I do like AOA and it's a good album imo, but
Lotusflower is a lot better.

I'll have to give Stare another listen, I sort of forgot about it. Not that I didn't like it, but since the
last few albums felt so patchy I made my own playlists a lot of times from everything post 2009
and Stare somehow didn't make the cut. I'm sure there's more tracks I should revisit.

RJOrion said:

LILpoundCAKE said:

I've always liked Stare. I don't know if it's really good compared to the rest of Prince's output, but at that point I really didn't care. I like it. It's funky. The bass is killing.

I've always liked Stare, just wish it went on longer or he give it the extended treatment like La, La, La, He He Hee.

.

I also like The Gold Standard. I remember someone said at the time if it turned out this was re-worked from an old track from 87 people would rave over it. It has got a touch of The Black Album with the Bob George like vocals and parts of it hark back to Superfunkycalifragisexy. Notably the '24 carrot hash-tag put your phone in your bag' part reminds of the 'if your body needs water keep dancing...'

.

Now I'm not saying it's as good as the likes of Superfunky...but it is reminiscent to me, and maybe that was his aim to reach back and recreate a modern day version.

hnr phase 2 as a whole is underrated, great album.

LoveGalore said:

No, don't talk to me about anything on HNR1 - I consider HnR 1+2 to be a single album anyway.

I consider H&R 1+2 to be fourteen separate albums, because I like to be wrong too.

olb99 said:

erik319 said:

LoveGalore said:

erik319 said:

I consider H&R 1+2 to be fourteen separate albums, because I like to be wrong too.

We're in such good company and I love that for us.

Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Now if you'd have said that HRN1 sounds like the rejected 2nd disc of AOA, then I might've seen what you were getting at.

I'm so glad he got HRN2 out there before he died, as ending his legacy with HNR1 would have been a pretty low ending.

dodger07 said:

MIRvmn1 said:

erik319 said:

MIRvmn1 said:

Crazy Amazin'

C'm'ere!

Naw! Allthewayhere!

VS

"CAN EYE HELP U???!"

LoveGalore said:

lurker316 said:

I love Stare and agree it's much better than the Gold Standard... but I don't mind the Gold Standard. It's nothing great, but I find it inoffensive.

If you got back 2 more albums, I also love Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful. That's funky.

Yup I love that one too. But I love that whole album, that was his last hurrah for me. The rest is good in fits and spurts but I think LF ulis perfect. It's like a modern 1999.

I agree. Lotusflow3r is amazing and is easily as good as his '80s output.

To bring this back on topic, I think HNR 2 is a very good album. Not as great as Lotusflow3r, but it's still very good. As you mention above, Black Muse is great. It took me a while to warm to Big City because the lyrics are so corny, but the music is so damn funky that song evetually became a favorite as well.

nayroo2002 said:

RJOrion said:

giorgio said:

I’ve always loved Stare, all in all a super funky statement with lots of purple attitude which I love, but to this day I find the fade-out fade-in effect choice a bit awkward, and the coda afterwards doesn’t quite hold up to the energy sadly, my 2 cents…

I've spent a bit of time with this song today and that fade in/fade out is one of the things I love most
about it. It's just different. I like when Prince surprises me or does something different. Yet in this
case it doesn't sound like a gimmick or the latest sound effect, it's just something a bit different that
adds to the song instead of distracting from it.

Now that Kiss [sample/interpolation(?)], that I'm still on the fence about. One time I think it's great
fun and the next I think 'hmm, I don't know'.

But all in all, I'm glad for this thread and rediscovering this song. I love the bass on this one and the
song feels like totally new prince for me now since I kinda forgot about it.

Also loving the layered vocals throughout. They sound like he put a bit of time into them. Nice!