It happened again. I graded "Welcome 2 America" as mediocre...and now I love it. When will I learn? See, this behavior only began with "Emancipation". Before then every Prince album was an instant love affair with me. But beginning with "Enacipation" almost each time I finally get my grubby hands on the new Prince album I was instantly disappointed. It was just not what I was expecting or it was too much too quickly. Same reaction to "Crystal Ball" and especially "Newpowersoul", and every album except for "3121" and "Hit N' Run Phase 2".

Then

"Emancipation" **

"Newpowersoul" *

"The Vault" **

"Rave" **1/2

"Rainbow Children" ***

"Musicology" **/12

"3121" ****

"Planet Earth" ****

"Lotus..." **1/2

"20ten" **

"Plectrum" **

"AOA" ***

"HNR 1" *

"HNR 2" ****

"W2A" **

NOW

"Emancipation" ***1/2

"Newpowersoul" ***

"The Vault" ***

"Rave" ***

"Rainbow Children" ***

"Musicology" ***

"3121" ****

"Planet Earth" ****

"Lotus..." ***

"20ten" **

"Plectrum" **1/2

"AOA" ****

"HNR 1" ****

"HNR 2" ****

"W2A" ***1/2

anyone else experience this?

I'm having this moment with New Power Soul.

That's the beauty of being a Prince fan haha.

That being said, I don't think Rave will ever grow on me.

[Edited 1/29/23 11:07am]

homesquid said:

anyone else experience this?

No, I still think they're shit.

mb71 said:

homesquid said:

anyone else experience this?

No, I still think they're shit.

SMH

ShellyMcG said:

I can't say I've had that happen to me yet but I'd guess that the reason why a lot of older Prince fans may change their opinion over time on his later albums is that they already have an idea in their head of what a Prince album is. The kinds of albums that turned them onto Prince in the first place. Purple Rain, 1999, Controversy etc. The later albums don't match up to these, quality-wise, so it's natural to feel some form of disappointment when first experiencing them. But even though the later albums may not be as good as the older stuff, they are still good albums so once the initial feeling of disappointment has passed, what's left is still a collection of good music to be enjoyed.

You're absolutely right that it's a generational thing.

It is perfectly natural for people to find it harder to really get into new music the way they did when they were 15 to 25 yers old. It just did not happen to me - I just got 9 of my favourite new songs in the 2022 Triple J Hottest 100 run annually in Australia by its largest youth radio station (Spacey Jane, Ball Park Music, Baker Boy, Flume, Gorillaz, Gang of Youths, Fred again.., Thelma Plum, Sycco - my last vote (Confidence Man) came in the top 101 to 200).

It is good that you go back and re-listen and that new stuff can grow on you rather than just dismissing it forever. I have never understood why so many people here spend so much of their time rejecting and trashing Prince's music.

The Gold Experience was the last album I really liked on first listen. After that, I didn't really like any of his albums. Each had a song or two I enjoyed, but couldn't really get into the album as whole.

After Prince passed away I decided to revisit his post-1995 catalogue and give them another chance. A few albums A few of them grew on my pretty quickly (TRC, 3121, Lotusflow3r, HNR2), but most didn't. Nevertheless, I would continuely revisit those albums I didn't like in the hopes that I'd eventually see them in a new light and would have my mind changed. It worked, as I now also like HNR1 and abosolutely love AOA.

There are still some albums that haven't grown on me (Come, Emancipation, Rave, Planet Earth, 20Ten), but I still revisit them once year on the off chance my mind might change on those as well.

most of these albums are okay, with a few gems, a lot of listenable material, usually some embarassing skippable things, and then a lot of litle bits that marr what is actually pretty decent. but theyre not necessarily great albums.

"Emancipation" ***1/2

"Newpowersoul" **

"The Vault" **1/2

"Rave" ***

"Rainbow Children" ***3/4

"Musicology" **3/4

"3121" ***

"Planet Earth" **1/2

"Lotus..." **1/2

"20ten" **1/2

"Plectrum" **1/2

"AOA" ****

"HNR 1" **1/2

"HNR 2" **3/4

"W2A" ***

i forgot The Truth. This gets a solid ***1/2

That has been the case for most of Prince's stuff since Lovesexy for me. They age very well imo. The most recent one is Planet Earth, which I totally dismissed when it was released, but it has become a fave ever since the vinyl has been released.

However, so far, I have yet to warm up to Welcome 2 America. I'm confident it will happen but so far that ones been gathering dust.

paisleyparkgirl said:

I'm having this moment with New Power Soul.

That's the beauty of being a Prince fan haha.

That being said, I don't think Rave will ever grow on me.

[Edited 1/29/23 11:07am]

Rave's more of a grower than NPS, which I agree is a grower (slightly). Never say never with Prince LPs.

Hmm...still got of his newer stuff to listen to, but not always the case for me.

3121 did grow on me, I like that album pretty well.

Rainbow Children was and still is bleah to me, not likely to listen to that one again.

Welcome to America is also pretty Meh, I'll revisit it sometime soon but it was not so bueno.

I rarely listened to One Nite Alone... Solo Piano and Voice. I didn't think it was bad. Just not the type of music I'm inclinde to jam to while I'm working out or driving or what have you. But yesterday I decided to see if I might re-eveluate it. And you know what? I really like it now. It still might not enter heavy rotation simply because of the style of music (I'd need to be in a very mellow mood), but I now rate it pretty highly.

[Edited 2/2/23 16:06pm]

yeah, I'm also not feeling Welcome 2 America too much. I've tried it a few times now but it's just meh
for me - so far.

I used to warm up to his other albums way way quicker. I think the problem with W2A is that I know
it's not something he completed. There were several tracklists and even other songs etc and people
cobbled it together from a few different options they had. Plus tracks like "Check The Record" aren't
finished and miss crucial details like a guitar solo etc.

However, I like about half of it a lot, it just doesn't seem to flow very well as an album?