HITnRUN 1

The Rainbow Children

Newpower Soul

MPLSound

One Nite Alone...

dustoff said:

Batman's totally not underrated. One of his biggest sellers to one of the biggest projects in movie history. And if every fan claims it's underrated can it really be underrated?

#1. N.E.W.S. - Love the % of fans that feel the need to write their little disclaimer on album rankings, "Sorry, I don't rank the instrumental albums but if you're forcing me to we can put them all at the bottom of the list." Or they'll be like, "I don't ever put on instrumentals, I'm not sure what these are." Like it's not uh Advanced Physics 102. It's not Japanese Calligraphy. You just... put it on and experience it the same as you do your regularly scheduled Spotify there...

#2. Around the World in a Day - Maybe not underrated in the sense that "well it always gets included in recognized prime era Prince." That's by virtue of taking place right smack in the middle of the 80s. If people could exclude this one, they would. Other sites other noobs when they show up, "Hey, I got the 'Purple Rain' album, I got '1999' where do I go next?" 75% of the responses are going to say skip right on over to SOTT or Parade, like, why just skip one single project, what's wrong with just... continuing chronological?

Literally his most important artistic statement, released at the most prominent/pop phase of his career... meh, check out the other 30 records first. lolwut?


#3. Rave unto the Joy Fantastic - see thread on main page.

Try to not counterpoint without using the phrases "produced by Prince", "Linn drum", "Santana - Supernatural" or "Clive Davis" as to why this one sucks exactly. At least moreso than your precious early 90s NPG new whack swing and/or Golden's spicy brown-cheese curd Experience. I dare the entire org.

#4. Emancipation - wahhwahh filler. Top shelf songwriting, and he gifted the fanbase with an arts and crafts project trying to assemble the perfect mix. Wish we had more triple-LPs...

#5. For You - People gotta be trolling when they act like the self-titled was such a step-forward, "oh he wrote a hit, his career is validated now". That s/t ish was the original D&P preening cookie-cutter pandering to the masses concession album of his career. $oldout before he even started selling so it gets unwritten from the legacy on pure technicality.

Now this album is gorgeous. Sure we all prefer the stuff that comes later, it's got edge it's got bite it's more direct, but Prince's actual abilities themselves have never been presented more warmly/cozy/mellifluously as they are on this one. A delight of an album.

oh actually HitNRun Vol. 1 deserves to be on there somewhere, too.

"wahh modern styles!"

underrated by who? im going to assume by most ppl who only know the famous stuff.

anyway, my list would be:

1) AOA

His best ALBUM since TRC. Josh Welton was his best collaborator in many, many years. Brought Prince into the modern age without making anyone cringe and keeping Prince Prince without resorting to cliches. Also, had 3 songs which i consider airtight should-be Prince classics.

2) TRC

I mean, I can take or leave the lyrics, but musically, I love it, well most of it.

3) Batman

Just a lot of fun. Prince on auto pilot but even that is still good at this point. Also has some of his catchiest hooks. And strangest lyrics.

4) Chaos and Disorder

No over thinking, just a great rock record, as pure a rock record as he ever made actually, so fun to hear on those terms, but its also just plain good and less rushed sounding than ppl seem to think just cos it was one of the last things he gave to WB. mostly though, it has some of his best guitar, and more guitar than any other prince album so how could you not like it? way better than lotus flower btw.

4.5) The Truth

kind of like a flipside to C&D, its just a great prince-on-guitar album, stripping it back to basics (as basic as prince would get anyway). works as a proper album that you can listen to. not every track is amazing, but theres nothing i would skip at least. and it has some of his most playful songs in a while at that point (dionne), a song taylor swift should cover (circle of amour), and a good track about not eating meat (with great backwards guitar)

5) Emancipation

Half filler, a lot of cringey moments, but hey, discard that stuff, and its a great 'mature', subdued, often really lovingly crafted set that if you get rid of the covers (except one of us - his best cover ever?), has no real singles, and is maybe better for it. you just have to go into it with diff expectations. its basically a huge data dump of an album, a spotify playlist before spotify playlists existed. so i do think if i want to think of it and listen to it as an ALBUM, i only want to hear my 12 track version (which id say could make for his best album of the 90s, tho probably not one that immediately grabs you). but there are lots of other tracks that i like just as loose songs. and ok, quite a lot i never need to hear ever again.

[Edited 11/10/23 2:20am]

1. New Power Soul - hard pass when it came out but over the years its become a fave.

2. AOA - Original and fresh. I have loved it since day 1.

3. Emancipation - Yeah, there are a few clunkers, but overall a great album imo and its become one of my fave from the 90s.

4. For You - Ignored for years and has slowly grown to become a go-to. Its shocking how brilliant it is esp since its his first.

5. The Vault - It contains When The Lights Go Down which is an all-time fave song by anyone. But a great little album that got ignored.

'The Vault' honestly 3 SDE's in is still probably the best single-disc presentation of Vault material.

WhisperingDandelions said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

"For You"...."Around The World"....."N.E.W.S"....."Chaos And Disorder"...."AOA".

Lotus Flow3r

The Rainbow Children

Hit and Run Phase Two

For You

Love Symbol

.

Real music by real musicians

WhisperingDandelions said:

Batman's totally not underrated. One of his biggest sellers to one of the biggest projects in movie history. And if every fan claims it's underrated can it really be underrated?

#1. N.E.W.S. - Love the % of fans that feel the need to write their little disclaimer on album rankings, "Sorry, I don't rank the instrumental albums but if you're forcing me to we can put them all at the bottom of the list." Or they'll be like, "I don't ever put on instrumentals, I'm not sure what these are." Like it's not uh Advanced Physics 102. It's not Japanese Calligraphy. You just... put it on and experience it the same as you do your regularly scheduled Spotify there...

#2. Around the World in a Day - Maybe not underrated in the sense that "well it always gets included in recognized prime era Prince." That's by virtue of taking place right smack in the middle of the 80s. If people could exclude this one, they would. Other sites other noobs when they show up, "Hey, I got the 'Purple Rain' album, I got '1999' where do I go next?" 75% of the responses are going to say skip right on over to SOTT or Parade, like, why just skip one single project, what's wrong with just... continuing chronological?

Literally his most important artistic statement, released at the most prominent/pop phase of his career... meh, check out the other 30 records first. lolwut?


#3. Rave unto the Joy Fantastic - see thread on main page.

Try to not counterpoint without using the phrases "produced by Prince", "Linn drum", "Santana - Supernatural" or "Clive Davis" as to why this one sucks exactly. At least moreso than your precious early 90s NPG new whack swing and/or Golden's spicy brown-cheese curd Experience. I dare the entire org.

#4. Emancipation - wahhwahh filler. Top shelf songwriting, and he gifted the fanbase with an arts and crafts project trying to assemble the perfect mix. Wish we had more triple-LPs...

#5. For You - People gotta be trolling when they act like the self-titled was such a step-forward, "oh he wrote a hit, his career is validated now". That s/t ish was the original D&P preening cookie-cutter pandering to the masses concession album of his career. $oldout before he even started selling so it gets unwritten from the legacy on pure technicality.

Now this album is gorgeous. Sure we all prefer the stuff that comes later, it's got edge it's got bite it's more direct, but Prince's actual abilities themselves have never been presented more warmly/cozy/mellifluously as they are on this one. A delight of an album.

Not sure I agree with your whole list but damn, you nailed Around the World in a Day.

EMANCIPATION

CRYSTAL BALL (5cd set)

NEWS

AOL

THE RAINBOW CHILDREN

parade is best when you look at it in the context of the album that came before it.

he left psych/whimsy alone pretty much after that period (aside from some of SOTT)

26ten said:

You know the drill - WE FIGHT TO THE DEATH lol jk Include as many as you want (the more the better honestly) But! I feel the 5/6 most underrated Prince albums are: Batman Rave in2/un2 (counting them together) Chocolate Invasion 20ten Hit n Run Phase One Whether on the org or in civilian perception however you see fit.

The only one in this list I'd agree with is HNR Phase One. The rest you listed are not my cup of tea.

For you

Prince

Chaos and Disorder

Hit&Run Phase2

lurker316 said:

Controversy

For You

N.E.W.S

One Nite Alone

Prince

Planet Earth

[Edited 11/16/23 13:09pm]

I forgot to mention Planet Earth. I tend to go to this one more than any of the others from this period. My husband is a fan of his 80s but not much else...but loves Chelsea Rodgers and cranks it everytime I play this.