They are rated just right.Enjoyed when it came out, a very skippable album at this point. I do love the title track vocals though.

I'm with OP, they're underrated.

"The Sun, the Moon & Stars", "Tangerine", "So Far, So Pleased", that "Hot wit U" Nasty Girl remix... It might not be perfect, but it's certainly better than D&P and a lot of the general 90s discog.

[Edited 11/8/23 5:05am]

title track - lost late 80s banger

eye love u but... - could do with more at the end, it seems to end a bti too quickly, but its one of his best 90s ballads

tangerine - up there with shy and had u as far as short, slightly odd songs he did in this decade

other than that... its ok. i like so far so pleased. baby knows is disposable but enjoyable. greatest.... is quite nice too.

I'm not a fan of this album. There are a handful of songs I can listen to, but none that excite me.

My favorite is Strange But True.

"Beautiful Strange" and "TGRES (Adam & Eve Remix) are top.

The rest is fun when it comes up in the shuffle...

Rave Un2, Tangerine, I love U, But I Don't Trust U Anymore, Strange but True off the original. Beautiful Strange off the remix album.

WhisperingDandelions said:

This album screamed of Prince aiming for a pop comeback. He fashioned this after Santana's Supernatural (with all of the guest stars) and even had the same record executive behind it.

I quite liked the album, although it's not one of my favorites. I don't quite know why. This was at a time when even I (a die-hard Prince fan) was getting a bit tired of his stuff.

I have to give these two albums a listen again, it has been a long time . . .

Se7en said:

26ten said:

Se7en said:

This album screamed of Prince aiming for a pop comeback. He fashioned this after Santana's Supernatural (with all of the guest stars) and even had the same record executive behind it.

I quite liked the album, although it's not one of my favorites. I don't quite know why. This was at a time when even I (a die-hard Prince fan) was getting a bit tired of his stuff.

I have to give these two albums a listen again, it has been a long time . . .

I think there were intentions certainly via the Clive Davis association but the difference between this and Supernatural, which is 50% unrecognizable as a Santana album is staggering. The guy was simply not able to compromise and what was likely planned as big features Ala Rob Thomas ended up being Sheryl Crow and Gwen Stefani just being some other colors he used for his own tracks, which is hilarious to me. I view this as a far less commercial record than D+P as well as Musicology - and I think the Clive Davis association negatively affects a lot of viewpoint on it for what it is worth. Probably in sound it's the closest to his 80s work he did that whole decade, maybe with the exception of Come. Truth be told there is a lot on Rave that would fit on SOTT (Wherever You Go for instance). I slept on it for so long and damn I regret it now. Anyway haha there is me on my soapbox and I hope you vibe with the album(s) should you relisten to it/them.

Relistening now for the first time in maybe 20 years. Thanks OP!

Still love title track, which I need to put on a playlist or something to hear more often.

Pretty funny to hear P say "I don't follow trends, they follow me" on Undisputed. Uh huh.

This whole album has an Emancipation feel to it, which isn't a good thing, imo.

P's synth game in the 90s was just not great. They sound cheap.

The only songs I don't really like here are Hot Wit U and Undisputed. The rest are perfectly fine, but forgettable. Certainly not terrible.

100% they were trying to replicate the Santana album magic - at least in the publicity of this album, promoting all of the guest stars. That fact, then and now, just felt like a cheap move - like P needed other popular artists to get "back on top".

SpookyPurple said:

26ten said:

Se7en said:

This album screamed of Prince aiming for a pop comeback. He fashioned this after Santana's Supernatural (with all of the guest stars) and even had the same record executive behind it.

I quite liked the album, although it's not one of my favorites. I don't quite know why. This was at a time when even I (a die-hard Prince fan) was getting a bit tired of his stuff.

I have to give these two albums a listen again, it has been a long time . . .

I think there were intentions certainly via the Clive Davis association but the difference between this and Supernatural, which is 50% unrecognizable as a Santana album is staggering. The guy was simply not able to compromise and what was likely planned as big features Ala Rob Thomas ended up being Sheryl Crow and Gwen Stefani just being some other colors he used for his own tracks, which is hilarious to me. I view this as a far less commercial record than D+P as well as Musicology - and I think the Clive Davis association negatively affects a lot of viewpoint on it for what it is worth. Probably in sound it's the closest to his 80s work he did that whole decade, maybe with the exception of Come. Truth be told there is a lot on Rave that would fit on SOTT (Wherever You Go for instance). I slept on it for so long and damn I regret it now. Anyway haha there is me on my soapbox and I hope you vibe with the album(s) should you relisten to it/them.

in terms of sound, yeah of course it sounds like the 80s - he was consciously trying to make people think of his classic period with explicit throwbacks to his 80s sound (eg the return of the linn drums). its like hes playing 'ding ding remember that? im the guy who did THOSE records!). pretty much every popular artist seems to do that after a good few decades making music. its like a concious attempt to make people nostalgic, even if the songs dont actually sound like songs he would have cut in the 80s. would 80s prince have done a song that sounds so like another big 80s hit/band (i.e the police-sounding wherever you go whatever you do? prob not). this was maybe the start of modern prince consciously reworking 80s prince.

IMO Prince's worst album -- feels really bland. But I don't hold anything against people who like it!

26ten said:

In my opinion the two Rave albums are his most underrated - and I find them to be hugely superior to what public perception grants them. Anyone have any strong opinions about these records, for better or worse? Would love to discuss them with you all.

.

- Some songs are really cool, but I wish it had a different production. It sounds plastic in some tracks.

26ten said:

SpookyPurple said:

Relistening now for the first time in maybe 20 years. Thanks OP!

Still love title track, which I need to put on a playlist or something to hear more often.

Pretty funny to hear P say "I don't follow trends, they follow me" on Undisputed. Uh huh.

This whole album has an Emancipation feel to it, which isn't a good thing, imo.

P's synth game in the 90s was just not great. They sound cheap.

The only songs I don't really like here are Hot Wit U and Undisputed. The rest are perfectly fine, but forgettable. Certainly not terrible.

100% they were trying to replicate the Santana album magic - at least in the publicity of this album, promoting all of the guest stars. That fact, then and now, just felt like a cheap move - like P needed other popular artists to get "back on top".

Did you prefer un2/in2 generally? Also - this is such a solid track on in2 that astounded me on my relisten. https://m.youtube.com/wat...pveQ%3D%3D

Sorry, are you asking which version I prefer? I've honestly never listened to the remix version. But... now I will! This Man o War remix is cool.

I agree with the person that said itwas his worst album. It really is his worst album. Those so-called guest spots that really weren't guest spots(Chuck D. excepted). But for me, the biggest problem I have always had with this album was that, through all of the The Artist/Symbol stuff he went through, and put his fans through, and tried to make us believe it was some spiritual thing... He decides that Prince is the producer on the album because "he was a better editor." I remember reading this and just being so disappointed. Because I knew the Symbol stuff was, for the most part, just a ploy to get WB to not be able to promote Prince. But this was just proof the whole thing was B.S.

And I just can't forgive "Baby Knows." What a horrid track. Writing at its most pedantic.

"She knows how to make you feel like your stuff ain't brown tonight..." Ugggghhhh...

The absolute worst.

Again, a good hybrid of the two would make a solid disk.

26ten said:

I think there were intentions certainly via the Clive Davis association but the difference between this and Supernatural, which is 50% unrecognizable as a Santana album is staggering. The guy was simply not able to compromise and what was likely planned as big features Ala Rob Thomas ended up being Sheryl Crow and Gwen Stefani just being some other colors he used for his own tracks, which is hilarious to me. I view this as a far less commercial record than D+P as well as Musicology - and I think the Clive Davis association negatively affects a lot of viewpoint on it for what it is worth. Probably in sound it's the closest to his 80s work he did that whole decade, maybe with the exception of Come. Truth be told there is a lot on Rave that would fit on SOTT (Wherever You Go for instance). I slept on it for so long and damn I regret it now. Anyway haha there is me on my soapbox and I hope you vibe with the album(s) should you relisten to it/them.

Agreed.

Maybe it's a symptom of art in general but it's especially noticeable with Prince because his fans are usually have their own personal preferences:
Sometimes people just straight-up parrot press release / review tidbits.

Sometimes people recognize this, call this out, and re-write the narrative. The Come album is an example of this on the org, two decades ago people mostly fell lock-step in with the press kit. "Phoned in", "Contractually obligation," "Intentionally gave it his worst material," Album cover blah blah, every bullet-point from those 1994 articles.

With Rave similarly, look at posts here. Prince's Supernatural (???? the guests dominated those, they're barely on these), his first "80s retread" because he broke out a Linn..? Talking about how he credited "Prince" as the producer, and the executive producer, more than the tracks themselves. Straight 1999 press kit B.S.

This is nothing like Clive Davis presents Carlos Santana, and it's no throwback record. MPLSound is his most blatant retreading of his specifically 80s style/trademarks, Musicology was the first rebooting of the "Prince" mythos. This album is very "90s", and not stylistically conformist to some bid for the mainstream like D&P and Musicology were like you correctly note.

Out of aallll the LPs, the fans themselves seem most averse to talking about the actual tracks themselves without getting into some off-topic ancillary B.S. This one's up there with the instrumental albums to how few adjectives or descriptors are spurned to why this one is so abbhorent to the discog, they just know they sure don't like it for some reason something or other Clive Davis produced by Prince Linn drum Gwen Stefani remix etc.

[Edited 11/9/23 5:49am]

FREE RAVE SDE.

WhisperingDandelions said:

Is that Jerome Benton at the end of "Prettyman"?

WhisperingDandelions said:

It's a good album, sone REALLY wonderful tracks on the album. Sure he tried to commercialize this album in the strongest way possible, but there are still gems to be had. For me?

The standouts for me are:


Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

Sun Moon & Stars

The Greatest Romance Ever Sold

Tangerine

Silly Game

So Far So Pleased

Strange But True

[Edited 11/9/23 15:26pm]

lurker316 said:

I'm not a fan of this album. There are a handful of songs I can listen to, but none that excite me.

My favorite is Strange But True.

While I'm not a fan of most songs, the only one I strongly dislike is Hot With U.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Again, a good hybrid of the two would make a solid disk.

??

One is a remix album of the other with only one different track - Beautiful Strange. This song is the reason I prefer In2.