I'm sure you all have different abits you get into at different times.

Lately, last couple months maybe..it's been all about Rave Un2.

There truly isn't even a song I skip.

It's almost all so catchy and often great.

I think it's unfairly maligned because it was supposed to be Prince's "Santana All-Star" album and it came up short, commercially, at least.

But, if you just look at it as a collection of Prince mainly-pop songs I think it's great.

Y'all?

TheFunkyNewAlbum said:

I think it's a really cool album! I don't get the fuss people bring about it being a substandard product from Prince.

>

For me: "Baby Knows" and "So Far, So Pleased" are highlights; I dig the cover of "Everyday Is a Winding Road"; Chuck D and Eve's raps work for me; "Prettyman" is pretty funny.

Fairly maligned.

NouveauDance said:

MattyJam said:

NouveauDance said:

Fairly maligned.

You still got that dogshit photo? 😂

I wish I'd saved it!

.

In reality I no longer hold any malice towards Rave, it's just that old habits die hard, I see a thread, I click reply.

NouveauDance said:

I believe it was unfairly maligned and deemed a failure because:

1/ Prince fans were getting old and nostalgic, and the album tried to sound very contemporary. Prince's so-called "plastic" sound between 1996 and 2001 was highly unpopular with the fans anyway (I happened —and still happen— to love it, but I was clearly in a minority).

2/ After the "suing fans" Uptown fiasco and the Crystal Ball fiasco, and with the JW nonsense starting to happen, the fanbase had grown to despise Prince, so whatever he did suffered from a negative bias anyway (this pretty much lasted until the end of his life, but one could argue those years were the peak).

3/ The album's commercial success and media exposure was rather small by Prince's standard, and Prince fans, for some odd reason, always got pissed at Prince for not selling enough or not being popular enough (as if they were making the money...)

4/ Prince made a disastrous marketing decision by releasing TGRES as the lead single (I dig the song, mind you, but fact is that neither the target audience —kids—, nor the hipsters, nor the fanbase cared for it, it really wasn't anything with the potential to be cool in 1999 (granted, neither was TMBGITW in 1994, but while you can make a miracle happen once, it's harder to get there twice). It didn't help that the music video arrived weeks after the single.

5/ So far, So Pleased should have been the lead single (The Corrs had a major hit by ripping it off the following year, BTW), but the story goes that some idiots at No Doubts' label prevented it from happening (I never knew for sure if this was true, though).

6/ The European TV shows tour was also rather unnerving: playing Lara Fabian's show in France was literally hype suicide, as this program was the incarnation of everything that was commercial and gross in both kids' and hipsters' minds. And overall, the songs' selection wasn't necessarily the best to appeal to each show's target audience at the time. Clearly, Prince wasn't properly advised on that front (or if he was, he didn't listen).

7/ Prince fucked the project for good by getting into a fight with Arista over sales and marketing, de facto putting an end to the label's efforts to promote the record (which was unfortunate since the same thing had just happened to his last big project, Emancipation, because of EMI falling into bankrupcy).

.

So in the end this whole fiasco was a little bit of him, a little bit of us. Admitedly sales weren't that bad in the absolute, just bad by Prince's standards. But the album sure failed to generate any hype and to please the fanbase. Which is a pity because under different circumstances, like TGE (another missed oppotunity, but at least one the fans loved), Rave had the potential to be another D&P: the material was diverse enough to please R&B, pop and rock fans, younger and older fans, and mostly, the music was very, very accessible by Prince's sometimes artistically ambitious' standards, thus potentially appealing to the masses. I remember that most of my non-Prince fans friends who weren't hardcore rockers and were, like me, in their early 20s at the time really liked the album when it played as a whole at home.

Sorry, this is one of my least favorite Prince albums.

I used to really dislike this album, maybe it was the cover artwork But I revisited it when the vinyl version came out a while back and... I love all of the songs individually. Except maybe Undisputed, which is weird coz I love Chuck D and PE but this song didn't land for me.

Great songs. But it doesn't really feel like an album.

lurker316 said:

MattyJam said:

lurker316 said:

Sorry, this is one of my least favorite Prince albums.

Its better than Musicology, 3121, Planet Earth, Lotusflow3r, MPLSound, 20ten, AOA, HNR Phase 1 and HNR Phase 2 imho.

If you take out Lotusflow3r and (at least partially) 3121, I guess I'm with you

MattyJam said:

lurker316 said:

Sorry, this is one of my least favorite Prince albums.

Its better than Musicology, 3121, Planet Earth, Lotusflow3r, MPLSound, 20ten, AOA, HNR Phase 1 and HNR Phase 2 imho.

We have totally different tastes. I would place all of those above Rave except Planet Earth. Some I'd only put slightly above (Musicology), but others are light years better (Lotusflow3r).

2 star album at best.

It's a mixed bag.A few really good tracks and several mediocre songs.TGRES was a boring first single.

yeah and it's a shame because I think this song had the best chance of being a major hit single.

databank said:

So far, So Pleased should have been the lead single but the story goes that some idiots at No Doubts' label prevented it from happening (I never knew for sure if this was true, though).

SoulAlive said:

MattyJam said:

NouveauDance said:

I wish I'd saved it!

.

In reality I no longer hold any malice towards Rave, it's just that old habits die hard, I see a thread, I click reply.

My all time favourite org moment. To OP, I'm a lifelong Rave defender. Copped some serious shit for defending this album back in the day, but I'll defend it to my death. Back in 1999, defending Rave on the org was comparable only to your name being placed on a sex offenders register. It was social suicide. Fast forward to 2025, the scorn has worn off some. I never quite understood why it was so unpopular.

The Greatest Romance Ever Sold is still his best single of the 90s imo, and Eye Love U But Eye Don't Trust U Anymore an all-time great ballad in a canon of many exquisite compositions.

Leaving aside the album is the worst case of artistic compromission ever released by The Symbol, although it has a handful of genuine gems tragically lost in a sludge of harmless FM Radio Loudness Wars banalities,

Leaving aside the Rasta Glitter Spandex Smurf is still an insult to the retina decades after it was commited,

...put the aforementioned slushing atrocity and "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" on the same ring, and TMBGITW wins by K.O. under ten seconds.

Mike Johnson vs. Mike Tyson.

[Edited 9/21/25 21:38pm]