Almost every review of the MUSICOLOGY album starts with something along the lines of: "Prince has released sub par albums in the '90s, but...". It's getting to me so much because lately I've been really getting into all his albums from to RAVE. Sure COME and CHAOS & DISORDER are contract fillers, yet they still have some great stuff. However, if you focus on the albums that actually chose to release:

: Operatic, inconsistant, but definately optimistic - that's what makes it so beautiful
THE GOLD EXPERIENCE: Rock n Roll with flair and attitude
EXODUS: Fun funk!
EMANCIPATION: Love, marriage, birth. Regardless what has happened since, this album displays the true love he felt at the time
NEW POWER SOUL: Plastic, fluroecent FUNK. Yeah, I said it. One of his more underated albums. There's so much amazing material here, yet so many ignore it.
RAVE: Sure it was meant to be commercial, but what's wrong with that?

Anyway, my main point is if you're new to Prince and read these reviews dissing the '90s, take it with a grain of salt - 'cause Prince has always been funky, no matter what name he goes under.

toejam said:

You are reading album reviews - pieces of journalism - usually a couple of hundred words or so - often with a factual error or two.

The writer tries to express an opinion. Commonly, they paint a generalised view of the artist.

But they are just album reviews ... real life goes on, with or without them.

You know what? The only reason why critics dissed those albums is because they weren't released commercially. Musicology is no better and clearly no more imaginative than TRC or even Rave. Yet, it's received *rave* reviews...just so happens to be commercially accessible.

For the past several days, I've been revisiting some of the albums, particularly Chaos and Disorder and The Gold Experience. Now, there are some throw-away songs on these dics, but they are NOT bad albums. Musically, the instrumentation is creative, exceptionally genius! The guitar riffs and melodies on C&D are simply exhilarating and songs like "I Will" are some of the most beautifully crafted and sung of all P's 1990's output.

Even TRC, with all of its bad rap, is not a bad album. I think that the overtly religious preaching and voice overs are a distraction, but I quite like songs like "Muse to the Pharroah," "1+1+1=3," and "She Loves Me 4 Me." (The latter could've easily been a radio hit.)

It's quite a shame how P's work is smashed. And to think he puts so much effort in his musical output. It's got to be very off-putting for him to receive so much ridicule.

laylow03 said:

I've said exactly the same thing, you are 100% correct.

and whats funny is these albums will get great reviews 3 or 4 stars and they'll say "his best since sign o' the times" and then next year his new album will come out "Prince is back! his best since Sign' O The Times! 3 1/2 stara!" and your ummm YOU GAVE HIS LAST ALBUM 4 STARS U MORON!

I always thought TGE was a stunner of an album, so I disagree with you there, but I do know what you're saying with C&D.

I never liked C&D before, but lately I've been listening to it and it's really a solid album like you said.

It's good rock music to have some fun with while you sit back and turn the volume way up.

Same December is great music to bang your head to, Dinner with Delores is clever, I Will is beautiful, and the way it ends with Had U is hauntingly effective.

Right The Wrong, Zannalee, I Rock, Therefore I Am (aside from the rap) are fun songs too imo.

Underrated album, even though he made it in, what, a weekend?

That's just the way though, once ppl develop a certain frame of mind about an artist, it can be hard for them to let go of it.

Fact is, Prince did what he wanted to do in the 90's and became at the expense of having a strong chance at continued commercial/chart success, and that dark cloud still looms over his 90's work, even as ppl reflect. They just write that portion of his career off, which is a shame.

Most of the Mid-Late 90's stuff was poor, u gotta admit.

xt1000 said:

Totally disagree. His albums were not nearly as consistent, but they also had alot more material per disc than most of his 80s albums. Other than NPS and Rave, I think most of his 90s albums are pretty solid (and even the crapfest that was NPS gave us "Wasted Kisses", so its not a total write off. Rave was just kinda lackluster, but it did have moments of brilliance like "I Love U But I Don't Trust U Anymore").

I think the biggest problem with Prince's 90s stuff is he tried to put too much stuff on each disc. Most of them sound like collections of songs, instead of fully realised albums. The songs themselves are fantastic, on the whole though. If you listen to individual songs off of "Come" or C&D, you'll find that most of them are great. Just my opinion.

Prince in the 90's.
Flaundering all over the place.
Looking for music in all the wrong places.
I could tell him what to do.
He would not listen.
I want him making music with the toothbrush Susan Rogers was pondering about.
Keep it tight.
Keep it real.
No more computers unless he works with Bjork.

And he should.
But is he listening?
I want Bjork to PRODUCE his tiny behind.

i think there were 2 things that caused Prince to look lost
in the musical wilderness in the 90s:


1)unsure how to incorporate rap into his sound, especially since
he dissed rap as a musical form in the 80s

2)Nirvana--a whole new style of music emerged, angry, guitar
driven and angst-filled, that's just not where Prince was in the 90s
(but remember Prince wearing a weird grunge-ish flannel shirt in the
"Morning Paper" video?)


i'll add a third--- i do think Prince was just trying to find new ways
musically to present himself and with any true exploration there is
going to be some miscues---i'm not quite sure we've discoverd
the reward of these venturings yet...Rainbow Children might be
the closest we get

don't get me wrong; i'm a huge prince fan, i love everything from '78 to '89, as well as NEWS, TRC & Musicology; but i don't like a single record prince released in the 90's. There's only one or two songs i like and that would be Love to the 9's and Money Don't Matter Tonight. I can understand why a journalist would mention this artistic void, if anything to contrast the return to form that musicology is.