Not sure quite what to call this one, but I'm sure everyone knows which album I'm referring to - The one after D&P, but before Come, with the New Power Generation. I overlooked it for a long time, and I'm tempted to pick it up. At the moment, it's a toss up between this album and Grafitti Bridge for my next purchase.

Anyway, what's the general concensus on this album? I'm very curious, as I've everything from "It's brilliant!" to "It's his worst work ever."

So, what's your opinion on the "Symbol" album?

It's not brilliant.

It's better than Graffiti Bridge.

It contains some great songs.

And some filler.

There are people who hail it as a masterpiece.

But they are wrong.

It is a ***1/2 (out of 5) album.

mrdespues said:

Yea, but Graffiti Bridge has Joy In Rep, The Q of U & We Can Funk, which are essential

Then again, has Love 2 the 9's, 7 & SexyMF... and The Morning Papers, And God Created Woman, Damn U & Eye Wanna Melt w/ U!

DAMN, a lotta good shit on that one! I gotta pull that mutha out!

mrdespues said:

No it IS brilliant. MAKE A BETTER ONE.

It was a relief after the stale-sounding D & P, that's for sure.
"My name is Prince" sounds like an embarresment today (and not so hot back then), but start this one with Sexy M.F., and get set for one helluva album.

the symbol album is alright. it was not my favorite prince album. i didn't like the toney m parts however. minneapolis in not a hip hop town. it never will be. the people up there are too nice to have any street cred. i love the conteniental and sweet baby. 7 was a great song because it reminded me of the bloody beta chapter of the alpha phi alpha. the album is nice to hear from time to time. i'm glad tony m is gone. i put symbol at the bottom of my list of prince albums. i love his new stuff so much better than the old stuff. i'm glad he has decided to not become a mockery by making music that sounds the same as the stuff during his younger years. i love the old stuff, especially controversy played on a big stereo where you can hear the oppressive grind and the lord's prayer chanted in that way. the mayte stuff was way too much. i never liked her much because she didn't do anything. she wasn't the peice of ass that prince said she was.

listen to east and think about the events happening mid east. do you get chills or am i trippin.

it reminds me of ELO's "Out of the Blue" album for some reason. overblown, with operatic pretentions and kitschy fun dance music swirled around each other. though after, say, the song "7", i don't really care much for the last few songs on the album that much. "3 chains o' gold" is just sheer cheese, especially those embarrassing spoken lines by mayte. sheesh! but i gotta have my "i wanna melt with u", "continental", "the max", and ugh, just a whole bunch of other songs on there that i absolutely love..."the morning papers", "2 the 9s", "sexy mf", "my name is prince"....maybe the brilliance of the first half gets me burnt out when the second half comes along, i dunno...

let's not forget 'BlueLight', overall is a great pop album...

my favorite 90s Prince album...

mrdespues said:

this is all coming from the guy who loves Chaos and Dissorder, your credibility is coming into question

brilliant album. this is the first prince cd i got, the one that got me started. much better than graffiti bridge as a whole, although that one too has some very good tracks. go for the symbol.

LAProducer said:

Hey man, I never said Chaos was better. Symbol is still better than Chaos. But Chaos has its place, too.

when i bought it in 1992 and first listenede to it, i thought it was a great album. I had just got over the D&P tour, which was amazing, so a new album the same year, what a great Prince-year. Some songs still are overwhelming, almost ' over-produced'...and because of that they sound very old-fashoined. Overall i think the songs diverse too much and the album is just a couple of songs too long. It took me some years to understand, for what's it worth i know, the critics back then. Last but not least: the whole cover-art and the way Prince and band presented themselves is disgusting and very much influences my experience on this album.

It was my first Prince album, and brings back great memories from my childhood.

A solid album - MAYBE a bit too long, cut out a couple of the fillers and it would have been a tighter set of tracks (Sweet Baby, The Flow, Arrogance could all go - not that they're particularly awful, but they're at the bottom end of the list).

It is a good thing that they cut all those narsty segues out though - the ones they left in make no sense, but at least we are spared Mayte's terrible "acting".

mrdespues said:

Well, Mrdespues, You did say that all of the songs on C&D, are "GREAT to GOOD" except one. So I was under the impresion that you were a BIG C&D fam.

I LOVE the Symbol album with all of Prince's Different Styles and Compositions. It's a MASTERPIECE. I LOVED that TOUR also. SUCH FUN.

LAProducer said:

well, LAProducer, condescending as you are, That just so happens to be because, unlike a lot of orgers, I find a lot of, if not most, of Prince's output to be Great to Good. Chaos fits the criteria as some of the good to great stuff. but symbol is better.

mrdespues said:

Well, Mrdespues, So acording to your liberal criteria, how many stars is C&D? And what constituees a 1 star Prince CD? How many stars is SOTT, Purple Rain, ATWIAD, or Parade, for that matter? All of these are infinitely better that C&D or Symbol obviously.

LAProducer said:

oh please, I hope this shuts you up.

Here's what I give the following:

: ***1/2
Chaos and Disorder: ***
SOTT: *****
Purple Rain: *****
ATWIAD: ****
Parade: ****1/2

okay, GB had Joy In Repitition, Question Of U and Still Would Stand All Time, all pure-total classics (as was Thieves): but, for me, these made Symbol a pretty shit-hot album : Sweet Baby, And God Created Woman, Sexy M.F (video sucked, but song rocked), 7, Continential, I Wanna Melt With U, Blue Light, Morning Papers, Damn U, 3 Chains O' Gold, Sacrifice Of Victor
Okay, u definately need to get rid of the bullshit Segues (a curse on ANY prince album) but, as is always the case with Prince, and what makes him unique, is, some people's padding is other peoples most vital tracks. These work most for me, whereas other will chose their own favorite 10 or 12 from the album. The same can be said for Emancipation and Crystal Ball - we could all chose a perfect single album from both, each other persons single albums would contain different choices.
But overall in the 90's, i guess Symbol and Gold worked best for me, but every other offering contain pure classics that can't be ignored (okay, i haven't heard Gold Nigga, but have heard and love both Johnny and even the track from 1800 new funk)
No matter how hard he tries (and some times he appeard to try REAL hard), he can never release pure dross - theres always a classic in the mix, or alternatively, there's always a throwaway within the sublime.... funny that

I love this cd. It's one of my favourites.

rainbowchild said:

Me too.
I think that Grafitti Bridge may be the last of Prince's records to have that classic 80's Prince sound, but the music on Symbol is much better. Almost every song is great, and there are a lot of them.
I actually hated the record at first. It sounded way too slick for me, like Diamonds & Pearls (I was into Nirvana at the time). But over the course of time I realized how brilliant the record was.
I initially hate a lot of my favorite records.

That is one of my fav's. Top 5 albums he's every done.

mrdespues said:

You forgot to add "IMO" to this post and what's with the * ratings...
Do you work for TV Guide?

Completely reminds me of my college dorm...played the $%@# out of this CD that year...that and a lot of UB40 for some reason.

Tremendous songs on a flawed concept album. Whatever Prince was trying to do probably worked out great in his head but something was definitely lost in translation. Having parts of Kirstie Alley/Vanessa Bartholomew's interview cut by adding one of the album's lesser songs "I Wanna Melt With U" didn't help (this according to Alex Hahn).

The only thing that really comes through, concept wise, is that prince really digs young chicks, which is obviously a bit bothersome. I can't help but get the feeling that this is R. Kelly's favorite album. The Morning Papers is one of the creepiest singles he has ever released because it seems much too favorable on the jailbait tip.

Songs from Symbol that are absolutely quinessential: Damn U, 7, Sexy MF, Love 2 the 9's, Blue Light, and the gorgeous And God Created Woman.

eccotides said:

SORRY ECCO

PRINCE WORST WORK EVER YOUR AVATAR!

eccotides said:

buy it!!!!! 7 is on it. it kicks ass!!!!!

Judge and you will be judged.
Listen and Love with your free sprit, no boundaries and you will not be bound.


plain and simple

Beats the hell outta Musicology. But not as good as Come.

dubiousraves said:

I love Musicology, Come is my least favorite next to C&D, and I too put symbol right in the lower middle