I will tell you I was quite disappointed with a few Prince releases on first listen, in particular the new Musicology. Slowly I have warmed up to this release, deeming the bookend songs class. I eventually warm up to the vast majority on most records.

The one exception is Rave. I hated the direction Prince was taking on the first few tracks (right up to Tangerine). These are the tracks I listened to on my first listen and frankly they are all quite stinky still (definately amongst Prince's worst songs overall). Listening to Hot Wit U, Undisputed, Greatest Romance, Rave , I thought my time was lapsing as a devout Prince fan who picks up a new release the day it is out with eager anticipation. Luckily there are a few gems at the backend of Rave that made it worthwhile in the end. I think I may have been hoping for more as it was produced by "Prince".

Rave probably yeah.

When Hot Wit' U came on, I almost cried, it's so depressingly bad.

NouveauDance said:

Sad when listening to Hot Wit' U? Please explain this one...

Rave definately. It was all such an anticlimax.

On first listen Parade nothing for me either.

Oddly enough...Parade. I had gone to the mall with my cousin, also a Prince fan, and was so excited. I loved "Kiss" and expected the whole CD to be like that. When me and my cousin listened to it we were like "What the hell is this?" It was all so arty and jazzy and just not what we expected...I liked it better than my cousin though. She liked Kiss and Anotherloverholeyohead and that was it. Very shortly after she stopped listening to Prince and got into heavy metal. I have grown to love to album but when I first heard I was wondering very much what the hell the man was thinking/doing.

Sign of the Times - I hated it on first listen

Around The World In A Day

I warmed up to it eventually, but when I first heard it I was like 'WTF'????

I didn't like Lovesexy or TRC for a long, long time.

Then grew to become 2 of my favorites.

Musicology has grown on me, but it's easily my
least favorite record.

The Rainbow Children. I remember waiting for it to come out and when it finally did I was so discouraged!

1. Graffiti Bridge (later grew to like it a lot)
2. Lovesexy (until the 3d listen)
3. The Rainbow Children (hated it, and I don't really dig it today, but i respect it)
4. New Power Soul (awful but for Come On, Wasted Kisses)
5. The Gold Experience (hated it until the 4th or 5th listen, now I really dig it)

I have been experiencing disappointment once ATWIAD was released and ever since with a few exceptions, Batman, Come... but still these albums do not compare to his earlier works. Oh well Thank GOD for the Chocolate Invasion!

AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY. IT TOOK AWHILE 4 ME 2 START DIGGING THAT ALBUM. I HATED "RASBERRY BERET" AND STILL DO. SOME OF THE OTHER CUTS LIKE POP LIFE IS COOL.

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? WELL.. I AM

JIMI HENDRIX

Surprisingly, I was very disappointed in "Parade" when I first heard it - I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and it just seemed so new and not quite what I'd expected. It didn't take long for the album's brilliance to shine though, and it quickly became my 2nd favorite album. So much for first impressions, I guess!


The one Prince album that I can't bring myself to like is "Come," but I'd prepared myself for mediocrity (being that Come is essentially a contractual obligation record), and that's exactly what I got - So really, it wasn't so much a disappointment. It lived up my low expectations.

Definitly Around the World In A Day. I was probably 12 years old and I cried my eyes out because it didn't sound like Purple Rain at all!!! I felt really lost as a fan. And where were those purple colors?! But I listened to it again, because I bought the album myself for, in my eyes, a lot of money. I think Condition of the heart was the break-thru for me and started to like it whenever I played it again.

Almost the same thing happened to me later with the Parade album ... I just couldn't follow his changes that quick. By the time Sign 'O' The Times came out I learned my lesson and loved the album from day one!

I never doubted his musical changes ever since. Didn't like everything (symbol, rave, D&P) as much as those times but always accepted his choices. It always takes a while for me to grow into it. Sometimes I just know what he really means after the liveshow, because then his songs really come alive. Usually everything falls back into one piece for me. He is a genius .... and a alive one!

Peace.

1 Word: COME. . .I got the CD on the first day of the release, got to my host home [I was traveling around the country at the time], went to bed early and listened to it on my headset. Right after "Orgasm" and Prince saying "I love u" I said aloud: what the hell is this? Now I go through stages where Come sounds really good. . .then it sits on the shelf for months. . .

People often criticize me for always giving praise to Prince's records, and never disliking them. I guess in comparison to the music I'm exposed to on a daily basis...just listening to someone that writes there own music and plays an instrument is enough to satisfy me. Sure, there are Prince albums that are better than others. Yet, the only way he could ever disapoint me is if he stopped writing, stopped playing, hired a producer like Mannie Fresh, sampled the hell outta classics, lip synched during live shows, and hired some hood-hoochies to dance butt-booty naked in his videos. Then I would be pissed. THis is the type of shit I'm exposed to everyday, being that I'm the only 'true' music fan amongst my family, friends, co-workers and associates. So anything Prince does, is a breathe of fresh air to me...

TRC

for me it was definitely musicology...i was so disappointed...i had raced to the record store the day of the release and when i ripped the packaging off and put the cd in the disc player, i was like "hmm maybe the next song will sound better" sadly enough i did that until i got to the marrying kind. I kept waiting for some surprises or something, but it eventually grew on me.

the next worst was graffiti bridge, and that one still hasn't grown on me yet....

I was the same age as you and i really dug ATWIAD when it came out. I got it right when it came out and I played it over and over again. Still love it

newdawn said:

the Rainbow Children..it made me sad i hated a new Prince album so much because that was the 1st time that had happened ever

Definitely Rave.

First listen in a record store when it just came out, I was like, oh great he's trying to go futuristic and reinvent music or something...i thought it was a failure, straight away.

i bought the album about 3 years later and it's not one of his best, but not his worst.

Emancipation was my most disappointing first listen. After TGE and Chaos I was expecting some great music and I get Jam of the Year, Courting Time, and We gets Up. Fortunately, I stuck with it and was encouraged by the end of Disc 1. Then, I put in Disc 2 and all was well with the world again.

Parade was not quite a disappointment in the same sense because by the time I got that album I had started to expect the unexpected. However, I bought it to get AnotherLoverHoleInYourHead and it took me a while to appreciate songs like Do U Lie and Christopher Tracy's Parade.

All of the ones after Purple Rain and before .
I mean, all of them.

THe problem was he switched gears so often that I had a hard time keeping up. Fortunately, it only took 2 or 3 listenings for me to finally dig the albums.

ATWIAD bored me to tears. PARADE made me wonder if he has lost his damned mind. SOTT abandoned the Mineapolis funk/art sound for something more traditional. It became my favorite album just in time for LoveSexy, which made wonder if he had lost his damned mind. Eventually, I grew to really dig LoveSexy, but Graffiti Bridge was released and the album was o.k., but the Movie made me wonder if he had lost his damned mind.

Basically, the only albums that I was completely blown away by where the Purple Rain, Dirty Mind, album, Gold Experience (but by then I was EXPECTING bad rap songs intermixed). Everything else has been a labor of love.

Now that I'm 30, I simply don't have time to invest in playing an album that doesn't immediately catch my ear, so I guess I'm too harsh on Prince.

I still think that Rave is soulless, as much as New Power Soul (that too!) and Exodus

The Gold Experience
I thought Prince had lost his sensitivity
It took me 2 years to get used to it

Graffiti Bridge... NPS didn't disappoint me too much because my high expectations were already lowered by then

Musicology (which is still crap)
NEWS (still SNOOZE)
Batman (still haven't warmed to it)

... That's all.
[This message was edited Fri Jun 18 4:45:52 2004 by Shapeshifter]

Graffiti Bridge

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Co-sign. I was really upset when I listened to that 3 cd set and it still is my least favorite album.