Have you had your POLL sign today? Favourite track on Prince's Lovesexy

Apollonian too.

I'll admit that sequencing the entire album as one track on the CD was a bit of a stupid move. It was less of a problem on the vinyl because at least you could physically "find" the track if you really wanted to, whereas on the CD if you wanted to listen to, say, 'I Wish U Heaven', you had to hold fast-forward for ages, and if you wanted to repeat a song it was a bit of a pain.

However, I can understand why Prince wanted this album to be heard as a start-to-finish complete thing rather than as a series of individual moments, as much as it must have seemed like Prince was being dictatorial about it.

Also, for the record, I've never ever had a problem with the sleeve and was actually quite surprised to read that some fans were (or are) uncomfortable with it.

"Sealed perfection" is a great way of describing the record, actually. But in a rare case of actually agreeing with Tim F on something, it's one of the things I really like about the record. Listened to side-by-side with The Black Album, it often feels to me like The Black Album was the rush job, rather than Lovesexy.

cosign all that

was it acid or x that he was supposed to have been on when he had the epiphany that led to LS replacing tBA?

It was apparently Ecstasy, but part of me has always thought that it was a bit of a bullshit story. I sometimes feel there's been a lot of strange mythology surrounding The Black Album that may not even be true.

What I do believe is that Prince had his doubts about putting the record out long before he pulled the plug on it, and that it was put together, and quickly, because he felt that he had something to prove to his critics. It was intended to be a statement, but I think once the dust (and Prince) had settled, he realised that maybe it wasn't one of his better records and decided to halt it.

It's not like Prince hadn't cancelled projects before, just that The Black Album had got to the pressing stage and thus, got leaked and became collectable and a whole mythology grew up around it - some of which Prince himseld had a lot to do with.

The thing is, aside from 'Bob George' and 'Dead On It', the record isn't really that dark, and nor is it really that explicit by Prince's standards. It's more of an album of party jams, if anything, so I don't really buy the whole "The Black Album was cancelled because it was evil" story.

However, at the same time, I do think that Lovesexy was created out of a desire to create a positive, uplifting record. I genuinely believe that that was where Prince's head was at at the time and that's really what he wanted to express. The cancellation of The Black Album just gave him something to weave into the "good vs. evil" narrative of Lovesexy and the stage show.

*himself

Basically cosign.

this whole final phase of his "imperial period" is pretty interesting in general and I love it all up through Batman tbh. It does seem like the material and arrangements grow increasingly frenetic, detailed, and claustrophobic - from SOTT things start to feel more and more dense and even cluttered. Then Graffiti Bridge happens and there's a weird reset/lost in the wilderness of modern R&B thing that happens.

Yeah he never got that mannerist again

Yeah, with hindsight, this is quite an interesting period, even though to some it must have seemed like Prince was losing his mind around this time. Personally, I think his antics in the '90s were more bizarre.

more bizarre sure, but the music was not as good

Yeah, I was thinking more stuff like the whole Warner Bros. saga and changing his name to a symbol, rather than the music itself, which I actually think got less bizarre!

"come"

...is a very underrated record, IMO. My favourite post-Lovesexy LP.

Come is great. I have to thank ilx for making me even listen to it.

'CUZ LOVESEXY IS THE ONE
'TIL MY DAY IS DONE!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

My desert island disc if I could only bring one. It was the second record I ever bought (at age 14), and it blew my german suburban pre-pubescent nerdy (and slightly dirty) mind in the most thorough way imaginable. I had no idea that music could be like this.

So naturally this poll is kinda ridiculous to me but I could not not vote when I saw it. I went with Dance On cause it's the most out there, which is where my musical development was headed so I guess it was the most influential.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well, holy shit :D

'Eye No' and the title track both deserve more than one vote!

Not a single vote for 'Positivity' despite the nod in the thread title. Ouch! I feel bad for this neglected amazing song and will give it some attention later today.

I love 'Positivity', although it's easy for me to see why people's votes ended up going elsewhere - there's a lot of strong stuff on this record! Tim F was OTM about the percussion. It's a real headphones track, as is the whole album really!

Yeah I hadn't decided on my favourite in time to vote but it may well be "Positivity". Definitely the most obvious (though certainly not only) argument against Alfred's suggestion that this album didn't involve Prince stretching himself past his prior material.

Humph!

Y'know, I was watching the footage of the Dortmund show of the Lovesexy tour a couple of days ago, and Prince sure looks as if he's having a whale of a time performing 'Bob George' ... It's yet another reason I don't buy the whole "The Black Album was evil" thing.

In the live Osaka boot there's this adorable moment where he goes 'mushi mushi' and then giggles in this totally genuine way

I envy anyone who got to see him on that tour, by the way! It just seems like he put his all into the whole thing. I haven't heard the Osaka boot, but that performance of 'Anna Stesia' at Dortmund is quite something!

This is also the tour where the famous 'small club' aftershow boot comes from isn't it?

HUNDALASILIAH!

ok this album is on spotify now but it's as one 45-minute track wtf?

"The album is designed to be heard in the context of a continuous sequence: LP pressings split the album in two side-long tracks, without visual bands to indicate individual songs. Similarly, early CD copies of Lovesexy have the entire album in sequence as a single track, though some later editions have it as nine separate tracks."

yeah no shit isn't like almost every fucking album?

Surely that means that Spotify Free users'll be able to listen to the entire album ad-free?

Over time, this has become one of my favourite Prince albums. I just listened to it back to back with The Gold Experience and this is so far ahead it's not even funny.

take this beat, i don't mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkab8eyYQc4

Best songs-
Alphabet st (part one)
Glamslam
Ana stesia
I wish u heaven

It's a rushed album though. And the 'I'm reborn! I'm cleansed!' tone can get a bit irritating.

But its genuinely inspired. Still, the tour is what made this so good. Genuinely one of the great concert videos ever.

Oh I went to that one, Wembley arena. Lovesexy/black album. Got the tour prog somewhere.. (when did gig programmes stop being mandatory? Do the 1975 do them?)

Anyway, my sis&broinlaw were with me (it was their birthday present, which shows how 'reasonable' gig prices were back then) and they loved it. But my sis (who didn't go to many gigs) assumed all gigs were like that, and got massively disappointed when they went to see Bobby Brown 6 months later. Apparently, he also had a bed on stage but that was as far as the 'comparable' went.

Princes 87/88 tours were just ridiculously superior

One thing about this album and the black album bott sound thrown together. Like he barely spent any time on them and thought that would be enough. Glam slam and I wish... even have the same verse repeated !

that 3-way tie for second place lol

re-up of the extended mix for "eye wish u heaven"—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RedVIrWYuGI

maybe my favorite thing p ever did?

Theory: “Alphabet St” is reworked from P taking a stab at a new Sesame Street theme for his “Starfish and Coffee” appearance