Rank Prince Albums:

"Girls and Boys" is such an amazing song

has there ever been a poll of prince's 80s b-sides?

because we should do that, if not.

Just in case anyone in the next 2000 years polls his best end of side 1 track for the record ‘Gotta Broken Heart Again’ gets my vote…

Revisiting his trio of NPG albums, they really get better with each one. Diamonds and Pearls lays the blueprint, but the material's a little uneven and Tony M ain't so hot. The Symbol Album is better but needs some pruning - it's essentially another double LP, but take out the lousy skits, the weakest cuts, and there's a really strong album from maybe a dozen tracks. I just wish they had a better rapper - I could see someone like LL Cool J (following Mama Said Knock You Out) delivering what Prince needed to make it all work. Everything pretty much clicks on The Gold Experience. Love it, I think it's Prince's last truly great album though something like an 18-track/90 minute version of Emancipation could be up there too.

Prince always felt kind of awkward to me when he tried to incorporate hip hop into his thing

I don't think he was able to make it work until The Gold Experience. By that album, he's moved away from extended rap breaks, and instead of Tony M, it's mainly him. I think his laid-back style is pretty good - he's learned how to slip into a comfortable sing-speak flow that's fairly close to what Curtis Mayfield and Sly Stone had already done decades ago. The Gold Experience may be the only time Prince made the fusion with hip-hop feel organic to me, at least for a whole album. He never grew beyond that though - I can think of a few instances later on where he tries to rap more ambitiously and failed to pull it off. (One of the few weak tracks on 3121 has a poor rap break from Prince IIRC.)

Xpost Yea it seemed dated like...even at the time.

The production is quite ugly on those later albums; he stopped caring about arrangements, cared more about performance.

He would never have allowed a good rapper on a Prince album because he would never have allowed competition.

He would never have allowed a good rapper on a Prince album because he would never have allowed competition.

There's Chuck D, but I get your point - Chuck was a guest shot, which isn't the same as being potentially upstaged by a full-time member of the NPG.

I don't have a problem with the production or arrangements on The Gold Experience or the best parts of Emancipation, but Come (which I don't like) does feel pretty ugly and Chaos and Disorder (which I enjoy) is slapdash which I guess makes sense since they were just "private" recordings. Except for Chaos and Disorder I wouldn't say he stopped caring - even the bad cuts seem meticulous in their own way.

listening to mplsound this morning and I can see why people find it so disappointing -- I mean, it's prince; "this album is nice" won't really cut it, and, when I put "mountains" in the queue in the middle of it, the contrast was stark -- mainly compositionally, though: the actual production sound of the later album is good to my ear, there's a lushness to it that's fine and interesting -- and the songs, while, again, this isn't an icon riding the wave of his passion, it's a guy who likes to hang around the studio tinkering forever and is fresh out of lyrical concepts for the most part. but!! "U're Gonna C Me" is utterly lovely, and so is "Here" -- and as to Alfred's remark about arrangements two posts back, that's just not true -- the flutes on "here" fading into the synth funk of "valentina" (not much to recommend in the verses, but a terrific chorus with a great vocal and an uncharacteristic bgv arrangement).

kinda curious how good a "late prince that nobody reps for" mix would look.