Prince - The Gold Experience POLL

just found a cd of this at a thrift store for $2 💃🏻

Unrelated but...we got newly leaked amazing demo!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vflIZwPK0rM

wtf? Search " Prince 101" on YT

just found a cd of this at a thrift store for $2 💃🏻

― nomar, Thursday, July 13, 2017 12:26 AM (sixteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nice one! That's a bargain considering the prices the CD usually goes for!

its weird that this album is still seen by a lot of fans as his greatest 90s album. i know he was esp fired up around this time, and playing lots of great solos, but its really just prince in big dumb mode. it would have been better if he got rid of all the major cringe tracks (now, p control) and his sweet but naive political commentary (we march) and reduced it to these songs: endorphin, shhh, dolphin, 319, shy, billy jack bitch, eye hate u, gold (this is really underwritten but musically it has some nice moments). anything longer than 45 mins in the 90s was just too long for a prince album.

i do love TMBGITW (though not this album version, the original single version) loads but idk if it fits here really.

idk what it means that after his big name change, he launched his career with TMBGITWN, basically his announcement of becoming a mature, MOR artist, yet on the same album you get songs like now and p control lol.

I must of bought it but looking at the track listing I can’t believe I made it all the way through...I think my lockdown homework is a reappraisal of 90’s Prince

Listening to this and the npg exodus album was dispiriting.

Going to go through the 00s albums though to see if there are any gems I missed. If I can tolerate it.

Emancipation has become my favorite Prince album.

The production lets TGE down. Prince stopped innovating. "Billy Jack Bitch" just sounds ugly.

Factoid I recently learned- eye hate u is inspired by carmen electra. Prince was angry with her for cheating on him despite the fact he had several women on the go at the same time

Idk about the whole thing, but emancipation is his best 90s album, yes, though a good chunk is terrible

Emancipation is so all over the place i prefer to separate it between the stuff that sounds 'princey'and the stuff that just sounds like him trying to slot into mid 90s rnb formats

Everybody wants to sell what's already been sold.

Which is why the most subdued, romantic stuff on emancipation still seems unlike much else in his catalogue

Billy Jack Bitch is about "C.J." longtime Star Tribune gossip columnist

Everybody wants to sell what's already been sold.

"Everybody wants to sell what's already been sold."
Prince was no fan of super deluxe editions

I’m pretty unambiguous about my belief this is his greatest ‘90s album. Any fault you can find here is present in any other album from the decade, in greater amplitude.

It's my favorite of the '90s as well, though it really needs to be remastered because the original CD spikes the treble to a ridiculous degree. It was like nails-on-a-chalkboard when I first heard it, but if you can soften up the EQ, it sounds a hell of a lot better.

that's kind of my big problem why i can't really get into prince post SOTT, he used to have such a cool, distinctive production sound and it got so hamfisted...i maintain the pneumatic percussion of new jack swing (which works great for those artists) making its way into prince's sound was the worst thing that ever happened

P Control is fantastic, gtfo if you disagree

(don't really gtfo obv but that song rules)

i was gonna say
i love "big and stupid" prince and still listen to "Batdance" every now and again

Batdance and p control are worlds apart.

The music on p control is great, but the lyrics are incredibly stupid and his tone as he raps the verses is so irritating idk how it ended up here.

Prince trying to sound both badass AND sort of feminist without wanting to sound serious ends up with a whole lot of nothing. I think he was going for a sort of p funk thing but it fails tragically.

Now is even more cringe. Prince trying to do rowdy? No thanks. Days of the wild from this era is equally awful.

P control is smug, faux upbeat and lyrically confused basically. Interactive would have been much better opening the album.

he used to have such a cool, distinctive production sound and it got so hamfisted...i maintain the pneumatic percussion of new jack swing (which works great for those artists) making its way into prince's sound was the worst thing that ever happened

I actually think it works fine with The Gold Experience, but Prince definitely struggled with those elements when he put together the NPG. Forming the NPG wasn't a bad idea - he was always a great bandleader, and I think recording with a live band was generally a good direction to take with his studio albums. But Tony M was terrible, Diamonds and Pearls would have been far better if Prince had dropped him, and the "Symbol" album was an improvement partly because Tony M had a smaller role on that album. At least to me, The Gold Experience sounds organic partly because Prince finally sounded comfortable and in control of those elements. (I want to say he understands his limits more too. Like when he raps, it never feels like he's pushing past his abilities to me.) It wasn't innovative like his '80s work, and more than ever it feels like he's incorporating ideas from other contemporary artists, but I think he executes them really well.

"Prince trying to sound both badass AND sort of feminist"

Should add cutesy to that list

Listening back to the 90s albums, the best stuff is when he just isnt trying too hard. When hes trying to tick multiple boxes, it goes pretty badly. Gold is basically him doing his lenny Kravitz album. The undertaker album which wasnt released is a better representation of this era

title track is lovely, just pure pop, great anthemic chorus.

the hip-hop tracks are embarrassingly dated, but I love "Pussy Control".

"Billy Jack Bitch" is funky af, but I hear it's interpolating "Lyin Ass Bitch" by Fishbone?

mixed album but some bops.

"Most Beautiful Girl in the World" is gorgeous, and I've pulled it off at karaoke a few times.

"The pneumatic percussion of new jack swing"

He prob needed a new drum machine to get interested in after 1990. But after the fairlight, I think breakbeats eluded him.

the New Jack Swing songs just do not work.

I feel like most New Jack Swing endurded, I can still listen to it, but I hear Prince's take on it and go "ooooh, cringe".

endured

Underaker is even more of a “Lenny Kravitz” album than TGE.

Ok well it's a better lenny album!

Acknowledge me is/was just a weird song to hear prince do. And I loved new Jack swing and mid 90s rnb.

the 2nd song on the album sounds like an Usher song

Shhh? Dont recall usher ever doing a bombastic funk rock ballad

anyone who likes this record should hear the triple album bootleg the dawn

combines come, gold experience, undertaker and a few contemporaneous tracks into a very cohesive experience

are you ready for the realllll

Brad OTM. The Dawn resequences all of this stuff and actually makes it coherent.

Cohesive, even. Lol

Shh sounds like an Usher song because Tevin Campbell sang it first

Also everyone talking about how New Jack Swing Prince doesn’t work needs to go back and relisten to “Pheremone” on Come, which is actually his best 90s album

"letitgo" too. i love "letitgo"

most of come is really successful new jack prince imo

Come is dope and I like all of the tracks

Come is the only Prince album whose tracks I've trouble remembering beyond "Letitgo" but like anyway.

"Letitgo" was the radio hit, right?

“Letitgo” is one of his best songs

You don't remember the title track? "Space"? "Papa"? I'm with DJP that Come is right up there with his best '90s stuff.

Who wants wholesomeness? Dont think anyone has argued for that. So untwist your panties please.

My boxers are hanging fine. You?

Got briefs on today but they're not my favourite. Only got them on as they were a gift. Wonder if prince was briefs or boxers guy.

boxer briefs: https://flic.kr/p/2k2JmPw

I know somewhere there is a fan with all the npg store merchandise in pristine condition.

When ppl say prince never really opened up in his music its these little details that make up the man that are missing.

I've a feeling he wasnt into underwear actually.

kinda sad people are ignoring his great late career masterpiece Vikings song #skol #purplepride

crank it up to celebrate our win over the pack yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq3SfauwzgQ

When ppl say the gems stopped after 92 its songs like purple n gold that tell me they just weren't paying attention. Says more about them than anything else.

90's Prince for me from beast to least:

Come
Grafitti Bridge
Symbol
Gold Experience
Emancipation
Diamonds and Pearls
Crystal Ball/Truth
Black Album (if you want to count it)
Vault
Chaos and Order
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic

At least 100 great tracks! An enormously fecund era!
I will also rep for all four of the final albums.

in fact: Prince: Graffiti Bridge - What is the Answer to The Question of UR Favorite Song?

Y’all just talking about 90s Prince like this epic demonstration of quality control never came out:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4166E3PC5GL.jpg

For me, a lot of how I hear this album and mid-90s Prince is through the Crystal Ball box – which is a total dog’s breakfast but also shoved a lot of 90s odds and sods up against outtakes from his 80s heyday. And perhaps surprisingly the 90s stuff is, candidly, no more hit or miss than the material from the 80s, with plenty of experimentation and playfulness. As a result I wasn’t particularly disappointed when I finally dug into the proper releases during this era (including TGE) as they seemingly all had a few amazing moments, a couple of horrible clunkers and a lot of stuff that was serviceable and maybe rewarded deeper listening for an incredible guitar solo or the like.

Also, and I’ll say this again, the Crystal Ball version of P. Control remains the absolute fucking greatest.

"Wasted Kisses" is great. It says a lot that it was an unlisted track buried as track #49 (with 38 blank tracks preceding it) while the rest of that album is crap.

i dont think the 80s albums had any real duds
def some umm idk how good this is moments, but even those were still interesting in some way?
in the 90s, the highs were just not as high, which made the rest seem less good.
but obv there were still good songs there. he still sounded inspired and like he was trying, compared to the 00s and 10s. i recently listened to his hit n run albums and couldnt believe that in 2014/15 he was still trying to write modern sounding bangers.
wasted kisses just leads to the suspicious myth that there were lots of great songs he made but didnt make it to the albums. but who knows if that is really even true?
but as soon as he left warners, and he becomes independent, you can see that his albums start to sound fairly forced. he never stopped trying to write commercial material, which at that stage, he prob should try avoiding.

theres a doc on the 90s called slave on amazon which is interesting and makes a good case for him as a business sage and innovator in the 90s and beyond, but while thats all great, as the music started to suck, it was hard to care so much. but hey, thats all artists after a certain stage in their careers. i suppose the drop with prince just seemed more dramatic.

i made this post but prob should have posted it here
Prince's 'Slave' era and battles with Warner Bros - C/D