Prince - The Gold Experience POLL

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.

I actually recorded a version of Letitgo with me doing all of the harmonies maaaaaaaaany years ago.

are you ready for the reaaaaaaal?

I listen to Come more like a continuous album, it just doesn't let up the funk and dope atmosphere.

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

― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.),

Yep on "Space." Nineties Prince:

1. Emancipation
2. TGE
3. Come
4. Symbol
5. D&P
6. C&D
7. Bleh

I'm not here to shit on Emancipation because "Sleep Around" is one of his hottest house-era jams but ... there's a lot there that doesn't need to be there.

well, yeah

That's why I love triple albums.

Emale.coooooom

Lot of emancipation sounds like he struggled to get through it. Or like he really worked to get rid of offending weird edges. Though he still ended up with cringe moments. I've tried to come up with perfect playlists of it but it's really tricky to make it work.

Agree with the 90s ranking above

The more I think about pussy control I keep wondering if John waters wrote it

https://www.discogs.com/The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince-The-Dawn/release/14983400

This looks great and like a triple with more life than emancipation but God, what a slog. I wish he just made short n sharp albums in the 90s like he did ten years earlier. The CD era did his weakness for musical overload no favours.

Actually that dawn set just looks like a compilation of every single thing he meant to release in this period. That's a LOT of npg action

the dawn is really not a slog inasmuch as any three-disc behemoth is inherently a slog, it would surprise you, it surprises me too. whatever fan put it together had an excellent sense of sequencing and pacing. i almost like to think of it as the unrealized glam slam ulysses

i'm relistening to the dawn rn and once again find it so impressive that i will send it to anyone curious but also my ilxmail does not work bc it is tied to a dead email address

im tempted to find it but idk if i want to listen to half those songs that much (18 and over? pussy control? we march?), though maybe in this new context, they will seem different. i know a lot of fans really adore this period as prince was so fired up and productive. im actually reading a jim walsh book on the era at the moment (basically just write ups he filed from the time, rather than a bigger picture view of it).

here's the undertaker if anyone hasn't heard it. worth half an hour of your time i think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZwGxv1GvMU

Alfred's list OTM.
Anyone creeped/skeeved out by Prince lyrics in the 90s or otherwise should prob
stop listening to a good portion of all his stuff asap. You shouldn't go to pre-JW Prince for family friendly musical wholesomeness.

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