Rank Prince Albums:

Parade is one of my favorites as well. The only track i’ve never warmed to is Anotherloverholeinyourhead. Mountains and Boys & Girls are fabulous.

Yeah, I discovered "Sometimes It Snows in April" via Rock Lists. It was high up on the list of Prince's best songs, and I didn't it at all (or the album beyond "Kiss"). Great, great song, it's damn sad it took Prince's death to elevate in beyond "deep cut" status. Even before D'Angelo performed it as his tribute, I played the shit out of that song.

I actually love "Anotherloverholenyohead," excellent cut. I should add Parade had great 12" singles. The 12" mixes, especially for "Mountains," were all great, and best of all was the full-length "♥ Or $" (which again I discovered via Rock Lists - it stood out because I think it was the one B-side they listed that wasn't on the The Hits/B-Sides which were my first Prince CD's). I wish "♥ Or $" had made the album, but it's still a great album.

agh, mistakes all over the place

cut/paste error
*I didn't know it at all

typo
*elevate it beyond

also upthread:
everything else from Dirty Mind to Graffiti Bridge placed in the top ten

Yeah Parade is amazing, probably the most ornate/baroque of his classic run with Clare Fischer’s arrangements. I think the psychedelic stuff is better executed than on Around the World too, especially on “Mountains” and “Life Can Be So Nice.” The only bum track for me is “Girls and Boys” which seems to be much loved but has always annoyed the crap out of me and goes on way too long

"Anotherloverholenyohead" is a marvelous album track and a failure as a single.

Let's give Wendy and Lisa considerable credit for "...April."

and another error - Lovesexy made #17 and The Black Album made #20 on the same P&J poll in 1988

Let's give Wendy and Lisa considerable credit for "...April."

Yes, absolutely. Does Wendy play the acoustic guitar on that track? I love how you can hear all the squeaks on the strings, and also the beat that precedes that first strum through the final chorus - it's right after the saddest part, and it's like the guitar kicks up the tempo because it's time to move on, not just with the song but with life.

How much of Sign 'O' the Times had input from Wendy & Lisa? I know Prince is credited with recording it all, but weren't a lot of those songs worked on before he disbanded the Revolution?

Believe so, but don’t remember for sure.

They wrote much of the music and arrangement for "April" and the airier psychedelic numbers

"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.