Five Best 'Awful' Prince Albums

Five Best "Awful" Prince Albums

By Dan Weiss Thu., Feb. 2 2012 at 4:30 AM

Gustavo Turner

Prince, wielding the world's largest metaphor

How can an artist be hailed as one of the greatest of all time, when a big chunk of his later career is dismissed or hated on by his fans? Sure, lots of young firecrackers age into old snoozes and perhaps this means they're not the greatest of all time. But the other possibility is that "fans" are the old snoozes, too detached to engage with an old artist's new tricks. Surely the man behind history's greatest Super Bowl halftime show is still writing relevant music.

Prince, for all his weirdness, still more or less sounds like Prince. This places him in Neil Young and Rolling Stones territory, rather than Madonna and Michael Jackson -- he doesn't have to keep reinventing himself. Which is neat considering that Young/Stones signify old grooves, whereas Prince embraced future-funk, hip hop and synthetic devices like his helium-fueled alter ego "Camille," and managed to age respectably without compromising himself. But that doesn't mean people didn't get bored with him. So if you're sick of Sign 'O' the Times and Purple Rain, here are five worth revisiting.

5. Musicology
2004
Musicology was hailed by some as a comeback and others as not enough of one. It was neither really, just a very good album that happened to signal Prince's ability to chart again. Yet for all his reliable funkiness, it's still an unusually mellow and organic record, not counting the stuttering, James Brown-indebted title single. The live band sounded great on the power ballad "A Million Days" (though he probably played all the instruments himself) and made the synthetic stuff stand out even more. Each note in the skeletal groove of "Illusion, Coma, Pimp and Circumstance" is like a pin drop.

4. Batman
1989
Not usually counted as one of his best albums, Prince's Batman soundtrack was somewhat taken for granted. It was a great entry point for this writer as a kid and I remember weird jingles like "Trust" and "Lemon Crush" better than say, "Cream." But Batman stitches together Frankenstein monsters from old hits, like "Partyman"'s fusion of "1999" and "Housequake." "The Future" is a weirder take on "Sign 'O' the Times." And don't let anybody tell you cheese-ass ballad "The Arms of Orion" isn't dope.

3. The Gold Experience
1995
"Endorphinmachine," Prince's hardest-rocking song ever, is worth the price of admission. On the now out-of-print The Gold Experience, Prince shreds his symbol-shaped guitar even on seven-minute Quiet Storm jams like "Shhh." The oddly big sounding single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" was a rare shlock moment on an album containing the X-rated Mother Goose rhyme "Pussy Control" and the epic "Gold".

2. Chaos and Disorder
1996
One of the Purple One's truly strange, worst-selling albums, this was somehow allowed to be advertised as the last box he cleared out from the Warner Bros. offices. Thus, it has a shitty rep that's not actually indicative of the music. This is Prince's most alt-rock album, with a grungy guitar tone that works surprisingly well alongside an organ, turntable scratches and circus music (!) on the title track, while "Dinner with Delores" plunders psychedelic depths that would be praised out the ass if Ariel Pink's name was on it. With screechy guitar solos every which way and the Funkadelic promise "I Rock, Therefore I Am," Prince's attempt to align his own sound with angry times is more fascinating than dated.

Tags:

Prince, Prince and The Revolution

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lee08

I've stayed with the guy all the way through, and I enjoy each of the albums listed above on their own merits. And here's the kicker: There's WAAY more underappreciated music by this modern musical genius.

No mention of The Rainbow Children. The NPG Music Club era, though it had no "albums" is a treasure trove of great material. His more-impressive-than-you-think jazz collection includes Xpectation, NEWS and C-NOTE. The acousitc gem, "The Truth" and the piano-only classic "One Nite Alone."

It just doesn't stop. HE doesn't stop.

randomshotinthedark

I like the concept behind this post. I agree that sometimes the fans are the ones who are to blame. I think those who lost interest in prince after the 80s are the ones who really didn't get him anyway. While Prince always sounds like Prince, and has never compromised himself, whether some see that is good or bad is relative. as is relevance. It's hard to say that someone who redefined soul and rock music so effectively is no longer relevant. He's still influencing many of todays artists. Unfortunately they try to mimick his sound without first honing their own talents. Prince is music, and today's music suffers too much from over production and computer enhancement. When a man can play every insttrument you can think of without breaking a sweat, can he really be compared to those of today who thinks the pc is an instrument? Whether or not he hits the charts is up to him. realize every album did touch the charts, when he wanted them to. It's only when he went to the internet did he disappear from the charts, and when he decided to go a more mainstream right (Musicology) he went to #3 in the first week, and had a sold out concert series, and was inducted into the rock n' roll hall of fame. But he plays by his own rules, and well I will buy every cd he puts out as long as he is still putting so much of himself into it. we all love old school Prince, but new prince rocks just as hard if not harder. Getting older isn't slowing him down any. And I"m glad to be along for the ride. Thanks for this posting. It was refreshing, and honest, and mostly it wasn't hateful or vindictive as many so-called fan sites seem to be. Purple Rain was 1984 so I don't want anything to sound like his old stuff. as with each new album he's adding to the beautiful soundtrack that is my life. I change, the music changes. It's a fact of life.

Dizurito

Prince is probably the most talented musician in the history of the universe

Caliking01

Arms of Orion is SUCH an amazing song!

Chaz Kangas

I enjoyed this, but I would add that "Dinner With Delores" contains the best use of "Brontosaurus" in pop music history.

Chris Molanphy

On Musicology, don't forget the ace single "Cinnamon Girl" (no Neil Young relation); and on 3121, I loved "Fury."

N M

I saw Prince on one of his Forum shows last year and he was quite amazing. A great portion of the songs played were 1980's material and at the end of the day that's all anybody would like to hear. In my opinion Musicology and a lot of his 2000's material sound just like his early 1990's stuff (not a good thing). I think his legacy would hold up better if he learned to be more indulgent to his fans, a lot of this comes with his refusal to allow any of his music on the internet.

Suzy Six

I think 3121 is awesome. Lotusflow3r/MPLsound is one of my favorites. People expect Prince to walk on water? If anybody else had made those albums, People would say it was great! He has 2 constantly compete with himself. Yes, Sign O' The Times is my fav too.(or 1999, depending on what day it is), but he has made some great music out there if ur not waiting for another Purple Rain or Sign O' The Times! He can't top Sign. NOBODY CAN!!!