Prince - The Gold Experience POLL

Difficult one, this. If I had to choose one, and only one album of his post-Batman, this one would be it. Obviously, I haven't included the 'NPG Operator' segues as poll options!

P Control
Endorphinmachine
Shhh
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Billy Jack Bitch
I Hate U
Gold

^ It's one of these for me, but fucking hell...

Probably endorphinmachine for me

i hate u or shhh

Toss up between I Hate U and Gold, but it's all good really

Everybody wants to sell what's already been sold

hum. I don't think I have ever heard it (except "most beautiful girl" obviously).
is it that good ?
since it's not on spotify I might buy it... (I can't remember when was the last time I bought a cd !)

wow it's crazy expensive for an old cd !

even at the center of fire there is cold

Yeah, it really is that good. His best album of the '90s, IMO, although Come runs it close. It's also, I think, out of print which would explain the high prices the CD goes for.

Basically I have to flip a coin between this and Come as to which is my favorite. (Usually it's Come due to "Letitgo".)

"Dolphin" is an incredibly silly song and every time I listen to it I am confused as to where it came from and why it's in the middle of this album.

voting one of these:

P Control
Shhh
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Shy
I Hate U
Gold

The chorus of 'P Control' is so fun to sing... hehehehe!

it's one of my go-to karaoke jams

Tough call between Shy and Gold for me. Also, I know everyone hates but I really love Dolphin.

The chorus is gorgeous.

Love "Dolphin"

IMO Dolphin is pleasant enough without really going anywhere (including the chorus, which imo is slight). Problem for me is the 90s has a lot of 'pleasant' without being vital. Outright awful is debatable.

Gold, to me, is evidence that Prince was still capable of writing an indeliable hook no different to 80-88

Indelible, even

Secretly great album
Billy jack bitch all the way

'Gold' is a brilliant song, I agree... one of his absolute finest moments of the '90s. If I was to make a best of compilation of '90s Prince tracks, 'Gold' would be a very easy selection.

There's something about the guitar riff of 'Endorphinmachine' that reminds of the Smashing Pumpkins, weirdly.

Also, '319' seems to be stylistically close to late '80s Prince!

In the end, I voted for 'Gold' ... what a fuckin' song!

Listened to this today for the first time since the mid 90s, and I still think it's decent but far from great. That said, I'd argue "P Control" is one of his five or so best songs of the 90s and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" has actually grown on me. It is probably because I have become a much greater fan of 70s Philly Soul in the decades since, but I now hear that song as his most successful evocation of that era (and that definitely includes his cover of "Betcha By Golly Wow" a year later).

The record's weakness is the anonymous production: the floomfy keyboards on "Gold," the drum machine on "319."

i'd edit this album down to:

Endorphinmachine
Shhh
Dolphin
319
Shy
Billy Jack Bitch
I Hate U
Gold

i do like TMBGITW but it doesn't quite fit here. RNR is alive would make a good bonus track.

P Control is a terrible mess of a song, despite those great synths.

I think Interactive is actually better than endorphin machine but i can see how the similarity between the two songs made him have to choose only one.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Missed this but wanted to say that the Crystal Ball mix of P Control w the gospel choir singing "PUSS-AYYYY, PUSS-AYYYY, PUSS-AYYYY!!! PUSS-AYYYY CONTRO-OL" is one of the greatest things ever.

Yeah, can't complain about that winner - 'Shhh' deserved at least one vote, though!

The hell?! I was the only "I Hate U" voter?!

i don't get the love for dolphin but 319, we march and shy deserve better

march

wahhh-oooh

we march

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

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.

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