prince's post-diamonds +pearls era - who's been following ?

Me!! Me!!

I recently wrote about this, but yeah I got a little lost after "Diamonds and Pearls" too, but since have gone back and rediscovered it all. "Emancipation" is aweseome, I mean it. Sure it's a lot of music to sit through, but it's almost all great. Take it one disc at a time. "Chaos and Disorder" is great too. "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic" has some great stuff on it, it's not a must-have like "Emancipation" but it's worth it. And the new one, "The Rainbow Children" is just amazing, a whole new organic sound for Prince and the band. Honestly, despite conventional wisdom, I don't see a real fall-off in quality after his supposed "classic" period. And the bonus is all of these albums are available aplenty in the bargain bin for a few dollars each.

Did I mention I'm a big Prince fan? Not only is he a complete genius musician, songwriter, vocalist and producer, but the man has real authentic star power that we just don't see too often. One of the greatest artists out there. Period.

I have to agree about "The Rainbow Children". It's not the Prince you've come to know and love, but it's an entirely new Prince who you should familiarize yourself with. Worth owning by all means.

I found Rave very disappointing. But how is that Crystal Ball set? Always wanted to hear the acoustic CD.

_Crystal Ball_ is somewhat bizarre. Some of the track on it are mind- boggling, others are, well, better left in the vault. By and large, though, I agree with Sean; anyone who can do enjoyable covers of "One Of Us" and "Every Day Is A Winding Road" is godlike. People who dismiss post-squiggle Prince are missing out on a lot. I mean, hell, _The Gold Experience_ alone is a must-have album.

What Dan said. Gold Experience and Come = easy proof Prince hadn't lost a thing.

im starting to like chaos and disorder alot too...

I've been keeping up with the new releases, & in my rabid fandom would list Come, Emancipation and Rainbow Children as being particularly worth a spin.

The perennial critical consensus on Prince seems to be that each new album is a "return to form." This is somewhat the case with a lot of long careers (Dylan, Bowie), but I think it's more difficult for the pundits to pinpoint exactly where Prince fell off: that last release didn't prove to be the award-winning, mega-selling masterpiece we know he's got in him, but now THIS one...

Aren't Gett Off and Cream post-D&P? Those are really good in a Girls and Boys kind of way.

Um, those are _D&P_, Tracer.

If they come after D&P on the tracklisting you will have to eat your words Mister Perry.

I'm ignoring you now. *ignore*

wait till his new album Xenophobia comes out! ouch!

...and if u have, is there a hidden gem of an album in there somewhere?
Only if you edit the best bits into a mixtape. I say wait for the Greatest Hits, Volume 3 and save yourself the trouble. (This is, of course, assuming Prince himself doesn't do the track selection, or else it'll be a quintuple CD box set.)