00s Prince - S/D

this is harder than for the 90s. the whole rainbow children album is one of his best - def his best late period album - imo so im not going to include that here as the whole thing is worth seeking out but the rest of what he released this decade, i cant really remember.

off the top of my head as i look at the tracklistings:

cinnamon girl
call my name
on the couch
reflection
3121
lolita
satisfied
the dance
get on the boat
somewhere here on earth
the one you wanna c
chelsea rodgers
lion of judah
resolution (these last two might be totally inconsequential, im just going by memory)
dance 4 me
ure gonna c me
no more candy 4 u
chocolate box
here

cant remember any of the 20-ten album but it seemed pretty throwaway

his ballads seemed to be better than his funk tracks last decade but no real knockouts that i can see - they all seemed to kinda blur into one, he can do that kind of thing very easily

destroy: the NEWS and lotus flower album

cant remember any of the 20-ten album but it seemed pretty throwaway

Almost literally, in fact.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7fy4_prince-black-sweat_music

Gotta say as an old skool Prince fan I've always been surprised by the lack of love for 'Future Baby Mama'...it's got that major/minor funk vibe going on ala 'The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker'...probably one of the few 00 tracks I go back to...

the only stuff i go back to is about half of 3121 (black sweat, lolita, love, satisfied), and maybe a couple of cuts from musicology. couldn't make it through lotusflower/mplssound, but 'valentina' does pop into my head a lot (mostly because i go through a lot of valentina hot sauce).

20Ten is the best one-man-band record Prince has made in I dunno how many years. Certainly tossed off but there are moments when the old "Movie Star" vibe peeks through. And it has his best funky chicken-scratch gtr playing in years. Give it another listen.

Like...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERyohQu9nrY

"Chelsea Rodgers" my favorite song of the period.

haven't heard 20ten at all!

hey, that track is pretty nice

Don't forget the fans kissoff PFUnk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILim84Srfn8

theres also all those web only comps of music from his websites but i dont think they were that good iirc

There's been a lot of talk about Come being one of Prince's most underrated records of the '90s, and it's indeed an album that's a favourite of mine. But what does everyone think is the post-'90s equivalent?

3121

I think Musicology is better than the rep it gets, even if the title track is underwhelming. It has "Call My Name".

3121 has "Lolita" which fuckin rules.

In the guardian yesterday Matt Thorne was quoted as saying rainbow children was toxic for his career. That's odd as I remember it getting his best reviews in a long time. Still his best album since lovesexy really. Shame its not better known or respected at least.

That age official album seemed decent but the last two have been pretty awful. Like sub sub sub NPG barely written rote rock genre exercises.

The first track of 3121 had a killer groove.

After trawling through his last four emissions, it makes a pretty good single album (rnr love affair, funk n roll (3rd eye girl version), breakdown, time, way back home, another love, when she comes,June, tictactoe, revelation). I guess it's cool to have four albums from a guy who died shortly after but its really just too much average, albeit often enjoyable (also often sub par) material. I guess I have lockdown to thank for getting me up to speed with princes final output.

"Lolita" is such a banger, from 3121

The 3rdeyegirl album did nothing for me - too dull and conventional.

I liked Art Official Age a lot. A very pleasant surprise, it may have been Prince's most revealing and personal work in a very long time. As it's been written many times, it was heavily inspired by Janelle Monáe, but it seemed like the main thing he took from Monáe was how to use fantasy/sci-fi elements as sort of a cover for exploring more vulnerable territory.

Hit n Run Phase One was mostly a dud, but those last two tracks were stunners. It's been suggested that he should have saved them for Hit n Run Phase Two, but they wouldn't have fit in that well IMHO - Phase Two was mostly a throwback to the R&B Prince grew up with, and even if it seemed piecemeal song-for-song (with a lot of previously released one-offs), the album was still a cohesive works thanks to the organic overall sound. Prince may have been denied the chance to sign off with a grander statement like Bowie's Blackstar, but Phase Two was still a very good end to his career. "Black Muse" is an inspired sequel to "Black Pearl" - it may not be officially, but it shares the same melodic hook and builds on the same theme. GREAT bass sound too. Taken with "Baltimore," Prince's death seemed even more heartbreaking - he may have been more active politically in the last year of his life than ever before, and who knows what other music it could have inspired.

And 3121 is my favorite Prince post-'90s. Had he swapped out the few boring tracks with, say, the keepers from his next one (Planet Earth), it would have been rock solid and a truly great album. As is, it's still excellent.

*cohesive work

Does planet earth have any keepers apart from somewhere here on earth?

I dont really look at his 00s and 10s stuff in terms of albums. None of them really work as albums as they vary so wildly that I'd rather pick and mix from them. Hit and run especially. Aoa is the only one that works as an album but even there, apart from a few songs, and the Sonics and production, it has a lot of fairly uninteresting songs.

^^I love ‘Future Baby Mama’ off that album

"Somewhere Here on Earth" doesn't do much for me. Love "Chelsea Rodgers" and "Guitar," and I like "The One U Wanna C" as well. I'd slot them instead of "Beautiful, Loved and Blessed," "The Dance" and either "Incense and Candles" or "Te Amo Corazón."

it's really crazy how he had this incredible genius production/sound in the 80s and by the end it was so generic

"Chelsea Rodgers" is a jam!

it's really crazy how he had this incredible genius production/sound in the 80s and by the end it was so generic

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

Is it? Genius has its half-life.

I was listening to a podcast talking about how when Prince got his first label advance he went to Guitar Center and bought up everything they had, which happened to be the Linn LM-1, the Prophet 5, etc.

And of course he learned them and got what he wanted out of them, and it became a signature sound. But had it been a different time in music tech history, it would have been a very different sound.

Idk though, those albums are great because of the songs & performances, not really because of the production (as much as I love it). I'm sure they would have shined through regardless, and the latter day stuff wouldn't have been that great even if Questlove had gotten to lovingly recreate the '80s sound.

Buuut on the other hand, 'Black Sweat' wouldn't have been as good with Michael Bland and a horn section, and was also probably inspired on some level by working with drum machines again.

I've argued in dribs and drabs that Prince's most fruitful relationship was not with the guitar or keyboard but the Linn drum.

people are too obsessed with the linn drum as being integral to princes sound.

SOTT, while using both linn machines, could really have been played for most of the songs, on a kit, and it would have been just as good.

dirty mind, controversy, the first half of parade, these are all done using the kit, with prince behind it.

im sure the idea that everyone had was that linn = classic prince was taken for granted, even by him, hence all those throwback 80s songs he did in the late 90s and 00s, but those mostly sucked, or at least, were just a bit flimsy and as pointless as most records made by artists trying to recreate their old sound are. but he made plenty of classic records with himself behind the kit. shame he didnt do it more, as he has a unique feel that michael bland, or john blackwell cant do.

xpost - obv the songs were better back then too but it's hard for me to separate songs like When Doves Cry or Kiss for ex. from the way he produced them and how they sound

still, shame that after the fairlight, he didnt find another machine that he really took to. or wanted to use, even - seems like he just wanted to use live drums after a certain point in search of 'real' musicianship.

"xpost - obv the songs were better back then too but it's hard for me to separate songs like When Doves Cry or Kiss for ex. from the way he produced them and how they sound"

yeah its why they often sound a bit weird live, cos the production is such a big part of them

I haven't heard nearly close to all his post mid/late 90s stuff but Black Sweat was the only thing I heard that really gave me that feeling

people are too obsessed with the linn drum as being integral to princes sound.

No one's obsessed.

my locker in high school was decorated with linn drum ads

^^^ obsessive

I'm maybe being a but churlish. Obv the linn was part of most of his biggest 80s hits.