"Diamonds and Pearls" by Prince - should I buy?

It's in the bookshop next to where I work for £2.

Don't know much of Prince's post-90s work, but it's been sat there for aaaages now and I'm thinking about caving in and giving it a nice, warm home.

Worth the investment?

For that cheap? Yes.

Best tracks: "Cream," "Money Don't Matter 2night," "Willing and Able," "Walk Don't Walk." "Thunder" is an okay opener. The title track is his idea of generic R&B. "Gett Off" is unerotic. The songs with Tony M raps are steaming crap.

I think it was a great era, without probably being a great album.

I would add that IMO Insatiable is one of his best slow jams

GETT OFF, though it's best if you listen to the 45 on 33.3 rpm.

to make it sound like a Black Album track

Thanks for the feedback, that baby will be coming home with me tomorrow.

I know so little about post-80s Prince (and my 80s Purple knowledge isn't too great, since I've never got round to Sign O' the Times) and his discography is so vast that it's hard to know where to start. Any other 90s gems out there to be heard?

ooooooh dude. you should get sign o the times immediately

Go mug someone for 20 bucks and get Sign o' the Times NOW!!!!!

"Walk Don't Walk" is awesome!

Diamonds & Pearls some nice individual tunes ("Cream", "Thunder", "Gett Off", "Strolllin'"), but as an album it's marred by too many generic jams towards the end. The next album (usually known as "The Love Symbol Album"), though, is awesome, it's among Prince's top 5 albums. Even the filler tunes on that one usually have a nifty melody or some other cool idea that makes them worth listening.

As for other 90s albums, The Gold Experience is pretty strong too, though like on D&P, there's a big quality difference between the good and not-so-good songs on it. Emancipation is kinda divisive, but if you don't mind the mid-90s rnb sound (which I personally like), it's a treasure trove of catchy pop tunes and grinding mid-tempo jams.

Cream, thunder (especially) and gett off are all legit

There were also a couple of contract castoff albums he did with varying levels of success; Chaos and Disorder has a couple of really great songs on it ("Dig U Better Dead", "Dinner With Dolores") but isn't really essential, whereas Come vies with The Gold Experience as my favorite 90s album by him for the extended jam on the title track, his best new jack track ("Pheremone"), the incredibly funky and sexy "Letitgo", his most successful rave pastiche ("Loose") and the deeply unsettling, creepy "Papa".

mmm gonna have "Cream" stuck in my head all day now, I should really get some of these. I just have the Gett Off EP (which I love).

heard "Money Don't Matter 2 Nite" this morning. What a jam.

I actually kind of hate Diamonds and Pearls aside from a few songs

i kindad hate most of the albums i like "except for a few songs" tbh

title track is so inexcusably bad. whenever I hear/put on this album I'm reminded of the stark difference between live clips of him from this era and just a few years prior - dude was burned out/listless/pissed off most of the time.

this album sucks

Cheesy album. Way too slick sounding and that rapping throughout was really the beginning of the musical end IMHO.

surely graffiti bridge was a prologue at least

Yeah - I think just about everything from Batman on was hinting at the change to come but D&P was, for me, such a disappointment. I remember he was promoting his damn hairstyle ("The Typhoon") in press stuff in anticipation of the record. Not the music...the hair!

a lot of GB collects older tracks when he still had some imagination. The new material on D&P shows him tapped out.

"We Can Funk" and "Joy in Repetition" are SOTT outtakes

"Elephants *& Flowers" is old as well.

As is "Tick tick Bang"

But then there's the presence of New Jack Swing thruout. I loved NJS but didn't want to hear Prince do it!

best 90s prince album imo is that NPG exodus thing, despite the dreaded skits getting in the goddamn way all the time

"Joy in Repetition" are SOTT outtakes

yeah I was really surprised/impressed by the original version included in that comp posted to some other Prince thread recently

I remember hearing "Gett Off" for the first time (may have even been at his Mpls club, Glam Slam) and thinking how Prince must've been listening to Bel Biv DeVoe and wanted to match them, and he did.

Get Off ain't got shit on Poison

"Gett Off" is great but it isn't even his best NJS song

heard "Money Don't Matter 2 Nite" this morning. What a jam.

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 May 2013 15:50 (4 hours ago) Bookmark

immediately moved to put it on as soon as i saw the thread. cosign

title track is so inexcusably bad. whenever I hear/put on this album I'm reminded of the stark difference between live clips of him from this era and just a few years prior - dude was burned out/listless/pissed off most of the time.

― four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 23 May 2013 18:12 (2 hours ago)

what the living fuck is wrong with you d&p is a classic

the NPG suck they ruined prince

this band had no style and no vibe at all

ever since he's just worked with "pros" that have no coolness at all

eh, the ppl who played on Come all vibed together pretty well

he was definitely trading down to the NPG after the SOTT band

well... the SOTT band, where one was actually used, was The Revolution, so...

Featuring the band that accompanied Prince on his 1987 Sign o' the Times Tour, including dancer Cat Glover, keyboardist Bonnie Boyer, bassist Levi Seacer, Jr., guitarist Miko Weaver, drummer Sheila E. and former member of The Revolution keyboardist Dr. Fink

that's not the band that played on the album, which is what I believe we were talking about

Susannah Melvoin – backing vocals on "Play In the Sunshine", "Starfish and Coffee" and "Sign "O" the Times", co-lead vocals on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
Eric Leeds – all saxophones
Atlanta Bliss – all trumpets
Sheena Easton – co-lead vocals on "U Got the Look"
Sheila E. – drums and percussion on "U Got the Look", drums on "Transmississippirap" and "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
Clare Fischer – orchestral arrangements for "Slow Love"
Wendy Melvoin – guitar and backing vocals on "Slow Love", tambourine and congas on "Strange Relationship"
Lisa Coleman – backing vocals on "Slow Love", sitar and wooden flute on "Strange Relationship"
Miko Weaver – lead guitar on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
Jill Jones – co-lead vocals on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
The Revolution – performance of "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
Gilbert Davison, Todd Hermann, Coke Johnson, Brad Marsh, Mike Soltys, Susan Rogers and "the Penguin" – party voices on "Housequake"
Greg Brooks, Wally Safford, Jerome Benton and "6000 wonderful Parisians" – backing vocals on "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"
Prince – all other vocals and instruments

Lovesexy is the crossroads IMO. The good ("Eye No", "Alphabet St", "Dance On", "When 2 R in Love") is on par with his best shit but the bad ("Annastesia", "Positivity") is so uniquely bad that even now it bothers me for days if I forget to skip it. And it was those tracks that forecasted the NPG sound to come...

lol I love "Anna Stesia" ("Positivity" not so much)

no I wasn't referring specifically to the folks credited to the album, but to the band he was rehearsing/touring with around the time, which is commonly referred to as the SOTT band in the Prince bios I've read (particularly "Dance Music Sex Romance: Prince the First Decade"). sorry if that wasn't clear. but there was definitely this transitional period between the Revolution and the NPG, and that's the group of people I was referring to.

goddammit there's no official DVD of the SOTT movie is there

I wasn't contradicting you, Dan: I was posting Wikipedia data on the touring band.

misunderstandings for everyone!

Bought it at lunch, got home and put it straight on...

There are some interesting ideas here, but the whole thing feels drawn out and kind of dated. It feels very much of its time and place...and it's not necessarily a time or place I want to inhabit very much.

It feels very slick and glossy, but the surface which it covers isn't very well constructed. Nothing really stood out (apart from the awfulness of the rapper, jeez, you were right, Alfred...)

Still, for two pounds, I don't feel ripped off. I'll give it a couple more spins and see if it grows on me...then again, Sign O' the Times is in the post and on its way...

SOTT is so infinitely superior its ridiculous

SOTT is way way way better

I don't get people who berate NPG as a band! Okay, I can understand dissing Tony M, but other than they were a pretty good band (and Michael Bland definitely was a better drummer than Bobby Z). Just listen to "Sexy M.F." and say that they weren't good players! I guess people who didn't like Prince's change of direction may blame it on the band, but IMO they were quite good at doing what they did.

I don't blame it on the band, Prince has always made no bones about being the one in charge and he treated his band(s) accordingly. even so, it seems like NPG were perhaps overly deferential to his ideas or didn't bring much to the table apart from session muso chops. People like Wendy and Lisa def pushed back a bit on Prince, or at least provided him with a more interesting sonic palette.

I've got no problem with the NPG as a band, Tuomas, I just think the song-writing on this record isn't that great.

I prefer The Revolution, but that's because I really love 1999 and Purple Rain, and I also like The Revolution as an idea as well.

there are some production choices on D&P that hurt the album; I think o)+> comes from a very similar place and overall sounds much, much better

The holographic album cover is fun though!

wow.
so much negativity.
time to dig this out of the archive and see who is right ...
i seem to recall really enjoying the funked up excess of this album (but then i love the anon NPG albums) ..
also, holo cover = closest i will ever get to his purpleness in close up = classic ..

Sorry but I feel I must weigh in on this...it's shit...('Money Don't Matter Tonight' is just about ok)...I also now have an image in my mind of his backing singers/dancers?? doing a really badly choreographed dance in the video for D&P...just awful...

i remember liking this album. it is not very funky but the songs are smooth and quite solid. in my memory this sounded a little bit like sade, relaxed and slick. the prince albums i bought after this i hardly ever listened to.

title track = perfection.

not funky at all. just gorgeous prince perfection.

there are some production choices on D&P that hurt the album

this is why "Insatiable" has never done to me what it's supposed to (make me insatiable?).

For me the shock of "Cream" in '91 was Prince using live drums again.

i know it's hard to separate the band from the production & songwriting, but i won't hear a word against michael bland.

let's start with his name

fuck that.
lets go back to the premise of the thread.
for £2 just go buy the cd.
in fact if you send me your details i will x-fer the cash into your account so you can buy the disc.

he already bought it

yup.

due for a second listen right about....now.

POP DADDY
DADDY POP

The arrangement of "Live 4 Love" is inexplicable.

michael bland is unfuckwithable as a drummer guys

shit now i need to go grab this and listen to it when i get home, its def not my fave of the 90s from him, but its better than credit given on this thread imo

ranking the 90s

npg - exodus
gold experience
symbol album
diamonds and pearls
come
emancipation
npg - new power soul
crystal ball
split horror show placing for chaos and disorder/rave unto the joy fantastic/npg - goldnigga

I'd rate it a B if forced to, and still play Love Symbol, The Gold Experience and Emancipation ("Soul Sanctuary" was my jam last week) over it.

black album doesnt count, btw

glad he bought it.

surely its time for a reaction ...

re non-funk .. umm .. 'jughead' = proper old school prince funk-hip-hop jam ...

xpost : re black album - why does this not count ?

recorded in the 80s, I think.

jughead is so lol

it's not immoral to side with the hapless A&R man that Tony bitchslaps at the end, right?

yeah black album was recorded in 87

arrr .. post 90s work ..
gotcha ..

that should have been post 80s, my bad with the typo in the OP.

about halfway through second listen.

liking this more now.

strollin' is a little slice of understated heaven.

michael bland is unfuckwithable as a drummer guys

― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, May 23, 2013 5:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Circa umm I think about 1987 or 1988 my friend and I were in the drum section of whatever the big mpls music gear store was at the time and this big guy was trying out a kit in there and it was v imposing and insane and I never forgot it and then pretty soon whoa that guy is prince's drummer now!

Lovesexy is the crossroads IMO. The good ("Eye No", "Alphabet St", "Dance On", "When 2 R in Love") is on par with his best shit but the bad ("Annastesia", "Positivity") is so uniquely bad that even now it bothers me for days if I forget to skip it.

Funny part abiut this is that the original CD of Lovesexy was a single track.

he should've replaced at least one of the crap tracks on D&G with "I Wonder"

D to the I to the A to the M

ugh god why am I listening to this song again

I should probably say that this has a lot of sentimental attachment, first Prince album etc...plus knowing there was all this other stuff before it.

The 87-88 band was his best ever IMO

D&P and Graffiti Bridge were the first Prince tapes I ever bought, so, yeah (both of which creeped out my Peter Murphy-Robyn Hitchcock loving friends).

I know I grew up in MN and all but I can't believe anyone near my age would have D&P/Graffiti Bridge as their first Prince albums, like that is full on inconceivable/different reality to me

I haven't really read this thread and I don't really fuck w/ prince all that much but I've been listening to this track over and over and over again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4f4c_GrY-U

the track title is Purple Music if it's not showing up or w/e

I know I grew up in MN and all but I can't believe anyone near my age would have D&P/Graffiti Bridge as their first Prince albums, like that is full on inconceivable/different reality to me

I was fifteen!

I mean, I owned two Peter Murphy albums and several Robyn Hitchcock and New Order albums so

strollin' is a little slice of understated heaven

Yes yes yes!

my friend theorizes that the title track is the ultimate earworm remover bc it's not memorable enough to stick in your head but will totally obliterate whatever was there before

the sound isnt innovative, the production got less interesting, but listening to this stuff now, i dont mind hearing prince in a different, live band mode. his songs were still great, the singles at least. gett off, cream, the title track (which i find no longer irritating or corny, but kind of lovely, at this point), money dont matter 2night, insatiable, theyre all excellent IMO.

Know exactly what you mean

from a melodic standpoint, i adore the title track