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His Royal Badness... Duece Side Baby |
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Around the World in a Day (1985): An ususal follow up to the massively successful Rain album. Prince and the Revolution play more tracks of paranoia with some eclectic lyrics and themes that run thru the whole album. It also teases a bit of psychedelia too. Best tracks are "Rasberry Beret," "Pop Life," and "America." A more insular album compared to the universal Purple Rain. *** |
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Parade (1986): I actually didn't like this album when I first heard it, but looking back on it, it is probably his most underrated album. Full of energy, good slow jams and the quirky "Kiss," and "Anotherloverholenyohead" are very cool. Stuff lif "Girls and Boys," shows a funky jazz sound. "Mountains" is my favorite track and "Sometimes it Snows in April," is a nice way to end the set. Not bad at all, I have wondered over the years why I had listened to this more than I should...now I see why. **** |
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Sign o' Times (1987): The double album that shows off all of his Royal Badness' multi-styles and pure genius. Electric funk, smooth soul, ballads, just him and the guitar (title track), neo-psychedelic pop and hard rock kicks it here in Folk, Gospel and Blues. Classic tracks include "Housequake," "U Got The Look," "Hot Thing," and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man," are the most obvious ones, while "Slow Love," "Starfish and Coffee," and "Adore," are gems as well. "If I Was Your Girlfriend," is one of my favs. A wonderful, eclectic piece of work that the hit charts will never see again (remember, this is the latter 80's)...a diverse, eccentric artist ruling the charts. If Purple Rain was his Sgt. Pepper, then this is his White Album. Not until Emancipation did his Royal Badness make a collection of such good songs. Excellent. ***** |
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Lovesexy (1988): An interesting album in that the whole album is one track. Themes of sex and spiritual awakening are meshed in his Royal Badness' more scattered albums of his career. There are however, some good tunes like "Eye No," the funky, kewl "Alphabet Street," "Glam Slam,"and "I Wish You Heaven." I actually like "When 2 R in Love," although schmaltzy it is endearing. But the rest of the album is okay. Probably a substitute for the unreleased Black Album. ***1/2 |
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Batman (1989): His most commercial yet, following the huge summer movie flick. The nine track set has its highpoints with "The Future" and "Electric Chair," being funky and all that. My favorite songs are "Vicky Waiting," and "Scandalous." The CD single of the latter is even better. the ballad "The Arms of Orion," sappy as it is, is not bad either. This album has less rock and more mellower songs as they provide a theme and interaction between each character in the movie in Prince's mind. Creative ? Yes...Memorable songs ? Relatively No. Even the quirky "Batdance," a nice piece, is ususally forgotten in his Royal Badness' most played songlist. *** |
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Graffiti Bridge (1990): A good album despite the movie's failure. There is plenty of good stuff here, but other performers do some of the tracks. Tevin Campbell does "Round and Round," The Time does "Release It," and "Shake." Mavis Staples does "Melody Cool." The best of the guests is George Clinton's appearance on "We Can Funk"...that tune rocks! Well..the best of this 70+ setlist is "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got," "Tick,Tick, Bang" (a wonderful tune...reminds me of Housequake), and "Thieves in the Temple," is okay too. A nice, but a bit scattered, listening N-joyment. **** |
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Diamond and Pearls (1991): The New Power Generation's full-fledged appearance on Prince's album. Some good songs sound more R&B than previous albums ("Willing and Able," and "Get Off" ). This lineup makes his Royal Badness sound more jazzy-funkier with a some R&B influences as well, but for some reason the album is not real focused. The best track (by far) however, is "Money Don't Matter 2 Night." Otherwise, a *** |
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