I recently bought a copy of Come, Prince’s 1994 album of one word title songs that he saw as a bit of a contractual obligation to finish his Warner Brothers career as “Prince” before he embarked on his new phase as the “unpronounceable symbol” he performed as for about 6 years. I was talking to a friend about the album and he wrote to me:
This album came out as I was losing interest in Prince. I don’t think I I own it. In my opinion, it was the start of his diminishing returns era. Having said that, on reflection, it probably started much earlier, as I struggle to think of a truly great album that he released after Sign O’ The Times 🤔. A couple of good singles such as Alphabet St and Sexy MF, but album wise, nothing else for me.
So, my question: Is this true?
Were there any truly great albums after Sign O’ The Times? Below I’ll discuss some of his highs and occasional lows of the last 30 years of his career.1
Lovesexy - 1988
1987’s Sign O’ The Times is an epic album, spanning a range of genres, confident, cool, funky and beautiful. It probably is Prince at his highest point. Late to the party, I properly started to get into Prince a year later, when Alphabet St was released as a single from the Lovesexy album. I think Lovesexy is a great album, which suffers from being the one after Sign O’ The Times - very little would compare favourably. But even though it was rushed for release after cancelling The Black Album, I think it hold together really well. Every track is good, from the bursting joy of Eye No to the melodramatic romance of When 2 R in Love2 and I can remember watching the live show that was on TV that year and seeing a performer at the peak of his powers.
Graffiti Bridge - 1990
OK, bear with me here. If you know this album you’ll know it’s not that well regarded, and the film it soundtracks is considered to be a bit of a turkey. (It is a hard watch, but Prince was never able to act). The sprawling double album contains songs by Prince and others, a first for him. Many of Prince’s songs on here are great, and well worth enjoying. Expert website Prince Vault notes it “could be considered a "greatest hits" of unreleased material” as many of the songs were written and first recorded in the mid-80s. Perhaps that’s why some of the material is so strong. Can’t Stop This Feeling I Got is a storming party track, The Question of U is one of his loveliest songs and Joy in Repetition is one of the best things he ever did. My eyes were wet with emotion when I saw him perform this live in London in 2007.
Diamonds And Pearls - 1991
Perhaps not his strongest record, this album has a few great songs, including the brilliant Gett Off3, slinky Cream and the jazzy cool of Money Don’t Matter 2 Night, but the band are not as strong as The Revolution or the early New Power Generation and some of the songs fall a little flat. A year later he released the Love Symbol album which I wrote about in detail here:
Come - 1994
I hated this when I first heard it. Absolutely hated the driving dance drum sound he was trying. Over the years I have warmed to it, and after hearing a bootleg of his last concert found myself loving Dark, a truly beautiful song ideal for his icy falsetto. The title track4 is much better than I felt when I first heard it. The beat is cooler than I remember, and the horns funk smoothly. It’s stuff like that annoying dance of Loose that doesn’t work. I don’t need a form of drum’n’bass from Prince. It doesn’t work.
Emancipation - 1996
Deep into his “symbol” period he put out this 36 tracks showing the variety of styles he still enjoyed playing. A 36 track album is going to have some clunkers, and this does, but it has some gems too. One typical criticism of Prince is that he had no filter - no quality control - which meant he released tonnes of tracks. This is a good example. This could quite easily be pared down to a brilliant single album, but for whatever reason he didn’t want to leave any tracks behind. The funkier numbers work really well: Jam of the Year, We Gets Up, and his covers of Betcha By Golly Wow and La, La, La Means I Love U are fantastic, and it was great to peek into a little window of the kind of stuff he liked. My favourite song is the aching Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother / Wife. As you can imagine, any album that features 3 hours of new material is going to be stretched thin, and we get that here, with some thuddingly dull dance numbers like Face Down
I’d love to find it on vinyl (it was re-released in 2019) but it’s shockingly expensive.
The Rainbow Children - 2001
He returned as Prince for this stylistically jazzy release, where he created a mystical tale of a Utopian world. Its brilliant, containing some of his most technical work (the title track grooves like a hybrid jazz-funk beast) and some deeply funky numbers, like The Work pt 1 and 1+1+1=3. My friend and I can argue all day about whether this is a “truly great” album, but it’s one that everyone should own and listen to. A track like The Everlasting Now showed he could still write brilliant funk tracks with his own brand of message. I’ve been listening to 1999 recently (the album from 1983) and what I’ve noticed is that he was more “out there”, more experimental in the early 80s. He stopped doing things like D.M.S.R. or All the Critics Love You in New York for more straightforward dance and funk. At least The Rainbow Children adds something different to the mix.
Musicology - 2004
As he returned to a major label (Columbia) Prince put out this mixed album. The title track is slickly funky and excellent, and I love the Sly Stone groove of Dear Mr. Man, but it also contains a couple of his mid-tempo rockers that just fall short, like Cinnamon Girl. As was so true through the 2000s, his albums sounded nearly good - but always stumbled.
3121 - 2006
After a few enjoyable download only albums, including The Chocolate Invasion, he returned to mainstream releases with this pretty strong release. The title track is more pure Prince funk, and Black Sweat is spiky and utterly cool. I also love the bouncing party of Get On The Boat. It’s an album that works really well and gave him his first US number 1 album on that chart since Batman, and a top ten hit in the UK.
Planet Earth - 2007
When I saw him in 2007 - 21 Nights In London: The Earth Tour - he gave this album away for free. I already owned it because he’d bizarrely taken the decision to give it away free earlier that year in The Mail on Sunday (the first and only time I’d ever bought that dreadful paper). It’s a fairly unremarkable album. Guitar is great, and Chelsea Rodgers has a cool groove, but looking at the track listing I can’t recall any of the others. I guess that’s why it was given away free (I ended up with about five copies of it at one point).
20TEN - 2010
Another giveaway, this time with the Daily Mirror, but this time, it’s a good album. What strikes me is that it’s not remarkable like some of his early stuff. It’s a bit like he’s trying to write “Prince” songs. But there’s plenty to enjoy on this album, so if you’ve never heard it, give it a go. Opener Compassion has a great pop groove to it, and Future Soul Song is an attempt at mid 80s electronic funk. Lavaux shows he can to uptempo funk-pop still and hidden track (remember them?) Laydown is deep and dirty. It’s an enjoyable listen.
Plectrumelectrum - 2014
This is a great album. In 2012 Prince formed the band 3rdEyeGirl, made up of Ida Nielsen on bass, Hannah Ford on drums, and Donna Grantis on guitar. All three sang. They became his backing band, sometimes joining with the NPG as well. It’s an absolute cracker of a record, and it lets Prince and the band open up their guitar sounds as they smartly rock through heavy funk tracks. Wow is a smart, operatic opener, Pretzelbodylogic an electric buzz of funk-rock and Fixurlifeup absolutely screams out energy from the first moment. His last really brilliant release.
Art Official Age - 2014
On the very same day as Plectrumelectrum he put out this weaker collection of pop funk. It’s a good example of Prince’s excess: two albums of different styles on the same day, but not having enough material to do that. One track, Clouds5, is excellent, but the album as a whole doesn’t work, and even relies on one track, Funknroll, being recycled from Plectrumelectrum.
Hitnrun [Phase one and Phase two] - both 2015
His final releases came within three months and I’ll treat them as one, even thought they are different to each other. Phase One plays with us - giving us snippets of For You, 1999 and Let’s Go Crazy at the start- but Million $ Show is weak RnB. A few tracks feature other artists (Curly Fryz, Rita Ora) but they’re no better for that. I don’t want to hear Prince trying to emulate other sounds. This Could B Us is an icy ballad that works well and Hardrocklover is a snaky piece of hard rock but it’s interesting how the best song, 1000 X’s & O’s, was first recorded in 1992, but still doesn’t match his previous work.
Phase Two is the better of the two, an album that works well. It’s imbibed with Prince’s naturally cool funk and it has those multi-tracked harmonies he does with himself, making it instantly recognisable.
Baltimore is Prince getting political with a straight up rocker. Look at Me, Look at U, Stare and Xtraloveable6 are all different flavours of those party funk tunes he could write at will. It’s still Prince being Prince, so, ballad When She Comes has a style we’ve heard many times before, but it’s good stuff. Screwdriver is the best thing on it, because it seemed like Prince’s best work in his later phase was his rockier stuff, where he could yell and play his guitar. It’s a dumb rocker but it’s great for that.
So, perhaps my friend is right. No “truly great album… after Sign O’ The Times,” but some fantastic songs. And some essential albums. Keep him on your record player.
I’m not going to cover everything. A few I’m arbitrarily missing include The Gold Experience and LotusFlow3r as well as the not on Spotify album he wrote for Bria Valente, Elixer.
Bathe with me, Let's cover each other with perfume and lotion.
Although I prefer Violet the Organ Grinder:
Long as you wash between your soul and through your hair.
Every time you catch her singin' in the shower, U should go and get a flower.
Whenever you need someone to take a shower with, Call me up, please. [He does like singing about having showers, baths and washing, doesn’t he?]
A nice summary, thank you.
I had 'Come' on loop in 2020 for some reason. The title track only, which i would stick on for my walk to the supermarket. Easily one of the best things he did in the 90s and therefore underrated. This live version featuring a croaky Prince falling back so the band can cook is a tasty flip on the original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzOe4orbuD4
Agree that SOTT was probably the apex and I rarely listen to full albums beyond that, aside from Diamonds (title track and 'Gett Off', yessir) and occasionally Graffiti Bridge. Live, he was peerless in his ability to make a good song great (a quality he never lost), like 'Joy in Repetition' and 'Thieves In The Temple'. On the latter, I lose myself in this at least monthly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1EIUlQtt0M&pp=ygUhdGhlaXZlcyBpbiB0aGUgdGVtcGxlIHByaW5jZSBsaXZl
Through the 90s and into the 2000s, the odd track would make me stand up and take notice. You named a few – 'Black Sweat' slammed in the club and 'Chelsea Rodgers' will forever be a jam. 'Love Sign' is up there with my favourite R&B joints of the era, particularly Shock G's mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vw9GqiAOv8
It was a joy to see him rockin' out hard with 3rd Eye Girl, reviving the likes of 'Bambi' and poppin' up to do guerrilla gigs around London. Prince just letting loose and having fun, free of any baggage.
Diving back into The Rainbow Children again this week. A significant record for him. Appreciate the reminder.
My favorite from the post '87 was the one you arbitrarily skipped. The Gold Experience is one I still play regularly and has some of my all-time favorite Prince songs (Endorphinemachine, Billy Jack Bitch, Eye Hate U, and even The Most Beautiful Girl in the World is a great ballad. His band is killer as well and as tight as any of his others. The many operator skits are a nuisance, but it's easy enough to skip them via streaming. But I can see how they would take this from great to mostly good.
I didn't read your piece on 'the symbol' album but that is another I really love, though, is a bit bloated. I did come to love his '90s catalog later, not necessarily at the time, but that was just because of where I was (mentally, physically) in the '90s. I still return to many of those albums (Come, Diamonds and Pearls) even more than I do, say, Around the World in a Day.