Prince - Album Recommendations

I'm a pretty casual Prince fan who has only owned complications up to this point. I'm ready to start delving into the individual albums. That's a pretty daunting task, considering the size of the catalogue. I'm mostly drawn to his late 70s/80s material. To give you an idea of my tastes, my favorite songs so far are "Raspberry Beret", "Kiss", "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "U Got The Look". I really don't care for "Alphabet St." or "Gett Off". Which albums would you recommend? What are your favorites?

 

I guess if you're the casual fan then I'd start with the mainstream albums such as '1999' and 'Purple Rain'.
The 3 CD 'complication' of 'The Hits/B-sides' is a great introduction too, if you don't have that one. For a while, his b-sides were amazing!

 

Too bad he had that excellent OAS box pulled, would of been a great inexpensive way to sample some his work.

 

I've just been getting into Prince myself in the last few months. Based on what you've said above, I'd start with these:

Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999
Purple Rain
Around The World In A Day
Parade
Sign O The Times

If you can only afford a few, get the ones in bold first. After you get all the ones listed, the 2 or 3 albums on either side of this list are well worth picking up too.

Simon

 

Also, if you don't already have it, the recent "4ever" compilation has a bunch of single edits that are unavailable elsewhere, and it mainly covers the period you're interested in. (It was also my introduction to Prince a few months ago, FWIW.)

Simon

 

Skip Controversy and Around the World In A Day

 

My favorites are:

Sign O The Times
Parade
Around The World In A Day

If you like vinyl last years reissues of those above are excellent.

The 3 CD Hits - B Sides is a great place to start as well as 99 and Purple Rain

 

This is all prime Prince and while there are some great albums not on that list, or great songs on less than great albums not on that list, this is going to give you the most meat and the least fat in his catalog.

 

Man I love Dirty Mind. It's my all time favorite.

The problem is that you are gonna get a ton of different answers

 

I am in the same boat as you concerning Prince. I have been in a mood to really strive to revisit albums for artists I only own a comp. I got Sign O' The Times to start.

 

I'm a big fan of 60s psych-pop/rock, and it seems that Prince dabbled in psych-pop quite a bit during his peak period.

 

I've only heard great things about SOTT. The hits aren't as huge as other albums (Purple Rain, 1999), and it seems to have a real rock-oriented edge to it.

 

This is a great list! Thank you very much. A great starting point.

 

Robert Christgau gave it an A+ so it's gonna be good

 

Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, Parade, and Sign O' The Times feature the bulk of his neo-psychedelic material, along with I'd say Lovesexy but since you don't like Alphabet St. I won't recommend Lovesexy. The albums before Purple Rain are more minimalist and electronic.

 

I will go ahead and add that Dirty Mind is not his psych rock stuff FYI

 

Nonsense. Two of my favorites!

 

I recommend if you didn't own it before his death, you don't need it now. The need will pass....

I'm just kidding, I'm in the mood to ruffle some feathers.....

 

Your original post had me thinking you tended toward the pop stuff, but the guitar stuff, not so much. Your liking psych-pop would have me direct you to "Around the World", "Parade" and SOTT. There are a couple of guitar-heavy songs on almost all of his albums, and SOTT, no more really than the rest, despite the impression you might get from how he often performed songs from this album live. But SOTT is a big ol' heap of styles, with amazing songwriting, some of which are essential Prince, but not necessarily a hit. (Perhaps some of the album would be a little too frenetic for what seems to be your taste, but there's a lot of variety on SOTT. I'm not sure life gets more psych/pop than "Starfish and Coffee", and that's on SOTT.)

Merrick has already said his early stuff is suffused with a lot of electronic elements - synth drums, etc. "Dirty Mind" is a favorite of mine, but based on what you've said, I wouldn't send you to it.

 

Funny! I just got started on a Prince journey as well, having only owned 1999 and Purple Rain in the past. I started with For You last week. Might as well start there. It's not a great album by any means but it has some cool tunes and it's cool to hear Prince's beginnings and early signs of what he was capable of. I like his self titled album, it still has a bit of a disco flavor to it but it has more diversity than the first album. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad is killer. Then there's the 180 degree turn in Dirty Mind. It's a real jolt of energy at only 30 minutes long, with only one "ballad". Dirty Mind, Uptown and Head are futuristically funky and When You Were Mind and Do It All Night sound like something The Cars could've written with their 60's rooted bubblegum new wave. There's also Sister, which is pretty much purely punk rock...pretty interesting for a Prince song. The album, while indeed "dirty" is full of so many great hooks you'll be addicted to it. Other than those I've only heard 1999 and Purple Rain, both of which are essential. Purple Rain is my favorite album of the 80's.

I plan to go up until Lovesexy (including the Black Album, which was supposed to be released in late 1987, and kind of goes with Lovesexy as an opposite.) I'm not as interested in anything after that but maybe I'll check out some of his 90's stuff at a later time. I plan on listening his protege albums between '81 and '87 (the ones I can find at least). The Time's debut is also worth hearing. It's a very fun and funky record, and Prince is all over it. Morris Day has a great voice and a good sense of humor. It's a rewarding listen. Try not to dance to it

 

Prince (since you like Lover) through Sign O' The Times minus Controversy.

 

Actually, I've heard great things about Dirty Mind (I also love a good guitar-heavy track). I'm really not into the late 80s stuff such as "Alphabet St." and "Thieves In The Temple".

 

IMO, the three most essential are:

Purple Rain
Dirty Mind
1999

After those, the following are great albums you might really enjoy:

Parade
Around The World In A Day
Prince
Sign O' The Times

 

Based on what you've listed...

1979 | Prince
1985 | Around The World In A Day
1987 | Sign O The Times
1995 | The Gold Experience
2006 | 3121
2009 | Lotusflow3r

 

This.
And I'd add 1992 | Love symbol Album
and 2015 | HitnRun Phase Two.