Prince Album by Album Thread

The purple one has had a long and prosperous career makin' records. I think going through each one would make for good discussion. Starting with For You. This album shows a more R&B rooted Prince than the one we'd all come to know and love on records like Purple Rain and Sign 'O' the Times. I think it's rather a inconsistent, if not an impressive debut considering he does everything. His second album would be a major step forward, and his third, a classic. Of course this includes his years with The Revolution, NPG, etc.

 

Cool cover, and an early indicator of Prince's stylistic diversity, but only "Soft And Wet" hints at the power that was to follow.

 

It's still difficult to comprehend the total autonomy that Prince had. That's what I think of when I think of For You (which like both of you said, isn't exactly a stellar debut, but has glimpses of his talent). I don't know exactly what Warner Bros' thoughts were, but to just say to a new artist, do what you like: you write the songs, play them yourself and produce it all? That was exceptionally rare in 1978, particularly when you factor in that Prince was 19 and a total unknown from Minneapolis. And I think Prince exceeded Warners' budget in making it too, because it was a one man job and he was a novice in the studio. And then, no radio hit? ("Soft And Wet" did make it to No. 12 on the R&B chart, but I don't know what radio what have thought of it. Or the artist). You'd expect that to upset the label. On top of that, the album flopped, peaking at No. 163 on the Billboard chart. But they didn't stop him from doing what he wanted on he next album too. I'm always impressed by what a show of trust and confidence in his abilities it was. I don't think it would really be possible today for an artist like Prince to become Prince.

 

His whole catalog is spotty. Decent debut album. 7/10
Standout tracks: Soft and Wet,Baby,My Love is Forever & So Blue

 

That may have been a function of a very rare time in the music industry, where labels had enormous budgets as well as a hunger to uncover the next big artist. Prince was also very driven to do things his way right from the start. I was surprised to realize when I was just looking at it now that the title of this album wasn't For U.

 

Warners always had that rep for being 'artist friendly' too. That said, Prince was no certainty. He was an unusual character, and talent. I think they must have seen Rick James at Motown and Ray Parker Jr at Arista, and saw Prince as having that sort of potential. Still, it must have been seen as quite a punt.

 

There's a possibility that they may have tried throwing a producer in their with him with catastrophic results and it was just never mentioned. Could be that they were so impressed with his ability to do all that stuff at such a young age, that they thought it was a better idea to leave him to grow instead of stunting it by force. If he failed, they may have had another producer around to produce records that would make them $$$. They're Warner Bros, they had room in the budget to take chances.

 

I think "spotty" is a great way to describe Prince's album output. That tends to be what happens when you have someone who is constantly pushing the envelope and attempting to create things that are entirely new, rather than just crank out the same formula each time.

For You has never done it for me. Each album up to 1999 managed to get better and better, and then his genius seemed to kick things into high gear and he had an unmatched streak of brilliant yet remarkably diverse albums right up to Lovesexy, which was the first album that I didn't like at least as much as the album before it.

For You does give us glimpses into the Prince that would develop, but, on its own merit, it's just not an album that holds my interest. Of his pre-1990 output, it's the album I listen to the least. It was also the last of his vinyl LPs to be upgraded to CD in my collection; even though I started buying his albums on CD in 1984, I didn't get the CD of For You until well into the 1990s.

 

#9, #9.

 

Exactly. And I know he blew out the budget on For You, but then, it wouldn't have been much of a budget to blow. It was still just one guy in the studio; how much money could that cost? Like, Warner Bros also had Fleetwood Mac making Tusk in 1978/79. Now that was an expensive, budget-blowing album. I'm sure Warners didn't really expect a lot from For You commercially, and didn't lose sleep over how much it cost (and lost).

 

For You, for me is a decent debut. It's a very nostalgic album. Its what you expect from a rookie.

"I'm Yours" by the way is crazy. So is "Crazy You"...actually the more I think about it, this album gets an 8/10 from me.

 

That's almost exactly what happened. Warner's wanted Maurice White of EW&F to produce the first three records - Prince refused as he thought that it would put his sound in a Disco straightjacket. It was only after WB execs saw Prince putting together Just As Long As We're Together' in the studio that th at they had the confidence to let him do everything himself.

Nowadays, I think Prince could do with a strong producer. But I'm sure we'll come to discuss that when this thread gets to later years (in 400 albums time!)

 

I wish he would've included the outtake, "Make It Through the Storm" on For You. Such a beautiful song.

 

For You is a fairly forgettable album. "Soft and Wet" is by far the best song on the album but even that song doesn't touch any of the songs Prince released after that up through Sign O The Times.

 

Yes, now I do remember that about Maurice White. And White wanted to do the project too. But that shows what Prince was like, even then: he's 18 or 19, inexperienced, and he's telling Warners he doesn't want to make his album with Maurice White of Earth Wind & Fire?! Madness!

 

I love For You, it's very cool, "My Love Is Forever" is one of my favorite songs by him. Tough to know what Warner Brothers expected of him, he's a left-field signing even in the late '70s. I do think they were expecting a mostly R&B success and that's what they got the first time out. WB was a bit eclectic (and hit or miss) with R&B. There roster was filled with fading or failing R&B acts, perhaps Prince suggested something new or at best, something that could sell eventually.


You can hear a lot of promise on For You and in a way, I liked him a bit better here than on Prince. I don't know For You is contemporary R&B, some rock, some disco and not James Brown derived funk or pop so it makes for very interesting listening...

 

His really early albums seemed to be much more R&B, and much less hooky, and dare I say, less creative? It's pleasurable for sure, but I think that his second album is a whole lot better, especially in terms of sound quality. Opinions, opinions.

 

I like For You a lot but agree, it is probably a 7 or 8 out of 10 album for me. It's probably the Prince album I play least, however when I do put it on, I remember just how much I like it. Favourite tracks for me are: Soft and Wet, Crazy You, Just As Long As We're Together and So Blue.

Warmers certainly did allow him the space, time and money to develop his artistry...reminds me of Kate Bush being signed to a label and given the time to develop before they expected her to deliver. Back when artistry was considered something to be cultivated and developed into something that worked for both the artist and the label.

 

Soft And Wet
Crazy You
Just As Long As We're Together
I'm Yours
are the songs that I come back to the most from this album, although "Soft" and "... Together" are best appreciated in their Disco Mix versions.

An expanded version of For You should include Make It Through The Storm, as well as I Miss You.

 

I'll have to listen to his second album sometime soon

 

I agree. I also wish he included "We Can Work It Out".

 

All right, since no one seems to care about For You, let's move on to Prince. I think this is a huge sonic leap forward, and I also think the material is much better. While still being a bit too R&B for my tastes, songs like "I Wanna Be Your Lover", "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?", & "I Feel For You" showed a maturing since of songcraft, and a better sense of melody. The album is also more consistent overall, easier to listen to all the way through. Just my opinion. His next album would really get things cooking.

 

Prince is where things get considerably more interesting for me. The textures are so much more complex, the songwriting is better, and Prince begins to take on the uniqueness that would only increase over his next few albums. There are still quite a few disco influences here, but that disco/funk/R&B sound worked pretty well for him.

As will continue over his next several albums, Prince is better than the album before it, but not as good as the album that came after it. My opinion, at least.

 

Been a Prince fan since December '08, have never listened to "Prince" all the way through. Have no idea why.

 

A thread like this, that has the potential to become massive and a reference thread, would really need some proper entries for each album (like is usually done), at least the album art work and a list of the songs. It would also be nice to mention other important tracks released in conjunction (like in the For You case with the 12" mixes, which I have never heard). There is no need to rush, ithe thread has only been up for two days. I hadn't registered that it was going on, and when I did I wasn't sure if it had started properly on the first album or if it was just still in a sort of preamble state.