Prince Albums Thread

Everyone knows Prince. According to Wikipedia, he made 39 studio albums in his lifetime, including such classics as 1999, Purple Rain and Sign O' the Times. Since I wouldn't have many reasons to leave the house anytime soon, I figured I would listen to every one of those albums.
Then I remembered, "Oh hey, I have a profile on the Steve Hoffman website."
So here's what we'll do. Every other day, we'll talk about a Prince album starting from the first to his last. We might do the two posthumous releases as well, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
For now, let's go crazy.

 

Before his untimely death , I used to see Prince records and CDs by the dozens in all the thrift shops . Never see even one now.

 

Very strange indeed.

 

Great! Love to discuss every prince album and share thoughts.
Are following a special format ...?
I'd suggest you post the album cover, track listing , discussion very song and from there we'll have a "format" .
That being said...the first album is pretty amazing!
My favorite song is my love is forever every instrument sounds so good , it's mind blowing to imagine that is just one guy playing everything!

 

I'm fairly new to his discography and have been slowly making my way through it. So far Around the World in a Day, Dirty Mind, and 1999 are my favorites but I still have a long way to go. I may listen to the albums as we go along, as it'll be a great way to catch up and hear what everyone else thinks.

 

Love Prince and I think these threads are a good idea, but I'm horrible at keeping up with them. I'm already at least a couple albums behind on the current Rush thread, and that's only doing one song per day with one day off per week. No way I'd keep up with a thread doing an album every other day.

It's not that I don't listen to that much music, of course, but for some reason keeping up with these threads starts to feel like a chore to me.

 

No worries. Work at your own pace.

 

For You (1978), Warner Bros.



Track listing:

1. For You
2. In Love
3. Soft and Wet
4. Crazy You
5. Just as Long as We're Together
6. Baby
7. My Love is Forever
8. So Blue
9. I'm Yours

Chart performance:

• #163 on Billboard 200 (known then as "Top LPs & Tapes")
• #21 on Billboard R&B Albums (known then as "Top Black Albums")
• Soft and Wet/So Blue - #92 on Billboard Hot 100, #12 on the Billboard R&B chart
• Just as Long as We're Together/In Love - #91 on the Billboard R&B chart

This is where it all began. Prince Rogers Nelson was still a teenager when he released his debut album.
How do you think it holds up?

 

Everyone who's familiar with the album will share their thoughts.

 

When Prince died I decided to listen to all his albums in order (it's actually 41 albums, not 39). It took a long time, but it was the way to do it because doing it in order one really experiences the insane roller coaster ride of his releases. The ups, the downs, the twists, the crazy upside down loops...all in Prince's catalogue and you don't know when they are coming.

His career was a fantastic ride. I am glad I got on board back in '80 with his third album "Dirty Mind." After that one, every album was bought more or less the day of release. Those release days were great days. I had no idea what the music would be like on that 12" black disc. Many times it was "What the hell is this?!?" ("NEWS" "Rainbow Children" "Xpectation"...); but even those what the hell moments I enjoyed immensely.

There was nothing like a new Prince release. Hell, there was nothing like Prince. Been five years since I opened a new Prince release. I am sadly getting used to the fact that I never will ever again.

 

Give a run down of what you think, and then invite folks for their opinions

 

I don't have a stronger opinion of the album than "I like it." In fact, that's my take on a lot of Prince albums.

 

Two keepers: the brief title track which is gorgeous and the hit single "Soft and Wet."

It's fine. Accomplished, but just a hint of the genius to come.

 

The only track I really know from Prince's debut is Soft & Wet. When we get to the second album, I'll have more to contribute

 

In addition to the two tracks mentioned above, I like In Love, Just As Long As We're Together, Baby and My Love Is Forever (love the guitar on the fade-out). Crazy You is a nice acoustic track as well. Not really too much of a glimpse of the genius to follow, but definitely a strong debut album for a 19-year-old kid who played all the instruments.

I really love the 12" remixes of Soft And Wet + Just As Long As We're Together as well.

 

A great, often forgotten debut. Crazy You is probably my favorite cut from that album and I think it has a lot of the magic that was about to come. Just as Long as We´re Together is also a fantastic dance floor blast.
I love the delicacy of the minor arrangements for some of the tracks.

By the way, we had a thread like this back in the day, and I think lasted until P passed away. Glad to start it all over again, but we can also use the old one as a reference.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

This is a debut I've been meaning to check out. Overall it's solid and a great start to the amazing music that would follow. I love the groove of "Just as Long as We're Together" and "My Love Is Forever", as well as the guitar work on "I'm Yours" and the simple beauty of "For You".

One album in and I'm already uncovering new things.

 

I only repeated what Wikipedia said, which was that he had 39 studio albums in his lifetime and two posthumous releases to date.
But anyway, sounds like it must have been quite the treat to get a new Prince record.

 

For You took ages to really creep into my mind. As a fairly young fan I had so much to digest, when I was in for some early Prince I always grabbed the s/t. They're both heavy on the ballads, but s/t is catchier.

My gateway drug was I'm Yours, logical for a heavy metal guy. Blistering guitar work!
Next up was Soft And Wet, the hit, enough said. Just As Long did the rest of the effort to pull me in, it's such a JAM.

Overal a very nice start for our man. There's a couple of tracks I wouldn't really miss, but the whole thing combines works. A plus: the intro is super sweet.

 

Yeah, I just looked at that Wiki discography. I see it is missing two albums that are recognized as Prince releases: "Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic" (it's a different album than "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic") and "C-Note."

One could quibble over other album releases ("One Nite Alone Live" is a different experience than "One Nite Alone"), but if you laid out his yearly releases it does come to 41. When there is such a large output or the way the albums were released or various versions...hard to nail the exact number, but 41 is usually accepted. "C-Note" and "Rave In2..." are definitely Prince albums.

 

As fate would have it, I'm listening to The Black Album as I came across this thread. A very underrated Prince album IMO.

 

Listened to that for the first time last night. We'll get to it.

 

Duly noted.