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Items13
1
Dirty Mind (1980)
Released
Home recordings with their edges intact
Prince kept the recordings he’d made as demos. The snap of “When You Were Mine” and the rushing chorus of “Partyup” make the short album feel like one performance. Dr. Fink’s synthesizer and Lisa Coleman’s backing voice on “Head” are two of the few parts Prince handed to other players.
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1999 (1982)
Released
A double album that lets the groove run
Use the original double-LP sequence. “D.M.S.R.” and “Automatic” let the drum machine and layered voices settle into patterns that a single would have to cut short. By the time you reach “Lady Cab Driver,” the opening songs feel like the beginning of a much longer night.
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Around the World in a Day
A psychedelic turn with the Revolution
The title track opens a world of unusual colors, with instruments such as the oud and darbuka in the album’s palette. “Condition of the Heart” takes its time getting to the vocal, and “Temptation” ends the record in a much rougher voice. The sequence keeps changing the meaning of that inviting first song.
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Parade
A soundtrack with its own pace
The opening run from “Christopher Tracy’s Parade” to “Under the Cherry Moon” moves through four short scenes. Clare Fischer’s orchestration gives the album some of its sweep, and Marie-France Drouin’s French vocals give “Girls & Boys” a voice of its own. The quiet closer “Sometimes It Snows in April” feels more exposed after all that movement.
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Sign o’ the Times
Two LPs with room for different voices
Use the original 16-song album. Prince gives “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” a hushed, almost private delivery, then uses a pitched-up voice on “If I Was Your Girlfriend.” By the time “The Cross” rises from quiet guitar to a full-band sound, the record has made room for several kinds of intimacy.
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Lovesexy (1988)
Released
A continuous set about desire and faith
The original US CD puts all nine songs in a single track. Hear how “Anna Stesia” turns its search for company into something closer to prayer, then how “Positivity” brings the album to a close. Played straight through, the dance songs and the spiritual songs have time to change each other.
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Diamonds and Pearls
A new band with different kinds of swing
The New Power Generation’s first credited album gives Rosie Gaines room to sing alongside Prince and puts Michael Bland’s drums in a band that can shift from funk to rap and ballads. Try the charge of “Live 4 Love” against the restraint of “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night.”
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The Gold Experience (1995)
Released
Guitar funk inside a spoken frame
Originally issued under Prince’s symbol, the album uses Rain Ivana’s brief NPG Operator announcements to lead into different kinds of songs. The first announcement opens onto the guitar rush of “Endorphinmachine.” Stay through the slower “Shhh” and the closing “Gold” to hear how far that framing device can stretch.
More about The Gold Experience9
Emancipation (1996)
Released
Three discs with different centers
Prince made each disc of the original set an hour long. Start with disc two, where “One Kiss at a Time” and “Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife” draw out the romantic mood. Disc three opens with the quicker electronic pulse of “Slave” and “New World.” Taking one disc at a time lets those changes register.
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The Rainbow Children (2001)
Released
A jazz-inflected suite
The spoken passages give this record a running story about faith, while the band keeps changing the feel beneath it. Hear how the title track settles into an extended groove, then follow John Blackwell’s drumming through the busier “1+1+1 Is 3” and toward the closing sweep of “Last December.”
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3121 (2006)
Released
A party that keeps changing rooms
Michael Bland and Sonny Thompson lock into the title track’s groove while Prince bends his voice around them. “Te Amo Corazón” pulls the set toward a softer sway, and Támar joins him for “Beautiful, Loved and Blessed.” The original sequence makes the invitation in the opener feel larger than any single dance track.
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Art Official Age (2014)
Released
Late-career studio fiction
Lianne La Havas’s spoken passages help turn a run of songs into a story about waking up in another time. “U KNOW” uses a Mila J sample, while “WAY BACK HOME” leans into an uneasy, personal mood. The returns to the story make those different production choices feel like parts of the same record.
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PLECTRUMELECTRUM
A band playing in the room
Prince recorded live to tape with guitarist Donna Grantis, bassist Ida Nielsen, and drummer Hannah Ford-Welton. The title instrumental, written by Grantis, gives their guitar-and-rhythm interplay room to stretch, while “WHITECAPS” pulls back into a quieter band sound. Hear the two together to get the range of this collaboration.
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