album reviews
FOLLOWING Prince’s death last week, here’s my pick of the best original albums and “best of” by the Purple One.
DIRTY MIND
PRINCE’S first undoubted masterpiece is eight blasts of lascivious funk which drew comparison with Rick James but outstripped anything the New York Superfreak ever produced. It’s not for the faint of heart, though; Head saw him seducing a bride on the way to her wedding and as for Sister – well, let’s just say it’s not about helping your sibling with her needlework. The music throughout is undeniably five star though.
PURPLE RAIN
CHANCES are you’ve got this one. It’s the album which both turned the Minneapolis wonder into a global megastar and gave rise to the PMRC stickers still prevalent today. Fusing rock and funk in a way never truly managed before or since, Purple Rain was first and foremost a pop album, with killer tunes and enough single material to keep him in the charts for 1984 and most of 1985. Contains When Doves Cry.
PARADE
LIKE Purple Rain a soundtrack – to the wafer-thin Under the Cherry Moon – Parade restored Prince to the top of the charts thanks to the peerless Kiss.
The album was arguably his best to date, with funky pop (Girls and Boys, Mountains), poppy funk (Anotherloverholenyohead) and beautiful ballads (Sometimes it Snows in April, Under the Cherry Moon). Endlessly playable, some make a case for Parade as his best and most fully realised album.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
ANYBODY arguing the toss for Parade will struggle to do so against this 1987 masterpiece, which outstrips not just Parade but virtually any other album, ever.
From the opening title track, a slice of social commentary as good as anything Dylan ever managed, to the closing 70s soul of Adore, it never puts a foot wrong despite taking detours into Purple Rainstyle rock (The Cross), electro funk (If I Was Your Girlfriend), pure pop (U Got The Look) and many more styles besides.
If you only buy one Prince album, make it this one.
LOVESEXY
ON RELEASE, many considered Lovesexy a frothy disappointment after the perfection of Sign of the Times and the scrapped but widely bootlegged Black Album.
But taken as a whole its ecstatic, unique pop was thrilling, moreish and magnificent.
THE HITS/THE B-SIDES
THERE are several best-ofs available, but this is the one to go for, containing not just his best 45s but essential flip sides like Erotic City and 17 Days.