Prince is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists of all time! There are countless hits that many people know, but he continued to release music for decades long after most people had stopped paying attention. Because of his longevity and the need for a challenge, I decided to listen and rank all 39 albums that Prince released! These also aren’t even all the albums that Prince has put out. There were a couple jazz albums under the name Madhouse, albums under the band name New Power Generation, and even an orchestral album! This project was going to take long enough without all those albums, so I instead focused on albums released by Prince or The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. There are also dozens of discs of live albums, b-sides, and music released posthumously that isn’t being focused on here. Prince has so much music that I had to focus on something specific at first, but I’ll probably get to some of it on my own time. I know reading it in the rankings order isn’t ideal, so I’ll also link my google doc here if you want to read it in chronological order. But I decided to rank it as a way to engage with the music a bit more deeply after the initial couple listens. So now, without further ado, let's get into 39 albums created by one of the greatest musicians to ever live!
39. Xpectation (2003)
Have you ever wanted to hear Prince make passable instrumental jazz-fusion music? Well, do I have the album for you! This is really just for die hard fans though. This just sounds like the local jazz club you go to actually has solid musicians, but they don’t have the creativity to make anything substantial or innovative in the sound. Now, we obviously know Prince had the talent to make something mind blowing, but Xpectation clearly isn’t it. It’s not bad, I want to make sure that’s known, but there is just nothing about this that lets the listener know they’re listening to one of the most creative minds in music’s history.
38. N·E·W·S (2003)
Similar to Xpectation, this is a completely instrumental album. It consists of four songs, each titled after one of the four cardinal directions, and each track is exactly fourteen minutes long. Now, if we’re comparing this to Xpectation, this is better for one main reason, it’s more engaging. Prince is at least trying new things here. Is it packaged poorly, absolutely. The songs themselves each contain multiple movements in them that barely seem to go together, and the length of everything is intimidating to get into. Now, it’s still basically just for die hard fans, but it’s at least a more entertaining instrumental album than what he put out earlier in 2003.
37. Crystal Ball (1998)
This project is Prince’s second triple album in a row. It’s a box set that contains two and a half hours of new music from Prince that he says was “previously bootlegged”. All of these songs were unreleased tracks that didn’t make it on previous albums, so there’s no cohesive sound to this project besides Prince being Prince. I would say it’s worth listening to, but mainly to pick out the songs you actually enjoy. “The Ride” is a live recording of a blues song that Prince wrote, and I’ve never heard him do blues quite like this before! It’s a genuinely fantastic blues track, and it’s a shame that he never made a full project quite like this. But even though there are awesome tracks, there are also things like “Cloreen Bacon Skin”, which is a 15-and a half minute funk jam that doesn’t really qualify as a song. It’s just Prince messing around over a funk beat for 15 minutes. So like, while there are moments of greatness here, Crystal Ball as a project as itself doesn’t really work.
36. Art Official Age (2014)
After the longest break of his career (4 years), Prince came back with this and Plectrumelectrum on the same day! The album is a sci-fi concept record with Lianne La Havas narrating. What I will say about this record is that Prince isn’t shy of trying new things. Whereas Plectrumelectrum is a pretty straightforward funk-rock album, Art Official Age is Prince catching up to music being made currently. Just listen to the first song, and you’ll notice the DJ airhorn sound effect and a subtle EDM drop, two things I’ve never heard Prince do before. Now, all of this chaos hasn’t clicked with me at all, but there were a couple highlights. “Breakfast Can Wait” and “This Could Be Us” are both slower jams, and there was a beautiful singing feature from Lianne on the second track, “Clouds”. I wish she was singing more on the album and not just being a narrator. Overall though, I appreciate how wild Prince tried to go with this album, even if I personally haven’t connected with it.
35. MPLSound (2009)
Released the same day as Lotusflow3r and an album by Prince’s protege at the time, Bria Valente, MPLSound is the most synthesized and funk-oriented out of the projects released that day! There’s not much to write home about here, it’s just another synth-funk/pop album from Prince. Q-Tip shows up for a verse on the second song, “Chocolate Box”, if only it was for a more notable song. “U’re Gonna C Me” was originally on the One Nite Alone album from 2002, but hearing a new, fleshed out version of the song was cool, I guess. If you like Prince, you’ll find something to like here. If not, there’s no reason to check this out.
34. Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)
While this album sounds like Prince as usual, there is one big difference that separates this from any project he had done before. Prince had always worked on music with his core group of people, but here, he invites big names to share the spotlight with! Chuck D, Gwen Stafani, and Sheryl Crow are some of the big names that Prince brings onto this album, but the best feature is Eve’s verse on “How Wit U”. I especially liked how she poked fun at him with the line, “I’m supposed to tremble because they call you, ‘The Artist.’” Besides the features though, this is pretty much business as usual for Prince. Some great tracks, a couple ones that don’t come together, but most of them are pretty good. My personal favorites are the massive ballad, “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” and the slinky “The Sun, The Moon and Stars”.
33. 20Ten (2010)
This is yet another example of a Prince album that doesn’t really require more explanation or analysis besides it’s another Prince album. Do you want more Prince music in 2010? If you did, then 20Ten provided a decent helping. “Future Soul Song” is a highlight on the album, especially when it comes to the vocal harmonies and guitar melody. Overall though, it’s just cool. I feel like a broken record, but again, it’s not a bad album, there’s just nothing unique about it compared to his catalog.
32. HITnRUN Phase One (2015)
First of all, the album starts off by combining the two iconic introductions from “1999” and “Let’s Go Crazy”, which is a wild way to start off your 38th album. You’re basically asking for comparisons to your classic material, and unsurprisingly, this album is nowhere near that. This album sounds like Prince is trying to keep up with his contemporaries. Most of the time, he kind of falls flat on his face. “Ain’t About 2 Stop” with Rita Ora is easily one of Prince’s worst tracks. The deep voice during the already outdated EDM drop is grating even if it wasn’t from one of the greatest musicians of all time, but it hurts a little more coming from Prince. Still, I’m glad he was experimenting and trying to push his sound forward, because it occasionally works. “Fallinlove2nite” is a fantastic 2015-era pop jam, whereas the slower track “1000 X’s & O’s” is an enjoyable moment. Overall though, this is still one of his worst projects. But as I said previously and I probably will again, even his worst projects still have good songs.
31. 3121 (2006)
Have you ever wanted to hear Prince do an auto-tuned ballad? If so, then this is the album for you and the song “Incense and Candles” is the one you want to hear. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but hearing Prince doing auto-tuned rapping on a ballad is not something I was expecting. As for the rest of the album, it’s pretty much Prince as usual. Hearing him making music at the same time as D’angelo made me realize how much inspiration D’angelo actually pulled from Prince. The first couple tracks here especially sound like they could’ve been D’angelo tracks from the late 1990s. If you like Prince, you’ll find something to like here!
30. The Slaughterhouse (2004)
The Slaughterhouse has a similar origin story as The Chocolate Invasion, where these songs were originally released as standalone singles exclusively through Prince’s NPG Music Club in 2001, and this is kind of a compilation of those songs. According to the Wikipedia page, some of these songs were slightly different in their exclusivity days than they are now, but there’s no way of knowing for someone like me who wasn’t around to download them back then. The Slaughterhouse is more rap-oriented than The Chocolate Invasion, which in turn, means I end up liking it less. Not that all his rapping is bad, I quite like “Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This?”, but it’s just not what Prince does best. “Hypnoparadise” is also an interesting house-inspired track from Prince that I wouldn’t expect, but besides that, it’s once again business as usual for Prince, just more rap-oriented.
29. The Chocolate Invasion (2004)
This is the first of two albums that serve as compilation albums from the early 2000s era of Prince. With the invention and popularity of the internet, Prince created a community called the NPG Music Club. The idea was to take out the middleman between Prince and his fans. When it started in 2001, paying a certain price would entail you to three new songs from Prince every single month! Now, putting exclusive content behind a paywall sounds fairly normal now, but in the early 2000s, there wasn’t anybody doing this. Prince was the first artist of his size to go direct to consumers through the Internet. So this album, released in 2004, was almost entirely part of those “three songs a month” that were released in 2001 exclusively through the website. In fact, The Chocolate Invasion album itself wasn’t released outside of the website until 2015. Now, is the music good, yeah. It’s ten more Prince songs. I especially like the sprawling “Judas Smile” and the kind-of adorable “Supercute”.
28. Lotusflow3r (2009)
This was released as a three disc project bundled with MPLSound and the debut album from his new protege, Bria Valente. Lotusflow3r is one of Prince’s most guitar-heavy albums, and when he sticks to that aspect, the album is surprisingly entertaining. Parts like the second half of “Boom” and “Wall of Berlin” are borderline just walls of sound created from Prince’s guitars wailing away. One of the things you’ll notice on the first couple tracks is that Prince’s voice is slightly Autotuned. It’s not significant, but it’s enough that it throws me off each time I hear the album. When he drops the Autotune and focuses on the guitar, Lotusflow3r is pretty entertaining! “Dreamer” also might be one of Prince’s best songs of the 21st century!
27. Planet Earth (2007)
As I’ve learned with most Prince albums, the first song is a bit misleading. This time, it gives the impression that it might be an album about climate change and togetherness of humanity, but most of the songs ended up being pretty typical for Prince, both thematically and sonically. The final song on the album, “Resolution”, does also look into the themes of togetherness and discrimination that are on many people’s minds. But there are also back to back songs on here called “Future Baby Mama” and “Mr. Goodnight”, both of which include Prince being the eccentric, kind of creepy tycoon that he was. It's not always a side of Prince I want to be reminded of. Also as usual, there are quite a few straightforward jams on here though! “Guitar” is a love song where Prince says he’ll never love anyone like he does his guitar, whereas “Chelsea Rodgers” has this timeless, disco feel to it that shows Prince still has it. All in all, Planet Earth is a pretty solid late stage Prince album.
26. Emancipation (1996)
This came out directly after Prince separated from Warner Brothers. After going through years of annoyance, being artistically limited, and literally changing his name (it’s still changed until 2000); this occasion called for a celebration! So to celebrate him leaving, he decided to put out a 36-track, 3-hour triple album. As expected with an album of this length, there are both good and middling tracks. “The Holy River” is a classic, seven-minute Prince anthem that shows him doing some great guitar work. It’s then immediately followed by a track with only Prince and his piano and bass, and it’s wonderful to hear him on something so stripped back. “The Human Body” might be the most interesting track on here. Is it the best track? Nope. But it’s Prince on a house beat, which is not something I expected to hear. It sounds closer to a rave than it does a dancefloor. Still, there’s a lot of fascinating music to dive into here, even if all 36 songs aren’t great.
25. Come (1994)
This is one of the most middling albums from the Purple One. Objectively, it’s still a good album. There are more hits than misses, but for someone with the talent and skill of Prince, that doesn’t mean much. Even the songs that aren’t that good, have good moments. For example, the title song is eleven minutes long and has a good groove, but the sexual overtones are too much for me. The main highlight from this album for me is “Loose!” It’s a wild party track with plenty of industrial moments that don’t feel like much else Prince has done before. Overall though, this album isn’t notable in the Prince catalog.
24. Music from Graffiti Bridge (1990)
This came directly after the Batman album, so this is his second straight album made entirely for a soundtrack. Except this time, it was made for his own movie instead of someone else’s. This is the first album of Prince’s where he has other artists’ songs on the album. There are songs by The Time, Tevin Cambell, Mavis Staples, and George Clinton on Graffiti Bridge. The album also consisted of songs written over the past decade and was over an hour long. If it’s not clear by now, this album is inconsistent. There are plenty of good songs in the tracklist, but there are also some of Prince’s most meh moments of his career up to this point.
23. Musicology (2004)
This is held up as a return to form for Prince, and while I like it, I think it’s more of a return to his usual style more so than a return to form. To put it in context, this album was his first “normal” album in half a decade, and if we ignore Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic since it’s kind of middling, it had been nearly a decade since a really good album of stereotypical Prince music. So while going through his whole discography in a few months, Musicology doesn’t stand out too much, I can understand how people really loved it at the time. And don’t let this seemingly negative description fool you, Musicology is really good! “Cinnamon Girl” is as close to a Prince hit as we’ve gotten in a long time, and the ballad “Call My Name” shows that Prince can still sing. Overall though, I just wouldn’t personally listen to this album over most of his classics, and the sonic differences aren’t wide enough to make me need to revisit it. Who knows though, maybe when I’m not Prince-d out in a couple years, I’ll come back to this album and go from really liking it to in love with it!
22. Batman (1989)
Did you know Prince did a full soundtrack for a Batman movie? If you were around in 1989, you probably did. The album topped the Billboard charts for six consecutive weeks, so it seems like this was fairly successful. But as someone who wasn’t around in the 80s, imagining Prince doing an album for Batman two years after Sign o’ the Times is wild. Now, is the album any good? Sure, it’s good. I especially like the minimalistic and darker than usual funk from Prince on the opener, “The Future”. I know “Batdance” went to number one, but I don’t get why the song was so popular, it’s not very good. There’s also a cool ballad on here with Sheena Easton that I could see many people loving. Still, considering it’s a movie soundtrack, this album is pretty solid.
21. The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (1999)
This was the final Prince album on Warner Brothers. At this point, he had already put out three projects outside of Warner Brothers; they had just decided not to release this collection of tracks for a few years since Prince oversaturated the market with triple album after triple album. These are just 10 tracks that Prince gave to the label to fulfill the final album of his contract, and while they do just feel like afterthoughts, they’re pretty enjoyable afterthoughts! Most of the songs on here are a bit more laid back than most of his material, and they include a lot more jazz and blues influences. Songs extend for multiple minutes of piano and bass solos where there usually are guitar solos. “5 Women” is a big highlight on the album, especially because it’s another example of Prince showing he could’ve made a fantastic blues musician if he wanted to! “There Is Lonely” was originally written for a movie until it got shelved, but the two-minute ballad is still gorgeous and doesn’t overstay its welcome, especially for how underwritten it is. The Vault is another example of how even when Prince is putting together throwaway albums, it’s still pretty good.
20. The Black Album (1994)
This was originally supposed to come out in 1987. It was made with the intention to win back his Black audience after he felt like he had abandoned them after his more accessible material was released. This album was supposed to be dark, funk opus, but it must’ve been too dark for Prince, who called off the release merely weeks before the album was supposed to be released. He called it “evil” and vowed it would never be released. Well, it was bootlegged heavily in 1988, and it spread so far even people like Bono were talking about it at the time. The album was actually released at the end of 1994 by Warner Brothers while they were feuding with Prince. It was also only available for a month and a half, before the album was pulled from stores again. Now, when it comes to the music, it’s actually fairly tame. It’s definitely more abstract than his other material, but not every weird decision feels like a good one. The parody rap song and the song where he’s talking to his conscious feel like weird decisions, but there are still moments of funk awesomeness throughout the rest of the tracks! Still though, the album is definitely worth a listen, even outside of the extensive lore behind it.
19. [Love Symbol] (1992)
This is the beginning of the ever famous “Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol” era. He hadn’t officially changed his name yet, but this album is officially titled as that symbol. It wasn’t until 1993 that he would change his name to the symbol. Now, the album itself is another long winded, but mostly successful, endeavor. There is still some rapping on here from New Power Generation member Tony that I don’t like, but pretty much everything else on here is enjoyable on some level. You can listen to “Blue Light”, which is Prince successfully experimenting with putting reggae into his music. There is also the clear “Bohemian Rhapsody” wannabe “3 Chains O’ Gold”. It’s obviously not as good as the Queen epic, but hearing Prince try to create a song that epic is enjoyable. At 75 minutes, there’s no arguing it’s too long, but as usual, there are more than enough enjoyable and subtly unique tracks to make the album enjoyable!
18. Plectrumelectrum (2014)
This album was released as a full album collaboration with Prince’s new band, 3rdeyegirl. This all-female band hasn’t done anything before or since, but their presence is felt on here. There are even some tracks where they take the lead vocals and Prince is in the background. Still though, this is a little return to a version of Prince that I really like, which is more guitar and rock oriented tracks! It’s a pretty straightforward funk-rock album, and even the couple times where they deviate from that, it gets worse. “Boytrouble” is the biggest example, which features multiple rap verses from featured artists, one of them being Lizzo. Yes, Lizzo is on a Prince song. Besides this one hip-hop falter, the rest of the album is nothing besides psychedelic funk-rock jams! If I had to pick one, “Marz” is probably the single highlight from the album! The song is under 2 minutes, but the frantic track almost has punk energy to it, and Prince’s lyrics about social inequality still hit hard. For a late era-Prince album, I thought this was pretty good!
17. Chaos and Disorder (1996)
This was Prince’s final album with Warner Brothers, and he reportedly said he completed it very quickly just so they could put something out to fulfill his contract. Even though by every metric, it sounds like Prince barely tried on here, it’s actually a pretty awesome album! Chaos and Disorder is more rock and guitar focused than his previous albums, and even though he doesn’t push the sounds into uncharted territory, there’s no denying that most of these songs rock. The one-two punch of “The Same December” and “Right the Wrong” will have you dancing around the living room, and the six-minute “I Rock, Therefore I Am” has some fantastic guitar work towards the end! Don’t get my explanation twisted though, it’s not like all the additional guitar work makes the album sound like Jack White or anything, it’s still very much a Prince album through and through. But listening to it knowing that it was made mainly for a contractual obligation, but it still managed to be really good, is a testament to how amazing of a musician Prince was!
16. Controversy (1981)
This does feel a bit watered down for Prince, especially as he’s coming into his peak. Not that anything on here is bad, it’s all awesome, but there’s not much that will make this something to return to. He does have some incredible screams on here, especially on “Do Me, Baby”. The extended jam during the title track helps start this project out on the right track. I don’t want to make this sound negative because it’s not, just compared to what he would do in only the next couple years, it pales in comparison.
15. HITnRUN Phase Two (2015)
This is the very last Prince album, and it’s actually a return to form! I obviously don’t like it as much as any of his classic material, but after hearing a lot of his newer albums being full of synthesized instrumentals, hearing a full band behind him sounds refreshing! The opening song on here, “Baltimore”, is easily one of Prince’s best songs of this century! The song was written about police brutality, specifically about the murders of Freddie Gray and Michael Brown by police abuse. It doesn’t sonically sound angry, but you can feel the pain these needless deaths have caused him. I especially like the line, “Peace is more than the absence of war”. The rest of the album isn’t as political, but it keeps the same sonic palette. “Groovy Potential” is a fantastic jam that extends to over six minutes in length, and the slowjam “Loot at Me, Look at U” is also just as infectious. Maybe I was just happy to be done with all 39 albums, or maybe I’m just glad to have a more soulful, straightforward Prince album, but this album is fantastic!
14. For You (1978)
For You is the debut album from Prince, and even from the beginning, Prince had creative control of his process. He made every sound on this album himself, and it came out while he was a teenager! It’s clear from first listen that he’s going to be a legend in music, but the album definitely isn’t legendary. It’s an enjoyable experience, but knowing what he would create in only a few years only amplifies the amateur-ish nature of the album.
13. The Gold Experience (1995)
This was a step back in the right direction for Prince! Or should I say, back in the right direction for The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. This was in the middle of Prince’s feud with Warner Brothers and how he changed his name in order to try and get out of his record deal. So while a lot of albums he was dropping around this time were also supposed to help him get out of his deal, The Gold Experience seemed like it was the one he cared about the most, and it’s evident that was the case! “P Control” didn’t start out the record on a great note for me, but everything else on the record is fantastic! I especially love a lot of the slow jams on here, including the 7-minute “Shhh” and the vocal prowess that is “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World”. He also gets slightly political on “We March”, and jams out for multiple glorious minutes on “Billy Jack Bitch”. The Gold Experience shows that even seventeen albums into his career, he can still put out plenty of awesome material!
12. Lovesexy (1988)
This was originally supposed to be The Black Album’s release, but Prince had a spiritual awakening and decided that The Black Album was too satanic to be released. So instead, he released an album titled Lovesexy with him naked on the cover that is all about him choosing religion over sex. In a way, you could argue the themes of this album are similar to Kanye’s The Life of Pablo. “Anna Stesia” is the best example of this dichotomy, showing him starting off using sex as an escape method and ending while pleading to God for forgiveness. As for the rest of the album, it’s fairly Prince as usual. “Dance On” is a fantastic dance track, whereas “Alphabet St.” is another quality hit track from Prince. It’s impossible to smoothly transition out of your glory days, but if you take away the context of what it was released after, Lovesexy is still an enjoyable album!
11. One Nite Alone... (2002)
This might be the most straightforward album of his career. Almost the entire thing is just Prince and a piano. It’s wonderful to hear him just playing beautiful piano melodies. It’s as if Prince sat down in front of you and played for 35 minutes, and you joined in every once in a while for a subtle drum beat. Now, the songwriting on here is a bit lacking compared to his other instrumentally sparse album, The Truth, but there is no doubting the gorgeous piano playing on here! He does a wonderful cover of “A Case Of U” by Joni Mitchell from her classic album Blue on here though, which definitely helps make up for the non-top tier Prince songwriting that’s on the rest. The songwriting isn’t bad at all, it’s just not up to the iconic level that Prince established for himself. Still though, I would rather listen to One Nite Alone… much more than a lot of his projects just due to how unique and intimate it is for someone who notoriously was hard to pin down.
10. The Rainbow Children (2001)
Well, he’s finally back to him calling himself Prince again! Everything from the mid to late 1990s was released under his unpronounceable symbol, but The Rainbow Children was the first album from him released back under his own name. Prince took a hard turn with this album. While he had dabbled in jazz-fusion before, this is a full out jazz-fusion album. Sure, “1+1+1=3” isn’t that far from a usual Prince song, but everything else on here is unlike most of Prince’s music. The whole album is also tied together with this deep, basically unintelligible voice that bookends some of these songs, along with other seemingly random things for absolutely no reason, but I’m still more fascinated by this album than most of his later years! There are also four songs on here that are over eight minutes, which was nice to hear songs from him that have lush instrumentation. While going through 39 albums from Prince, I can’t dive too much into it right now, but The Rainbow Children is something I definitely plan on coming back to!
9. Diamonds and Pearls (1991)
This is kind of a return to form for Prince! It’s not as good as his classic material, but I love the luscious instrumentals and how Prince allows them to go on for a long time. Let’s just get the negative out of the way now, which is the rapping. Tony from The New Power Generation, which was Prince’s band at the time, does most of the rapping on here, and it just doesn’t live up to the quality of what should be on a Prince album. Prince’s relationship with rap music, as with most things, is contentious and changed multiple times throughout his life. Whatever it was, his ear for deciding when to include rappers and what rappers was just not it for this album. But if we take that aspect away, this is a fantastic album! My personal favorite track is “Strollin”. It feels like Prince’s version of a classic Sinatra-esque jazz song, and it goes down beautifully! I wonder what could’ve come if he made a full album with that sound. Still though, Diamonds and Pearls is an awesome Prince album that shouldn’t be overlooked.
8. The Truth (1998)
This originally came packaged with the Crystal Ball box set, so it didn’t get a lot of the shine it probably should’ve, but this is an almost completely acoustic project from Prince! After listening to this, I definitely wish that Prince did more in this sound because he sounds fantastic! Sometimes all of the sounds and similar sounding sonic palettes that he stays in overshadow the fact that Prince is an incredible musician and songwriter. The album starts off incredibly with the first four song run, and then when they start to add more sound effects, it becomes a bit more hit or miss. But even then, you still have songs like “Fascination”, “One Of Your Tears”, and “Man In a Uniform” that are fantastic acoustic guitar-led tracks! I guarantee that if you haven’t heard this album, it’s a new side of Prince that you’ve likely never heard before!
7. Prince (1979)
The self-titled album is definitely an improvement over his debut! Just like his debut, Prince played every instrument on here, which just makes everything that much more impressive! I really liked how he would just let the songs jam for multiple minutes. For example, listen to the first track. There is no reason that it needed to be almost six minutes long, but the instrumental jam on the back half of the track is perfect and helps elevate it to a new level! It’s not his best work, but this is pretty darn good.
6. Around the World in a Day (1985)
What are you supposed to do after making something as special as Purple Rain? The answer’s obvious, revisit The Beatles’s catalog. No matter what Prince says, there’s no doubt in my mind that he had Sgt. Pepper’s and The Lonely Hearts Club Band in his head while making this album. On one hand, look at the cover art. But also, the music on here throws back to the psychedelic themes and unique instruments that The Beatles used on that album. Now, this is still far from a recreation of that album, it merely feels like an influence. As with every album from this era, there are some incredible tracks! “Pop Life” seems like it should’ve been an immediate hit, whereas the beautiful ballads of “Condition of the Heart” and “The Ladder” are both stunning moments! The album does end with the 8-minute long track “Temptation” that goes full power rock ballad. And of course, I would be remissed if I didn’t mention the absolute smash hit that was “Raspberry Beret”. I don’t know if I would call this one a masterpiece, but it’s pretty close!
5. 1999 (1982)
I forgot just how horny this album is. Like, obviously it’s a masterwork of its time. The album starts off with “1999” and “Little Red Corvette” back to back, there’s no way this album could be anything less than great after that start! If for some reason you’re reading this and don’t know those two songs, stop reading now and go hear them. You also get to songs like “Lady Cab Driver”, which is sonically amazing, but it’s an eight minute song about Prince having sex with a cab driver. But, if you can get over how extremely sexual many songs on here are, it’s a full out party for 70 minutes! Everything Prince does sonically on here is catchy, and the grooves manage to be metallic and lush at the same time. Sure, the album does sound straight out of the 80s, but it’s albums like this that make Prince special!
4. Dirty Mind (1980)
This is 30 minutes of absolute fire! It only took until his third album to start making some incredible stuff! Prince elevated the previous disco elements of his first two albums with a handful of funk basslines and insanely catchy choruses. There is one ballad on the record, “Gotta Broken Heart Again”, but the rest of the album is nothing but funk-pop bangers! Obviously with the album being titled Dirty Mind, the lyrics on here are fairly explicit, but it would also be very easy to listen to the album and not pick up a single word he says because the grooves are that intoxicating!
3. Parade (1986)
This whole album is incredible, but the final three song stretch on here might be the greatest three song run in Prince’s entire career! There’s no secret that “Kiss” is one of the biggest hits Prince ever had! As soon as you hear that guitar lick, you know what’s about to happen, I don’t even need to explain it. “Anotherloverholenyohead” is a fantastic, straightforward jam that exemplifies both the musicianship and pop-sensibilities that Prince possessed in the 1980s, and how he could combine the two like no other. But then, we get to the final track, “Sometimes It Snows In April”. This nearly 7-minute piano ballad is easily one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard! Lyrically, it tells the story of a character in the eponymous movie that goes along with this album, but everything about the track sonically is gorgeous. I don’t even know what I can say about it, just go listen to it if you’ve never heard it. Outside of those three songs, the album is still incredible! It’s a soundtrack to a film Prince made of the same name, but as with Purple Rain, you don’t need to watch the movie to understand the album. A lot of the songs are shorter and almost film score-esque, which makes it a bit unique for his catalog. It’s an incredible project!
2. Sign o' the Times (1987)
This is a special album! Depending on the day, this could be my number one Prince album! The double album came at the end of his legendary streak, and it encompasses all of what Prince can offer! There are politically-charged tracks, pop anthems as big as any in his career, gorgeous and sexy ballads like only Prince could do, incredible straightforward-pop tracks, and even a nine-minute live performance of a new funk classic filled with call and response from the audience. The title track is an instant classic, with its straightforward funk groove! “The Cross” builds and builds over five minutes to a rock epic! It’s easily one of the most underrated songs in his entire career! The entirety of side 3 is beyond any description! You just need to hear it, if you haven’t already. The only even slight criticism about the album I can offer about the album is that side 2 is a bit slow depending on when you’re listening to it, but even those songs are still fantastic! Sign o’ the Times is an incredible album that is worth all the acclaim one could ever want! The average artist wouldn’t come close to ever making stuff like this, and it’s arguably not even Prince’s best album!
1. Purple Rain (1984)
C’mon, it’s Purple Rain, do I even have to say anything else? “Let’s Go Crazy” is one of the best Prince dance tracks, and works as an incredible opener to the album! “Take Me With U” and “I Would Die For U” are 80s pop perfection! “Darling Nikki” became so popular and was deemed so explicit that it was one of the main driving forces behind the parental advisory sticker being created. “The Beautiful Ones” is one of Prince’s all-time best vocal performances! On any normal album, “When The Doves Cry” would be the best song on any normal album, but then “Purple Rain” ends the album with nine minutes of pure bliss about the end of the world. This is one of the greatest albums of all time, so go listen to it again!
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