Retroactive Review: Chaos and Disorder (1996)

It’s steadily becoming increasingly difficult to discuss the entirety of the backstory behind these albums, as Prince’s frenetic recording process led to many cancelled albums from 1994-1997. Playtime by Versace was a completely unknown album that resurfaced in July 2017 from a RRAuction by Michael Van Huffel1, who was Prince’s art director during this time, […]

Retroactive Review: The Gold Experience (1995)

Some call it his best album of the ’90s, and others claim the production ruined the appeal of the original compositions on this album. Wherever you stand on the matter, the level of care and respect Prince had in crafting and promoting The Gold Experience trumps everything else he worked on for Warner Bros. in […]

Retroactive Review: The Black Album (1994)

Context is everything, so when this record was released as a contractual obligation just 14 weeks after Come, we should have foreseen the dark days ahead. Peaking at #47 on the Top 200, it was Prince’s lowest-selling album since Dirty Mind stalled out at #43 on the same list 14 years prior. Where that album […]

Retroactive Review: Come (1994)

The spirituality of Lovesexy was hinted at in tracks on Graffiti Bridge, which to most fans would suggest since that drone at the end of “Positivity” was also at the end of “The New Power Generation (Pt. II),” and the two albums that featured the band named after that song sold just as well as the last […]

Retroactive Review: Love Symbol Album (1992)

We’ll have to return to numerology to explain the rather creative approach to Prince’s platinum-selling fourteenth studio album. I’m aware I run the risk of making myself sound like a crackpot, but if you’ve been following along since For You, then you’re probably a little loony as well. Regardless, 33 is considered a master number; […]

Retroactive Review: Diamonds and Pearls (1991)

Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years James Todd Smith proudly boasted on his smash hit “Mama Said Knock You Out”; released the year prior to Diamonds and Pearls worldwide release date of October 1st, 1991. The same could be said of Prince during the recording sessions for his thirteenth album. The […]

Retroactive Review: Graffiti Bridge (1990)

That front cover is an early ’90s cluttered aesthetic that became popular with late ’90s Pen & Pixel southern gangsta rap album covers. I have no idea what’s going on, and it kind of sums up the record as a whole. That vaunted run I definitely include the Batman soundtrack a part of? That ended […]

Retroactive Review: Batman (1989)

A big takeaway from my Sign o’ the Times review was the realization that Prince’s mindset and material recorded during this creative outburst sowed the seeds for the next decade of his career. These roots began to bloom just nine months later when he took the more passionate concepts from that stringent double album and released the […]

Retroactive Review: Lovesexy (1988)

30 years ago today, May 10, 1988, Prince released Lovesexy to the public1. However, this album was not the one Prince was originally going to release, as various bootlegs of The Black Album nearly everyone possessed clearly attested2. A rare, one-time ecstasy trip gone bad is credited with curbing The Purple One’s enthusiasm on the […]

Retroactive Review: Sign o’ the Times (1987)

Released in the U.S. exactly one year after its predecessor1, Sign o’ the Times is an absolute fucking masterpiece. Peaking at #6 on Billboard’s Top 200 around five weeks after it was released, achieving platinum status just two months after that, Sign o’ the Times demonstrates the raw power music can have on an audience. […]

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Essays for Intellectuals

Prince