I am doing a deep dive into the work of the musical artist Prince. Each week until December I will post my thoughts on albums released by Prince (and his bands and side projects) focusing on one year of his career.
This week is the first time we’ll see Prince release multiple albums in the same year, something that will be more common as we go along. In 1987, Prince released his first double album, Sign “☮︎” the Times. But the always productive Prince also worked on the side project Madhouse, a jazz fusion band that released two albums, 8 and 16, in the same year.
Album: Sign “☮︎” the Times
Artist: Prince
Release Date: March 30, 1987
Label: Paisley Park | Warner Bros.
Favorite Tracks:
- Sign O’ The Times
- Housequake
- The Ballad of Dorothy Parker
- Starfish and Coffee
- Hot Thing
- U Got The Look
- If I Was Your Girlfriend
- I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man
- It’s Gonna By A Beautiful Night
Thoughts:
Sign “☮︎” the Times is the Prince album that has always been highly-acclaimed by the critics. For the longest time, I didn’t like it as much as Prince’s earlier albums, but over the years I’ve really warmed up to it. I guess the critics were right all along.
I have mixed feelings about the title track which has an excellent stripped down groove, but lyrically is just a list of bad things happening. It’s more reactionary than socially conscious. The album has a lot of all-time classics including “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” “Starfish and Coffee,” “If I Was Your Girlfriend”, and “I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man” but there are no duds. “U Got The Look,” Prince’s duet with Sheena Easton was the song with the constant airplay in 1987. I’ve always liked Prince’s high-pitched alien voice and “the World Series of love” line, especially when Prince’s hometown Minnesota Twins ended up winning the World Series of baseball that season.
Rating: ****1/2
Album: 8
Artist: Madhouse
Release Date: 1987
Label: Paisley Park | Warner Bros.
Thoughts:
Madhouse was Prince’s jazz fusion side project with saxophonist Eric Leeds. Prince obviously picked up jazz influences from his father John L. Nelson, a jazz pianist and composer. But then again Prince was also just curious about exploring different styles of music. The tracks on this album are all instrumental and titled by their sequence “ONE,” “TWO,” “THREE,” et al. up to “EIGHT.” Although Prince and Leeds were the only musicians on the album, publicity for the album created fictional band members. Today this album and the next one appear to be out of print and very expensive on resale markets. The only place I could find the Madhouse albums streaming was on YouTube.
Rating: ***
Album: 16
Artist: Madhouse
Release Date: 1987
Label: Paisley Park | Warner Bros.
Thoughts:
The first Madhouse album had a cool jazz sound, which is not one of my favorite genres, but definitely better in the hands of Prince and Eric Leeds. The second album has a looser, funkier vibe and features jams by Prince and Leeds as well as Sheila E. on drums, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass guitar, and Dr. Fink on keyboards. The tracks also feature samples and dubs which kind of sound like the groundwork for the more experimental music Prince created for the Batman soundtrack (I guess I’ll verify in a couple of weeks when I listen to that album). Madhouse recorded a third album called 24, however it never received an official release so I won’t be reviewing it for this project.
Rating: ***1/2
| For You | 1978 | *** | |
| Prince | 1979 | ***1/2 | |
| Dirty Mind | 1980 | **** | |
| Controversy | 1981 | **** | |
| 1999 | 1982 | Prince and the Revolution | ***** |
| Purple Rain | 1984 | Prince and the Revolution | ***** |
| Around the World in a Day | 1985 | Prince and the Revolution | **** |
| Parade | 1986 | Prince and the Revolution | **** |
| Sign “☮︎” the Times | 1987 | ****1/2 | |
| 8 | 1987 | Madhouse | *** |
| 16 | 1987 | Madhouse | ***1/2 |
| Lovesexy | 1988 | ||
| Batman | 1989 | ||
| Graffiti Bridge | 1990 | ||
| Diamonds and Pearls | 1991 | Prince and the New Power Generation | |
| Love Symbol | 1992 | Prince and the New Power Generation | |
| Goldnigga | 1993 | The New Power Generation | |
| Come | 1994 | ||
| The Black Symbol | 1994 | ||
| The Gold Experience | 1995 | ||
| Exodus | 1995 | The New Power Generation | |
| Chaos and Disorder | 1996 | ||
| Emancipation | 1996 | ||
| Kamasutra | 1997 | The NPG Orchestra | |
| Crystal Ball | 1998 | ||
| The Truth | 1998 | ||
| Newpower Soul | 1998 | The New Power Generation | |
| The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale | 1999 | ||
| Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic | 1999 | ||
| The Rainbow Children | 2001 | ||
| One Nite Alone… | 2002 | ||
| One Nite Alone… Live! | 2002 | ||
| Xpectation | 2003 | ||
| N-E-W-S | 2003 | ||
| Musicology | 2004 | ||
| The Chocolate Invasion | 2004 | ||
| The Slaughterhouse | 2004 | ||
| C-Note | 2004 | ||
| 3121 | 2006 | ||
| Planet Earth | 2007 | ||
| Indigo Nights | 2008 | ||
| Lotusflow3r/MPLSound | 2009 | ||
| 20Ten | 2010 | ||
| Plectrumelectrum | 2014 | with 3rdeyegirl | |
| Art Official Age | 2014 | with 3rdeyegirl | |
| HITnRun Phase One | 2015 | ||
| HITnRun Phase Two | 2015 |
Panorama of the Mountains 