What's your favourite Prince album of the 90s??

Rave or Emancipation.

Both underrated by the general public and fanbase alike.

Rave by rights should’ve been huge. The Greatest Romance Ever Sold was, imo, his last truly great single. It got a shit-tonne of airplay in the UK back in ‘99, but Arista fucked up by putting too many remixes on the single making it eligible for chart entry, meaning the only sales that counted were import sales. Similarly, they fucked up the album release as well, by including a free poster or some shit, hence why it didn’t chart at all. A colossal fuck up by all involved.

But musically speaking, Rave was a fine album. Eye Love U But Eye Don’t Trust U Anymore is worth the price of admission alone, surely one of the most autobiographical and gut-wrenching pieces of music Prince has put to wax. And then you have Man O War, a fine Prince ballad with a lead guitar solo that pierces you right in the heart. Wherever U Go Whatever U Do is another song that should’ve been a huge hit. I could easily imagine this getting played at weddings and first dances the world over. It’s such a gorgeous song with a universal appeal, that could just as easily be written about the love of a friend or a child as it could a lover (as it stands, I always believed it to be his parting words to Mayte).

As for Emancipation, the sheer breadth and ambition of the record is just staggering. The trouble is, when you release a 36 track triple album, it’s very easy for people to be dismissive or not give the material the same time as they would if he’d of put out just another regular 12 track album. But make no mistake, there’s some incredible work on all three discs and even the albums lesser cuts have their charm. Both Face Down and The Holy River would make my top 20 all time favourite Prince songs. And then you have gems like In This Bed Eye Scream, Joint 2 Joint, New World, The Human Body and The Love We Make, which are all arguably amongst the best songs he recorded in the 90s.

And some of those songs he wrote for Mayte are truly beautiful. Is there a song more romantic than Friend, Lover, Mother, Sister/Wife? If there is, I haven’t heard it.

I don't have them all, but of the ones I do own I like Gold and Diamonds & Pearls. Not so keen on the Symbol album or what I remember of Emancipation (been a long time since I've listened to that).

Diamonds And Pearls.

Thunder
Cream
Gett Off

They're my favorite songs of his to listen to in the car.

Diamonds & Pearls is, imo, his weakest album, not just of the 90s, but of his entire output.

Drugs are bad.

I really enjoyed this the other day. I like this album. 

The Gold Experience by a long shot - this album is nothing but brilliance.

P control, Endorphinmachine, Shh!, TMBGITW, Dolphin, Now, 319, Billy Jack Bitch, Eye hate U and Gold are just all perfection.

Then consider what did not go on - 18 and Over, Acknowledge me and of course DAYS OF WILD

This album was a rare moment of clarity in a patchy decade. Seriously to those of u who r doubters, just turn it up and listen to it - this music is just excellent, it is a great sound and it has never dated in my eyes. It is his Purple Rain/SOTT for the 90s.

Diamonds and Pearls is a good 2nd choice and may be first if it wasn't for Jughead and Push, I know some of you are saying, poppy trend chasing garbage, but this album made me a Prince fan, right at the time Dangerous dropped too - so you know it was powerful.

Lovesymbol is right up there too, with the sublime Damn U, 7, Love 2 the 9s and the Morning Papers

Come is pretty good too - Space, Pheromone and Dark are all first rate. Letitgo is a really good pop cut.

Emancipation has some excellent single songs, but goes on too long, has some fillers and some hideous rapping. Still it has the Love we make, The Holy River and One of us on it, plus some of Prince's singing is so heartfelt and tender.

Chaos and Disorder is decent rock, but ruined by the shitty I rock there for I am, Still I like it there, Dinner with delores, Zannalee and Into the light/I will are good tracks.

Graffiti Bridge overall is a very good album, but ruined by the guest songs and I would put it 4th, but even though its 90, the best bits are songs he wrote in the late 80s - so I really consider it an 80s album and don't really compare it with his 90s stuff sorry.

Rave is very patchy, but has some good cuts like Strange But True, TGRES and So far so pleased amongst others.
NPS and the Vault are very forgettable.

I know you banned it, but the Hits song - Pink Cashmere is nice and it helps it was cut originally in 1988 for the Anna Fantastic project.

The NPG albums, Newpowersoul and Exodus are barely listenable, but have moments (Get Wild, The Good Life, Come on and the One are all great)
Goldnigga is an acquired taste and just bad rap, being a Michael Jackson site I would not reccommend it, even some Pirnce heads don't like it.

Crystal Ball is hard as so much of it is 80s stuff and the 80s stuff is brilliant, some of the 90s remixes are not, but the stand up 90s cuts are things like Days of Wild and She gave her angels, 18 and over is great too, Acknowledge me, Love sign and even so dark are worth the Price of admittance alone. But I can't really count it in the main group as it is a collection of unreleased cuts. I would give it a 9½ for the 80s stuff, but happy with an 8 for the 90s stuff. Even tho this is the MJ fan club here, I would buy this set if you ever saw one for sale. The song Crystal Ball from 1986 will seriously blow your socks off!

The Truth - complete meh, a bit angry and silly - never got into and missing the point. Kamasutra is a self indulgent experiment, bad elevator muzak at best.
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Scores
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1. Gold Experience - 9½/10
2. Diamonds and Pearls - 8½/10
3. Love Symbol - 8/10
4. Come - 8/10
5. Emancipation - 7/10
6. Chaos and Disorder - 7/10
7. Rave - 6/10
8. Vault - 5/10
9. NPS - 4/10

Others
1. The Hits/Bsides - 8½/10
2. Graffiti Bridge - 8/10
2= Crystal Ball - 8/10
3. The Beautiful Experience EP - 7/10
4. The Undertaker - 7/10
5. Exodus (NPG) - 3/10
5= The Truth - 3/10
6. Kamasutra - 0/10
6. Goldnigga - 0/10

90s Prince is always fun for me, and I will probably return to this thread. It is sad though that 90s Prince was nowhere as consistent as 90s Michael Jackson, because 90s MJ was just as great as 80s MJ, whereas 90s Prince I feel was not on the level of 80s Prince.