Prince

DISCOGRAPHY

For You (1977) 4/10

Prince (1979)  4/10

Dirty Mind (1980) 6.5/10

Controversy (1981) 5/10

1999 (1982) 7/10

Purple Rain (1984) 7/10 +

Around the World in a Day (1985) 6.5/10

Parade (1986) 5/10

Sign o' the Times (1987) 7/10

Black Album (1987) 5.5/10

Lovesexy (1988) 5/10

Batman (1989) 4/10

Graffiti Bridge (1990)

Diamonds & Pearls (1991) 5/10

O(+> (Love Symbol Album) (1992) 6/10

Come (1994) 6/10

Gold Experience (1995)

Chaos and Disorder (1996)

Emancipation (1996)

Crystal Ball (1998)

New Power Soul (1998)

Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale (1999)

Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)

Rainbow Children (2001) 6.5/10

N.E.W.S. (2003) 5.5/10

Musicology (2004) 4/10

3121 (2006)

Planet Earth (2007) 5/10

20Ten (2010)

Art Official Age (2014) 4/10

   Albert Magnoli would direct a semi-biographical film about the dance/funk/rock scene spearheaded by Prince would become the root inspiration for the album of the same name, Purple Rain. 

   First I'll discuss the film: It's a poorly-written and poorly-performed musical drama that panders to the popularity of Prince. It has a few funny scenes, it has a naked lady in it, you get to see Prince abruptly slap his partner without apology, and contemplate suicide. It sensationalizes things we already knew about Prince's lifestyle and cuts the story short before it got anywhere insightful. 

   It's not good. It's really, really not good. 

   Now I'll discuss the album: It's good. It's really, really good. 

    Aside from having zero filler, the variety of arrangements keep each song refreshing. The opener Let's Go Crazy is perhaps the best of his career, a suite of synth, funk, and glam rock to a danceable rhythm. 

   Ever ambitious, Prince would take on the director's chair for his next musical film, Under the Cherry Moon, for which Parade would act as the soundtrack. 

    The cinematography is somewhat impressive — although much of it seems suspiciously derivative of Fellini, at times almost plagiarist. The writing is a hodgepodge of boring plotpoints, shallow romance, and pervasive comedic exchanges that are not always tonally appropriate. However, Prince's overacting and downright violently forceful kissing is its own form of ironic entertainment. 

   Like Purple Rain, it isn't really the best showcase of the album's music, but as a film, I'd say it's superior to the former due to its sheer style. 

   A unique live video for Sign o' the Times would be Prince's best directorial achievement. It would essentially blend fictional cuts and overdubs to create a bizarrely cinematic concert experience, including a short (albeit poorly made) dramatic scene at the start, which would follow the girl involved straight into Prince's stage as one of the dancers. 

   In the production of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, I imagine a crew member said, "I've been thinking, besides Danny Elfman's eerie scoring, the bleak and Gothic visuals, and Burton's mature storytelling, ya know what this film needs? Some hypersexual disco-funk!" 

   Like Purple Rain, it's best that any affiliations to the album's inspiration be ignored -- except for Purple Rain it was because the music was so much better than the movie; for Batman it's the opposite. Burton's movie is so much better than the music, and in fact some of the lyrics in the album commit a direct disservice to the film, misusing samples of dialogue to depict the three main characters (Bruce Wayne, Vicki Vale, Joker) as sex-crazy narcissists (surrogates of Prince, basically). 

   I'm thankful how little Prince's music actually appears in the movie. Prince obviously had a limited understanding of Burton's vision, which perverted the romantic subplot into the stuff Prince's writing always employs: sex and masturbation. 

   I suppose he attempts at being "serious" in the love litanies The Arms Of Orion and Scandalous, but even these tracks fall flat -- they sound like amateur retreads of The Beautiful Ones but elongated through slow rhythms that I guess were intended to build atmosphere. 

   But at least the album ends with a spectacle -- something so bad it's a delight: Batdance, a collage of audio snippets from the movie set to different beats. There's this hilarious bit where Michael Keaton's line is sampled, "She's great, isn't she?" and Prince comes in like "Ooh yeah~ Ooh yeah~ I wanna bust that body!~"

   The record has some novelty, but it's hard to digest in the midst of so much underwhelming dance-pop at the same time. 

   Again at the director's chair, Prince would make Graffiti Bridge, a clumsy sequel to Purple Rain. The Time would reprise their roles and contribute to the soundtrack. 

   Although the set designs are colorful and inspired, the film is badly-paced, poorly written, at times jumpy and incoherent, with bad performances and weaker music compared to the last two films. Yet much of the bizarre, laughably awkward choices in its production make it more entertaining in an ironic way. There is more blatant objectification of women, but of course it's all in the name of sensationalizing sex and hot bodies within Prince's horny vision. It is still not as irritating as the several scenes promoting his messiah complex, nor as stupid as the subplot of Prince being insecure that his music isn't appreciated when he's objectively one of the best-selling musicians of all time. 

   Inspired by the output of Janelle Monae, Art Official Age was more of Prince's self-indulgent production gimmicks set to the expected batch of generic disco-funk. 

   Granted, "generic" music under a talented producer can still be enticing. The album manages to stimulate between all the redundant beats and obligatory sex references: the groove of Breakfast Can Wait, the Mayfield-esque soul-tronica of The Gold Standard, the rhythmic piano in U Know, the distorted guitar licks in FunkNRoll. 

   But the end-all flop of the album is the "serious" interludes Affirmation I&II and III, in which a female doctor talks to Prince (Mr. Nelson) whom is stuck in an out-of-body experience. The dramatic tone coming in and out of these moments totally breaks the otherwise comfortable flow of the album as a dance record.

   At age 57, Prince Nelson would die from a painkiller overdose on April 21, 2016.

FILMOGRAPHY

Albert Magnoli: Purple Rain (1984) 4/10

Under the Cherry Moon (1986) 4.5/10

Sign o' the Times (concert, 1987)

Graffiti Bridge (1990) 3.5/10