Artist – Album: Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain
Released: 25th
June 1986
Sounds Like: Prince’s crowning glory
In Purple Rain the film, "The
Kid" (Prince) is a damn good musician but also a bit of a douche. He has a
band which is close to mutiny and a relationship in which he has become jealous
and abusive. A couple of his bandmates cut an instrumental demo called ‘Slow Groove’ that the Kid is a bit meh
about. A dodgy performance of ‘Computer
Blue’ at the club only makes things worse and the Kid is in a bit of a
state when he heads home to find that his father is down in the basement attempting to shoot himself.
Naturally the Kid takes to his piano and sorts out ‘Slow Groove’. Back to the club, everyone’s keeping out of the Kid’s
way. He gets on stage, but doesn’t initially do anything for a while. Finally,
he announces that they’re going to perform a new song by his bandmates. It
turns out that he’s turned ‘Slow Groove’ into
‘Purple Rain’, and everyone loves it.
His father gets better in hospital, he patches things up with his girlfriend,
and they all live happily ever after.
But nobody really cares
about the film...
In Purple Rain the
soundtrack album, the kid Prince is a damn good musician. Combining typically
Prince genres like funk and R&B with more ambitious styles such as pop,
soul and rock, the album is the pinnacle of the little genius’ career. Despite being a huge commercial
success – it boasts two US no. 1s in ‘When
Doves Cry’ and ‘Let's Go Crazy’
and has gone platinum a whopping 13 times over – the album is also refreshingly
experimental. ‘When Doves Cry’ is the
first one people talk about, with its stunning spacey gospel funk, but there’s
also the psychedelic pop of ‘Take Me With
U’, the metallic soul of ‘Computer
Blue’ and the epic rock of ‘Purple
Rain’. On the infamously sexual ‘Darling
Nikki’ he also pushes the boat out lyrically. Every song promises something
new and special.
Little wonder then that this is the
Purple Rain that people care about.
Albumaday... rating:
9/10
1. Let’s
Go Crazy – 4:39
2. Take
Me with U – 3:54
3. The
Beautiful Ones – 5:13
4. Computer
Blue – 3:59
5. Darling
Nikki – 4:14
6. When
Doves Cry – 5:54
7. I
Would Die 4 U – 2:49
8. Baby
I’m a Star – 4:24
9. Purple
Rain – 8:41
Listen to ‘I Would Die
4 U’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li9ffoLxNqk
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