Prince cut his teeth playing and listening to rock as well as R&B;, and on For You, the debut cut when Prince was 20 (his bio trimmed two years off his age to make him appear even more of a prodigy), he leaned on light funk (the black-radio hit “Soft and Wet”), balladry (“Baby”), and R&B; b... 

 Not mentioned in AG. Here's the review: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/3045/21793 

 Dirty Mind remains one of the most radical 180-degree turns in pop history. Here, Prince flavored his rock with funk rather than the other way around, and the tinny keyboard hooks of the title cut, “Do It All Night,” and the outrageously great “When You Were Mine” owed plenty to new wave.... 

 Controversy pushed this direction further (“Sexuality,” “Jack U Off”), but also expanded his sonic palette with an increasing emphasis on synthesizers, although the best song is the most conventional: “Do Me Baby,” a gorgeous, piano-led love song that features what may still be his be... 

 1999 may be Prince’s most influential album: Its synth-and-drum machine–heavy arrangements codified the “Minneapolis sound” that loomed over mid-Eighties R&B; and pop, not to mention the next two decades’ worth of electro, house, and techno. The first half is all anthems: “1999,” “... 

 Which, as it turned out, was world domination. The movie was cartoonishly melodramatic, but the music of Purple Rain, made with his band the Revolution, remains the most accessible of Prince’s career. Guitar heroics? Check (“Let’s Go Crazy,” “Computer Blue,” “Purple Rain”). Plush ... 

 Around the World in a Day, released a scant ten months after Purple Rain, proved that, just in case you missed Dirty Mind, Prince would do things his way or not at all. And miss it you might, because most of Around the World feels like an exercise in pop-psychedelia instead of a full-fledged imme... 

 Luckily, Parade, the soundtrack to the dreadful Under the Cherry Moon, Prince’s second film, fitted a leaner, more finely polished psychedelia with a healthy shot of funk; cuts like the steel drum–happy “New Position” and the bushy-tailed “Mountains” were coy without cutesiness, and â... 

 A virtual who’s-who of great hip-hop producers contributed songs, as did Eminem and, in a thrilling move, Rick Rubin. Old-school and utterly modern, it showed Jay at the top of his game, able to reinvent himself at the right time, as if to cement his place in hip-hop’s legacy. 

 Sign O' the Times, made after the Revolution's breakup, remains his best album, the most complete example of his artistry's breadth, and arguably the finest album of the 1980s. The electroblues title hit was frequently identified as the source of the disc's tone, but mostly it... 

 In its place came Lovesexy, infuriatingly programmed as a single audio track on the CD version, which meant you had to take the bad (“Positivity,” the Black Album leftover “When 2 R in Love”) with the good (“Alphabet St.,” “I Wish U Heaven”). This set the tone for pretty much ever... 

 Following the sleepwalking Batman, Prince issued another bad movie with a good soundtrack, Graffiti Bridge, which is interesting primarily for its guest stars (Mavis Staples, the Time, a teenage Tevin Campbell) and for the fact that it now sounds as dated as the new-jack swing it apes. 

 Following the sleepwalking Batman, Prince issued another bad movie with a good soundtrack, Graffiti Bridge, which is interesting primarily for its guest stars (Mavis Staples, the Time, a teenage Tevin Campbell) and for the fact that it now sounds as dated as the new-jack swing it apes. 

 Diamonds and Pearls, on the other hand, aims at hip-hop with the addition of Tony M, a rapper who cannot rap. Its thick, cushy sound is also a blatant aim for commercial appeal that only occasionally hits its target, although when it does—“Cream,” “Gett Off,” the surprisingly biting “... 

 The Love Symbol Album sounds like Prince on autopilot, but that’s one reason it’s a rebound from the overthought and lifeless Diamonds and Pearls. (It’s also the last Tony M album, thank God.) It’s the true beginning of Prince’s second phase, in which his genre multitasking feels less l... 

 As for compilations, 1993’s three-disc The Hits/The B-Sides box is full of great music, but the sequencing could be sharper and the strict division between two discs of hits (also available separately) and one of B sides feels too neat to do his frequent tangents justice, while the single-disc ... 

 As for compilations, 1993’s three-disc The Hits/The B-Sides box is full of great music, but the sequencing could be sharper and the strict division between two discs of hits (also available separately) and one of B sides feels too neat to do his frequent tangents justice, while the single-disc ... 

 As for compilations, 1993’s three-disc The Hits/The B-Sides box is full of great music, but the sequencing could be sharper and the strict division between two discs of hits (also available separately) and one of B sides feels too neat to do his frequent tangents justice, while the single-disc ... 

 By now, the vast majority of his nonfervent followers were off the bus, and Prince decided he didn’t like his Warner Bros. contract anymore. Bad timing, guy. His next album, Come, was blatant contract-fulfiller, credited to “Prince 1958–1993,” but when he put out a single, “The Most Bea... 

 The Gold Experience occasionally tries too hard, but "P Control" is his funniest and therefore best rap excursion (hint: the P doesn't stand for "princess"), while "319" and "Billy Jack Bitch" successfully resurrect his Controversy-vintage synth sound. 

 How much it suffered tends to be exaggerated; while Chaos & Disorder, another contract-fulfiller, was obviously tossed off, its offhandedness has a frisky appeal, and it was sandwiched by a pair of more major works.  

 Emancipation, conceived long before Prince got out of his Warners contract and issued five months after Chaos, is surprisingly short on filler and features some of his most underrated songs: “In This Bed I Scream” harks back to the Revolution days, while the house beats of “Slave” and “... 

 Crystal Ball is three discs of interesting, sometimes great (“Crucial,” the prototype for Sign O’ the Times’ “Adore”) outtakes and rarities, plus an okay bonus acoustic album, The Truth.  

 The Vault…Old Friends 4 Sale is exactly what it sounds like: contractual obligation outtakes.  

 Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic is loaded with guest stars (Chuck D, Gwen Stefani, Ani DiFranco) and not one single interesting song. 

 Which doesn't mean it's worse than 2001's The Rainbow Children, which was sold with a sticker advertising it as "controversial," probably because no one had ever combined lite-jazz treacle with Jehovah's Witness dogma to such an unprecedented degree. That's not quite what... 

 One Nite Alone…Live! isn’t perfect, but some of the rearranged older material shines, and when Prince strolled back into public consciousness in early 2004, thanks to appearances at the Grammys and his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, his new good-guy stance was still trumped by his blaz... 

 Musicology isn’t quite the great comeback it’s claimed to be, but after nearly a decade in the wilderness, its solid groove and modest feel will certainly do.  

 3121 was even better: A short, sweet album that was more danceable than Musicology. Songs like the sinuous “Black Sweat”—which had a hip-hop-inflected beat that suggested that Prince had been listening to the Neptunes—sounds like the work of a sexy, pop professional, though on “Incense ... 

 Planet Earth, released not long after Prince’s triumphant performance at the Super Bowl, is a guitar-heavy album that’s nearly as good. Prince lays down big post-punk riffs on “Guitar”—key lyric: “I love you baby, but not like I love my guitar”—and turns in focused songs that incl... 

 MPLSoUND and LOtUSFLOW3R were part of a three-record set released on the same day (the third album, Elixir, starred Prince protĂ©gĂ© Bria Valente). LOtUSFLOW3R is the guitar album, with some great Prince solos but too many dull, mid-tempo songs such as “Love Like Jazz.”  

 MPLSoUND and LOtUSFLOW3R were part of a three-record set released on the same day (the third album, Elixir, starred Prince protĂ©gĂ© Bria Valente). LOtUSFLOW3R is the guitar album, with some great Prince solos but too many dull, mid-tempo songs such as “Love Like Jazz.” MPLSoUND isn’t much ...