ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Purple Rain - Prince

 I am back, belatedly, with another review for you. And this time, I have ended up in great luck. Purple Rain has a partly sentimental value to me at this point in my life. An original pressing of Purple Rain came into the store, and it became the first vinyl I ever took home. I did not even have a way to play it at the time, I just wanted to have it after I played it. And if you have not heard this album on vinyl, you should. The audio quality just brings everything out better than the CD ever does. It doubles as the soundtrack of the Prince movie of the same name, and is considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time in the modern day. 

The album begins with "Let's Go Crazy", which has a fantastic spoken introduction that leads into the song itself. It makes you think of some anthem to a high school sitcom in a way. It just gets you right in the mood for something exciting.

"Take Me With U" is a fun sort of go along song. Just some nice cheeky romance that really blends well from going from the title track to it.

I absolutely love the bridge to "The Beautiful Ones". The song is slower than the first two but really builds up to that climatic bridge. It makes it hit so much harder.

The cohesion of this album allows you to get lost in each track, but there's enough variation to keep you interested. "Computer Blue" really plays with the experimental side of the album a bit more instrumentally. I love the instrumentation of it.

"Darling Nikki" was a bit of a different song even for Prince. It is interesting the harder flare he gave to it. Also the lyrics are very sensual and reference some very explicit things right within the first verse. The uniqueness of the track stands out a lot.

"When Doves Cry" obtains some bias because personally I think this is my favorite Prince song. The song really captures a lot of emotions, including the natural fear we may have of failing in ways we've already seen those closest to us fails. 

"I Would Die 4 U" is probably my least favorite track on the album, it just does not stand out the same way. Nevertheless, it is still a good choice of shift from "When Doves Cry", as it seems he is begging her to stay now. 

"Baby I'm a Star" is a good song, but my only conflict is I feel like it doesn't fit into the narrative of the album lyrically. While most of the album seems to discuss love and dealing with internal demons, this song seems like something that should be playing over the credits. 

The album closes with "Purple Rain", possibly his most well-known ballad and a powerful closer. The title itself seems somewhat ambiguous what it means, but Prince considered purple to have apocalyptic sort of meanings. Blue and red in the sky together make purple, so he intended the song to reference the death of the old self or world and renewal into a new one, holding onto someone till the end of the world. Sounds even more powerful now.

Lyrics: 8/10 - The lyrics were mostly very well written and definitely evoke some story telling and emotions.

Music: 9/10 - Music stands out, the album is cohesive but not so cohesive it sounds like one unit. 

Overall: 9/10 - A very prominent and powerful album, it deserves all of the accolades it receives.