Tony T's appearances during this era haven't aged well, as Prince was notoriously suspicious of rap as a genre, overall (see also: The Black Album being pulled at the last minute), but I always equated the sheen with a majority of the tracks being cut in Japan during a run of dates for preparation of the following tour.Rayon Vert wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 4:04 pmFor me it is worse than Batman, and the first two have a lot of charm. Batman is flawed but it's Prince alone in the studio like most of his 80s stuff - when he started the live band sound it wasn't as good, especially with the rap-heavy stuff in 1991. Just the sound has a kind of metallic glossy sheen that's a putoff. The love symbol album is made in the same way but the songs are better and the ambition pulls it through.
The Batman album still works well for me, but I also grew up in that lean period of seeing Batman in theaters and anxiously awaiting the VHS release that seemed like a lifetime afterwards, recreating the film in my mind like a read-along storybook. Nowadays, I see it more as an homage to Sly Stone, if Sly ever was to create a whole LP for a major soon-to-be franchise release, but only had three of those songs actually appear in the film, as Prince did (& also had a Fairlight at his disposal). But whatever anyone says, "200 Balloons" absolutely smokes, especially as it turned up later on the WB-contractually fulfilling B-Sides comp.
Diamonds & Pearls was also my most-played Prince record, the one that I knew back-to-front, and I'm glad that the title track & "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" (with a video directed by Spike Lee) became staples in his live set for years to come. Hopefully the 30+ outtakes just won't be Tony T riffing for about an hour, but we'll see? All of the videos of this era were probably some of his best, and yes, I'm also including "Batdance".