Prince – 1999 (1982)
For the sake of keeping our chronological CAT streak going I figured I’d take a look at Prince’s 1982 release despite the fact that I already this CAT a while back. But that album’s not really a classic, while 1999 most certainly is, as well as the album that truly broke Prince through to the mainstream.
The album starts out about as strong as you could ask for with the fantastic singles “1999” and “Little Red Corvette”. Both of these songs provided Prince with his first bona fide hit singles and still stand as excellent examples of that early eighties synth-pop sound. The rest of this double album is filled with plenty of that same poppy goodness, despite the fact that many of the songs feature some pretty lengthy running times.
In a way the album represents Prince at his most intensely creative and adventurous. He plays every single instrument on the album, and manages to create a sound that still feels very musically dense. And just as on any of Prince’s best music, he manages to blend funk, dance, pop, and rock in a way that only the Purple One could do.
1999 also represents Prince at his most sexually charged, as pretty much every song seems to be about sex in one way or another and Prince makes no bones about it. But I guess it was this provocative nature as well as his incredible musical prowess that made him one of the biggest musical artists of the 1980’s.
Favorite Tracks: “Little Red Corvette”, “D.M.S.R.”, “Lady Cab Driver”