gold chaos

it took more than a year for the gold experience to come out. prince performed songs from the album's original incarnation on american t.v. while butting heads with warner bros. over its release. he premiered "interactive" (which was later released on 1997's crystal ball) and "endorphinmachine" on the vh1 honors program in 1994. he also performed "dolphin" on the late show that same year, as well as several other songs that didn't make the final cut, on soul train and the american music awards. "319" and "ripopgodazippa" (officially released on crystal ball) showed up in the showgirls movie.

"the most beautiful girl in the world"--prince's biggest commercial hit under the symbol moniker--was originally released on bellmark records, stax legend al bell's label. there were several versions of the song on the beautiful experience ep, another project that was released before it found a home on an actual album. it's almost as if warner bros. tried to cash in on the song, too, trying to make the rest of the gold experience as commercial as "the most beautiful girl in the world." the result was an album that was overproduced and undermarketed. the gold experience had undergone so many changes by the time warner bros. released it, it was too polished and not as grimy as its original form--not even as spectacularly dark as come.

there are some great moments on it, though: the poetry of "shy" and "dolphin;" michael bland's sick drum work and prince's thunderous guitar on "shhh" and "eye hate u;" everything about "p control" which is the best feminist anthem since...ever; and the great fishbone sample on "billy jack bitch." however, the lackluster political statement and misuse of nona gaye's vocals on "we march" and "gold," which was just a boring, half-hearted attempt on prince's part to outdo "purple rain," make the gold experience anticlimactic, especially after more than a year of waiting for it. the unnecessary segues are a pain, too, especially when trying to import songs like "eye hate u" and "billy jack bitch" to itunes.

one of the best things to emerge from the gold experience project is the "eye hate u" maxi-single, which has a great remix on which prince makes some humorous forrest gump references.

chaos and disorder is another example of a bunch of prince songs being put together for an album, but in this case it seems to work better because it's imperfect and some of prince's best work is often found in the imperfections. the songs are short and bittersweet and most importantly, rosie gaines is back! she saves the title track, as well as "i rock therefore i am," and keeps the back-to-back ballads, "into the light" and "i will" from being too melodramatic. the album would've been an ideal, 10-song prince album if "right the wrong" wasn't included. other than that, it's garage band prince on his continued FU crusade against the record industry status quo.

if nothing else, this album can be appreciated for three reasons: the joni mitchell-inspired "dinner with delores" (his songs with names in the titles are always winners, see "the ballad of dorothy parker" [sign 'o the times, 1987] "lolita" [3121, 2006] and "zannalee," also on chaos and disorder), the album-ender "had u" and "i like it there" which has one of the best lyrics on which prince sings, "do you know how much i love you? more than i love my hair!"