The Gold Experience

Prince | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 26, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002N1E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,654 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #60 in Music > R&B > Funk > General
  • #90 in Music > R&B > Contemporary R&B

Track Listings

1. P Control

2. NPG Operator

3. Endorphinmachine

4. Shhh

5. We March

6. NPG Operator

7. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

8. Dolphin

9. NPG Operator

10. Now

11. NPG Operator

12. 319

13. NPG Operator

14. Shy

15. Billy Jack Bitch

16. Eye Hate U

17. NPG Operator

18. Gold

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Prince Rogers Nelson is the most talented musician of his generation, but he has often seemed strangely out of sync with his own time. Performing under the single name of Prince, he mixed European American and African American musics like few others in history. Yet his extravagant obsessions with sex, religion, and dance grooves made him a stranger in the strange land of rock & roll, while his melodic genius and instrumental virtuosity made him the odd man out in an R&B world dominated by programmed rhythm machines. Perhaps that's why Nelson abandoned the stage name of Prince and adopted an unpronounceable symbol as his nom de musique. The Gold Experience is Nelson's first full-length album released under his symbol moniker and it's his strongest work under any name since 1990's Graffiti Bridge. Less a new direction than a return to the hard-edged funk of 1987-88's Sign o' the Times and The Black Album, The Gold Experience is better than either of those albums because this time the stripped-down rhythms have been bolstered by lots of guitar. In other words, the most effective integrationist in pop music has married deep-groove funk to in-your-face rock guitar--without sacrificing his usual gift for melody and harmony. Nelson has long been one of the best guitarists around, but because his licks were usually buried deep in his thickened arrangements, his chops weren't always obvious. In the more open arrangements here, they're pretty hard to miss. With this raw music come some rather raw lyrics, counterbalanced by a genuinely romantic ballad and two gospel-rooted songs lamenting the current state of American society. --Geoffrey Himes

Product Description

Available again after being deleted for years! Originally re lesed in 1995. 12 tracks including 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thar be GOLD in that thar CD!, September 12, 2001

By 

Bruce Aguilar (Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gold Experience (Audio CD)

With this CD Prince declared not only was he back (well sort of, he was still called O(-+> then), but he was back with a vengance. The sounds on this CD just tear though you. It's loud and raccus and the best part is Prince is back to playing guitar! He's such a talented guitar player and it's terrific (and long overdue) to hear those talents featured once again.

The presentation of the music is set up to be like you're clicking your way through some cyber world, dipping into the various 'experiences'. A computer-like voice introduces the CD and is heard many times throughout along with keyboard punches and assorted beeps and blips. It's a great idea, but one that might ultimatley date the CD.

Fortunately the music included here will wipe out any bad taste left by the computer host. Things start off with a bang with the rocking 'P Control' and 'Endorphinmachine' before hitting the gentle groove of 'Shh'. 'We March' is a song about racism, that offers some interesting lyrics, but is probably the weakest song here. "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World' gets a much more guitar and drum based treatment than what was heard on the radio and 'Dolphin' is all about rebirth, transformation and reincarnation. 'Now' and '319' are so full of energy and immediacy, they drag you to the dancefloor and won't let go. 'Shy', 'Billy Jack Bitch' and 'I Hate U' form a trilogy of sorts. Telling the story of meeting a girl, falling for her and then the messy relationship that follws. It's raunchy, it's raw and it's pure heaven to hear! The CD closes with 'Gold' which is anthemic like 'Purple Rain' and 'The Holy River' but surpasses them in that it feels so urgent.

That's the one thing that stands out to me. This is an urgent sound. I've never heard Prince sound like this. It's a sound of such heartfelt energy that it just HAS to be heard, and it has to be heard NOW. It's an amazing experience. A GOLD experience. Don't miss out on it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His Best in the 90's, November 20, 2001

By 

J. M. Zuurbier (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gold Experience (Audio CD)

"Don't worry about my name, it's too long to remember," he raps on "Now," a rockin' hip-hop dance number that also directs us to not think too hard about the past. OK, we'll take the bait. The name doesn't matter, the persona doesn't matter, the reputation doesn't matter. Thefemale cyber-voice that shows up between several tracks on THE GOLD EXPERIENCE to narrate our trip through a faux-interactive world of various sensory experiences? Doesn't matter either.

This is all about music--adventurously funky ensemble music with a tighter-than-ever New Power Generation, psychedelically poppy studio music from within the man's ever-scheming head. Hip-hop-styled beats boom ("Now" has a grandstand-chant beat that Naughty By Nature would love), space-age keyboards squiggle (through big-beat numbers like "P Control"), and fuzz guitars grind out super-funky rhythms (like "Shy," which pays a debt to Sly Stone). Meanwhile, the man himself stretches his supple voice like an elastic band around falsetto soul, psychedelic rock and enough playful raps to convince you he finally actually believes in the stuff, making THE GOLD EXPERIENCE the most musically realized album what's-his-name has made in the NPG era.

In keeping with that symbol of his, which combines maleness and femaleness, THE GOLD EXPERIENCE salutes a gender that, in the past, this same certain someone often asked to bow down and salute him. It finally puts the devotional 1994 pop ballad "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" on a proper album. "P Control" pays respect to a strong, smart woman. And the album ends with "Gold," a soaring paean to personal growth and a rejection of nihilism in all its forms. This is Prince's gospel, and with its bright keyboard chords, acoustic-guitar rhythm and na-na-na ending, it may just be his"Hey Jude," too.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prince Or...Sorry O(-> Fans Will Be In For A Shock, June 6, 2006

By 

Andre S. Grindle "Andre' Grindle" (Brewer Maine) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gold Experience (Audio CD)

'The Gold Experience' was recorded during Prince's bitter feaud with Warner Brothers,in which he chose to begin referring to himself as O(-> (or the Artist Formerly Known As Prince).This was the first release credited only to that symbol,the first popular artist to refer to himself as something other then a written name.That indulgance aside this CD is a return to form from the rather lacking Prince albums just before.The same modern elements of hip-hop and harder rock are still there but more focused and well performed,not tacked on.The album itself plays like a computer program with every other of the 18 cuts being the voice of the NPG operator explaining the 'feel' of the upcoming song.'P Control' is one of the better examples of Prince being able to successfully integrate rap and hard funk and since both are presented in tough,driving fasion it works.Like much of the material here it is very politcal-in terms of music,race,sex and social status.This ends up basically being one half rock and another half funk.Of course "Endorphinmachine","Shh","We March" and the fabulous "Dolphin" are great rock songs-some poppier the some harder edged.Prince pulls some crazy guitar solo's and riffs out of left fiend and really commits himself to the music entirely.Of the funky tunes the ripping "319","Now",the haunting "Shy" and the back to basics "Billy Jack Bitch" all assault you with rhythm.The three most powerful songs are two fabulous epics-the rock hysteria of "Gold" and the soulful "Eye Hate U".The next one (and the biggest hit from the album) is the catchy ballad "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World"-it is very gentle,humane and beautiful-the flowering of a fully mature Prince.No matter what he's playing-rock,funk,pop,hip hop or some unique hybrid in between Prince is always Prince and always has his own distinct style to go on in each style he chooses to explore.And although often neglected this was the beginning of a whole new beginning for O(-> and his music.There were many times where quality slipped,such as right after this but it never last too long.This deserves to be revisited.