Customer Reviews

Purple Rain [180 Gram Vinyl]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having owned this since 1984 on only CD. I was blown away to hear the detail and richness that only Vinyl Records can provide. Throw out your CD player and invest in a good stable turntable, upgraded cartridge, and hear what you have been missing.

Don't Listen to the poser on the last comment, Purple Rain is not an album simply being put to shame because he/she thinks that Darling Nikki is better by the Foo Fighters (absolutly not, in fact, Prince did a cover of the Foo's "Best of You" at the superbowl, and it blew theirs away)....This LP is one of the Prince's and History's greatest albums of all time, so I recommend this LP to all Prince fans and LP collectors alike...Great Buy and you can get it for a great price..

One of the great rock soundtracks and a commercial breakthrough in the Prince discography. "Let's Go Crazy," "The Beautiful Ones," "When Doves Cry" and the brilliant title song deliver every time. Little wonder that "Purple Rain" received an Oscar for Best Original Song Score. A definite must-listen on vinyl.

"Purple Rain' is a fine album by Prince. The soundtrack is better the the movie. "Let's go crazy" and "purple rain" are my favorite songs. One of Prince's best albums.

This album is one of those that is so iconic, it's hard to imagine the music world without it. I am a huge Prince fan, and while this wasn't my first Prince album (that would be 1999), and while it's not my all-time favorite Prince album (that would be Sign 'O' the Times), this was the first Prince album that I wore out multiple copies of from repeated listening.

Album Review:

Beginning with the first track, "Let's Go Crazy," when that woozy, pulsing keyboard comes in and the robotic preacher intones, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life..." you know you're in for something special. You probably already know this song, but if, for some reason, you don't, it is an propulsive funk/rock/new wave hybrid that dares you not to move. It also boasts one of the all-time greatest guitar solos ever captured on tape. At this point, if you aren't impressed, you never will be. In fact, if you've never heard Prince before, and you're thinking of downloading one single song in order to figure out whether or not you might like him, this is the one.

From there, you move through the sexy, sleek and slinky "Take Me With You," the slow, sultry and seductive "The Beautiful Ones," the bizarre head-trip and genre-defying "Computer Blue," and the nasty funk of the X-rated "Darling Nikki." Then, it's on to side two.

Another ubiquitous song starts this side: "When Doves Cry." A song that somehow manages to still sound ahead of its time some 25+ years later, this song rides a robotic, hypnotic groove that burrows into your head and can get stuck there for days at a time, all without the help of a bass-guitar (Prince removed it from the song at the last minute, giving it its stark, skeletal feel).

After that comes the live portion of the album. If you've never seen Prince live, he's amazing, and all you need as proof are the final three songs on this album. The poppy messianic dance track "I Would Die 4 U" bleeds into the frenetic workout of "Baby I'm a Star." And then...Purple Rain.

Only a song this epic could close out an album this epic. From the opening chord, you can almost see the lighters and cell phones go up (nobody had cell phones at concerts back then, but if they had, you can bet that they would all be out and up for this song). From there, the song builds steadily until that one earth-shattering single guitar note brings the song to a glorious climax. And then, the cooldown begins. Three of the last minutes are playout vamping and the last minute-and-a-half is a bizarre keyboard coda.

But not only do you not mind the repetition of the coda, you actually revel in it. A reviewer once commented that only a song as great as Purple Rain could make you tolerate sitting through an ending so drawn out and seemingly pointless. But I'd argue that you actually need the ending. If all Prince songs are like sex (and they are), then this is the afterglow. It gives you a chance to bask for a minute in the warmth of the feelings the album has produced. But either way, you'll be surprised how long you find yourself listening to a minor-key warbling keyboard before you finally decide to turn it off (if you ever do). What else can be said? A perfect ending to a perfect album.

Sound Review:

If you care about sound, I can't say enough good things about the Warner Bros. 180-gram remastered reissue. At first, when the guitar came in on "Let's Go Crazy," I thought that they had turned it down in the mix. But then I realized: no, it just doesn't cut through the rest of the mix so harshly because it sounds so warm and organic. It squeals and wails when it used to shriek and screech. This might take some getting used to, and some might argue that they should have turned it up in the mix to compensate, but this is how it was supposed to sound. This is still very much a guitar album, but now the guitar is not dominating everything else so completely. It's more of an equal instrument in the overall mix.

I also had never heard the drums sound so much like...well, drums. I'll make a confession here. I grew up listening to a lot of CDs in the 80's because they were often easier to find than vinyl, and I always thought that '80's drums just sounded different than '60's or '70's drums. '80's drums always sounded more synthetic, robotic. In fact, even on a lot of the '80's vinyl, drums sound different. But what I've discovered in my later years is that drums have always sounded the same. What sounds different is how they are recorded and/or mastered onto the record or CD. For example, the drums at the beginning of "Take Me With You" used to stutter; now they rumble. They used to quickly fade; now they echo and linger.

Also, the keyboards sound better. They used to stab; now they build. They used to sound like blips and bleeps; now they sound like everything from a piano to a violin. Of course, this stuff was always there in the mix, and you could probably hear traces of it if you strained your ears, but now it's obvious. You notice things in the mix you never heard before. The way the guitars reverberate off the walls of the club in "Purple Rain." Or the way Prince's voice wavers just slightly at the end of the word "personality" on "Baby I'm a Star." If you were on the fence about this reissue, I can assure you that it's worth it. The old vinyl sounded better than the CD, but this sounds better than the old vinyl. Final verdict: if you love this album, you want this version.

If you own the original WB pressing or the currently available CD version, and compare either to this 180 gram vinyl, this will blow them away! This album never sounded so good. Even the inner tracks that always tend to sound crappier than the tracks on the outer edge of the LP sound good, clean and clear. ALL VINYL should play like this album! But when you listen to the original LPs, you understand why vinyl died. It is only making a comeback due to lower volume (no pun intended) pressing, possibly better quality vinyl, and better LP mastering techniques.

My daughter is also collecting vinyl records. Prince has been her favorite since she was a kid. Puple Rain was her favorite.
So this was one of her birthday gifts. I think it was the best.