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how do i answer this

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February, 1940 Grant Wood

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Prince - Purple Rain

“Prince outlived Mike Jack”

It’s intimidating to write about Prince. Having such a vast discography, such wide-reaching influence, him being so true to himself, it’s difficult to know where to even begin. Admittedly, I have not explored the world Prince has created in his music too much, something I need to atone for.

A good place to start - the best place to start - is probably 1984’s Purple Rain. Let me preface by saying that I’ve heard the album, but I haven’t watched the film.

It’s difficult to even know where to begin with this pop-rock odyssey, so I’ll begin with the opening track: Let’s go Crazy.

The intro sounds like it's introducing you into the album, allowing you into this world, sounding almost church-like. The ending is a classic bluesy cadence but with the signature showiness and extravagance of Prince's music. The yelled "take me away" is an invitation to be taken away by the world of this album. It really introduces you to the contrast found throughout this album; the extravagance, the drama, the larger-than-life feel, but also the vulnerability.

Like the track The Beautiful Ones.

This track is defined by more of that 80s production with percussion more associated with the era, same with the synth work. Very 80s-sounding, in a good way. Prince with his falsetto now, sounding more delicate at the first half of this track.

"Do you want him or me?" By the latter half, he lets go of that falsetto and goes into a rough almost growl, emphasizing his desperation in this situation. The track picks up in terms of dynamics and more lush instrumentation. Perfect mix of extravagance and vulnerability that so defines this album!

In Computer Blues he uses a computer malfunction, a glitch, as a metaphor for his love life.

Something’s not right - this must be a glitch.

A very forward thinking metaphor for the 80s for sure, but beyond the sparse lyrical content of the song, the instrumentation is quirky and new-wave, defined by layers of synths. This track features a weird switch up at the 2:15 mark, seeming to calm down and slow down, adding more guitars and piano and more “natural” sounding instruments. The track ends with Prince’s desperate yells which I really cannot make sense of.

A highlight on the album is Darling Nikki.

Most famous for its risqué lyrical content about sex and masturbation, lyrics that led to public outcry in the 80s, this track is just bizarre. While this song is about sex and invariably power dynamics, Prince is not the one in control. It’s Nikki who holds all the power - a subversion of masculinity even in modern times, let alone the 80s. The ending is just bizarre and avant-garde, with weird reversed vocals and other effects. A definite trip.

When Doves Cry is another standout in an album of standouts. The instrumentation is cold synths, which is fitting for the lyrical content of relationships falling apart, feeling abandoned, exploring intimacy. One of his most vulnerable songs in an album that explores grandeur and vulnerability. The charming baroque-style synth solo is a nice touch too.

He once again explores identity and vulnerability in I would die 4 u.

Starting with one of the most iconic lines of the album:

“I’m not a woman, I’m not a man. I am something you will never understand”

Explored in this driving synth-led song is identity, vulnerability, sexuality, gender. Important are the feelings of devotion and desperation. All this done through pretty clear Messianic imagery. A very striking and iconic song.

After this moment, Prince seems to be in his braggadocio mode with Baby I’m a Star. He knows he’s the shit. After arguably the most vulnerable song on the album, he reassures us he’s still on top of the world.

Then we get to the good part in an album of good parts - the title track, Purple Rain. This is one of the greatest songs of all time. It is triumphant, confident, self-assured. It combines the showiness and the grandeur of the album while balancing vulnerability. Purple Rain is dripping with drama, it’s transcendental, cinematic. It feels like the end credits are rolling, like the end of a journey. Adding to that the mysterious and open-ended conclusion to the song, this song is a masterpiece, and it alone makes this album a 10.

10/10 classic

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real

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maximizing audio quality on spotify!

Set audio quality and download quality to “very high.” Spotify still doesn’t have lossless streaming, so “very high” is 320kbps OGG Vorbis. So it shouldn’t take that much storage or data. Thankfully, OGG Vorbis is way better than MP3.

Disable “auto-adjust quality.” You don’t want the bitrate like randomly changing. This is only useful if you have really bad internet/data and your music keeps randomly pausing.

Disable “normalize volume” or set it to “quiet” or “normal.” NEVER set it to “loud.” I prefer to keep it off, since I can control the volume myself and don’t want any possible negative impacts on dynamic range, which volume normalization can do. This depends on what music you listen to; jazz, classical, and pop will be more negatively affected than most rock music. This is an explanation from Spotify’s website on how its volume normalization levels work: “Premium listeners can also choose volume normalization levels in the app settings to compensate for a noisy or quiet environment Loud: -11dB LUFS Note: We set this level regardless of maximum True Peak. We apply a limiter to prevent distortion and clipping in soft dynamic tracks. The limiter’s set to engage at -1 dB (sample values), with a 5 ms attack time and a 100 ms decay time. Normal: -14dB LUFS Quiet: -19dB LUFS” Whats important is that for the “loud” option, Spotify applies limiting to the dynamic range! So it’s barely perceptible with the other two options, but audio quality is qualitatively worse on the “loud” option

Ultimately, Spotify with these settings is good enough for more people. If you want to go to the next level though or have better audio equipment like good speakers, DACs, amps, headphones, then I recommend switching to a service with lossless audio. These are Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz mainly. Each have their pros and cons but personally I use Spotify for the social features and then offline FLAC files for everything else.

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By the Time I Get to Phoenix - Injury Reserve (2021)

Grief really changes you. I have not yet lost someone close to me, only distant relatives and friends of friends. Even then, the grief travels through the social fabric of your world like a seismic event; though I was not crying when my distant uncle that I haven't seen in 20 years died, the grief still hit me as I saw the visceral reactions of my family members. People turn to prayer, spirituality—or sometimes, to vices. Some people turn to art. It is a cheesy notion to say that "great art comes from suffering" as if suffering is but a source of great artistic inspiration, not something that causes immense pain. However, sometimes, the results are undeniable. Many great albums come from places of grief or suffering, and these albums allow these seismic events to travel not just through the subject's world, but the world in its entirety. The context of this album is that an integral member of the trio Injury Reserve, Groggs, died in 2020. His death caused bizarre sonic distortions in their sound. Gone are the fun, playful, energetic, albeit still experimental and forward-thinking beats of their debut album and EPs. There is no humour and whimsy like in Jailbreak the Tesla, a tongue-in-cheek song about illegally modifying your Tesla to do donuts in the parking lot. This album sounds ghostly, it sounds haunted. It sounds like a lost transmission from the spirit dimension—and not through shitty production quirks, this album is masterfully produced. It is confusing, frenetic at times and painfully lethargic at others. It is filled with familiar samples, it has the façade of traditional rap, but it sounds distorted; something sounds off. It is that "off-ness" that makes this a difficult and emotional listen. I did not "get" this album on first listen—but I felt it. It is an abstract eulogy. By the Time I Get to Phoenix is such a divergence from rap that it feels like post-rap. A highlight of this album is Top Picks for You. It discusses the robotic and computational algorithms that dictate our lives and how the presence of someone you love who passed still lives on in these algorithms. A contrast of the cold futurist world we live in and the very human emotions and feelings that we can never overcome, not with any technology. I never knew Groggs, none of us did. The grief still resonates; it hits you like an earthquake. Album rating: 10/10