Hi friends, welcome to Peanut Gallery. Every Wednesday here at MusicOlogy, we'll be presenting two classic albums from the same iconic band or artist and asking you... the smart, savvy, blindingly attractive Ology readers... to debate amongst yourselves over which record reigns supreme. Individual songs, concepts, music videos, lyrics, album artwork—everything's on the table here, folks. Give us your best argument in the comments section below. We'll announce the winner at the beginning of next week's Peanut Gallery face-off.
Last Week's Winner:
We pitted U2's biggest albums, The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, up against each other in a battle to the... well, not death, but something definitely painful. The responses were great as always, but alas, Joshua Tree fans will be singing "ah la la la de day"—Achtung Baby positively clobbered its predecessor by 8 votes to 4. While I won't flat-out admit to tampering with the results, I can tell you that I did receive a very bizarre, unsettling phone call this week from a gentleman calling himself Mr. Macphisto. He sounded very insistent that Achtung Baby take home the bacon this week. Shrug, sorry guys, what could I do?
This Week's Match-Up:
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to argue over two of Prince's '80s masterworks: the Purple Rain soundtrack (1984) versus Sign 'O' The Times (1987).
Prince was already a star post-1999, but the soundtrack to his 1984 semi-biopic Purple Rain shot him and backing band The Revolution into the stratosphere. Still one of the best-selling and most influential pop records ever recorded, Purple Rain boasted nine of Prince's strongest, insatiably catchy jams to date, running the stylistic gamut from electro-funk to hard rock to boisterous R&B balladry and back again. There simply isn't a weak moment here, from the opening gospel salvo of "Let's Go Crazy" through the title track's shimmering outro. Though he'd go on to make arguably more "important" work (see below), there's no denying that Purple Rain is both his most popular effort to date and one of the seminal records of its or any other decade.
Classic Songs: "Let's Go Crazy," "Darling Nikki," "When Doves Cry," "I Would Die 4 U" and "Purple Rain."
The result of multiple unfinished Prince projects, Sign 'O' The Times ditched both The Revolution and the lush sounds of Parade, delving into hard topics and even harder sounds. One of the most acclaimed albums of all time (double or otherwise), Sign 'O' The Times drew on countless influences—everything from funk, traditional R&B, heavy metal, gospel, folk, blues and psychedelic pop—while funneling the breadth and width of Prince's immense talent through arguably his most focused, rich musical vision to date. An undisputed masterpiece that only grows richer with time, Sign 'O' The Times is an essential classic and, let's face it, the only other title in Prince's dense back catalogue that can rival or even best Purple Rain.
Classic Songs: "Sign 'O' The Times," "U Got The Look," "If I Was Your Girlfriend," "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" and "Adore."
Okay, ladies and gentlemen... it's in your hands now. Hit up the comments section below and let us know which Prince album deserves to take home the glory; we'll declare a winner this time next week. See you all then!
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