Prince – Dirty Mind & the Symbol Album

I’m a big Prince fan, but his catalogue is intimidating. He’s famously prolific, having released 25 or so albums since the late 1970s (to say nothing of the rumors of hundreds of unreleased songs recorded at his home studio in Paisley Park). I already own 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign o’ the Times (all classic albums). I’ve read that Dirty Mind is his artistic breakthrough and should be considered indispensable, but somehow it had escaped my attention. The Symbol Album (from that period when Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and spawned a decade of “the artist formerly known as” jokes) contains two of my favorite Prince songs: “Morning Papers” and “7”, as well as a few other hits, so I figured it was a good bet. I grabbed these two CDs in the hopes that they were the last Prince I’d ever need to buy.

First, the good news: Dirty Mind is sick, twisted, brilliant, and unspeakably fun. I was familiar with the singles from this record – “Dirty Mind”, “When You Were Mine”, “Head” and “Uptown” – and I liked the early-80s New Wave/funk feel they had. I was surprised to find that 2 more songs (“Do It All Night” and “Gotta Broken Heart Again”) are stunning. The first is a funk-pop confection that favorably recalls “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” without recreating it. The second is a mid-tempo ballad that explodes into a wailing chorus of multiple Princes about 20 seconds before the end. It’s a wonderful moment in an album that’s full of them. The other 2 songs on the record are fine, if unspectacular. Played straight through, the album is bright, concise, and brimming with ideas. A terrific record.

Next, the bad news: the Symbol Album is basically the opposite. It’s overlong where Dirty Mind is lean. It’s unfocussed and messy where Dirty Mind’s concentration (on sex, parties, and sex parties) is razor-sharp. It contains annoying and incomprehensible voiceovers by Kirstie Alley where Dirty Mind includes none. But most importantly, the songs are dreary, self-indulgent, and uninteresting. This is a problem Dirty Mind does not have. To my mind, the Symbol Album represents the beginning of Prince’s 90s malaise that he’s only recently escaped. “Morning Papers” and “7” aside, this album is mostly filler. Avoid at your peril.