Prince designed
Purple Rain as the project that would make him a superstar, and, surprisingly, that is exactly what happened. Simultaneously more focused and ambitious than any of his previous records,
Purple Rain finds
Prince consolidating his funk and R&B roots while moving boldly into pop, rock, and heavy metal with nine superbly crafted songs. Even its best-known songs don't tread conventional territory: the bass-less "When Doves Cry" is an eerie, spare neo-psychedelic masterpiece; "Let's Go Crazy" is a furious blend of metallic guitars,
Stonesy riffs, and a hard funk backbeat; the anthemic title track is a majestic ballad filled with brilliant guitar flourishes. Although
Prince's songwriting is at a peak, the presence of
the Revolution pulls the music into sharper focus, giving it a tougher, more aggressive edge. And, with the guidance of
Wendy & Lisa,
Prince pushed heavily into psychedelia, adding swirling strings to the dreamy "Take Me with U" and the hard rock of "Baby I'm a Star." Even with all of his new, but uncompromising, forays into pop,
Prince hasn't abandoned funk, and the robotic jam of "Computer Blue" and the menacing grind of "Darling Nikki" are among his finest songs. Taken together, all of the stylistic experiments add up to a stunning statement of purpose that remains one of the most exciting rock & roll albums ever recorded.
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Prince returned to Warner Bros. Records in 2014, inking a deal that guaranteed the release of new music as well as expanded reissues of his classic catalog. A 30th anniversary edition of
Purple Rain was planned as the first of these reissues but it didn't materialize in 2014 or anytime soon afterward. The expanded
Purple Rain didn't appear until June 2017, a little over a year after
Prince's early death. It was the first major posthumous archival release and it offers plenty of treasures in its three CDs and accompanying DVD. First up, the proper album gets a needed remaster -- it sounds fuller and livelier, not simply louder -- and then the DVD is the first digital release of the home video Prince and the Revolution, Live at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY, March 30, 1985, a concert from the tail end of the
Purple Rain tour. The third disc rounds up all the singles and B-sides from
Purple Rain, including 7" edits and 12" remixes, plus the essential flip sides "17 Days," "Erotic City," "God," and "Another Lonely Christmas." All of this material is welcome but previously released. The real finds are on the second disc, which rounds up ten outtakes from the
Purple Rain sessions, adding the movie instrumental "Father's Song" -- a moody variation on the "Computer Blue" guitar solo -- for good measure. A few of these tracks were widely circulated on bootleg -- "Wonderful Ass" in particular, but also "The Dance Electric," "Possessed," and "Electric Intercourse" -- but there are several whose existence has only been rumored, including the nervy little "Velvet Kitty Cat" and "Katrina's Paper Dolls," which foreshadows the whimsy heard on
Sign 'O' the Times. "Electric Intercourse," "Possessed," and "Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden" were all played live by
the Revolution but they're presented in their studio versions, which are primarily solo vehicles from
Prince with some
Wendy & Lisa vocals added to the mix. Most of the unreleased material consists of synth-heavy solo
Prince cuts -- the exception is a wonderful 12-minute version of "Computer Blue" featuring the full
Revolution -- and, because of this, the unreleased cuts feel like a bridge between
1999 and
Purple Rain: it's so united in sound and sensibility, it almost feels like a lost album. If nothing on the Vault disc rivals either
Purple Rain or its B-sides, thereby proving
Prince's skills as an editor, it's still prime
Prince -- it's inventive, funky, strange, and playful. Having this music officially available feels like a gift.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine