The Top 25 Best Prince Deep Cuts
25 excellent album cuts, failed singles, and other hard to find gems from The Purple One's long and storied career. |
| 25 | Prince
In This Bed I Scream
From "Emancipation." This riveting ballad, intended as an olive branch towards Wendy & Lisa, is easily one of the clear highlights of the bloated "Emancipation." Prince gives an overwrought yet passionate vocal, alternating between agile falsetto and stacatto mid-range singing as well as a series of power crescendos that really drive home the emotional overflow of the song. If you want to whittle down "Emancipation" to a single disc, this one's a must. |
| 24 | Joy In Repetition
From "Graffiti Bridge." One of Prince's more celebrated album cuts, this endlessly fascinating and mysterious jazz excursion is perhaps the high point of the album. Prince's lyrics are some of his evocative, aided along by his playful, inspired vocal phrasing and inflections, as well as some of his all time best guitar work. To hear the song truly come alive, however, check out the live versions from 2002. |
| 23 | When Eye Lay My Hands On U
From "The Chocolate Invasion." A sexy, creepy and dynamic track with some of Prince's most suggestive lyrics (especially for post-1995), excellent guitar work, and an aggressive vocal that makes it simmer with intensity. Even better live, but the studio take holds it own. |
| 22 | Love
From "3121." This song could've been a huge hit if marketed right. One of his most successful modern sounding works, "Love" boasts great writing and a sterling, catchy hook that could've easily resonated with 2006 audiences. A missed opportunity in that regard, but the quality of the song still shines. |
| 21 | Still Would Stand All Time
From "Graffiti Bridge." As "Graffiti Bridge" was the sequel to "Purple Rain," this song was meant to be its version of that previous film's legendary title song. It doesn't quite reach those heights, but it's a moving, empowering gospel type tune with a soulful arrangement and a great finale with Prince really going for it vocally, showing off some rare belting that, while not technically pleasing, adds a lot of emotional depth. |
| 20 | P. Control
From "The Gold Experience." It has often been touched on how Prince's songs portrayed women as powerful and assertive, both in the bedroom and the rest of the world. This one of his best in that regard, a gritty, urban tale of a bullied young girl who grows up to make her enemies her friend and make anyone who crosses her (specifically male paramours) regret it. It's one of his better attempts at hip hop well, with very creative phrasing within Prince's delivery. |
| 19 | Condition Of The Heart
From "Around The World In A Day." One of his most heartfelt ballads, this smoldering tale of heartache is maybe the best song on the "Purple Rain" followup. Veering from the psychedelic sound of most of the album in favor of a light, almost European sound, Prince delivers a vocal that really plumbs the depth of the song's morose lyrics, which have a cinematic quality that puts the listener right in the center of the song and allows them to see the song's various locales (London, Paris) as well as the faces of his lost loves (the 'Clara Bowe' verse is one of the best lyrics he ever wrote). |
| 18 | Love 2 The 9's.
From "Love Symbol."One of the high points of the pre-"7" tracks on the album, this is a smooth, silky jam aided by Prince's slick and sexy guitar work, as well as his warm, relaxed falsetto vocal. It's a shame that the track gets interrupted by a dumb rap from Tony M. and Mayte, but the Prince parts are fantastic. |
| 17 | Wasted Kisses
From "New Power Soul." A classic Prince move: put the album's best song as a hidden track. After the almost universally dire material that preceded it, the eerie "Wasted Kisses" rises up out of about 50 seconds of silence with a frightening mellotron swirl, leading into one of Prince's darkest, angriest songs of betrayal, with an almost vengeful air permeating throughout. A true diamond in the rough from Prince's worst album. |
| 16 | Endorphinmachine
From "The Gold Experience." Maybe the most straightforward rock song he ever recorded, this cacophonous yet thrilling track has an air of menace to it, even if its lyrics are somewhat silly, thanks to its crunchy guitars and Prince's throat shredding screams. If you're a fan of the latter, this is your nirvana. |
| 15 | Future Soul Song
From "20Ten." The high point of a dreadful record, this lush ode to Prince's fantasies about world peace and the power of love overcomes its somewhat sappy lyric with an impassioned vocal from Prince as well as a soaring, dynamic arrangement that rises and falls so beautifully and tautly throughout. Some really strong guitar work as well. |
| 14 | Automatic
From "1999." With its references to oral sex and bondage combined with its slinky, high pitched synth hook and singalong chorus, this is definitely one of Prince's weirdest, and while it's ostensibly an upbeat song, it has the same sort of coldness of "Computer Blue" and "Something in the Water." The seedy video compliments it perfectly. |
| 13 | Power Fantastic
From "The Hits / B-Sides." Prince's falsetto on this deep cut is so tender yet so spooky, almost ghostly, giving the song great atmosphere. It's complimented by one of his most tasteful musical arrangements, with the horns being especially potent and adding additional coloring to the already haunted soundscape. |
| 12 | Avalance
From "One Nite Alone." This ballad veers from the sappier writing on this 2002 album, with a sinister, almost serpent-like vocal from Prince as he condemns the whitewashing of African American culture and history. He goes as far as to denounce Abraham Lincoln as a racist whose motives for freeing the slaves was purely political, as well as the exploitation of black jazz artists by white record labels and the treatment of American Indians. An uncomfortable song, for sure, but also a very relevant and unique one. |
| 11 | The Dance
From "3121." A unique track for Prince, with a classical backdrop providing a dark, tense atmosphere to this penultimate track from Prince's commercial comeback album. It does a good job reflecting Prince's frustrated lyrics, about how the woman he loves needs to make a 'now or never' decision or lose him forever. |
| 10 | I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
From "Sign O' The Times." Yes, this one was a Top 10 hit, but you can't deny that it gets lost in the shuffle compared to his other, more popular singles. A retro pop pastiche recalling the Brill Building singles of the 1960s', Prince delivers a sensitive, surprisingly vulnerable ballad that betrays his trademark confidence and bravado. Somewhere between "Parade" and "Sign O' The Times," Prince's writings about relationships matured a lot, and it led to great tracks like this. |
| 9 | Solo
From "Come." Billie Holiday meets Faust on this gothic, semi-a capella ballad. With its dark soundscape, spectral harp accompaniment, and vividly sad, suicide note-esque lyrics, there isn't a darker, more hopeless song in Prince's history. It's not an easy listen, but it's the definition of 'hauntingly beautiful.' |
| 8 | Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
From "1999." Like "Computer Blue," a clinical coldness seeps over this track, along with Prince's frightening banshee howls, both of which compliment the lyrics' tale of insecurity and anger perfectly. One of his best studio creations. |
| 7 | Dreamer
From "LotusFlow3r." Brilliant, politically charged Hendrix-style rocker. Searing guitar work and clever lyrics make this one of his best tracks of the 21st century. It loses some points for the lyrics about Prince's obsession with chemtrails, but for the most part it remains a strong, intelligent and clever indictment about race in America. |
| 6 | Computer Blue
From "Purple Rain." Possessing a metallic coldness similar to "When Doves Cry" but far less straightforward lyrically, this cryptic tale of isolation and emotional decay is the sleeper on Prince's greatest album. Wendy & Lisa's sapphic intro sets it up beautifully, and the stacatto keyboard spikes and manic guitar solo that surround the song portray its mania perfectly. |
| 5 | Anna Stesia
From "Lovesexy." Prince wrestles with his demons and makes good with Jesus on this gothic ballad from the under-appreciated 1988 release. Supposedly inspired by a bad ecstasy trip while recording "The Black Album," Prince promises to forsake the sexual for the spiritual, atoning for his often heretical mixing of the two in songs such as "Temptation" and "Controversy." |
| 4 | Last December
From "The Rainbow Children." A gorgeous ballad with an uplifting, universal message about death and redemption, as well as some of the loveliest harmonies and instrumentation on any Prince song. After spending much of the album peddling dogmatic conspiracy theories about new world orders and other pap, this track is a much needed respite and easily the most accessible and universal in its theme. |
| 3 | Welcome 2 The Dawn
From "The Truth." Prince's newfound spirituality spawned this moving acoustic track, the closer to maybe his most obscure album. Excellent vocals as well. |
| 2 | And God Created Woman
From "Love Symbol." Mysterious, sensual ballad, arguably the best of a killer five song run that saves "Love Symbol" from being distinctly average. The star of the song are Prince's harmony vocals, which add a gospel element that drives out the spiritual side of the song. Unlike previous songs where Prince married sex and religion, this one comes off as more reverent of both concepts, with a tasteful lyric built around the Adam & Eve story. |
| 1 | Electric Chair
From "Batman." Dark, gritty rocker that explores Prince's darker side in the context of the film's themes of duality and secrecy. The song is ostensibly a meditation of the consequences of lust, with the chorus 'if a man is considered guilty for what goes in his mind, give me the electric chair for all my future crimes' providing the crux of the song. One of his deepest and darkest songs, complete with a dark, booming bassline and great guitar work. |
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