General Description
Artist/Band: Prince 
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Album Title: Parade
Year: 1986
Genius, before it all went wrong?
How I Got Into This Music
Ah, read some of my other reviews about ThePurpleOne on this site 
Back-story on the album: after the friggin’ huge success of his Purple Rain movie, it was inevitable that Prince’d make/produce/write/compose/provide catering for a second movie. That fiasco was called Under The Cherry Moon. Go ahead, live dangerously, rent it.
The soundtrack, however, was a thing of incredible beauty..
Reviews: 
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Videos: [are you kidding me?]
Have a listen on:
Tracks that got my attention:
Christopher Tracy’s Parade
A lot of times, this track’d get under my skin and not really in a positive way. But sometimes. it’d just make my whole day shine!
The tacky flute/steel band drums on the background. The high pitched background vocals. A weird chase scene track, perhaps..
New Position
Whenever I start drumming/humming the intro of this song near my friend Oomen-san, he’d join in and we’d shamelessly start singing and hollering the whole track, heheh..
Great bass line and again the steel band drum thingies. And that sweet finale fading into the next song, brilliant.
Do ya, do ya, like a good man should..
I Wonder U
Weirdness, the Prince Way. Haunting keyboards and flutes mixed with a driving yet soft bass line on the background. Filled with all kinds of weird effects and nuances. Love it!
Under The Cherry Moon
This one took more than 10 years to get on my good side. I always hated the cheesiness of the whole production. The melodrama in the pianola, yuck. But still, like the world’s slowest growing mold, it kinda attached to me and we’ve remained stuck with eachother since then. (And yes, it takes real skill to abuse metaphors, thankyouverymuch..)
Girls & Boys
Wow! Still remember when this song came out. The first single off this album? Can’t remember. But it was a great song to dance to; another track just filled with little effects and of course that crazy deep horn by Eric Leeds. That great bit with the girl singing along in French, it just sounded wickedly wicked!
Ouch, remember that weird ending in the video, with Jerome laughing his ass off for 90 seconds? Boo!
Life Can Be So Nice
Another Energizer Bunny track. Highly strung and not really easy to get into. Still find myself singing the chorus out loud sometimes.
Venus De Milo
Great track, the warmth and depth of the piano, wow!
Mountains
Still scores pretty high in that 80s Weird Clips category. With a younger Kristin Scott Thomas in the clip (and in the movie).
It’s an 80s Anthem, at least to me it really is. But Nostalgia aside, the mix of his falsetto and normal vocals really works perfectly on this song. And that beat is bloody brilliant: minimalist perfection. Perfect horns on the background and more predominant at the ending; and of course the break with Guitars And Drums On The One!
Do U Lie
A movie set in France, well of course we’ll use the theme in the soundtrack! It’s a nice and sweet song with a swinging jazzy break; a walk along the French Riviera, indeed!
Kiss
Heheh.. What can be said about this track that hasn’t been said about a gazillion times?
Pure and simple genius, using the minimalist thing to the extreme and his falsetto vocals are perfect for the total wackiness of this song.
Understand this: the whole song is straight out of the ABC of Simple Songs. But it still filled the floors back then and people still grind their possibly geriatric hips to it.
And that video..
Anotherloverholenyohead
My favorite track of the album. The story told in the song. The way his vocals go back and front with the supporting vocals. The nasty bass; that almost Arabic intro; the dramatic piano; it all just works for me. Listen to the bass, please. Listen to the bass.
Sometimes It Snows In April
Loved this song in the beginning but got sick of it pretty quickly. It’s the track I always skip.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very beautiful and sensitive song with beautiful and rich lyrics and vocals. And no, I don’t mind feeling sad after listening to it. It’s just that after a while, it just got.. corny? Maybe the fact that a lot of people I knew were totally fanatic about this song? Don’t know, but I never play it.
A few years back, Prince was back in Holland and he played it live. Wow, chills down my spine and everything! That’s the way I want to remember that track.
Conclusion
The album’s well produced, Prince combines fun, sexiness and spirituality in a brilliant package of pure and funky classic grooves. I know I’ll always play this album to feel good, wicked, nasty and everything else in the emotional spectrum. And that’s why this album’s one of my favorites.
I used to be a serious fan of this man’s music and I still believe he’s one of the geniuses of pop music. His business problems with record labels turned him in a bit of a prick when it comes to protecting his work; I understand his motivations, but.. He’s still a bit of a prick. And he’s still a mother-lovin’ genius.
