- Record Label: Rhino
- Release Date: Jun 23, 2017
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Jul 17, 2017Inevitably, some of the bonus tracks are duds. The Dance Electric is the kind of boxy, Huey Lewis-style synth-funk jam that Prince could churn out in his sleep, while Velvet Kitty Cat and Katrina’s Paper Dolls are twee, lightweight sketches. But overall, the extra material makes Purple Rain a richer, deeper, stranger and ruder album.
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Jul 14, 2017As good as the remaster sounds, the primary attraction of this edition is its second disc, 11 tracks from Prince’s vault of unreleased songs, all cut between 1983 to 1984. ... The vault tracks sound like fully-formed Prince songs—animated, vibrant, reflexive, fluid, almost vehicular in their design and velocity.
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Jul 21, 2017While this release fails to be definitive, at least it’s a start for a discography that had been long neglected by its creator.
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Jul 14, 2017It's a fabulously crisp mix of one of modern pop's greatest LPs. Details sparkle.
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Jul 14, 2017These unreleased tracks are a nice glimpse behind Prince’s purple curtain, and provide a tantalizing hint at the potential treasures that await us within his Vault. But a discerning ear will easily identify why these songs didn’t quite make the cut for the soundtrack and remained locked away for so long. ... The original Purple Rain soundtrack, however, still sounds fresh, vital, and impassioned.
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The WireAug 9, 2017The meat of the set almost certainly wouldn’t have been released if Prince were still with us. ... They add up to arguably the strongest new set of Prince recordings since Lovesexy. [Aug 2017, p.70]
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UncutJul 20, 2017Purple Rain sounds incrementally more alive. [Sep 2017, p.51]
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Jul 14, 2017The original nine tracks have all been remastered, sounding just as crisp and thumping as ever.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 66 out of 80
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Mixed: 0 out of 80
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Negative: 14 out of 80
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Jul 24, 2017
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Jun 27, 2022
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May 1, 2022