Maps of Music

Chaos and Disorder (1996)

Where the lyrics of Chaos and Disorder take you, and where it was really made.

Prince refused to promote this album, which was released only to meet a contract obligation to the label he was fighting. Its inlay sleeve even carries a message addressed to that label.

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Album story

Overview

• Chaos and Disorder: eighteenth studio album by Prince
• Released 9 July 1996 by Warner Bros. Records
• Peaked at number 26 in the United States and number 14 in the United Kingdom
• The US peak was his poorest result for an album of new material since his debut For You
• Single "Dinner with Delores" was released in the United Kingdom only

Background

• Released while Prince was still fighting his Warner Bros. contract
• Prince refused to promote the album
• Released simply to fulfill his contractual obligations
• Inlay sleeve carries a message calling it the last original material recorded for Warner Bros.

Recording

• More than a third of the album dates back to sessions for The Gold Experience and Come
• Rosie Gaines returned and sang on five songs
• Michael B. and Sonny T. took part in what were to be their last sessions as regular New Power Generation members

Cover

• Inlay sleeve shows a bloody hypodermic needle with a dollar bill inside it
• A human heart sits in a toilet bowl

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Prince Rogers Nelson, born June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; died April 21, 2016 at Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
• Signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1977 at age 18; first album For You released April 7, 1978.
• Career spanned funk, rock, R&B and pop, with estimated sales over 100 million records.

Career

• Breakthrough with Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).
• Purple Rain (1984) made him the first singer to hold the number-one film, album and single in the US at the same time.
• Sign o' the Times (1987) is widely considered his greatest work.
• Changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, becoming known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince; reverted to Prince in 2000.
• Won seven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that listeners expecting a kissoff or throwaway record badly underestimated Prince's musicality
• Christgau described it as a guitar album with a fresh if not shocking array of voices and trick sounds, cluttered now and then by horns
• At the time of release, Prince told the Los Angeles Times that he had been bitter before but had now washed his face and was free to move on

Reappraisal

• A re-appraisal after Prince's death praised it as a rocker with moments of some of Prince's finest guitar playing
• Another re-appraisal called it a tightly-focused, grunge-oriented rock-funk collection
• That review said the grit and punch of the musicianship gives the album its overall raw edge

Records

• US peak at number 26, his lowest for new-material albums since his debut
• UK peak at number 14
• UK single "Dinner with Delores" reached number 36 on the UK chart

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Prince refused to promote the album while still fighting Warner Bros. over his contract.
• The album was out of print for years, then released digitally on Tidal in 2016 and on iTunes in 2018.
• It was reissued on CD and vinyl in September 2019.
• "Dinner with Delores" was released only in the United Kingdom and became a minor Top 40 hit there.
• Under a later deal that gave Prince control of his masters, his next Warner Bros. album came 18 years later, Plectrumelectrum in 2014.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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