The Gold Experience (1995)
1. P Control
2. NPG Operator
3. Endorphinmachine
4. Shhh
5. We March
6. NPG Operator
7. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
8. Dolphin
9. NPG Operator
10.Now
11.NPG Operator
12.319
13.NPG Operator
14.Shy
15.Billy Jack Bitch
16.Eye Hate U
17.NPG Operator
18.Gold
Wow. Just—wow. This one belongs right up there with Prince’s very best work. It’s a shame, though—not surprisingly—that many people barely know it exists. Why? Well, let’s tally it up. First off, by this phase in his career, Prince had become, well, a little too weird for a lot of fans. Sure, he’d always been eccentric, but when you shave the word “slave” onto your face and adopt an unpronounceable symbol as your name, a sizeable chunk of your audience decides to walk away. Especially the adults. They weren’t having it.
Then there’s the sheer volume of material Prince was releasing. That might sound like a compliment—how can an artist release too much great music? But here’s the thing: Prince was flooding the market like no one else. Double and triple CD sets every six months or so, it seemed. And not everyone had the money—or the inclination—to keep up. To complicate matters, not all this output was stellar. Some of it was downright contractual obligation fodder, soundtracks with recycled older songs, and multiple greatest hits compilations that diluted the impact. So, in a strange way, The Gold Experience was really the only one from this period that was actually meant to be good.
And good it is—no, phenomenal. Prince flexes his immense range here, chasing every style he mastered over the years. Every track is a candidate for classic status. Sure, there are a couple of moments where you think, “Why, Prince, why?” The six “NPG Operator” interludes—each about 30 seconds of a sultry female computer voice prompting you to “select an experience”—are mostly annoying distractions. They don’t kill the vibe but leave you wondering why they were included at all. Not as painful as the Kirstie Alley skits on The Love Symbol, but still a dumb move.
Then there’s the opening track, P Control. Wondering what the “P” stands for? It’s a part of a woman’s anatomy—starts with a “P,” ends with a “Y,” and no, it’s not a pinky. The song is outrageously lewd, packed with more four-letter (and twelve-letter) words than just about any Prince song ever. That’s a feat all on its own. Musically, it’s a great, funky tune, but don’t expect to hear it on the radio, and definitely don’t play it around kids under 14.
From there, Prince rocks hard with Endorphinmachine. Man, the guy could still shred a mean guitar—and you hear it all over this album, maybe more than anywhere else in his catalog. That alone earns this record classic status. Other rock-leaning gems include the infectious Dolphin, the somewhat folksy Shy, and the epic seven-minute closer Gold. That last one feels like a nod to Purple Rain—does it match that kind of magic? No. What does? But it’s still majestically beautiful.
On the dance-groove front, besides P Control, Prince kills it with 319, Billy Jack Bitch, and Now. These tracks rival or even outshine anything on the delayed The Black Album released just a year earlier. When it comes to ballads, Prince delivers again with The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Eye Hate U, and the long, slow burn Shhh—which somehow never feels as long as its seven-minute runtime.
There simply isn't anything here that isn’t top tier.
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