For You (Prince album)
| For You | ||||
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| Studio album by Prince | ||||
| Released | April 7, 1978 | |||
| Recorded | October–December 1977 Record Plant, Sausalito Sausalito, California, U.S. |
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| Genre | Pop, funk, disco | |||
| Length | 33:11 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | Prince | |||
| Prince chronology | ||||
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| Singles from For You | ||||
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For You is the debut studio album by Prince. Released on April 7, 1978 (two months shy of his 20th birthday) and bearing the soon-to-be classic tag "Produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Prince," the album is generally regarded as a promising but somewhat insubstantial early effort. The album peaked at #163 on the US Pop Charts (#21 R&B), and would go on to sell 430,000 copies domestically (983,000 copies worldwide).
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Blender | [2] |
| Robert Christgau | (B-)[3] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B-)[4] |
| Rolling Stone |  [5] |
| Yahoo! Music | (favorable)[6] |
[edit] Music
The album opens with the title track, an a cappella recording that states: "All of this and more is for you. With love, sincerity, and deepest care, my life with you I share." This would foreshadow Prince's career of speaking mostly through his music, rather than conventional interviews. Next is "In Love", a bouncy disco track with the very Princely sexual metaphor: "I really wanna play in your river." The album's only hit, "Soft and Wet", follows. The dance track's combination of sexy lyrics and pop-funk music is the direction Prince would follow to produce some of his biggest future hits. A ballad "Crazy You" is followed by "Just as Long as We're Together", another disco track which ends in a musical coda showcasing Prince's musical prowess.
Side 2 opens with "Baby", a ballad about an unplanned child, but which is not portrayed in a negative light. (A portion of the music from this track was later reused on his 1995 song "I Hate U".) A light pop-disco number follows, titled "My Love Is Forever". The country-tinged "So Blue" features Prince on acoustic guitar supplemented by airy synths. The album closes with "I'm Yours", the album's only full-on rock and roll song featuring blazing guitar solos.
The album was clearly intended to establish Prince as an artist and to prove his merits. He lists all 23 instruments he plays on the album, though most were different types of synthesizers, and he did receive some help on various tracks. The album was produced to the point of spending triple the allotted budget. Because of this, Prince's next album would have to have some hits to recoup this somewhat lackluster release.
[edit] Track listing
All songs written and composed by Prince, except where noted.
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "For You" | 1:06 | |||||||
| 2. | "In Love" | 3:38 | |||||||
| 3. | "Soft and Wet" (Prince, Chris Moon) | 3:01 | |||||||
| 4. | "Crazy You" | 2:17 | |||||||
| 5. | "Just as Long as We're Together" | 6:24 | |||||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Baby" | 3:09 | |||||||
| 2. | "My Love Is Forever" | 4:09 | |||||||
| 3. | "So Blue" | 4:26 | |||||||
| 4. | "I'm Yours" | 5:01 | |||||||
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Total length:
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33:11 | ||||||||
[edit] References
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Prince: For You > Review" at Allmusic. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
- ^ Blender review[dead link]
- ^ Christgau, Robert. "Prince". robertchristgau.com. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=prince. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
- ^ Browne, David (21 September 1990). "Purple Products". Entertainment Weekly (#32). ISSN 1049-0434. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,318219,00.html. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
- ^ Hoard, Christian David; Brackett, Nathan (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4, revised ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780743201698.
- ^ Clay, Jennifer (1 January 1982). "For You". Archived from the original on 2010-07022. http://ca.music.yahoo.com/read/review/12058735.
