In case you missed one of the multitude of posts we’ve published recently, What Hi-Fi? has reached a critical milestone. Specifically, we’re turning 50 this year.
That’s right, get your party hats and disco balls ready, we’re hitting the big five-O. Only another 20 years until we can retire.
And speaking of the number 20… Nostalgic soul that I am, I’ve spent some time going through our back issues and web archive to find and revisit the main tracks we’ve used for testing over the decades.
And during this noble quest, I realised a key album we used to love, but for whatever reason have stopped using to test products – one that is also celebrating a key birthday this month. Yes, Prince’s 3121 is turning 20.
Now look, I get why younger people in particular may not rank the album as Prince’s finest, or, based on my conversations with our Gen Z staff writers, even be aware of its existence. The virtuoso had already been around quite a while, and there are plenty of big moments to choose from, after all.
Some examples include When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, Raspberry Beret (which my wife and I played at our wedding), and the beautiful ballad Purple Rain.
Tracks aside, there’s his iconic performance of Purple Rain at the Super Bowl (though the less said about the movie of the same name, the better), and his music playing in the background as Jack Nicholson delivered one of THE best scenes in Tim Burton’s Batman.
All in all, there’s a lot of cool stuff to choose from…
But 3121 has been one of my favourite examples of his later work and a bit of a hidden gem that many fans wrongfully overlook, which is funny as it was a hit at the time, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 chart – something Prince hadn’t managed since 1989’s Batman soundtrack.
Sandwiched between Musicology, which is good but not his best work, and the (in my mind) more forgettable Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r, the album is one of Prince’s most holistically brilliant pieces of later work and a fine example of his virtuosity as a musician, producer and composer.
Prince pulled in an all-star cast of bandmates for the album, including drummer C.C. Dunham, bass guitarist Joshua Dunham and singer Támar Davis, and the album is a powerhouse of eclectic tracks that blissfully change pace and genre at a fevered rate – resulting in an album that not only sounds great, but is a fantastic way to test your hi-fi system’s performance.
Starting with former listening room favourite 3121, the album’s titular track is an experimental juggernaut that starts with trip-hop elements before adding rhythmically complex, punchy interlinking parts.
With electronically enhanced vocals, a staccato guitar part that sounds more like something from Mr Bungle than Prince, and funky, scooped bass, as our technical editor Ketan Bharadia neatly explained: “3121 is a rhythmically complex masterpiece on a decent system and an illogical mess on anything else.”
Then there’s my personal favourite, Fury. One of the album’s more traditional tracks, it's a fun funk song that’s sure to get even the most stoic of music fans’ feet tapping to the beat.
From a testing perspective, its intentionally flabby bass is a sure-fire way to see if your speakers are going to rattle. And the stark contrast between it and Prince’s attacking lead guitar and smooth as silk vocals will also offer a solid gauge of its general dynamics and tonal balance.
If it can’t properly separate the different parts of the frequency range, your system won’t do Fury justice – trust me, I’ve checked.
And that tour de force continues all the way to the final track, Get On The Boat. Opening with a booming horn section and grooving bassline before exploding into a freeform big-band experience, the funktastic song grooves from start to finish and is an example of why, for me, 3121 is an album every hi-fi and music fan should check out.
While it isn’t Prince’s most avant garde effort, especially compared to his early 1980s period, it’s a fantastic album and one of the best produced in his vast back catalogue. And with it turning 20, there’s never been a better time to revisit it, or check it out for the first time. You won't be disappointed if you do.
I’d especially recommend the 2019 posthumous vinyl version, which has been spinning all week for “research” purposes…
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