90's Guilty Pleasures #38: Prince & The New Power Generation "Diamonds and Pearls" (1991) / "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" (1992) / "7" (1992)

This was a tough one to narrow down... If you'd like, just call this entry "all of the singles from the Diamonds And Pearls and Love Symbol LP's, but that would have been too many songs, so we just chose our personal 3 favorites... which are not normally favorites among hardcore Prince fanatics (especially "7"), being the reason why they fit here for "guilty pleasures."

We especially love the heavy drum fill in "Diamonds and Pearls" just before the "D to the I to the A to the M." Also lovin' the distorted vox in "Money Don't Matter 2 Night..." You'll never hear modern artists leaving something that imperfectly cool in a radio single. And of course, there's the brilliant a cappella intro of "7." These were the final brilliant moments of a fairly consistent 13-14 years, before changing his name to the symbol and losing his genius completely. (P.S. I kinda love that "7" peaked at #7 on Billboard. 20 years or so earlier, John Lennon's "#9 Dream" peaked at #9. Fun stuff.)

Prince pulled the videos from Youtube years ago, but somehow these stuck around...