Prince "Chaos & Disorder"

(Warner Brothers 1996/Prince Estate 2021) There was some kind of formula I read once that explained how the last critically-deemed "good" Rolling Stones album kept creeping up into the late 70s, then 80s. With Prince it seems his passing and our Prince-deprived ears did something more radical. Not only did we start moving forward in assessing what was good, EVERYTHING now seems good. This album was originally released as CD only and was generally agreed upon to be scrap vault material Prince was throwing out there to complete his Warners contract obligations. The only thing I recalled on it was the grooving "I Dig You Better Dead." Listening again, now that (hopefully) everything he ever released is getting a vinyl reissue, I can't believe I didn't listen to this funky, lively, wild album more often over the last quarter century. Bad graphics and Prince's disavowal of Warners didn't help, but damn this is a tough, great collection of music for dancing and fighting and revolting. Give it another spin if you haven't already.