10. PrincePurple Rain
I can’t remember when or how I first heard Purple Rain. I know I had the cassette at some point, but I’m trying to remember if I saw the film before hearing the album. I think the film was just on TV randomly when I was in my teens. Going to a very macho boys’ school, it was very liberating to see this guy who was deciding to kick a lot of norms in the face: the way he carried himself, the way he looked, the way he sang, the way he moved and danced, his insistence that despite all those things that he’s still the best at every single thing he does, at any instrument he touches, at any vocal range, at different production techniques and ways of dancing, and his acting in the film. It just blew me away, the same as Morrissey I guess, in terms of what being a young man can mean and the roles that society imposes. A part of what he did was about shock and standing out, but the music stood the test of time.
