1999 (Prince album)

1999 is the fifth studio album from Prince. It contained the hit songs "Little Red Corvette", "1999" and "Delirious". The title track was a protest against nuclear proliferation.

1999
Studio album by Prince and the Revolution
Released	October 27, 1982 (1982-10-27)
Recorded	January–August 1982
Studio	Kiowa Trail Home (Chanhassen, Minnesota) Sunset Sound Recorders (Hollywood, California)
Genre	Minneapolis sound[1] funk[2][3] synth-pop[4] R&B[5] art pop[6] dance[3] new wave[7][8]
Length	70:29
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Prince
Prince chronology
Controversy (1981) 1999 (1982) Purple Rain (1984)
Singles from 1999
"1999" Released: September 24, 1982 "Little Red Corvette" Released: February 9, 1983 "Delirious" Released: August 17, 1983 "Automatic" Released: August 1983 (non-US single) "Let's Pretend We're Married" Released: November 23, 1983

The record was released on October 27, 1982.^[9]

The album's music is pop, funk and R&B.

Critical reception and legacy

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	100/100 (2019 edition)[10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Blender	[11]
Chicago Sun-Times	[12]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[13]
The Guardian	[14]
Pitchfork	10/10[15]
Rolling Stone	[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	8/10[17]
The Village Voice	A−[3]

1999 was well received by contemporary critics. Reviewing for Rolling Stone in December 1982, Michael Hill praised Prince for "working like a colorblind technician who's studied both Devo and Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, keeping the [1999's] songs constantly kinetic with an inventive series of shocks and surprises."^[18] The Village Voice reviewer Robert Christgau was more reserved in his praise. While conceding that, "like every black pop auteur, Prince commands his own personal groove ... stretching his flat funk forcebeat onto two discs worth of deeply useful dance tracks", he also believed that the musician's only reliable subject remains race, leaving the critic with doubts about the messages behind the sex and apocalyptic songs.^[3]

References

1. Nathan Brackett; Christian David Hoard (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. p. 655. ISBN 978-0-7432-0169-8.
2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "1999 – Prince". AllMusic. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
3. Christgau, Robert (December 28, 1982). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
4. Hill, Michael (December 9, 1982). "Prince: 1999". Rolling Stone. No. 384. New York. ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on July 17, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
5. Kory Grow (November 26, 2019). "Prince's '1999' Box Set Contains Incredible Alternate Universe of Unreleased Songs". Rolling Stone.
6. Format Team (April 21, 2016). "A Visual Celebration of Prince Through His Album Covers". Format. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016.
7. Pitchfork Staff (September 10, 2018). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 25, 2023. ...1999 remains a high-water mark of nuclear new wave madness...
8. de Visé, Daniel. "Thirteen New Wave Album Classics". AllMusic. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
9. "Prince 1999". All Music. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
10. "1999 [Super Deluxe Edition] by Prince Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
11. Harris, Keith (June–July 2001). "Prince – Every Original CD Reviewed: 1999". Blender (1). New York. Archived from the original on August 20, 2004. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
12. Keller, Martin (April 4, 1993). "A Prince Discography". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on April 8, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
13. Browne, David (September 21, 1990). "Purple Products". Entertainment Weekly. No. 32. New York. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
14. Price, Simon (April 22, 2016). "Prince: every album rated – and ranked". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
15. Johnston, Maura (April 30, 2016). "Prince: 1999". Pitchfork. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
16. Matos, Michaelangelo (2004). "Prince". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 654–57. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
17. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Prince". Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
18. Hill, Michael (1982-12-09). "1999". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2020-01-08.