A year and a half ago we covered Prince’s impact on pop music when we wrote about his masterpiece Purple Rain, one of my favorite albums of all-time that captured the magic of Prince when he was at his creative and commercial peak. Today we throw it back to his debut album that was released in 1978. For You is a relatively unheralded album in Prince’s immense discography, but it is notable considering he recorded every single damn part of this album (yes, he played every single instrument) at the ripe age of 19 years old as well as the fact that each song on this album provides a preview into the musical giant Prince would eventually become. All of the elements he would explore throughout his career– funk, R&B, rock, pop, disco, jazz– are present here in bits and pieces, teasing out the meteoric rise of one of the music industry’s most gifted instrumentalists. You only need to listen to the guitar work on “I’m Yours” once to understand what was about to come.
Standout Songs: “Soft and Wet”, “In Love”, “My Love Is Forever”, “I’m Yours”
