Music / Batman (1989)

"Gentlemen! Let's broaden our minds! Lawrence?"

Batman is the 11th studio album by American recording artist Prince, released in 1989 through Warner (Bros.) Records. It is one of two soundtrack albums for the Tim Burton film Batman, together with Danny Elfman's orchestral score, with all but three of its songs — "The Arms Of Orion", "Lemon Crush", and "Batdance" — featured in the film.

Prince himself starred in two of the videos from this album as the Batman/Joker mashup character Gemini.

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "The Future"
2. "Electric Chair"
3. "The Arms Of Orion"
4. "Partyman"
5. "Vicki Waiting"

Side Two

1. "Trust"
2. "Lemon Crush"
3. "Scandalous"
4. "Batdance"

Give me the electric chair for all my future tropes!

• Award-Bait Song: "Scandalous" may be considered this for the Batman film.
• Call-Back: "Batdance" calls back to two earlier songs on the album, "The Future" and "Electric Chair", and the 45 B-side "200 Balloons".
• Concept Album: The songs explore the psyches of the movie's characters: "The Future," "Arms of Orion," and "Scandalous" correspond to Batman, the dark romantic hero; "Vicki Waiting" corresponds to Bruce Wayne; "Lemon Crush" roughly corresponds to Vicki Vale; and "Electric Chair," "Partyman," and "Trust" correspond to Joker.
• Drugs Are Bad: From "The Future":
  Yellow Smiley offers me X
  Like he's drinking 7Up
  I would rather drink 6 razor blades
  Razor blades from a paper cup
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His Gemini character from the "Batdance" video wears half of a Joker outfit and half of a made-up Batman costume.
• Intercourse with You: "Lemon Crush" and "Scandalous".
• Let's Duet: "The Arms Of Orion" with Sheena Easton.
• Life of the Party: "Partyman" is about this type of person.
• Minimalistic Cover Art/Textless Album Cover: Just the Batman logo, up very close.
• No Ending: "Batdance" cuts to a sudden halt with a sample of Michael Keaton saying "Stop."
• One-Word Title: "Trust" and "Scandalous".
• Record Producer: Prince.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: From "Partyman":
  Rules and regulations, no place in this nation.
• Screw the War, We're Partying: Prince's "Batdance" video takes it to a new extreme.
• Spelling Song: "Trust"'s intro has "W, X, Y, Z".
• Spoken Word in Music: Batman voice clips can be heard in "The Future", "Electric Chair", "Partyman", "Vicki Waiting", "Trust", and "Batdance".
• Thought Crime: From "Electric Chair":
  If a man is considered guilty
  For what goes on in his mind
  Then give me the electric chair
  For all my future crimes-Oh!
• Voice Clip Song: "Batdance" is Frankenstein'd together out of dialogue samples from Batman; vocal quotes from Prince songs from that film's soundtrack; the "Batmaaaan!" of the 1966 Batman TV series theme; a backing track from a song rejected for the film ("200 Balloons", which wound up as "Batdance"'s b-side); an entirely unrelated funk riff; and a typically Princetastic guitar solo. It sounds as ridiculous as that description makes it out to be. And it became a #1 single in the US.

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