daPrettyman said:

NouveauDance said:

Rave, Musicology, Emancipation, NPS, 20Ten, The Vault, ONA.

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Partial credit to Rave and NPS for being so bad they're funny.

The piano cd? Or the live cd? Both were pretty bad to me.

Well yeah the live CD isn't all that, but I was thinking about the tacky piano album cover.

dandan said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Are some of you serious

Controversy ATWIAD Lovesexy as his WORST?

wow

Emancipation NPS Rave MinneapolisSound Musicology

I know! How can people say ATWIAD is one of the worst next to some the painfully amateur and tacky covers he's released over the years.

ATWIAD was a beautiful change from the previous album covers, a true representative of the stories and directions of the music.

lol wow ATWIAD worst than NPS sad

As far as the proteges, I love all of them except 4 Ice Cream Castles & Apollonia 6 (1980s)

Don't care for anything after that

dandan said:

I know! How can people say ATWIAD is one of the worst next to some the painfully amateur and tacky covers he's released over the years.

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I'll answer... Because ATWIAD made for a less obvious choice that's really obvious. It's not just painfully amateur, it's purposely amateur as some statement. It wasn't just a bad fon filteringt choice and stupid costume, it was the moment that I as a fan realized some of Prince's stuff didn't mean a damn thing.

treehouse said:

dandan said:

I know! How can people say ATWIAD is one of the worst next to some the painfully amateur and tacky covers he's released over the years.

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I'll answer... Because ATWIAD made for a less obvious choice that's really obvious. It's not just painfully amateur, it's purposely amateur as some statement. It wasn't just a bad fon filteringt choice and stupid costume, it was the moment that I as a fan realized some of Prince's stuff didn't mean a damn thing.

huh? Are we talking about album artwork or something else?

OldFriends4Sale said:

christobole said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

huh? Are we talking about album artwork or something else?

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I know I'm talking about the album artwork. It's laughably bad. There's a damn clown, next to a naked child.

treehouse said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

huh? Are we talking about album artwork or something else?

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I know I'm talking about the album artwork. It's laughably bad. There's a damn clown, next to a naked child.

not bad at all

have you ever been to a kids birthday party that has a clown where mothers have infants that young? I have. I don't see what the prob is there lol,

It's Paisley Park, a Utopian ideal of prince each character represents people/ideals of the songs and band/protege members

to each his own lol

robertgeorgeakabob said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

huh? Are we talking about album artwork or something else?

ATWIAD is charming. The characters reveal Prince's mindset; colourful, playful, and vulnerable. There are laughs and tears alike in Paisley Park and everybody is there to share them. It's my guess that this was the period that he felt personally closest to The Revolution. It's as if he's celebrating friendship. Number 3 for best cover, after Lovesexy and Sign 0 The Times.

I agree, I also felt it was a very intimate piece, everyone there in the band(s) engineers et were there with him before the Purple Rain. Feels like a celebration piece. This one he didn't make himself prominent.

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"I wanted community more than anything else." -Prince talking about the 1984-1986 period

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I like Rainbow Children but with all the stories in that one, I wish the album artwork reflected more of the characters we are introduced to. Love the artwork but it doesn't really reflect for me the album direction.

Dream Factory is the album artwork that I really want to see.

Susannah finished it, but I don't know what's happened to it.

Susannah Melvoin on designing the Dream Factory album cover: Prince and I used to draw together. He was actually a really great artist. I was really into it, too. I would always have a pad and I was always drawing. I've been drawing since I was a kid. We would sit down and we would draw together. One particular night he couldn't come up with an album cover (for Dream Factory). I came up with a couple of different ones. One of them was actually a dramatized version of myself, opening up a door into this dream world, with images that were based on some of the songs. I remember that there was a lot of white space, because, I couldn't fill up the background with color... Everything was kind of drawn onto white paper. But, the doors were very ornate and I'm opening the door into the Dream Factory. The second album cover didn't have me on it. It just had the name Dream Factory, with some things hanging off the words. I used to do murals in the house where Prince lived, incredible, crazy murals that he would ask me to paint. We were always into doing stuff like that.

"Emancipation" is my choice. For such an important project and expensive package the cover art is just incredibly cheap looking. The cover art reminds me of those budget shareware PC games you could buy for like 3.99 at the time. Then there's the editing mistakes inside the booklet: Little Prince's leg is missing from his trunk, the shadow of that "I'm sleepy" pillow thing is misplaced, and seriously, what the hell is going on with that hand in that holy river painting?!?

"Musicology" is ridiculously sloppy too, but at least the photo of him is nice enough. Can't say the same for NPS, which makes me feel just plain awkward when I even look at it. The font choices for "The Vault" are pure Steve Parke territory too. "Rave" wasn't so bad compared to the other releases from the same time period, if you ask me.

the photography for singles at times were really good too or really bad

I don't mind the drawings inside the NPS booklet though. Definitely P-Funk for the 90s style. Exodus to me is also pretty nice in that same sense.

Parke had his moments, but his computer generated images were just terrible. Still are, as I don't get any sort of a "nostalgic" vibe from them.

Every cover ever.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Dream Factory is the album artwork that I really want to see.

Susannah finished it, but I don't know what's happened to it.

Prince and I used to draw together. He was actually a really great artist.

Oh wow, I didn't know Price was an artist artist too...I would love to see some of his artwork.

Does anybody have any pictures of his art?

*internally screaming*

OldFriends4Sale said:

treehouse said:

.

I know I'm talking about the album artwork. It's laughably bad. There's a damn clown, next to a naked child.

not bad at all

have you ever been to a kids birthday party that has a clown where mothers have infants that young? I have. I don't see what the prob is there lol,

It's Paisley Park, a Utopian ideal of prince each character represents people/ideals of the songs and band/protege members

to each his own lol

.

Ha. It's so bad. Fans like to project some depth to it but I'm not buying it. Smacks of bad art school work, both conceptually and in execution. I know I tried to love it, but I can't lie to myself. I do love the hand lettering though.

dandan said:

daPrettyman said:

The piano cd? Or the live cd? Both were pretty bad to me.

I assume the studio one, with his awful sucked in cheeks expression. Prince has high cheekbones anyway, I don't know why he always pulls that face.

This one? I hate this pic, too.

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Angelsoncrack said:

Emancipation hands down is the worst for me

so many people pick Newpowersoul (which I tend to agree not being too great) but how many times have we been forcefully told by those that be on this site that NPS is not a Prince album but NPG ? sigh.........

timmie said:

Emancipation hands down is the worst for me

so many people pick Newpowersoul (which I tend to agree not being too great) but how many times have we been forcefully told by those that be on this site that NPS is not a Prince album but NPG ? sigh.........

Very few times? I think most fans accept it as a Prince album just like all the other records he sings lead vocals on.

The 2 worst would be Lovesexy and the Prince album.

Just my $0.02

Lovesexy is excellent.

Not sure why that still riles up people. Those painted-on pink lips on the cover of Graffiti Bridge seem far more "gay", or whatever, than that image.

iZsaZsa said:

Angelsoncrack said:

Oh wow, I didn't know Price was an artist artist too...I would love to see some of his artwork.

Does anybody have any pictures of his art?

*internally screaming*

I think the 1999 cover art is his. [img:$uid]http://assets-s3.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/8be6e69c1e92a56c717b9cec3af7878e2001cdd6.jpg[/img:$uid]

Yep this is Prince

In what type of an alternate universe can the 1999 album cover be called bad?

It all went a bit south with Graffiti Bridge, but then Rainbow Children looked good. But I can't think of another post Batman album that had good art direction (and Batman was just an exercise in discipline). Oh wait, 3121 looked good.

Everything before Grafitti Bridge was great!

Well, except for For You. That one sucked.

The worst? I dunno... One Night Alone... The Vault, etc etc... many bad art directions.

OldFriends4Sale said:

iZsaZsa said:

Angelsoncrack said: I think the 1999 cover art is his. [img:$uid]http://assets-s3.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/8be6e69c1e92a56c717b9cec3af7878e2001cdd6.jpg[/img:$uid]

Yep this is Prince

thats so cool, I love his style. I never knew who drew the 1999 cover artwork...now i do!

I wonder if he released any more of his artwork as album/single covers