I agree wholeheartedly with your examples, Aerogram.

But the following might be his worst:



It reminds me of a freshman art-class project in metaphor.

Then there is this one:



Great artists could take the themes of anger and soured relationships and make something quite memorable.

What we have here instead is what so much of his artwork has been over the last decade, rather literal, amateurish piecemeal that's as off-key with the music as a dirty dive bar visiting a chain restaurant.

And the fonts being used in the artwork rarely make any sense either. Take "The Truth", arguably the most deeply personal Prince album to date. The fonts -- on the CD itself in this case, since there was no official album cover -- are playful, messy, and completely out of step with the stripped-down, melancholic, soul-bearing nature of the music contained within.

Since "Come" in 1994, I think the excellent "Rainbow Children" and the fairly decent "One Nite Alone...Live!" box set are the only examples of the kind of quality album covers that are worthy of this seriously talented artist.

And I suppose "Crystal Ball" also has a pretty good album cover, as it pulls off the look of a bootleg quite well.
[Edited 11/19/05 14:01pm]

I agree wholeheartedly with your examples, Aerogram.

But the following might be his worst:



It reminds me of a freshman art-class project in metaphor.

Then there is this one:



Great artists could take the themes of anger and soured relationships and make something quite memorable.

What we have here instead is what so much of his artwork has been over the last decade, rather literal, amateurish piecemeal that's as off-key with the music as a dirty dive bar visiting a chain restaurant.

And the fonts being used in the artwork rarely make any sense either. Take "The Truth", arguably the most deeply personal Prince album to date. The fonts -- on the CD itself in this case, since there was no official album cover -- are playful, messy, and completely out of step with the stripped-down, melancholic, soul-bearing nature of the music contained within.

Since "Come" in 1994, I think the excellent "Rainbow Children" and the fairly decent "One Nite Alone...Live!" box set are the only examples of the kind of quality album covers that are worthy of this seriously talented artist.

And I suppose "Crystal Ball" also has a pretty good album cover, as it pulls off the look of a bootleg quite well.
[Edited 11/19/05 14:01pm]

Brendan said:

I forgot about those two. In fact, maybe I had successfully buried them deep inside my subconscious, like so many other painful images.

Let's not forget Graffiti Bridge, which was the first Prince album cover that looked truly cheesy and cheap :

Aerogram said:

Well, at least the first since 1979, with his self-titled second album which you’ve already sited.

But at least “Graffiti Bridge” looks like it was handled by a professional who put some time into its construction.

I think what were seeing with Photoshop and other computer design tools is the same type of early, cheesy, uninspired work that we got in the first decade or so of music videos.

Everyone is trying to figure out how to use this new technology, these new tools. And the tools are so easy to use that literally anyone can participate, including the vast majority of people who should just back away from the keyboard before someone gets hurt.

Flipping through used and new CD covers over the past 10 years reveals a monumental waste of potential canvas space. You go back and look at the stuff from the 60s and 70s, or even further back at the jazz records of the 30s through the 60s and you see a far higher percentage of quality work.

Today’s album artwork seems almost an afterthought.

The big-budget, mainstream stuff tends to be middle brow, neat and pleasant. Most of it’s not going to offend, most of it’s not going to inspire, and most of it holds no more meaning than a Pepsi commercial. The sad thing is that most of it’s better than a lot of Prince’s visuals.

Then there’s the real nightmarish hip-hop section, which for the most part is so gaudy, so god-awful and cheap that it’s almost good. Perhaps in the hands of a real artist who could figure out the proper context for display, one just might be able to lift this junk it into the realm of interesting and enlightening.

One of the most frustrating aspects of Prince the artist is that he rarely entrusts the visual side of his music to people who could do justice to his genius-level musical skills.

But you have to take the good with the bad. Part of the reason Prince is one of the monumental musicians of the 20th century is because of his ego; that same ego that believes that there is no difference between creating music and directing films.

There are just so many talented – in most cases, starving -- artists out there. Even on the Internet his fans are doing better than his own official product. The fan-created artwork for “Xpectation” is better than the artwork of anything Prince has released in the last 10 years outside of “The Rainbow Children”.

Prince just doodling on a piece of paper while listening to his music would be far more interesting than what we’ve seen.

But I doubt that it’ll get any better anytime soon, for Prince or for the industry as a whole, as we’ve only just entered the age of music downloads and Ipods where accompanying artwork is becoming even more devalued.

And speaking of less-than-stellar artwork from associated artists, I leave you with eyes that would quickly extinguish that entire Mazarati album.


[Edited 11/19/05 17:42pm]

Aerogram said:

Well, at least the first since 1979, with his self-titled second album which you’ve already sited.

But at least “Graffiti Bridge” looks like it was handled by a professional who put some time into its construction.

I think what were seeing with Photoshop and other computer design tools is the same type of early, cheesy, uninspired work that we got in the first decade or so of music videos.

Everyone is trying to figure out how to use this new technology, these new tools. And the tools are so easy to use that literally anyone can participate, including the vast majority of people who should just back away from the keyboard before someone gets hurt.

Flipping through used and new CD covers over the past 10 years reveals a monumental waste of potential canvas space. You go back and look at the stuff from the 60s and 70s, or even further back at the jazz records of the 30s through the 60s and you see a far higher percentage of quality work.

Today’s album artwork seems almost an afterthought.

The big-budget, mainstream stuff tends to be middle brow, neat and pleasant. Most of it’s not going to offend, most of it’s not going to inspire, and most of it holds no more meaning than a Pepsi commercial. The sad thing is that most of it’s better than a lot of Prince’s visuals.
Then there’s the real nightmarish hip-hop section, which for the most part is so gaudy, so god-awful and cheap that it’s almost good. Perhaps in the hands of a real artist who could figure out the proper context for display, one just might be able to lift this junk it into the realm of interesting and enlightening.

One of the most frustrating aspects of Prince the artist is that he rarely entrusts the visual side of his music to people who could do justice to his genius-level musical skills.But you have to take the good with the bad. Part of the reason Prince is one of the monumental musicians of the 20th century is because of his ego; that same ego that believes that there is no difference between creating music and directing films.

There are just so many talented – in most cases, starving -- artists out there. Even on the Internet his fans are doing better than his own official product. The fan-created artwork for “Xpectation” is better than the artwork of anything Prince has released in the last 10 years outside of “The Rainbow Children”.
Prince just doodling on a piece of paper while listening to his music would be far more interesting than what we’ve seen.But I doubt that it’ll get any better anytime soon, for Prince or for the industry as a whole, as we’ve only just entered the age of music downloads and Ipods where accompanying artwork is becoming even more devalued.

And speaking of less-than-stellar artwork from associated artists, I leave you with eyes that would quickly extinguish that entire Mazarati album.


[Edited 11/19/05 17:42pm]

The vault cover is good! And im surprised lovesexy hasnt been mentioned yet.