I think the album covers pretty much speak for themselves...











.
[Edited 1/26/06 6:20am]

was that xpectation cover legit? i don't remember getting any artwork files with the downloads, or seeing the art on NPGMC...

Anx said:

Yes, it is legit. The image appeared several times on NPGMC, but never very big
or in decent quality. It's the same cover image that was used when the album
was called Xenophobia, and if you go to the NPGMC's discography section the
Xpectation cover is displayed there as well.

BorisFishpaw said:

aha! i remember that now. yeah, that art is in 'the vault' room. thanks, boris.

stim said:

I really agree with you here though it's interesting if you look at the type of "Dirty Mind" album cover for example. What is that font exactly??

Yet somehow in true Prince style it works.

pepper7 said:

i think back then, display/title fonts like that were done by hand. at the very least, they were custom-created a lot of the time.

What I miss is the themes (mostly prevalent in ATWIAD/Parade and Batman eras, however) - the single covers artistically matching the album. For example:


[No hotlinking! Upload them to your own server like photobucket - BananaCologne]

or:


[No hotlinking! Upload them to your own server like photobucket - BananaCologne]


Compared to, say:

with the single:


Or even:

with the singles:
[No hotlinking! Upload them to your own server like photobucket - BananaCologne]

Where's the consistency - the theme?

booyah said:

i miss that, too. i guess now that singles don't sell the way they used to and don't have the same visibility they had in the past, it doesn't matter.

Anx said:

I would imagine, though, that if you own an album, a single with a similar design would catch your attention, and you'd be more likely to pick it up (as long as there's some reason to, such as extra tracks, which is a different story). Alternatively, however, and this is more the point of singles - if you buy a single (even digitally, with artwork), and like it, you'd be more likely to spot the album if the design is related.

As a die-hard fan, it's hard to think like a non-fan, since I will buy Prince albums regardless, but this makes sense to me.

Well...He never did some classy covers like there:

...Oh I don't know...


[Edited 1/26/06 6:50am]

BorisFishpaw said:

At least when I look at Cleo I get the idea that she saying this:

"Hey whitey...I wanna fuck U hard!"

BorisFishpaw said:

They say you cant judge a book by its cover, but with Prince's work over the past 15 years,...i dont know.....

Better with WB. He needs a competent staff to do the artwork. Steve Parke and them leave a lot to be desired.

Well, it depends imo. Btw, what is meant by "WB days"? Everything up to 1992 or also WB releases afterwards (I tend to go by the latter)?

O.k., my 2 cents (official retail Prince or O+> releases only):

WB releases

For you - Not bad
Prince - Absolutely horrible! Worst cover ever! Something to show your non-Prince-fans friends to give them a laugh!
Dirty Mind - Completely dated! May have been cool at the time, but only good for a laugh nowadays imo.
Controversy - Pretty cool
1999 - Horrible imo (I know that will bring me hate). Doesn't fit the mood of the album in any way.
Purple Rain - Classic
ATWIAD - Great
Parade - O.k., but I've never completely liked the black and white thing for Prince.
SOTT - Good as it compliments the overall theme of the album pretty well.
Lovesexy - Classic
Batman - I tend not to count it as its look had to be dominated by the movie anyway.
GB - I like it. It has that nice late 80's touch.
D&P - cool
O+> - Great. One of my favourite Prince album covers ever.
The Hits - Somehow disappointing.
Come - I've never liked that he overdid that "Prince is dead" thing so much. A little bit too extreme imo. But it's much better than the music in this case...
The Black Album - See comment for C&D...
TGE - Not bad, but given the "Gold" topic, a little disappointing.
Chaos and Disorder - Pretty much resembles the album title, doesn't it?
The Vault - Horrible
The Very Best of Prince - Much better for a compilation than that "The Hits" artwork.

Non-WB releases

Emancipation - The concept isn't bad (the broken chains), but that orange color really tends to be annoying.
Crystal Ball - He obviously wanted a bootleg look, and he succeeded...
Rave - I just like that blue jumpsuit...
TRC - One of his best album covers ever imo.
ONA live - Nice, very noble artwork overall.
NEWS - Not bad, but not exciting.
Musicology - Horrible. Was that created randomly by a computer?

Out of competition - The three NPG albums

Goldnigga - Not bad
Exodus - Great
NPS - Horrible. I can't really understand that as the rest of the artwork is much better imo.

So, overall, pretty mixed impressions. I tend to come to the same conclusion for his videos, but that's a different story...
[Edited 1/29/06 11:01am]
[Edited 2/4/06 3:16am]

Mostly they're pretty good except for 1999, Graffiti Bridge, and the Vault. And what's with the Rave cover hate. That's an awesome cover. Really cool package too.

Good cover, but not great. has a good sense of mystery about it though.


OK cover, a little ordinary though.


Excellent cover! It visually ties in with the content of the album. The black
and white image, the bedsprings backdrop and the typography all reflect the
punk-funk new-wave music.


Never was particularly keen on this one, very disappointing after Dirty Mind.
Prince's face is over airbrushed (and too orange). Would've been better if the
whole cover had been made to look like a newspaper cover like that Tom Waits
album or the G'n'R Lies cover.


Great cover. A modern, more abstract take on the hand drawn Funkadelic style.
Plus the big introduction to the color purple being associated with Prince.


Great cover. Iconic image, though personally I prefer it without the flower
borders (like on the Let's Go Crazy single).


Great cover. Another great hand drawn concept. Fits perfectly with the
psychedelic beatlesque vibe of the album.


Great cover. Another iconic image. A great minimalist reaction against the
busy colorful previous album.


Excellent cover! Probably my personal favorite. My only gripe is that some of
the elements added afterwards could've been blended in better, but image wise
it was fantastic.


Great cover. Another iconic image. Personally I think framing of the image is
a little too central and upright, but again that's just a minor personal gripe.


Good use of the Batman logo image, though obviously 100% 'Batman' and no 'Prince'.


OK cover. Well executed, but for some reason I never really liked it that much.


Good cover. Simple classy photography that reflects the more produced and
commercial content (Personally I'd have prefered the original full color
version of the cover rather than the blue halftone, but that's just a personal
thing).


Great cover. I like the way the symbol fits into the image on the cover (which
is a still from the 7 video). The image complements the theme of the album.


Good cover. Simple classic photography, possibly a little plain though (personally
I would've used a sepia version of the 'bond' pose shot from the
album booklet for something called 'Hits')


Good cover. Let down a bit by kinda boring typography, (but definitely a big
improvement on the original cover).


Good cover. good concept, though a bit 'spinal tap'.


OK cover. Actually looked really good when it was printed on foil paper as
originally intended, doesn't work so well without the metallic look. Also not
so keen on the typography.


Poor cover. Well it fits with the title and music, but even so, it just doesn't
'feel' like a 'Prince' album cover.


Poor cover. The concept is fine, but the execution is a bit blurred and
lacking in depth. Image is just lifted from the old 'The Dawn' website.


OK cover. Works well enough when used in the circular case, but again the
exacution is a bit basic.


Poor cover. Like Chaos And Disorder, it does actually fit with the music, it
just isn't very inspiring.


Poor cover. just looks thrown together, the layout, image and typography just
don't seem to gel in an aesthetically pleasing way.


Poor cover. Another thrown together image. Totally uninspiring (and cheap looking).


Great cover. Really great painting, and a great image for the album. Unfortunately
the execution is a bit poor with the awkward angled borders. It would've been
much better just to use the image flat on the cover.


Good cover. Actually really well done, but what the hell does it mean?


OK cover. Nice image, but it does look like he's kinda sucking a lemon. A little
plain looking.


Good cover. I really like the layered-type orange/brown images made for this
album. Pity it was never released in hard format.


Poor cover. Very basic looking, and the typography looks blurred and indistinct.


Poor cover. Horrible typography and poor background choice. Actually the inside
of the booklet is much better and puts the cover to shame.
.

Cheesy bad 70's. Looks like a 1978 tv special from a tube cam, where's the Captain & Tenille?.


Great, I can't argue with a simple well done portrait, it's always classy and it is the person behind what you are about to hear..


Fine Art.


A bit cheaper version of the whole portrait idea mixed with a concept, if the newspaper had had more depth or torn parts or bent corners and shadows, it would have been better.


fine Art


Fine Art, I love the flowers used throughout this campaign (even in the grammy Baby I'm a Star performance) the flowers look like a visual representation of the flanged wild beats of When doves Cry... shit did I do too much acid?


Fine Art.


Fine Art, and pefect for the 80's


Fine art... Boris, which elements are not incorporated well?


Fine Art, this image is so dynamic, and crazy potent, and to me the central framing is crucial to it... and the flowers don't evoke Purple Rain, but still seem to shape the perception of the sound of the album....


Cropping this movie poster was a cool idea


Poo Poo, its like bad art! It's like community college art!


this was the European version cover? It's beautiful... but the album doesn't sound so blue.


Poop, community college art...


Too much like a Madonna photo...


Fine Art


Fine Art to the max


Dookie, like intro to photoshop.


Elementary School Art, in a bad way... no strike that, it's not any kind of art, i don't read any mood...


This is so commercial glamourshot whitney houston boring tacky, yuck, I would listen to this album so much more if it had a different cover


Photoshop of convenience store quality


Ugly to the nth degree... yuck, maybe its like a carnival? How depressing.


Typography just sinks this cover.... he looks like a worm torso of blue glitter with ribbons..



where's New Power Soul? should have used the boxing photo of that shoot...


Fine Art, perfect for this album, who did it?


this is the kind of shit I see when interviewing an art intern. Horrible, no-taste cover, yuck, blah, grrrr


mature... okay... but boring... but tastful




were they inspired by MTV news? This is doing nothing to create any kind of mystique, and ruins the music with its connection


I can't get over how cheap the logo "musicology" is designed... NO!

ufoclub said:

It's merely a technical thing (not compositional). Where the guitar strap
disappears behind prince's shoulder, it cuts off with a hard edge, but because
Prince is close to camera and out of focus, it should disappear with a blurred
edge. Like I said it's merely a technical point, but it attracts attention to
the fact that the guitar was superimposed on afterwards.


Personally I just feel because his body is so central it actually makes it
look as if he's too far over to the left of the picture. I just think from a
compositional point of view it would look better if he was framed a bit more
to the right, and tilted just a few degrees right as well to make him a bit
more 'reclined'.



The holographic sleeve was initially intended to be a limited run just for the
duration of the album's normal lifespan. This Blue sleeve would have replaced
it when the holograms had run out (it's also the sleeve for the vinyl version
which was never released with the hologram sleeve). In the end though, they
ended up reprinting the hologram sleeve, so the 'normal' 'blue' sleeve is
now rarer than the 'limited' holographic sleeve.

NEWS and The Rainbow Children were nice covers,

and so was Emancipation, imho.

But overall, the WB-era covers are the best! Parade, 1999, SOTT, I even liked Graffiti Bridge and

BorisFishpaw said:

The Parade cover got flipped there Boris. Prince should be pictured horizontally, popping into picture from the left side!

antoon said:

No he shouldn't... the image is designed as a reversable vertical gatefold.
The way I've pictured it is the correct way it should be viewed.

The same applies to Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, Jimi Hendrix's Axis: Bold
as Love and Diana Ross' Diana to name but a few.

BorisFishpaw said: