I like the albums, but it is crazy to compare them to vintage 80s Prince, which some critics are doing. Saying There Will Never B Another One Like Me could belong on Controversy? Crazy!

2freaky4church1 said:

I think what they are trying to say which it feels like to a Controversy type song with a modern day touch.

Well at least that is how it sounds to me

IGN review.....

http://music.ign.com/arti...302p1.html

What's so unique about these reviews are that while the critics are having mixed reactions to these CD's, I'm seeing most fans praise these CD's more than any Prince CD that's come out in the last 10 years that I've been here. I don't know if that's strange or exciting but it's definately interesting.

Italian review:

http://www.rockol.it/rece...OTuSFLOW3R


f.

Well said!

This is the first time i feel the core music writers are way off base with their preference of M-Sound over Lottus, Like they enlisted music writers from the Ukraine or some Soviet block nation with some backwards faint praise for M-Sound like they have been cut off from western civilization for the past 20 years ....like to them this music is a revelation... wtf
[Edited 4/7/09 21:01pm]

These reviews really do not mean a thing. I remember very specifically how many of the first reviews for some of the classics were lukewarm and how golden nuggets were cast off as bizarre indulgences.

Prince's music has always been challenging and requires lots of listens to appreciate; the genius unveils itself slowly.

Since he is no longer a cultural phenomenon, regular people do not get the listens to appreciate how great some of his later stuff really is.

MPLSound and Lotusflow3r are top notch if you can invest the time they deserve.

Dutch review by magazine Revu:
http://www.revu.nl/muziek...tusflow3r/

Lol... I was just ready to post that review from Revu.

Its a positive one: **** out of ***** stars.

Rough translation:

In 1996 Prince released 'Emancipation': a 3 CD-set full of failed funk-songs and kitchy soul.

In 2009 our funkdwarf dares to release a 3 CD-set again. With the debacle of 13 years ago in the back of mind, he - with verve - takes revanche on Lotusflow3r, MPLSound and Bria Valente's Elixir.

On Lotusflow3r he chooses for the rockband approach. That results in deliciously heavy Hendrix riffs (Dreamer), but also jazzy funk (Wall of Berlin).

MLPSound is the highlight of the set. With the help of the Linn drumcomputer (familiar from 1999) het easily creates a simplistic funk- and r&b album.
Dance 4 me can measure itself with his best monotone funk work and with the 'pimped up' ballad Ure gonna C me he would even get Ellen Degeners in his bed.

On Elixer he leaves the vocals to his protege Bria Valente, a dark beauty with a deep voice.
The album is aimed at the bedroom, but goes from Sade-like ballads to the deliciously hypnotising deep house of 2 Nite.

In a nutshell: Prince is in form. But, for god sake, come to Europe now, so we can enjoy that form again.

Lars Meijer
[Edited 4/10/09 9:56am]

this is a review from culture bully.com its cool
http://www.culturebully.c...er-reviews
[Edited 4/10/09 15:48pm]
[Edited 4/10/09 15:48pm]

Entertainment Weekly grades the set a C- on their print edition, again calling M-Sound the strongest of the set.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

I agree with you. I really don't get how they could run through Lotusflow3R and rate it weaker than mplssound, but hey to each his own in terms of taste.

People Magazine gave a good review, don't have time to type it out, but here are the ratings:

Lotusflow3r: 3 outta 4 stars
MPLSound: 3 and 1/2 outta 4 stars
Elixer: 2 ourra 4 stars

http://pitchfork.com/revi...nd-elixer/



really negative review from pitchfork

totheteeth said:

LOL.....Actually, that's how Pitchfork gets down....They are the kings of snark...

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

A C-?

Are you kidding me?

LiveToTell86 said:

Everyone loved Prince when he had a record company greasing the wheels.

2funkE said:

Entertainment Weekly should certainly not affect any of your music purchase decisions. Created for moneymakers by moneymakers not for people generally passionate about music and the way it makes them feel.

A from me!

Here's a link to a podcast review of LF/MS/E from NPR that can be added to the list of reviews: http://www.npr.org/templa...=102782738

alfbo said:

Cool. That's a nice, positive one.

2funkE said:

They sure did. People's true colors are coming out now.

So it seems this album generally got worse reviews than Planet Earth, which is shocking to me.

Some old PE reviews here: http://princetext.tripod....earth.html

LiveToTell86 said:

I think I posted this before...Check out Meta Critic which rates the overall rating of movies and music culled from various sites and publications...It basically tracks how well a release has been reviewed..

Overall, Lotus has gotten good to favorable ratings...


http://www.metacritic.com...otusflow3r

princeiscool said:

They are from planet Stupid Ignoramus.

http://www.ew.com/ew/arti...29,00.html



Entertainment Weakly used to be one of my favorite mags, but it appears as if they've jumped shark---must be a bunch of 14-22 year olds running their magazine now. I'm glad the comments on this review completely disagree with this crappy critique--and apparently this same reviewer who gave Prince's cds a C- gave the Hannah Montana cd a B!

A review from www.urchicago.com:



http://www.urchicago.com/...otusflow3r

Prince
LotusFlow3r:
MPLSound:
Elixer:
Released on March 29th, 2009 (via Target stores)

by Neil Miller Jr.

The Purple One is back. For a man who reportedly has a wealth of material locked up in his vault, we don’t hear from Prince nearly enough. But he’s back to rectify that situation with a 3 disc album available exclusively through Target stores. Consisting of two albums of new Prince material and one of a new protégé, Bria Valente, LotusFlow3r is an immense piece of work. We haven’t had this much music at one time from him since 1998’s Crystal Ball release, so it’s a lot to take in on the first listen.

The first disc, LotusFlow3r, is jam packed with guitar-based numbers that are all centered around Prince’s live band side. A few of the tracks are strangely reminiscent of previous Prince hits – for instance, ‘The Morning After’ has the same psychedelic, upbeat feeling of ‘Raspberry Beret’. ‘Colonized Mind’ opens with a guitar riff that seems only slightly altered from the one that opens ‘Purple Rain’. Don’t accuse the man of losing originality, though – this disc easily reclaims Prince’s place in music history as a masterful guitar wiz. ’77 Beverly Park’ is a blissful instrumental that that shimmers along in the same manner his two instrumental albums from 2003 did, Xpectation and N.E.W.S. The remainder of the disc is excitingly ambitious for Prince. ‘Wall of Berlin’ is filled with enough bombast to give U2 a run for their money and ‘$’ is a bouncy romp sung in a vocal styling similar to his Camille persona. The highlight of the disc, easily so, is ‘Dreamer’. Prince is notorious for his rockin’ aftershow parties where he’s liable to bust out with everything from a James Brown cover to a 12 minute long jam session – and ‘Dreamer’ is a track that perfectly evokes that same feeling. For fans of Prince’s ability to rock, this disc will easily be one of your favorite Prince albums.

The second disc of this trilogy, MPLSound, will have old school Prince fans dropping their jaws within the first 20 seconds due to the use of the same trademark drum programming from Prince’s 80’s era albums. This record is a love letter to fans that’ve been there since the beginning. ‘(There’ll Never B) Another Like Me’ kicks off with a beat that sounds like a Sign ‘O’ The Times scrap (and that’s a good thing) and swaggers along like all of Prince’s best songs. While the disc centers around his old school drum sounds, Prince uses those best on the two ballads, ‘U’re Gonna C Me’ and ‘Better With Time’ – they may not be as overtly sexual as ‘Do Me, Baby,’ but they’re every bit as heartfelt and unforgettable. The one surprise on MPLSound that I definitely did not expect, but was pleasantly surprised by, was Prince’s throwback to his Black Album. Long regarded as one of his best and most unique albums, The Black Album is the holy grail of Prince’s catalog – it’s violent, it’s gangsta, but most of all, it’s funky as hell. So for Prince to record a track like ‘Ol’ Skool Company’ in the midst of his devotion to being a Jehovah’s Witness that sounds like it would’ve fit in perfectly on that album, it’s almost bittersweet. It begs the question – is he trying to stay relevant or is this a genuine attempt to hark back to an older sound of his? Whatever the case, it’s funky and it’s fresh. This disc on its own easily blows away any album Prince has released in the past few years. It’s what longtime Prince fans have been waiting for and it will satisfy even the most fastidious listeners who expect only the best from His Royal Badness.

As for the last disc of the bundle, Bria Valente’s Elixer is a sultry, lounged out companion to Prince’s two discs of career retreading Rock and Funk classics in the making. If we focus only on the production of Elixer, manned by Prince, of course – it’s easy to love and is hardly a difficult listen. But looking at the whole package, Bria Valente doesn’t give us anything that Prince’s previous protégés haven’t before. Her vocals are hardly discernable from anything else on the radio right now . . . not saying it’s terrible, but it’s also not classic like Vanity 6’s ‘Nasty Girl’ or Apollonia 6’s ‘Sex Shooter’. She even takes a stab at a track formerly recorded by another Prince protégé, Tamar Davis, titled ‘Kept Woman’. Valente offers nothing new to the track which was already a flawless work when it belonged to Davis. Out of three discs, shrugging off one disc of music that’ll just fade into the walls shouldn’t be that difficult.

It’s been 11 years since Prince dared to give his fans so much music at once, but if the past is evidence of their devotion to His Purple Majesty, it’s sure to be a huge success. There’s something here for everyone – the guitar driven, live band sound of the LotusFlow3r disc, the drum machine beats and cold hard Funk of ‘MPLSound’, or even the chillaxed grooves of Bria Valente’s ‘Elixer’ disc. It’s a bold move, but honestly, would you expect anything less from a man who strutted around publicly with the word ‘Slave’ on his cheek to piss off his record company? However much criticism he endures for attempting such a vast undertaking, Prince brings the funk like it was the Sign ‘O’ The Times again. So move over Timberlake’s and Timbaland’s of the world, the spearhead of your sound is back and here to stay.

A 3 star (out of 5) review from The Observer Music Monthly (UK) 19th April 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk...und-review


Pop review: Prince, MPLSound
(www.lotusflow3r.com)

Johnny Davis
The Observer, Sunday 19 April 2009
Article history
Purveyor of a more intriguing brand of gimmick ever since changing his name to "Love Symbol #2" and writing "slave" on his face in 1993, Prince gave away 2004's Musicology to anyone who bought a concert ticket and 2007's Planet Earth to anyone who bought the Mail on Sunday. Those who bought passes to any of his 21 aftershows after 2007's 02 shows were similarly at his purple whim; some nights meant another two hours of electrifying Prince performance in an after-hours setting, others got underachieving funk singer Nikka Costa. Those who drew the run's shortest straw got a DJ so lacklustre that guests gave him a copy of Planet Earth to play instead.

Prince
MPLSound
www.lotusflow3r.com, Download

2009
This year the stunts continue. Three weeks ago Prince launched three new albums - rock guitar-infused Lotusflow3r, synthesiser-powered MPLSound and the poppy Elixer, a showcase for Bria Valente, the latest in his collection of beautiful protégées - with three wildly different LA shows, backed by three different bands, in three different venues. The one constant was his nonstop grumbling about the three soundsystems. "Fix the sound and I'll be here every week - I'll do it for free!" he scolded bosses at promoters AEG; the same people, he said, who had paid his $3m fee.

Value for money is also on Prince's mind with these self-released albums, two of which are possibly numbers 30 and 31 in his official catalogue. They're free to download - once you pay a $77 (£52) subscription to his new website. What they're worth rather depends on which way you take your Prince.

MPLSound could be a thank-you note to those Parade-era purists patient enough to have stuck around. When Doves Cry drums kick off Chocolate Box, a swashbuckling pop song that sees Prince, a Jehovah's Witness since 2001, reconnect with his lascivious, ridiculous side: "I'm your Willy Wonka/ Golden ticket, it's yours/ Don't you waste not a taste/ From my ladle it pours." Dance 4 Me similarly finds him looking back; "dark sunglasses in the pale moonlight... I like it when you dance 4 me", he pouts, over keyboards last heard when The Goonies was on release. U're Gonna C Me is the sort of charismatic ballad he used to so excel at that he'd hand them out to Martika or Stevie Nicks. Ol' Skool Company hammers the retro point home; seven minutes of funk strutting name-checking 1980s acolytes Jellybean, Morris Day, Sheila E; and asking "Fat cats/ On Wall Street/ They got a bailout/ Why somebody else got to wait?" (The more things change ... )

Lotusflow3r is less easy to love. A guitar-hero workout from an era when that didn't involve a PlayStation, it's half Jimi Hendrix acid rock, half Randy Newman lounge jazz. Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful falls over itself to suggest a terrific party is under way and everyone should stick around. Dreamer is all guitar mewling and puff about "peanut butter logic served on a bed of lies". There's an OK cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' Crimson and Clover, but mostly this album's where Prince has stuck his fill3r.

Elixer is at least a more pleasant listen; ignore the Prince mystique and it's a collection of reasonably well-turned pop ballads. You're left feeling he'd have done himself better service to release just the one album (MPLSound) somewhere everyone could buy it, like a normal person. But where would be the gimmick in that?

http://rockandrollreport....te-elixir/

CD Review: Prince - LotusFlow3r - MPLSound - Brian Valente - Elixir
April 22, 2009 by Scott Homewood

Another year, another CD from Prince, though in this case there are three CDs included in this latest package from our Purple Hero. As of this writing, the three-CD set is only available at Target stores due to Prince’s hatred of dealing with the major labels since his major-league dust-up at Warners. Although I hate the fact the indie record stores won’t be getting this release for awhile (if at all) I respect Prince’s stance against the majors and he has at least made sure the price is right ($11.99 for the three CD set) so there is not much to balk about as far as pricing and availability as there are Target stores every-freaking-where. Next time, though, I hope he manages to reconcile his hatred of the major label system with the realization that indie stores have always stood by him and his music despite Warner Brothers treating him like crap so he can maybe give the indie stores a special release or work with them or something. Commercial over - as I said, the price is right.

The music, though, may be another matter.

The way Prince is presenting this set is not as a cohesive multi-CD set ala Emancipation or even Crystal Ball. What Prince is attempting to do here is give the consumer three different projects for the price of one. The first (and main project) is called LotusFlow3r and is the main CD of the set. The second CD is called MPLSound and features Prince jamming over some old school Prince beats and grooves. Possibly these are backing tracks he’s had laying around in his seemingly bottomless musical vault and just decided to update them or re-record parts of them to make them sound more contemporary yet retain enough of the classic old-school Prince feel to excite the part of his fanbase hungering for that vintage Prince sound. The third disc serves as the debut release of his latest lover/protege Bria Valente, for whom Prince has produced, written the songs, and doubtless played all the instruments on this CD as a testament to both his love (I am just guessing) and his belief in her talent (sure). Since there are no musician credits on any of the packaging for these releases I will assume he’s done all the music for all three these CDs, as has been his usual M.O. as of late.

The first CD, LotusFlow3r, is devinitely slanted towards the kind of modern neo-soul Prince has played since breaking away from Warners for good in the mid-90’s. It is characteristically very lush R&B with most of the rock feel coming not from the (mostly) mid-tempo beats but from Prince’s fluid, Hendrixian guitar playing. Though derivative in his guitar sound, Prince should get way more credit for his axe work than he does. He is one of the most fluid, intuitive, skillful players in the history of rock and roll but due to his guitar sound not being original enough, he is unfairly overlooked in this department. For me, it is the main reason I have still purchased his albums despite there being nothing much resembling a hit song over the past fifteen years or so. Sadly, I do not hear a hit on this disc either, though an excellent cover of the ’60’s chestnut Crimson and Clover could conceivably cross-over, though it is wild that another writer’s song is the catchiest song on a Prince album. Back in the day, Prince could create a hit whenever the mood struck. Perhaps he still can. He has said he is done with hits, that making hits is not what he wants to do. To my chagrin, at least, he keeps his plan on track with this CD.

The second CD, MPLSound, is the one I personally like the best. Though it has it’s own set of problems due to the fact it copies old-school Prince with a little updating and peters out towards the end, I find this CD has the catchiest material and finds Prince at his most playful. What I have noticed through the years is when Prince seems to be having fun, he is at his best and his most playful, sexy, bawdy cuts are the ones that have been the most successful. As he has matured, he has largely “grown out” of his penchant for playful smut and he doesn’t get too dirty here either but this is the closest he’s come to his old self in quite a long time. The first cut alone, the wonderful (There’ll Never B) Another Like Me should get visions of old-school funky, nasty Prince dancing in your head as your own feet start tapping like there’s some sort of party going on. The best CD of the three, and although not a complete return to form, this sure bodes well for the future as I hope he gets a good reception for this disc and decides to give us his best stuff just one more time. Hey, I can hope can’t I?

The third CD is by Bria Valente and entitled Elixir and, frankly, you would need to influence me by some kind of potion or something to make me say this CD is good. It embodies all that is wrong with today’s R&B. Slicker than 47 politicians, this CD has very little in the way of true emotion and while Vanlente’s singing is decent enough, you just don’t get the impression Valente is really conveying any real emotion. The notes are there, but that undefinable X-factor is missing. To that end, Valente is obviously very young and maybe she will develop her talent over time. Valente truly does have a good voice, she just needs something to seperate her from Beyonce and all the other Beyonce-wanna-be’s that are unfortunately clogging the airwaves and marketplace. That Prince is working with her may mean something, but we’ve seen him (and heard, unfortunately) make other albums with his various proteges and lovers and they have all come out flat, the best thing about them being Prince’s involvement. It is the same here. I found myself not listening to her voice as much as checking out Prince’s arrangements and licks, kind of tuning her out, which I am sure was not the intention behind this disc.


https://www.lotusflow3r.com

http://lefsetz.com/wordpr...ding-4509/

BartVanHemelen said:

Go on then I will humour you, what is your point exactly?