Here in the UK...

Prince had by 88 firmly established himself as a more "alternative" act, like a Bowie. He would sell, but not as much as the Kylie's and Phil Collins.

Lovesexy was his first number one, but it was released in a week with little competition. Alphabet St had already gone top 10. CD's only accounted for 5% of sales then, so the single track wasn't really an issue.

I think the reasons Lovesexy wasn't bigger was...

1. Glam Slam. Killed the album sales in its tracks. Lovesexy (edit) should have been the second single.

2. The cover. the talk and partial ban made P look a dick.

3. Backlash. It was only 8 months after Prince cancelled the SOTT gigs in the UK.

4. Over exposure. Album projects were so regular they were bluring into each other.

5. The Press. They prefered the mystery of the Black Album.

6. The tour came too late. the tour was a huge hit, but did little to lift album sales by the time it arrived.

7. I wish U heaven - Another huge mistake as a single. When 2 R In Love would probably have been better suited as a third single.

muirdo said:

Thats a good way of looking at it.

Which track on Lovesexy was the "Wedding feast"??!

Certainly the cover put people off.
It became a bit of a joke.
And the religious overtones probably put people off too.

Alphabet St did well as a single I think, people still think of it as a Prince classic, but the other singles were weak.

My favourite album though. And by far his best tour.

my guess is cuz it was all "churchy" and had princey all naked on the cover

Some reasons
Possibly overkill, as he had released 5 great albums in 4 years and it was a bit much for people to keep up with. This was at a time when most artists spent 3 years between an album like Michael Jackson. Also it came after SOTT and that meant the expectation for the next album would be impossibly high for Prince to match, and despite the fact Lovesexy, is one of his 10 best, it came after the absolute best album he had made (We are not counting the Black Album here). I think 1985 -1987 was Prince's creative high point and Lovesexy was the start of the slide.
Also by 1988, everyone was enjoying Terence Trent D'arby as the new self produced black artist and then again the brilliance of Bad was permeating the charts with its 5 consecutive number one hits. Also quirky pop had given way to rap and hair metal as new chart fads. By 1988 Rap was the music of choice for blacks, and Princes pop seemed a bit fey.
The tour (In America) was overkill and some of Lovesexys material like Dance On and Positivity was uninspired filler. The Black album thing too was a debacle that threw a few fan, but also meant a few more were getting it as a bootleg and enjoying that more than the official release. The racy cover may have scared off a few (It did add some publicity)

great thread. some very concise opinions here!

I was 18 at the time and homophobia was quite strong amongst the young dudes in the small towns of England, alas, the cover was too much.

I remember MelodyMaker had a huge write-up, with the headline pronouncing prince as god.

The album was a lot to digest but I loved it's boldness and non-compliance with the many competeing fads of the time.

easily 1 of his best albums for me.
after this 1 he settled down a bit

never been a favourite album for me. i don't like the production. Sounds thin to me, although maybe there's an emotional thin-ness to it too...
also seemed like he was trying to hard...IMHO of course...

This thread is so interesting to me - I had been aware of Prince for ages by the time Lovesexy came out but I was only 14 at the time and it was the album that properly introduced me to him. From this point I had to find the cash to get all the previous albums and 12" singles, including US imports (I'm in the UK) - quite an expensive exercise that took me a very long time!!

Anyway, in response to the question of why it wasn't well received, the thing that interests me is that I was unaware of that fact and unaware of any of these issues that have been mentioned. I had seen the concert on TV and had a friend at school who was already really into him so I just went out and bought it. I still think, as I'm glad to see many of you do, that it's one of his best albums.

Particularly regarding the cover, I think it's one of his best and I'm quite sure it didn't bother me when I bought it.

Reading about it now, I think the reasons that have been suggested here clearly all contributed to some degree but for me none of these things mattered - he looked cool and sounded cool. That was all that mattered really.

As others have pointed out, I think that the Lovesexy album was released at the apex of his popularity in Europe.

In 1988, Europe loved Lovesexy-era Prince, as much as in 1984, the U.S.A. loved Purple Rain-era Prince.

He was on U.K. television a lot during 1988. I remember the BBC doing a special devoted to him. Then, of course, the Lovesexy Live concert was telecast live across Europe.

As for the actual album... It didn't sound like anything that had come before. I may be wrong, but I don't think that the trademark Linn percussion is as evident on this record - you know, the delayed claaaaap; the phased rimshot which goes "KARRROKKK"... That sort of thing.

Agree with previous post - Lovesexy was extremely well recieved throughout Europe, and all the reviews I saw in the UK were positivly glowing.

In my opinion, this was the last consistantly good album he did - not brilliant, like SOTT or Parade, but good overall.
[Edited 9/5/09 6:06am]

Huggiebear said:

I disagree, most newish artists at that time released an album each year. It was really only the 'dinosaur' artists that struggled to keep the momentum going.

1. The cover
2. It was only "one" song
3. It wasn't all that good

Tame said:

I bought it on cassette back in the day, and you know what?

I played it dozens of times but it wasn't until I played it in a deck that showed the time of each song that I realized it had been tracked as a single track.

Zinzi said:

You got that right! I was a 29-year-old white guy at the time, and it was all I could do to put that thing on the counter. And you'd better believe the very FIRST thing I did was re-fold the cassette sleeve so that no one could see naked Prince.

It's still folded that way in my cassette case, LOL.

blackielawlessrules said:

You had to be there, I guess.

Things were different in 1988.

And of course, Prince had no way of seeing this result, but today, the only Lovesexy tracks I have on my iPod are Alphabet Street from the Hits 1 and 2 CD, and Anna Stesia from the ONA Live CD.

Unless you've got some special software, you can't put the individual songs from the one-track CD on an iPod.

And Prince being Prince, you can only buy 45:03 worth of untracked Lovesexy on iTunes. Still can't buy Eye No, or Dance On, or I Wish U Heaven or Lovesexy by themselves (as far as I know - I mean, as far as Eye No).

For my sixth and final post in a row on this thread, the tour itself was awesome but did I read that Prince took a huge financial bath on it?

It's an album I don't listen to very often. I have to be in a certain mood for that. But I admire it because it's different, deep and powerful

SquirrelMeat said:

the segue between eye no and alphabet st

RodeoSchro said:

i put the whole cd on mine and just forward to whatever song I wanna hear, takes a little effort, but worth it.

RodeoSchro said:

I bought a tracked version a few years back on Amazon UK. It was cheap. Not sure if its still available but check it out. I listen to this WAY more now that its tracked...get to skip Eye No and I Wish U Heaven...never been a fan of those two tracks

TheSkinMechanic said:

By that point Prince was a major artist, and it was pretty uncommon for an artist of his magnitude to release that often.

Poplife88 said:

I have a tracked copy, still in its wrapper. I'm afraid to open it and devalue it. I'm planning on selling it one day to finance one of my children's college educations.

I think I will have to just use my CD recorder and make my own tracked copy.

RodeoSchro said:

Tracked copies aren't rare or valuable though...

meow85 said:

NOW you tell me.....

RodeoSchro said:

I do hope you're being facetious.

SquirrelMeat said:

It never made it it's still an outtake: probably the 2nd part of the Line [Precious Lord take my hand] or Cookie Jar (wasn't that a lovesexy outtake?)

I think the fact that Lovesexy was far better recieved in the UK and Europe is a testament to the liberal attitudes of us Europeans compared to you conservative Americans

I couldn't give two shits about the cover. I'm straight, and I dig it. I don't feel weird or embarassed about it. I didn't have a problem buying it in a record store. Hell, I'd walk around with that album cover on a T-Shirt if I owned one. But I enjoy being provocative

Militant said:

nothing says liberal more than an umbrella method

Zinzi said:

What does that mean?