Remember back in the day, throughout the 80s and the 90s, every new Prince album was presented with a different look, unique costumes, a brand new stage show, a very strong conceptual presentation for every new project...

The psychadelical and colorful "Around The World In A Day" album cover and videos for example, or the black-and-white "Parade" imagery with the "European" touch and stylish "Under The Cherry Moon" movie, etc etc.

Now I know we had the 3121 concept with the 3121 logo, the house parties etc, but the last few albums from the last decade still haven't been too distinct and thoroughly worked on as far as the concepts & visuals goes.

I know Prince himself is focusing less on image and is all about the music nowadays ("real music for real musicians", no dancing on stage etc), but still it would be nice to have some more powerful album covers, scenography and stage shows, videos and press pics to go with the music.

For example... "Lotusflow3r" the album is a very conceptual album, experimental, very organic, guitar-driven, rock/jazz-fusion type of album. The front cover has an interesting psychadelic animated pic with lots of symbolism and details. Imagine a full all-out concept for "Lotusflow3r" ... gatefgold cover/multi-page booklet, song lyrics, more pics & illustrations, videos with the same visual concept, a stage show with amazing scenography...

What do you think? Wouldn't that enhance the entire experience of an album? Old school Prince fans know what I'm talking about... The release of a new Prince album used to be not only new music, it was a launch of a brand new experience, visually & conceptually.

well, he made videos like the psychodelic Crimson & Clover for the project....it is very nicely done....
Lotusflower.com has some nice artwork and cool pictures. There is some concept behind it....but i think it is not wise not to release a nice booklet with the CD and to allow only members of the Club to see the videos or view the lyrics...
Strange decisions...

I agree, but Prince career, especially post-Waners is littered with scores of lost opportunities for cool audio visuals.

It was also a lost opportunity to have some great music on it also.

linus4000 said:

Exactly, there was a video and some cool artwork, but only accessible for a fairly few amount of people who signed up to a weird $77-fee members-only website...

Imagine a full cd-booklet, a couple more great videos, a full scale Lotusflow3r tour with a cool stage show and a visual backdrop to go with it...

I know this isn't something new in the Prince world with lost opportunites, I'm convinced The Gold Experience could have been a super-successfull commercial album had it not been for the label-drama, delays and lack of marketing...

I just wish Prince would go all-out with his albums like back in the day and present that full concept of videos and visuals etc for his projects.