i've noticed that lotusflower gets a lot of praise on these boards even by people who are somewhat disappointed by prince recent output .. i can understand those who simply enjoy prince and his music and don't critique the details too much .. and i can understand the appeal of a disk like lotusflower .. but upon revisiting this disk it was all too apparent why prince is such a frustrating artist

lotusflower was packaged with 2 other disks .. bria and mnplsound .. but orgers seem to be drawn mostly to the single lotusflower disk .. i preordered the target version so i got the super cheap cardboard fold out .. no lyrics or track credits .. the artwork is nauseating .. looks like stock art hanging in in some cheap new age motel 6 .. already the genius arrogant prince of the past is fighting with the douche prince of present .. prince releasing a tripple album always seems like a good idea .. something the old prince would do .. brave .. cocky .. but how on earth would the old prince ever approve of this sort of art work .. this borders on my little pony material here and its not even my little horny pony .. why not add some pink faeries or a few unicorns ..

and so begins the dichotomy of digging prince .. inspiration mixed with vinegar can be maddening

the cd begins in a promising fashion .. a cute little guitar ditty intro .. nothing embarrassing yet but the reality is it sounds like rainbow children the kenny j on guitar remix instrumental .. then comes boom .. a quirky but very nice vocal melody comes in .. ahh yes this is what the orgers are talkin bout ... pretty good .. until that jagged (boom) chorus bridge whatever it is comes in .. breaks the mood and groove i suppose just to play a guitar solo but the guitar solo is very tame boring and he's probably played the same exact solo over "guitar" live a million times .. oh and it keeps going and its still a boring solo .. what could have been a great prince song has turned into the boring extended jam he puts at the end of all his concerts ..

crimson and clover .. u know its a bad record when the first single is a cover .. why prince why? yup i get that u mixed it with wild thing .. have u heard hendrix do wild thing .. the man literally set his guitar on fire and let it burn and it sounds better than this stale boring timid tired reading .. i suspect prince is playing drums because as much as prince hits a nice groove on drums at times .. he doesn't really get rock drumming and it sounds clunky ... the guitar solo is ok .. not as boring as the last song .. but honestly .. all standard bar rock licks u can hear in your local pub .. cmon prince bring the crazy shit .. nope didnt happen .. nice enough song tho

4ever - i really really like this song for the most part except again he pops a huge zit all over what could be a great song ... "stop lookin at me like that unless ur gonna bite that" .. what the hell does that mean? .. yeah i get it but its just stupid .. is that really one of prince age 50 + pick up lines ... and "eternity is just a kiss away" .. this record is officially a lifeless halmark card .. stock emotions and poetry to fit every need .. again as a prince FAN .. it pisses me off that he ruined such a GREAT song with shitty stupid lyrics ... "i don't wanna kiss your lips until i get ta uhhh ur hips" .. prince just shut up

colonized mind - i like this song a lot .. its basically all along the watchtower mellowed .. obviously hendrix played it better and dylan wrote better lyrics .. but this song has a truly great chorus .. i think the verse lyrics are clunky and i cant relate to upload download imagery shitting all over a really good prince song .. i would rather think breathe in breathe out .. but prince is part cyborg now so i guess we can expect his passion for human themes may be diminishing .. but as luke would say .. i think there is good in him still .. i like what he is trying to say in this song quite a lot ...

feel better - another great concept groove and chorus butchered by prince trying to rap .. he could have put a slow sexy falsetto all sexy melody and slow delivery over the exact music as is and it would be an outstanding prince song .. but his raps are so fucking stupid .. the delivery .. the lines he thinks are really cool sounding sounds like he's having an orgasm but the words themselves are so stupid .. when i think about lyrics like "ugly lights closing time every one is inspected but u are a natural beauty unaffected" and then listen to these lyrics i feel bad i feel worse

love like jazz - alright .. are we at the copacabana - this is no in a large room with no light .. this is no ballad of dorothy parky .. i think it wants to be but again this is where prince really needs top notch collaborators .. what could be a miles davis infused psychadelic rock jazz jam comes off as a safe stale demo when performed by this line up .. likely just prince .. shiela e would do well on this and perhaps dez could take some of the sunday school vibe out of it ..

77 beverly park - why is this on here .. it sounds like the crap they pump at the mall during christmas season .. i have to skip this one i cant take it another second

wall of berlin - musically this one is pretty cool .. sounds like prince drumming again .. very clunky .. some kind of attempt at prog pop i guess .. this would have benefited from sheila e on this i think .. the verses have a cool delivery but the words just dont stick and the tempo changes really dont work well .. good groove at the end tho .. sounds like he went for it at the end sounded good .. but the rest of the song is too clunky to work .. i could hear this in kiss style arrangement

$ - another prince toss off .. jack u off, courtin time, girl o my dreams, belongs in a boring musical, maybe off the i'll do anything soundtrack .. cute but not anything i care to hear more than once .. prince topped this style with delerious, nothing else has come close

dreamer - i'd say the drumming kills this song dead ... prince is no mitch mitchell on drums or whoever that is playing on this track .. the lead line break doesn't help either .. i am hearing a reference to machine gun and obviously voodoo chile .. gets a little energy toward the end .. again i think this song would be great with a better drummer .. maybe some bluesier lyrics and delivery on vocals instead of his talk rap half sung schtick

and back to the lotus .. snoooooooze

the good parts of this record are reallly really good so i understand the appeal .. but those parts are moments in a song and often not the whole song .. colonized mind comes close as do dance for me and here from the other cd .. the rest are very undercooked uninspired and annoying making it hard to appreciate the record as a whole

why now for your "review"...

LF/ MPLSound was released in 2009, did it take 2 years to come up with this..?

I think the 2cd set is pretty good but yet not fantstic, about 8/10 to both albums.

(I still haven't put my Bria Valente cd on, I expect it to be really awful.)

^ I thought Michael B. played drums on the studio version.

I couldn't tell where the reviewer's sentences started or stopped. So I didn't bother to read the their review.

With that said, I really love Lotusflow3r/Mplsound & Elixer as a whole.

he pops a huge zit all over what could be a great song ... "stop lookin at me like that unless ur gonna bite that" .. what the hell does that mean?

Are you serious? That's the best part of the song. Classic Prince. When he throws out those horny one-liners, he actually saves mediocre songs.

I like my Prince singing about biting lips, working up a black sweat, being underneath the cream, doing chicks after school like some homework, fucking the taste out of their mouths, accusing them of cheating on him with another chick: "Maybe it was your girlfriend cuz you ain't never been straight. When I ask if you're hungry, you say you already ate."

I'm just glad he finds space and time for a line like that these days.

TrevorAyer said:

i've noticed that lotusflower gets a lot of praise on these boards even by people who are somewhat disappointed by prince recent output .. i can understand those who simply enjoy prince and his music and don't critique the details too much .. and i can understand the appeal of a disk like lotusflower .. but upon revisiting this disk it was all too apparent why prince is such a frustrating artist

lotusflower was packaged with 2 other disks .. bria and mnplsound .. but orgers seem to be drawn mostly to the single lotusflower disk .. i preordered the target version so i got the super cheap cardboard fold out .. no lyrics or track credits .. the artwork is nauseating .. looks like stock art hanging in in some cheap new age motel 6 .. already the genius arrogant prince of the past is fighting with the douche prince of present .. prince releasing a tripple album always seems like a good idea .. something the old prince would do .. brave .. cocky .. but how on earth would the old prince ever approve of this sort of art work .. this borders on my little pony material here and its not even my little horny pony .. why not add some pink faeries or a few unicorns ..

and so begins the dichotomy of digging prince .. inspiration mixed with vinegar can be maddening

the cd begins in a promising fashion .. a cute little guitar ditty intro .. nothing embarrassing yet but the reality is it sounds like rainbow children the kenny j on guitar remix instrumental .. then comes boom .. a quirky but very nice vocal melody comes in .. ahh yes this is what the orgers are talkin bout ... pretty good .. until that jagged (boom) chorus bridge whatever it is comes in .. breaks the mood and groove i suppose just to play a guitar solo but the guitar solo is very tame boring and he's probably played the same exact solo over "guitar" live a million times .. oh and it keeps going and its still a boring solo .. what could have been a great prince song has turned into the boring extended jam he puts at the end of all his concerts ..

crimson and clover .. u know its a bad record when the first single is a cover .. why prince why? yup i get that u mixed it with wild thing .. have u heard hendrix do wild thing .. the man literally set his guitar on fire and let it burn and it sounds better than this stale boring timid tired reading .. i suspect prince is playing drums because as much as prince hits a nice groove on drums at times .. he doesn't really get rock drumming and it sounds clunky ... the guitar solo is ok .. not as boring as the last song .. but honestly .. all standard bar rock licks u can hear in your local pub .. cmon prince bring the crazy shit .. nope didnt happen .. nice enough song tho

4ever - i really really like this song for the most part except again he pops a huge zit all over what could be a great song ... "stop lookin at me like that unless ur gonna bite that" .. what the hell does that mean? .. yeah i get it but its just stupid .. is that really one of prince age 50 + pick up lines ... and "eternity is just a kiss away" .. this record is officially a lifeless halmark card .. stock emotions and poetry to fit every need .. again as a prince FAN .. it pisses me off that he ruined such a GREAT song with shitty stupid lyrics ... "i don't wanna kiss your lips until i get ta uhhh ur hips" .. prince just shut up

colonized mind - i like this song a lot .. its basically all along the watchtower mellowed .. obviously hendrix played it better and dylan wrote better lyrics .. but this song has a truly great chorus .. i think the verse lyrics are clunky and i cant relate to upload download imagery shitting all over a really good prince song .. i would rather think breathe in breathe out .. but prince is part cyborg now so i guess we can expect his passion for human themes may be diminishing .. but as luke would say .. i think there is good in him still .. i like what he is trying to say in this song quite a lot ...

feel better - another great concept groove and chorus butchered by prince trying to rap .. he could have put a slow sexy falsetto all sexy melody and slow delivery over the exact music as is and it would be an outstanding prince song .. but his raps are so fucking stupid .. the delivery .. the lines he thinks are really cool sounding sounds like he's having an orgasm but the words themselves are so stupid .. when i think about lyrics like "ugly lights closing time every one is inspected but u are a natural beauty unaffected" and then listen to these lyrics i feel bad i feel worse

love like jazz - alright .. are we at the copacabana - this is no in a large room with no light .. this is no ballad of dorothy parky .. i think it wants to be but again this is where prince really needs top notch collaborators .. what could be a miles davis infused psychadelic rock jazz jam comes off as a safe stale demo when performed by this line up .. likely just prince .. shiela e would do well on this and perhaps dez could take some of the sunday school vibe out of it ..

77 beverly park - why is this on here .. it sounds like the crap they pump at the mall during christmas season .. i have to skip this one i cant take it another second

wall of berlin - musically this one is pretty cool .. sounds like prince drumming again .. very clunky .. some kind of attempt at prog pop i guess .. this would have benefited from sheila e on this i think .. the verses have a cool delivery but the words just dont stick and the tempo changes really dont work well .. good groove at the end tho .. sounds like he went for it at the end sounded good .. but the rest of the song is too clunky to work .. i could hear this in kiss style arrangement

$ - another prince toss off .. jack u off, courtin time, girl o my dreams, belongs in a boring musical, maybe off the i'll do anything soundtrack .. cute but not anything i care to hear more than once .. prince topped this style with delerious, nothing else has come close

dreamer - i'd say the drumming kills this song dead ... prince is no mitch mitchell on drums or whoever that is playing on this track .. the lead line break doesn't help either .. i am hearing a reference to machine gun and obviously voodoo chile .. gets a little energy toward the end .. again i think this song would be great with a better drummer .. maybe some bluesier lyrics and delivery on vocals instead of his talk rap half sung schtick

and back to the lotus .. snoooooooze

the good parts of this record are reallly really good so i understand the appeal .. but those parts are moments in a song and often not the whole song .. colonized mind comes close as do dance for me and here from the other cd .. the rest are very undercooked uninspired and annoying making it hard to appreciate the record as a whole

excellent review mate!

UltraLash said:

he pops a huge zit all over what could be a great song ... "stop lookin at me like that unless ur gonna bite that" .. what the hell does that mean?

Are you serious? That's the best part of the song. Classic Prince. When he throws out those horny one-liners, he actually saves mediocre songs.

I like my Prince singing about biting lips, working up a black sweat, being underneath the cream, doing chicks after school like some homework, fucking the taste out of their mouths, accusing them of cheating on him with another chick: "Maybe it was your girlfriend cuz you ain't never been straight. When I ask if you're hungry, you say you already ate."

I'm just glad he finds space and time for a line like that these days.

i agree that i like the side of prince that is obnoxious but his zingers do not always zing and in this case i felt it really detracted from a song with tremendous potential .. sometimes he is pretty funny ... other times he sounds like 'joey' from 'friends' .. yeah we get it .. i don't mind me some kirstie alley on a prince record but please joey stay away ..

When I first got it I enjoyed parts of it. I never could get into the Bria Valente music. I tried but everytime she came up on my iTunes at work I would skip to the next. It was weird cause the musis was...."nice"... but I just couldn't. Then I started doing that with the rest of the songs from both CD's. Colonized Mind was the only one I would let play and finally took all of it off my iTunes cause all I would do was skip the songs everytime. They were annoying.

Lately with the 21 nite run when I hung out with one girlfriend, at her house or going to the concerts she would have the LotusFlow3r and Bria CD's playing and I would like them.

So I told another girlfriend, a new Prince fan, that I'd been hearing them at my friends & had been liking them & she could borrow mine to listen to. So I took another listen to some other tracks & NO. I gave them to my new friend and said I'm still not feeling it.

I liked your review on the whole and got most of what you were saying and agree with most of it. When Prince raps I love his voice but the raps are so....I don't know, just not good.

I agree, some of it is embarrassing and cringeworthy. It makes you wonder how and why he puts some of it out (as your review states). Everytime he puts something like that out I hope that in the future he will open up more and let go of some of his control issues but know that is not going to happen.

The other poster asked why review now 2 years later? I know why or at least I understand. I am doing the same thing after seeing him at 21 nites in LA. We are going back and re-listening, re-evaluating. He's sparked the fire and curiousity in us again about him. At least he has for me.

For me this album is horrible. But then we have MPLSound which is absolutely vomit-inducing.

Even if it's a lame album, Bria's is by far the best of all three.

'Nuff said.

LF rocks in everyway its bloody brilliant,ive got the single disc of MPLS 2 many times over its that good!!!Also on a warm sunny day Brias cd is never off my ipod eye love all 3 discs & even like the artwork 2 me LF is perfect!!!...............Perfect eye say!!!!!

thedance said:

why now for your "review"...

LF/ MPLSound was released in 2009, did it take 2 years to come up with this..?

I think the 2cd set is pretty good but yet not fantstic, about 8/10 to both albums.

(I still haven't put my Bria Valente cd on, I expect it to be really awful.)

Honestly it's not that bad, if you liked the Tamar album you'll like this.