I really like Lotusflower. A very entertaining album and easily his best in awhile. However, its not quite in the same league as Gold.

2funkE said:

thedance said:

Controversy said:

Sorry do not agree.

Gold was his last great album.

The Gold Experience covers so many genres, a superb album. 10/10: masterpiece.

LotusFlower, disc 1 is mostly a rock album, ok.. but not that many truly great songs. 8 or 8.5/10.

Yes, I completely agree. TGE is superior. I listen to it often and never get bored of it. Just better songs IMO.

That takeaway being that we are blessed as Prince fans to have such amazing music to listen to from two albums that were essentially off the public radar.

2funkE said:

That takeaway being that we are blessed as Prince fans to have such amazing music to listen to from two albums that were essentially off the public radar.

And I think that's the way approaches all his music. Popularity is ever changing, but time will tell. The Wizard of OZ wasn't a huge hit first time out, it took time.

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

Personally, I much prefer Lotusflow3r to Gold Experience as a whole. Lotusflow3r has better production and less cheesiness imo. I doubt Lotusflow3r will sound dated in the years to come whereas Gold Experience sounds a bit dated .

thoughts?

[Edited 3/3/14 8:36am]

.

No no no no no no no no a million times no.

Rainbow Children / One Night Alone were his last great albums. I haven't really given Lotusflow3r much of a chance - Colonized Mind is a great track - find the production of the 'recent' albums have been a bit sickly - many of the songs sound so much better live.

(If anyone wants a Gold Experience mispressed CD - plays Blur - message me)

[Edited 3/5/14 7:40am]

Controversy said:

Gold was his last great album.

I agree that was the last Prince album that I went crazy over

Lotusflow3r was great and refreshing, but, to me, nothing can touch The Gold Experience. Ever.

Lotusflow3r is his best album since The Gold Experience, without question... although 3121 is not far behind it.

But as to which is better? I think the songs on TGE are generally better. It has some wicked sounds on it.

I think they are both the best of their respective decades but I'd go with TGE by an inch.

Lotusflower is better playing, Gold is better songs and production (even if dated)

Zannaloaf said:

Lotusflower is better playing, Gold is better songs and production (even if dated)

I always view the Lotus Album as an organic approach to rock pop (It is as if Prince chose to approach the album as if he was creating jazz music.) Prince could polish the songs more if he chose to do so, but he didn't. That being said I still think Gold is ever so slightly better than Lotus, but they are both on par with each other.

I might add the only Prince "album" that I thought was phoned in was 20Ten.

thedance said:

unkleg said:

aiden said:

thedance said:

The Gold Experience covers so many genres, a superb album. 10/10: masterpiece.

LotusFlower, disc 1 is mostly a rock album, ok.. but not that many truly great songs. 8 or 8.5/10.

It's not lotusflow3r disc 1... There's no disc 2 - there were 3 seperate albums. MPLsound was a totally different record. I would say 9/10 for gold and lotus.

oh come on...

you know what I meant, so don't be that "picky"...

disc 1 Lotusflower, "the main album" (mainly rock)
disc 2 Mplsound, "bonus" (mainly pop)
disc 3 Elixer, "related artist" (mainly ???)

but I guess you like to fight on words, and "definitions"....

.

[Edited 3/6/14 0:34am]

thedance said:

bigd74 said:

thedance said:

aiden said:

thedance said:

The Gold Experience covers so many genres, a superb album. 10/10: masterpiece.

LotusFlower, disc 1 is mostly a rock album, ok.. but not that many truly great songs. 8 or 8.5/10.

It's not lotusflow3r disc 1... There's no disc 2 - there were 3 seperate albums. MPLsound was a totally different record. I would say 9/10 for gold and lotus.

oh come on...

you know what I meant, so don't be that "picky"...

disc 1 Lotusflower, "the main album" (mainly rock)
disc 2 Mplsound, "bonus" (mainly pop)
disc 3 Elixer, "related artist" (mainly ???)

but I guess you like to fight on words, and "definitions"....

.

[Edited 3/6/14 0:34am]

I always consider it 3 seperate albums, Mplsound should not be allowed to taint LF, it's awful

It is probably because I experienced the true golden days in the eighties but for me TGE is NOT the great album album everybody is raving about.

Maybe it stands out because of weaker albums released before and after (Love Symbol and Come before and Chaos & Disorder and Emancipation after).

It is a good and coherent album, but not the classic most people here want to see in it.

There a couple of weak tracks ("We March", "Now" and "319") that stands in between this being a true masterpiece.

The album might have been the starting point for a, at that time, new generations of fans that did not experience the crescendo - quality wise - of the eighties.

Looking at the post-LoveSexy part of his career, TGE is a small peak, but does not reach The Rainbow Children (yes, that is a masterpiece) or LotusFlow3r (maybe not a masterpiece, but definitely a great album).

bigd74 said:

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

bigd74 said:

I love both albums but I will always go for Gold, love it to bits. Lotusflow3r is great but the Darth Vader voice really bugs me, and it has Wedding Feast which is just dire. There is nothing on Gold I don't like.

you're confusing the Rainbow Children with Lotusflow3r

[Edited 3/3/14 2:41am]

What a dick head of course! Gold still wins though!

Lotus by far, I have alwasy loathed TGE

JoeyCococo said:

Lotus for me. I tend to love it when he plays GUItar. I like Gold a lot but will not forgive what he did to Endorphin. I also feel Gold has a 'plastic wrap' of production that sounds bad. I wish I understood technically what bothers me but I don't so I use 'plastic' to describe what I don't like. Of all the Lotus promotion, I will never understand why he would not play Colonized or. wall of open tv. Unforgivable.

It has to be Gold.

I have always loved the raw power and energy of Gold. What i normally do with the album is swap a few songs about and make it a super album. I add interactive and days of wild. and remove the odd song here and there. But with lotus it has a couple of decent songs, nothing on par with high impact punch of gold.

Well it's chalk and cheese really - both are apparently good sources of calcium with one being a pissed off swearing moo-face and the other a mellow girly wigout with forced instrumental interludes.

Lotusflower wins!

In The Gold Experience I edited out all the NPG-operator stuff and took out P-Control. It makes the album go from a frustrating to a great experience.

In Lotusflow3r only '4ever' needs to go to make it a good album.

Though I hate making edit to albums, this is the only way for me to enjoy them.

In the end, the Gold Experience wins, because it's best songs are better then the best Lotusflow3r songs...

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

Personally, I much prefer Lotusflow3r to Gold Experience as a whole. Lotusflow3r has better production and less cheesiness imo. I doubt Lotusflow3r will sound dated in the years to come whereas parts of Gold Experience sound a bit dated to me.

thoughts?

[Edited 3/9/14 1:07am]

An interesting comparison might be how the Gold Experience album still carries over the Interactive idea of everything from the New Power Generation being available on download pre-most of the internet and how Lotusflow3r, available as pretty much download only except Target, features Bria Valente.

Lotusflower wins!

I'd really like to elabourate but I've been working at a screen all day and my mind has stopped working.

From a purely technical point of view therefore - Gold Experience suffers from tight overwrought proclamations about plastic whilst the drum fade off of Wall of Berlin pretty much seals the deal as far as standards I have just made up in my own head go.