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]

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]

As an 'album', I'm probably not going to disagree. Lotusflow3r is very consistent. Definitely my favourite of the 2000s. Gold does have some dated moments, though not many. That said I think the core songs on Gold are better than the core songs on Lotusflow3r. Both great though.

I prefer The Gold Experience, but not by far, they're both brilliant albums. Where I agree with you is in that Lotus is more coherent, it works better as a whole.

[Edited 3/3/14 4:08am]

TrueFunkSoldier2 said:

I love both albums but I prefer Lotusflow3r

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.

I like them both and they are both in my top 5 of all of his albums. As far as which one is better I prefer Gold just slightly. They both have one song each which I just despise(now, Feel better) and they both have my absolute favorite rockers(dolphin, Endorphine, Wall of Berlin, Dreamer). What gives Gold the nod for me is Eye Hate U and Shhh. Lotus does not have that powerful ballad and those two songs are two of his best ballads for his career on the same album. The rest of the material on these two albums are a strong tie for me so thats why I give a slight nod to The Gold Experience but not knocking Lotus as I LOVE that cd as well. Both are top 5 albums for me.

Easily better for me personally...

'Lotusflow3r' is one of ny fav P albums... 'Gold' is one of my least favs.

'Nuff said.

~G

toejam said:

As an 'album', I'm probably not going to disagree. Lotusflow3r is very consistent. Definitely my favourite of the 2000s. Gold does have some dated moments, though not many. That said I think the core songs on Gold are better than the core songs on Lotusflow3r. Both great though.

Agree with this.

.

TGE is very solid with a couple of flat moments, whereas Lotusflow3r is kind of uneven but it's strongest moments are probably better than TGE's. Tough call actually.

.

.

Edit - just re-read toejam's post and my post doesn't "agree with this" at all, although it kind of does in sentiment. Whatever, I like 'em both!

[Edited 3/3/14 8:33am]

I´m starting to like Lotus more and more, i was just listening to it today and it´s a really good album.

But Gold wins, it´s so typical Prince, it´s very diverse, and well, an album with tracks like Shhh, I hate u, BJB and We march is fantastic. There are no filler for me on this album.

I think where Gold Experience is strong is that it has it's own sound and was of that time, Lotusflower's genius is harking back to when Prince was at the height of his powers, taking the best of his past and bringing them into the present.

Dance 4 Me, is such a retro throwback but so good for it. I dunno, just love them both for different reasons.

Agree that Gold Experience is dating quicker, and am surprised no one mentioned how lyrically poor Shy is...or is it just me

TGE is clearly the stronger one for me. Lotusflow3er might be more mature, but many of the songs have rather underdeveloped melodies (especially the choruses) and the disc just sounds sort of "75% complete" to me. Instead of working with the two other discs included in that set, he should have just put more work on the main disc.

unkleg 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]

Haha. Which is why Lotusflow3r is better than Gold Experience!

bigd74 said:

unkleg said:

I think where Gold Experience is strong is that it has it's own sound and was of that time, Lotusflower's genius is harking back to when Prince was at the height of his powers, taking the best of his past and bringing them into the present.

Dance 4 Me, is such a retro throwback but so good for it. I dunno, just love them both for different reasons.

Agree that Gold Experience is dating quicker, and am surprised no one mentioned how lyrically poor Shy is...or is it just me

See I only consider Lotusflow3r to be the first disc, I never refer the Mplsound disc as LF. I see it as a different album

same here, Mplsound is much weaker....and i was really looking forward to Mplsound.

By Lotusflow3r, we're talking about the album right? Because I wouldn't refer to the set as Lotusflow3r without making the distinction. I'd hate someone to think I praised the whole set, including -gulp- MPLSound. *shudder*

As a whole I think Lotus is more consistent and stronger, but the strongest moments of Gold (Shhhh, BJB and I Hate You) are stronger than anythingon Lotus IMO. That said there's nothing on Lotus that I hate, but I hated We March and its never grown on me.

NouveauDance said:

By Lotusflow3r, we're talking about the album right? Because I wouldn't refer to the set as Lotusflow3r without making the distinction. I'd hate someone to think I praised the whole set, including -gulp- MPLSound. *shudder*

yep I was referring to the album of the set.

[Edited 3/3/14 11:41am]

NouveauDance said:

By Lotusflow3r, we're talking about the album right? Because I wouldn't refer to the set as Lotusflow3r without making the distinction. I'd hate someone to think I praised the whole set, including -gulp- MPLSound. *shudder*

yep i hope so MPLSound has not faired very well

Controversy said:

Sorry do not agree. Gold was his last great album.

Ha! To me Gold Epxerience was a masterpiece and Lotusfow3r was pleasant filler but instantly forgettable.

but I guess that has more to do with the different phases of my life that these albums hit me, rather than with their inherent quality.

Glad to see Lotusflow3r getting so much props, though!

Lotusflower ... hands down

Following my own little system where I rate each track from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), then figure the average track score, Lotusflow3r comes out on top with a score of 4.23 to The Gold Experience's 3.36.

Note: I included "The Morning After" in the tally for Lotusflow3r and did not score the segues on TGE.