New topic
Printable| Author | Message |
|
Worst Album Artwork! I originally started this topic in 2003:
"Worst Prince Artwork! I've enjoyed some of Prince's album covers quite a bit over the years. Whether mysterious, kitschy or sexy, the best ones were often almost as striking as the music. My absolute favourite: "Sign O The Times".
BUT my question to YOU is: WHAT ARE HIS WORST ALBUM COVERS? MY (TOP) 3 WORST: -"The Gold Experience" (Excremental brown tones have never been good for conveying gold. The front photograph of Prince is simply too unfocused to strike out. Combined with the SYMBOL and the title it creates an unbalanced effect) -"Old Friends For Sale" (Generally sloppy artwork. The photo makes Prince look like a squirrel. A depressed squirrel, that is. Sloppy Photoshop adjustments to blend in artificial background is probably the worst Photoshop job, I've ever seen.) -"Symbol-Album 1992" (Surely they could have done better than use a still from a video? The Limited Edition is slightly better, but should really have been the cover for "The Gold Experience")" That was 11 years ago. What do y'all think? Are there any new stinkers one could add to the list? I haven't really enjoyed any of the covers for much of the same reasons I despise pre-2003 covers like "The Gold Ex." and "Old Friends..." - mainly cheap looking and without imagination (echoing much of the musical content).
|
- E-mail - orgNote -  Report post to moderator |
|
I've think you've lost 11 years of your life
If the milk turns out to be sour, I aint the kinda pussy to drink it! |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
was 22 years ago.
|
First one that came to mind was the symbol album. I think it would've made more sense, if he was going to use a screen grab from that video, to use the picture of one of the Prince's getting an extreme static shock inside the glass tube.
22 years ago?! How dare you remind me how old I am. Take it back! |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
The Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic cover is terrible and unappealing to me. Old friends 4sale is plain sad and sloppy. Controversy cover isnt all that to me either. My fave would be Diamonds and Pearls. This Could Be Us But U Be Playin...
You Can Call It The Unexpected Or U Can Call It WOW | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Lovesexy...what would possess a man to sit naked on a flower is beyond me  | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Rave Un2 the Joy is really a terrible cover. ATWIAD looks like some outsider artist in prison painted it. For You is actually pretty funny. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
The symbol album cover is epic.. Have to agree on Old friends for sale though also lovesexy is awkward.. Hoping for a change to that cover for the 30th anniversary remaster. "Still Crazy 4 Coco Rock" | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
|
Prince had many lame album covers (and many nice ones, too). My least favorite would have to be Emancipation. God knows I'm in love with this album from begining to end but that cover is both ugly and corny to me! A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
nursev said: Lovesexy...what would possess a man to sit naked on a flower is beyond me
Lovesexy is definitely one of his best, professionally shot by Jean Baptiste-Mondino, it's otherworldly. I like Sign Of The Times as well, Dirty Mind. I think New Power Soul ties with 20Ten for worst. I agree with some of the above mentions. As creative as he is, he could have come up with better artwork for his albums. It's funny because his side project/protege albums in general have better artwork/photography. [Edited 5/22/14 1:58am] "So fierce U look 2night, the brightest star pales 2 Ur sex..." | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
|
The prince album is by far the worst one, the hair, the heart on the I, the pegasus... |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
The black album...the picture is so dark you can't see him or the album title. [Edited 5/22/14 2:35am] P-p-e-n-g-u-i-n......the P is silent | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
kenkamken said: nursev said: Lovesexy...what would possess a man to sit naked on a flower is beyond me
Lovesexy is definitely one of his best, professionally shot by Jean Baptiste-Mondino, it's otherworldly. I like Sign Of The Times as well, Dirty Mind. I think New Power Soul ties with 20Ten for worst. I agree with some of the above mentions. As creative as he is, he could have come up with better artwork for his albums. It's funny because his side project/protege albums in general have better artwork/photography. [Edited 5/22/14 1:58am] Lovesexy is his best cover by a country mile. It's Prince stripped bare bar for his cross, hand on heart, dreamily gazing towards the heavens. The flowers symbolise life, the stamen the potential for rebirth. It's the perfect artistic representation of Prince's heart and head at the time. America seemed to miss the point and judged it as a mere photo of a naked man. Here in the UK it reinforced his reputation as an avante garde visionary. I don't think he's had good cover art since. Rainbow Children was kinda ok I guess. Graffiti Bridge pips it for me as the worst. To think people were actually paid to design that piece of childish crap! [Edited 5/22/14 3:12am] don't play me...i'm over 30 and i DO smoke weed.... | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
New Power Soul and Rave Un2/In2 are the only ones I really don't like. Some others are kinda boring but they don't annoy me like the ones I mentioned. Favs: Parade, Love Symbol, Come Everybody stop on the 1...GOOD GOD! Uhh! | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
|
I love the Love Symbol cover! In my opinion the worst would be Emancipation or Rave. Hundalasiliah! |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Now i come to think about it most of his album covers are actually really bad. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
|
It's not a secret that Prince sometimes has a bad taste and a grat love for kitsch. He's not like an educated art lover or contemporary architecture addict or anything of that kind. Susannah Melvoin was the one who brought him some of that back in the day. That famous trio of women brought to him many things besides musical influences. Most of his outfits really suck. But, he's great in what he does and that is the choices he makes to be different. Same goes for his album artwork choices. Some things work out fine, some just don't. All album covers until 1989 I truly love - they go so well with the music. The Hits, The B-sides, are horrible to me. The name of these albums alone are so not Prince, it must be a WB idea (I don't know really)... Gold Experience, Diamonds & Pearls, Symbol, Emancipation, One Night Alone (piano album), Slaughterhouse, etc... Till now, all album covers are old, lame, kitsch and lack of contemporary feel. IMHO. 20Ten, is also crap and kitsch. The title alone is uninspiring. Planet Earth sucks too... Ultimate Prince I really like ! "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. And wiser people so full of doubts" (Bertrand Russell 1872-1972) |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
|
Dirty Mind, Purple Rain, ATWIAD, Parade, Sott, Lovesexy, Love Symbol, MPLSound all have great covers in my opinion. The rest from good, to so-so, to really, really bad. Hundalasiliah! |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I think his worst in my opinion is around the world in a day. There's too much going on in it. Like literally I think 5 different 80s artists make a guest appearance on that album cover.Robert smith is definitely there for one. I'm not too keen on the gold ex cover either, up until recently I didn't even know there was a picture of prince in there! It went completely over my head. I love the lovesexy album cover though, its just really visually appealing because of how light its colour scheme is with its pastels. Naked Prince helps too, lol. I like graffiti bridge too. Its amazingly detailed. It must of taken ages to paint! | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
It's got to be Rave for me. The hair and the outfit I got two sides... and they're both friends. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Are some of you serious
Controversy ATWIAD Lovesexy as his WORST?
wow
Emancipation NPS Rave MinneapolisSound Musicology | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I know! How can people say ATWIAD is one of the worst next to some the painfully amateur and tacky covers he's released over the years. I got two sides... and they're both friends. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
dandan said:
I know! How can people say ATWIAD is one of the worst next to some the painfully amateur and tacky covers he's released over the years. To be honest its just a matter of opinion. I don't like stuff with too much going on in a picture. Its like a 'where's wally?' Kind of thing to me. But I agree about rave. Rave era prince with his strange hair...what was he thinking?! Mind you it was the '90s. I like the typography on that cover though. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
The best one is clearly for the Prince album, I don't think I've ever seen a black guy with such wonderfully voluminous straight hair. Good knows how long it took to get it looking like that. It's even better displayed in the I Wanna Be Your Lover video, in motion his do is truly a marvelous creation. Can you imagine running your fingers through it... Erm, anyway, SOTT is also pretty good coverwise. Heavenly wine and roses seems to whisper to me when you smile...
Always cry for love, never cry for pain... | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
2010 looks like horrible hotel art .. love old friends cover tho .. emancipation is fucking aweful
rainbow children has better art than music for sho .. chaos is pretty underdeveloped for a cover
lotusflower is really bad too .. another hotel art cheap package
my crystal ball came with zero art .. that made me a little disappointed
those interweb releases chocolate invasion and slaughter house were pretty lame
mostly his art is good tho .. often better than the music within | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
Rave, Musicology, Emancipation, NPS, 20Ten, The Vault, ONA. . Partial credit to Rave and NPS for being so bad they're funny. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
|
Thanks, you just brought back the intrigue that attracted me to Prince back in the 80s, when he was still unafraid to show his vulnerability: like a baby, he is neither woman nor man, but everything inbetween! He never teases us into thinking he is a woman (like a predictable drag artist would) - he is human, a flower, life on earth. |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I think the worst is Musicology. The background is very pixilated and is low resolution. The font choice was also tacky as hell. It looks like a low budget independent release. **--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••-
U 'gon make me shake my doo loose! http://www.twitter.com/nivlekbrad | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
The piano cd? Or the live cd? Both were pretty bad to me. **--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••-
U 'gon make me shake my doo loose! http://www.twitter.com/nivlekbrad | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I assume the studio one, with his awful sucked in cheeks expression. Prince has high cheekbones anyway, I don't know why he always pulls that face. I got two sides... and they're both friends. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
I've never really took notice of the Musicology cover until now, and oh my, the font is absolutely, bloody awful! The overall design is just uninspired nonsense as well. Lets put Prince's face over some tree-branch wallpaper. I got two sides... and they're both friends. | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |