just listening to lotusflower single disc album again and its a top ten album for me out of all his official releases..better than batman soundtrack for me..better than all his 90s releases except for the gold experience..his classics from the 80s are a class above it ...of course..but then they are a class above most artists best albums..

.

boom..crimson and clover..colonized mind...love like jazz..dreamer...love them all...and one track that doesnt get much attention ...$... sounds like something from his classic 86 writing phase..woundnt have been out of place on parade or sign for me...maybe i am in the minority but its a great album for me..would love to hear the vinyl of this..

No. Sorry to spoil the party:

What is wrong with the album is "the sound", it's a "too simple" kind of a Prince-album imo.

I am missing the fat Prince sound on this album,


It's not a classic imo (like you -Blackbob- wrote yourself), 1980-1988 is far superiour.....

to me Lotus is more like in the league of Chaos & Disorder, The Vault.. OF4S, and Rave IN2, that kind of albums... all good albums, but not "excellent good".


Here.... I'll give Lotus a 7 (or maybe an 8) out of 10. It's right out of the top-20 Prince-albums, well for me that is.


My top 10-Prince albums:

01. Purple Rain (10)
02. Sign "☮" The Times (10)
03. 1999 (10)
04. Lovesexy (10)
05. Parade (10)
06. Around The World In A Day (10)
07. The Gold Experience (10)
08. Dirty Mind (10)
09. Controversy (9.5)
10. Diamonds & Pearls (9) (Yeah, I love the big singles a lot)

LotusFlower is at number 21 on my list,

at least it was, back then when I tried to rank all the Prince-albums, some time ago..

But it is all a matter about taste, right.

thedance said:

No. Sorry to spoil the party:

You can party poop on your own, I'm with Blackbob, fantastic disc. Top 3.

fantastic album, better than batman, lovesexy & many mores... top 10 definitely

yeah, i'm with the OP. Lotus is a GEM! Highly slept on IMO. Should have silenced all the nostalgists but....SIGH! The "bigness" of the Lotus sound is in its fabulous guitar work!

Nice top 10 list posted, I would agree but Lotus would replace the Gold Experience for me. Its a bit overrated me thinks.

I wouldn't put it in TOP10, because it's missing a few killer rock tracks. It feels a bit incomplete the way it was released.

However, I just listened to it a few hours ago and totally agree about the high quality of the best of those cuts. I also happen to really like the intro and the outro tracks.

Lotus is certainly one of my favourite none 80s albums. It really is a great album and I'm suprised at all the bad/mediocre reviews it got from the press. While 3121 is also a really good album, Lotus is legions ahead of Musicology and Planet Earth. Prince is also experimenting a lot more on Lotus and some of the songs have a really unique sound (From/Return to the Lotus, Boom, Crimson and Clover). I just wish the whole album had that cohesive sound - it would have made it a really unique and standout Prince album. Not to say the other songs aren't good, because I like the whole album.

One of my top 10's also. I love guitar god Prince and this album delivers that in spades along with some deft, mature production. The first time I played Dreamer, it kicked me harder in the chest than any song has in a very long time. Sure if you are more into funk god prince this may not be your cup of tea but the quality of the record is without question IMHO.

jib the dab dab in the cab slab

[Edited 4/30/15 18:35pm]

I dunno man, 4Ever, $ and Love Like Jazz kind of ruin it for me.

and that edit on Boom always annoys me, there's got to be an 8 minute version knocking about the vaults somewhere

[Edited 6/10/14 11:26am]

i don't know about top 10, i can never decide and i always feel guilty

if i leave an 80s album out (rediculous, i know).

.

but purely going on times played and enjoyment, Lotusflower is the

album i listen to most from everything post TRC. it's also the only

album from that period where i like every song and actually love

most of them a whole lot. it's an album i listen to as a whole, lots

of times and always enjoy.

thisisreece said:

Lotus is certainly one of my favourite none 80s albums. It really is a great album and I'm suprised at all the bad/mediocre reviews it got from the press. While 3121 is also a really good album, Lotus is legions ahead of Musicology and Planet Earth. Prince is also experimenting a lot more on Lotus and some of the songs have a really unique sound (From/Return to the Lotus, Boom, Crimson and Clover). I just wish the whole album had that cohesive sound - it would have made it a really unique and standout Prince album. Not to say the other songs aren't good, because I like the whole album.

Totally agree

The style of Lotusflower should put it high on my list (I always prefered P's rocker edge) but no matter how many times I play it, it bores me as a whole.

For a start having a cover (crimson) and a near rip off cover (Deamer), didn't sit well with me.

I like most tracks on their own, but as I whole, it just doesn't do it.

Boom is nice.

$ is original, but nothing special

Wall of Berlin is b-side material

Colonized mind is probably the best of the album

4Ever is one of the best verse melodies he's ever written, but the chorus is as lazy as hell

The highlight to me is the production. Best to date.

By recent standards it is a great single Prince record. When you put it next to it's counterpart in the package the abomination which is MplSound, it comes off like a masterpiece.


I think Colonized Mind and Dreamer are two of the best tracks Prince has released in a long long time. Definitely deserve a place among the "best of"

1. Purple Rain (10)

2.Diamonds & Pearls/ NPG Era (7.8)

3.Parade/ Around the world in a Day (7.8)

4. 3121 (8)

5.Controversy (8)

6.1999 (8)

In my opinion I dislike ''Signs O the times'' It just didn't do it for me at all :/

TheEnglishGent said:

thedance said:

No. Sorry to spoil the party:

.. I'm with Blackbob, fantastic disc. Top 3.

whats the other 2 titles in your personal Prince-album top 3,

ok, a bit off topic, but i was looking at the top 10 posted and i was like MAN! who ELSE has 10-12 arguably A to A+, 9.5-10 type discs in their discography! dude has REALLY spoiled us!! i mean most cats only have 4-7 discs in their catalogue in general (not generalizing or being a "statistician" but...) let alone 10 of superb quality!

Solid album IMO. I like it as a whole project on it's own merits.

TRC and LF are the better albums he has put out in the last 15 years.

Listening again now. Good god how much do I hate 4ever, cheesy piece of crap

Big fan of LF, too. I'm not in love with C&C but I think that's just because it's Prince and for him to include a cover on an album when he has hundreds of songs that are probably superior in quality kind of pissed me off.. lol

glamstar01 said:

fantastic album, better than batman, lovesexy & many mores... top 10 definitely

ouch!

Decemberchild12 said:

In my opinion I dislike ''Signs O the times'' It just didn't do it for me at all :/

Double ouch!

This album showcases what a great guitarist Prince is. Sure the songs are well crafted but there's no cohesion to the album. The classic Prnce albums had that. Highlights are Colonised Mind, the segue between Love Like Jazz and 77 Beverley Park, and Wall of Berlin. Crimson and Clover is nice but a cover, and Dreamer would be off-the-scale AMAZING if it wasn't so derivative. Feel Good... (I can't be bothered to write the whole title down) is pointless and 77 Beverly Park is terrible.

.

You just can't compare it to SOTT, Around The World or Lovesexy. These albums have a strong and original theme running throughout them - and all different to each other too, of course. We were spoilt by them and it would take an intervention/collaboration to get Prince to create a masterpiece like one of those again, sadly. His visions are not as brave and brash these days - they're quiet and spiritual.

When it first came I would have put it in my top 10. Not so sure about that now. But it's a bloody good album! Probably my favourite of the 2000s.

When the first few tracks from this leaked on radio rips I freaked out more than I have for any P material... like ever! Masterpiece album. Still love it

I have it at #11

1) Sign O the Times

2) 1999

3) Parade

4) Lovesexy

5) Gold Experience

6) Purple Rain

7) Rainbow Children

8) 3121

9) Black Album

10) Lotus Flower

Made it!

I'm not a big fan of Lotusflow3r and have never understood the love it gets on this forum.

I only really like 3 songs on Lotusflow3r, most are just okay but below average, and there are about 4 songs I don't like at all. It's okay in the middle but I think it starts and end very weakly.

Though Prince's skill and musicianship are obvious, it just doesn't sound like a Prince album to me ... I think the nods to Hendrix are too obvious and it makes the album sound derivative rather than original.

The album artwork is horrible (though that's nothing new in Prince world) and I thought the way the album was marketed and sold was madness.

I'd put it towards the bottom of my favourite Prince albums list.

Top 10 ...

1) Lovesexy
2) Sign O The Times
3) Purple Rain
4) Parade
5) Love Symbol
6) The Black Album
7) Around The World In A Day
8) Controversy
9) 1999
10) Batman

Bottom 5 ...

24) 20Ten
25) Chaos and Disorder
26) Prince
27) Lotusflow3r
28) For You

I'll always love Prince for the genius music he released in the 80s (with the occasional reminderof his brilliance dotted throughout the 90s and 00s) but I haven't really enjoyed a new Prince album since 3121 in 2006.

I guess the marketing and selling weren't as mad as I previosly stated.

I just looked up Wikipedia for some info on Lotusflow3r and was surprised to see that it got to #2 on the US Billboard 200 in the USA.

In the UK we don't have Target stores so it took ages for the album to become available over here ... hence it sold diddly-squat.