For those of you good citizens who downloaded those two albums from NPG Music, did those downloads come with:

- lyrics?
- CD covers?

- liner notes ?

Cloreen said:

For those of you good citizens who downloaded those two albums from NPG Music, did those downloads come with:

- lyrics?
- CD covers?

- liner notes ?

Lyrics no. Covers no, there was no official artwork for Choc and Slaughter NPGMC downloads, there were tiny wee pics on the download, no bigger than a thumbnail. Liner notes no.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Cloreen said:

For those of you good citizens who downloaded those two albums from NPG Music, did those downloads come with:

- lyrics?
- CD covers?

- liner notes ?

Lyrics no. Covers no, there was no official artwork for Choc and Slaughter NPGMC downloads, there were tiny wee pics on the download, no bigger than a thumbnail. Liner notes no.

samjennings.com has the official artwork (front, back and CD) for these and a few other releases, such as Xpectation (that also includes booklet pages). I grabbed them from there.

[Edited 5/18/16 12:35pm]

KaresB said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Lyrics no. Covers no, there was no official artwork for Choc and Slaughter NPGMC downloads, there were tiny wee pics on the download, no bigger than a thumbnail. Liner notes no.

samjennings.com has the official artwork (front, back and CD) for these and a few other releases, such as Xpectation (that also includes booklet pages). I grabbed them from there.

[Edited 5/18/16 12:35pm]

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Yeah, I was gonna say, that's not true. Sam Jennings made artwork for all that stuff. He noted on his FB page, on September 7, 2015:

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Very happy to see 4 previously unreleased album covers that I created for Prince finally being made available in TIDAL tonight with some amazing music that had only officially been in the NPG Music Club up until now. Props to RocNation/Tidal for contacting me directly to get the original art files. It's great to hear these songs again and have them potentially reach a whole new audience. Long live the NPGMC!

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He posted this pic:

^^ Cool, thanks for posting.

But at the time Choc and Slaughter were first available to download, there was no official artwork available.

TheDigitalGardener said:

^^ Cool, thanks for posting.

But at the time Choc and Slaughter were first available to download, there was no official artwork available.

True. And to be honest, I still can't get my head around the fact that these ended up being the official artwork...

KaresB said:

samjennings.com has the official artwork (front, back and CD) for these and a few other releases,

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Thanks for that. Good stuff.

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I did find most of those images on the web. However, my "Chocolate Invasion" and "Expectation" covers that I found and printed out are different:

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[img:$uid]http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/e7/d4/a4e7d4cecaf9a7787e55eb13f171a557.jpg[/img:$uid]

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[img:$uid]http://www.ioffer.com/img/item/590/814/437/prince-xpectation-cd-npg-new-power-generation-30f7.jpg[/img:$uid]

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Now I guess we will never know what the definitive cover for these CDs would be. That samjennings site says his are official, but the ones above sure look official to me. I suppose we are to just download and print the covers that we find most appealing.

Cloreen said:

KaresB said:

samjennings.com has the official artwork (front, back and CD) for these and a few other releases,

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Thanks for that. Good stuff.

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I did find most of those images on the web. However, my "Chocolate Invasion" and "Expectation" covers that I found and printed out are different:

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[img:$uid]http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/e7/d4/a4e7d4cecaf9a7787e55eb13f171a557.jpg[/img:$uid]

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[img:$uid]http://www.ioffer.com/img/item/590/814/437/prince-xpectation-cd-npg-new-power-generation-30f7.jpg[/img:$uid]

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Now I guess we will never know what the definitive cover for these CDs would be. That samjennings site says his are official, but the ones above sure look official to me. I suppose we are to just download and print the covers that we find most appealing.

To me, neither versions look official (which should also mean 'professional'), but the ones posted by Jennigs ARE official.

They are all horribly amateurish but that applies to the artwork for most of Prince's releases from 1990 onwards anyway, so I guess that's no surprise.

Wow, thanks for posting the link.

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Loads of great work on there.

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It's interesting to see that most artwork is designed for the CDs to go into card wallets as opposed to jewel cases.

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Artwork for The Truth also appeared for the first time on Tidal As with NPGMC albums, previous cover arts were fanmade (based on the promo cassette artwork sent to some journalists for The Truth, and screenshots of NPGMC for the others, but not the real deal).

KaresB said:

To me, neither versions look official (which should also mean 'professional'), but the ones posted by Jennigs ARE official.

If I'm not wrong those previous covers of TCI-Slaugther-Xpectation-CNOTE are not fanmade but they were associated with the 2004 official downloads of NPGMC.

Anyway, I think the previous "Xpectation" cover is strongly better than the TIDAL version.

KaresB said:

To me, neither versions look official (which should also mean 'professional'), but the ones posted by Jennigs ARE official.

They are all horribly amateurish

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Uhhh, these versions that you call " horribly amateurish" are actually from NPG Music Club.

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[img:$uid]http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/e7/d4/a4e7d4cecaf9a7787e55eb13f171a557.jpg[/img:$uid]

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[img:$uid]http://www.ioffer.com/img/item/590/814/437/prince-xpectation-cd-npg-new-power-generation-30f7.jpg[/img:$uid]

Cloreen said:

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Uhhh, these versions that you call " horribly amateurish" are actually from NPG Music Club.

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OK. So my memory is still good.

Cloreen said:

KaresB said:

To me, neither versions look official (which should also mean 'professional'), but the ones posted by Jennigs ARE official.

They are all horribly amateurish

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Uhhh, these versions that you call " horribly amateurish" are actually from NPG Music Club.

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Yes, I know. Your point?

A lot of Prince's album artworks starting with Graffiti Bridge were amateurish. (There were exceptions too of course, like 'The Hits' or 'Diamonds And Pearls' that were decent.) Quite a few of them were downright horrible.

KaresB said:

A lot of Prince's album artworks starting with Graffiti Bridge were amateurish. Quite a few of them were downright horrible.

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I agree. Most of his covers were pretty horrible. "Rave Un2 The Joy" is insanely amateurish. The cut out of Prince on that one looked like it was done by a third grader using Windows Paint.

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Prince's best covers I feel were "Emancipation," "Rainbow Children," and the two "Hit N Run" covers are darn nice (they make a nice set).

Cloreen said:

KaresB said:

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I agree. Most of his covers were pretty horrible. "Rave Un2 The Joy" is insanely amateurish. The cut out of Prince on that one looked like it was done by a third grader using Windows Paint.

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Prince's best covers I feel were "Emancipation," "Rainbow Children," and the two "Hit N Run" covers are darn nice (they make a nice set).

We certainly don't agree on everything but that's OK. I was just going to mention 'Emancipation' as one of the worst.

Creating album artwork is basically a product design process that is far more complex than just chosing a front image, it is also a lot about typography, about book(let) design etc, etc – it should involve a real, professional art director with an eye for every tiny detail, not just Prince casually picking a front image and going "that'll do".

Artworks such as ATWIAD, Parade, SOTT, Lovesexy, Batman, Jill Jones, even D&P, 3121, The Family etc are all professional, high quality product designs.

Others, such as The Slaughterhouse, The Chocolate Invasion, Emancipation, Newpower Soul(!!!), Musicology, Rave, Planet Earth, Mayte's 'Child Of The Sun'(???WTF??), Exodus, 20Ten or the latest ones are just sad, really, they are so bad. Unfortunately, Prince had often slipped into the territory of kitsch and that resulted in tasteless designs such as the Lotusflower package or AOA, for example.

I always wished Laura LiPuma stayed in control of his artwork...

KaresB said:

I was just going to mention 'Emancipation' as one of the worst.

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Nah. I like it. Very bold. Sure the broken chains is not very subtle, but the large front and center, the orange color...great cover. The whole packaging of that album was very professional.

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[img:$uid]http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/b0/b1/b0b1c0e61b8a031529f9252786260035.jpg?itok=K5U51SC4[/img:$uid]

Cloreen said:

KingSausage said:

It looks like some cheap shit that would have been hanging on the wall behind one of Saddam's asshole sons in some garish mansion.

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Uhh, those two guys actually had good taste. They were both big fans of THE GODFATHER and GODFATHER PART II. You picked the wrong duo to make your point.

Cloreen said: