I'd say NPS, "Prince" and For You.

1999 is my favorite album but I never dug the cover much.

DarkKnight1 said:

Lovesexy is by far the most absurd Prince cover....and there are some pretty bad ones.

Not as long as 'Goldnigga' can be considered a 'Prince' album. That one is the worst by a wide margin, as far as I'm concerned. Amateurish all around. That said, I would LOVE to own a legit copy on CD!

dave1dmarx said:

DarkKnight1 said:

Lovesexy is by far the most absurd Prince cover....and there are some pretty bad ones.

Not as long as 'Goldnigga' can be considered a 'Prince' album. That one is the worst by a wide margin, as far as I'm concerned. Amateurish all around. That said, I would LOVE to own a legit copy on CD!

org note me and grab your checkbook

1999 is cool. It contains input by people in his band/camp etc Vanity did some of the work around the P and the 1 that looks like a penis.

herb4 said:

dave1dmarx said:

Not as long as 'Goldnigga' can be considered a 'Prince' album. That one is the worst by a wide margin, as far as I'm concerned. Amateurish all around. That said, I would LOVE to own a legit copy on CD!

org note me and grab your checkbook

Allow me to rephrase that... I would LOVE to find this CD for sale at a flea market for ten bucks!

dave1dmarx said:

DarkKnight1 said:

Lovesexy is by far the most absurd Prince cover....and there are some pretty bad ones.

Not as long as 'Goldnigga' can be considered a 'Prince' album. That one is the worst by a wide margin, as far as I'm concerned. Amateurish all around. That said, I would LOVE to own a legit copy on CD!

Ehhhhm, the Goldnigga cover makes me horny everytime. So, you're wrong.

novabrkr said:

The packaging of Emancipation reminds me of a budget CD-ROM game from the mid-90s. It's not so bad that I "couldn't look at it", but pretty damn bad for something that was supposedly such an important release for him.

I didn't warm up to the shoddy image manipulation inside the booklet either.

Thinking about it, that booklet was a key reason that my friends and I got engrossed in the world of Prince.

Wolfie87 said:

dave1dmarx said:

Not as long as 'Goldnigga' can be considered a 'Prince' album. That one is the worst by a wide margin, as far as I'm concerned. Amateurish all around. That said, I would LOVE to own a legit copy on CD!

Ehhhhm, the Goldnigga cover makes me horny everytime. So, you're wrong.

So what does the cover of 'As Nasty As They Wanna Be' by the 2 Live Crew do for you??!!

One night alone by far....it´s embarrassing for the same artist that was bold enough to do the Lovesexy cover (which I love). It´s a pity since the album has some of his most beautiful songs.

Emancipation.

OldFriends4Sale said:

RodeoSchro said:

Yeah, well YOU try buying "Lovesexy" at the only record store in a hick Texas town.

I was lucky to make it out of there alive.

Telecaster5 said:

LaurenceNoonan said:

.Graffiti Bridge

.Emancipation

.One Night Alone

.The Chocolate Invasion

.The Slaughterhouse

[Edited 12/6/17 12:20pm]

.

In my eyes, 'Graffiti Bridge' is an awesome cover!

.

Worst... Musicology! (Also his worst album, so it's pretty fitting).

Easily my least favourite Prince album cover:

herb4 said:

I'd say NPS, "Prince" and For You.

1999 is my favorite album but I never dug the cover much.

I think it's a Glans Slam.

herb4 said:

dave1dmarx said:

Not as long as 'Goldnigga' can be considered a 'Prince' album. That one is the worst by a wide margin, as far as I'm concerned. Amateurish all around. That said, I would LOVE to own a legit copy on CD!

org note me and grab your checkbook

Hmmmm How much???

herb4 said:

I'd say NPS, "Prince" and For You.

1999 is my favorite album but I never dug the cover much.

For You is one of my favs and so is New Power Soul

1988-2016

best ?

imo

Easy one. It's a tie between the 12-year-old photoshop of Musicology and the putrid Lovesexy album cover

MD431Madcat said:

best ?

imo

Agreed, this is iconic! Definitely less is more.

lynx said:

Easy one. It's a tie between the 12-year-old photoshop of Musicology and the putrid Lovesexy album cover

What's "putrid" about the Lovesexy cover?

Maybe it appeals more to an european audience. You need to be familiar with the works of Pierre et Gilles, clearly an influence on Jean-Baptiste Mondino for the post-processing of the picture.

MD431Madcat said:

best ?

imo

i like how it folds out to connect the two images

SMH at peeps who don't like the Lovesexy cover.

From Dirty Mind to Lovesexy it was all great... then he had one off but rare design hits with Rainbow Children and... I'm trying to come up with another one... oh yeah, 3121 and AOA looked good.

Exodus was cool.

ufoclub said:

SMH at peeps who don't like the Lovesexy cover.

From Dirty Mind to Lovesexy it was all great... then he had one off but rare design hits with Rainbow Children and... I'm trying to come up with another one... oh yeah, 3121 and AOA looked good.

Exodus was cool.

By the way, isn't it a Prince drawing?

Because it resembles the 1999 artwork (is it Prince's?), and also the characters of the NPGMC era (also Slaughterhouse and the Chocolate Invasion).

When you compare them to some drawings of stage outfits, and the Gett Off maxi-single, it looks like Prince was the artist (no pun intended).

I've actually grown to love the "Lovesexy" packaging. It's one of many album covers framed throughout my house.

But I remember the first day it came out. I hit Camelot Music in NC to buy it, and I hung my h head with embarrassment as I carried that cardboard CD longbox to the register. I was thinking "Oh, Prince, why."

I was 18 and not ready to "come out" yet, and it almost felt like buying a copy of Playgirl. Gayer even.

I'm sure that cover hurt sales of the album.

God bless, Parke. He accepted my FB friend request. But "Emancipation" is pretty awful overall. I almost like "Graffiti Bridge," though.

The holographic D&P cover was a cheesy gimmick. I vote that my least favorite. I don't really count the online-only releases.

It's not an album cover, but my favorite Prince packaging may be the 12" single of "Mountains." Also framed.

bonatoc said:

ufoclub said:

SMH at peeps who don't like the Lovesexy cover.

From Dirty Mind to Lovesexy it was all great... then he had one off but rare design hits with Rainbow Children and... I'm trying to come up with another one... oh yeah, 3121 and AOA looked good.

Exodus was cool.

By the way, isn't it a Prince drawing?

Because it resembles the 1999 artwork (is it Prince's?), and also the characters of the NPGMC era (also Slaughterhouse and the Chocolate Invasion).

When you compare them to some drawings of stage outfits, and the Gett Off maxi-single, it looks like Prince was the artist (no pun intended).

It looks like it, but I think the artist was named somewhere in these online discussions.

Don't really care about covers - more into the grooves!!

An album cover can look bad, but the music can be hellatight - Lovesexy, 1999 etc

Or it can be really good looking cover and shitty music - Musicology, Batman, Rave etc.

Honestly i'd go with HitnRun volumes 1 and 2. They're cool images in their own right and as part of a thumbnail size series but as full scale album art... nah. Crystal Ball is pretty bad as well.

I often found that in his post WB work he'd have passable to good album covers but pretty bad looking overall album notes, Emancipation being a real tour de force of mid 90's CGI garbage.

[Edited 12/13/17 14:07pm]