Ranking the PRINCE Album Covers

Ranking and discussing the album cover art of Prince.
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[@johnmiller3689]

Prince Spaghetti, well played! Great episode, bad covers Tommy bringing the heat😂 Sign of the Times my fav

[@marcofalzone6469]

Hey you all🙋🥁🇺🇲 You outdid yourselves with this one PRINCE was a music artist like no other. His album covers though. Idk I thought most of them were trying to communicate an androgynous effiminate vibe with a spiritual twist. However i have always loved his cover for Sign O the Times. It shows a frenzied apocalypse of Stage mess and musicial instruments among other things and shows Prince just walking through it all. Unfazed. The album sounds like this to me and i love it. Its a bold concept. Around the World in...is very surreal and reminds me of The electric company. children's tv show. The different personalities were also on the single covers from this album. I think prince was saying alot with this cover but it is overwhelming. Finally, as for the final phase of his Career. Tommy especially nailed the distain perfectly and most hilarious😂 For myself, Rave unto the joy fantastic or whatever the heck its titled. Has ALWAYS beguiled me to no end. What bodysuit is painted on him?? The hanging curls are like not good. And that silly over fonted album title😯. I couldn't get past the awkwardly titled phrase. This was my vote for worst cover. Rave un2 the joy fantastic. 👎

[@curly_wyn]

Awesome! Sign "☮︎" the Times is not only the best Prince album but it has the best album cover as well! It’s amazing! Him just walking out of frame from the aftermath of a huge messy amazing show, just perfect. 🖤💛💜☮️ Also, yes, I think the title track is not only amazing but also the best song of 1987! 🤗🖤

[@georgemathie8123]

This is fun and I love these Thursday shows when you all do something different it's the fun of the reactions that you 3 give each other when you get into your lists it's so funny and entertaining

[@djcrystalclear8169]

Thank you George!❤

[@georgemathie8123]

@@djcrystalclear8169 so many great moments in today's show loved Paul's puffy shirt and Tommy's Andrew dice Clay's impersonation good times indeed

[@djcrystalclear8169]

Paul is a TROOPER, because it was 80 degrees in the AISB studio!!!

[@ChrisEstey]

Tommy's rant at the end is unbelievably awesome. What an electric assessment, so spot on! And I appreciate giddiness and chuckles over it all adorable episode! I

[@davidprior8]

I never knew I needed to see Alice cooper dressed as prince talking about album artwork!

[@curly_wyn]

Also, Tommy was fucking hilarious in this video! 😂

[@christianewen3227]

Serf! 😂

[@djcrystalclear8169]

Serf totally did me in😆🤣😂

[@christianewen3227]

@@djcrystalclear8169 It was comedic genius! I’m still laughing about it now! 😆

[@free1999]

y’all are hilarious, AND CORRECT. 😂 and OMG THE COMMERCIALS…BRILLZ!! 🤣great job as always , Paul!! 💜👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Prince was so busy looking forward, he didn’t realize how much of a mess he left behind. crazy.

[@djcrystalclear8169]

Thank you Free!💜🖤💜🖤💜

[@alexnejako777]

i like the around the world in a day cover best. not into the Lovesexy one although i really like the lead single from it. i played Thieves in the Temple a lot on college radio in the 90s

[@michelewiese48]

My favorite Prince album covers are the stunning black and white photos that grace ‘The Hits 1’, ‘The Hits 2’, and ‘The Hits/The B-Sides’ Classy and elegant.

[@christianewen3227]

An excellent call, Michele! 💜

[@michelewiese48]

@@christianewen3227 Thank you! 💜 Do you have a top pick? Must be extremely difficult for you to choose…

[@christianewen3227]

@@michelewiese48 It is extremely difficult, but I do love the cover for ‘Purple Rain’. I think it’s a stunning photograph. Do you agree? 💜

[@michelewiese48]

@@christianewen3227 Yes, I do. 80s kid nostalgia pack essential. 💜 🌧️

[@christianewen3227]

@@michelewiese48 💜🌧️🥰🎶

[@nicolasmerlin91]

my top: ForYou - DirtyMind - singOfthetimes - LoveSymbol - Parade

[@nicolasmerlin91]

and thanku for this good time!

[@ErnestIII83]

Just noticed Sebastian Maniscalco in that Super Bowl commercial. Funny. Ha.

[@christianewen3227]

Well awlright! This should be a great watch, as my fave Power Trio rank the album covers of my all-time-fave musical artist! 💜

[@jb8280]

You didn’t wanna try tanking a few? Mostly they are rank, sadly..,

[@christianewen3227]

@@jb8280 😆😆😆 I could try tanking a few, but Tommy did such a great job that any efforts of mine would merely pale in comparison. You are correct though in saying that the vast majority of Prince’s album covers are awful.

[@NaughtyVampire-zf8pd]

Hello Christian. 😎

[@christianewen3227]

@@NaughtyVampire-zf8pd Naughty!!! How have you been?! Great to hear from you!

[@jb8280]

He has some nice 45 sleeves. Some of them would have been better album covers.

[@magicgenius]

💜

[@ChrisEstey]

This was awesome. Cheers~! You nailed it so right about 1999, an album I dearly love and is delightfully deep in my memory from shows and him breaking out at the time. But Paul brings up that whole "early 80s aesthetic" which h explaining why it was done that way, but this is great criticism if it nails how I feel about something and never realized it. And how a kinda crap LP cover can house a work of genius so we just enjoy the package unconditionally till something is brought to our attention - cheers!

[@diegocruz5637]

"a deleted scene from a Jodorowsky movie" hahahahhaha

[@christianewen3227]

A brilliant line from Tommy! 😂

[@djcrystalclear8169]

HILARIOUS!

[@christianewen3227]

@@djcrystalclear8169 His Andrew Dice Clay impression was brilliant too! 😆

[@christianewen3227]

@@djcrystalclear8169 Your commentary had some comedic gems too!

[@djcrystalclear8169]

Thank you ​@@christianewen3227❤

[@dumbguydepot304]

I legit watched Crystal read off her list and honestly feel stupid about liking some of those covers! Haha. Your number one choice is odd since that photo honestly looks slightly out of focus.

[@djcrystalclear8169]

lol, never feel stupid about someone else’s opinions. I’m good with the ever-so-slight blur💜

[@UniversalBlackRocker]

Well awwwright my fellow music lovers. I just want to say...hello, how are you? Fine, fine...cause I have my list of my musical daddy's album art. So let's work before we headed to Paisley Park. 29. Lotusflow3r/MPLSound 28. Graffiti Bridge 27. Plectrumelectrum 26. 20Ten 26. Planet Earth 24. Around The World In A Day 23. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic 22. Chaos And Disorder 21. Art Offical Age 20. Emancipation 19. The Rainbow Children 18. HitnRun Phase One/HitNRun Phase Two 17. Love Symbol Album (the cover is basically a shot from the 7 music video) 16. 1999 15. Musicology 14. 3121 13. Come 12. The Gold Experience 11. Batman 10. The Black Album (who would win a battle between Spinal Tap and Prince?) 9. Lovesexy 8. Diamonds And Pearls 7. Prince 6. For You 5. Controversy 4. Sign O' The Times 3. Dirty Mind 2. Purple Rain 1. Parade (I mean like y'all were saying that it is iconic along with the Purple Rain cover) So that's my list of the album art of Mr. Prince Rogers Nelson. And shout out to Tommy for making me laugh this morning. Shout out to my homie Crystal for being awesome. And shout out to Paul for the Purple Rain era shirt which is cool too.

[@djcrystalclear8169]

Thank you!🎉

[@UniversalBlackRocker]

@@djcrystalclear8169 You're welcome 🙌🏾

[@jb8280]

How can an artist so great with sound is so terrible with the visual. The lack of composition, storytelling and basic design fundamentals is staggering. I’ve been a graphic designer for twenty years now and I can confidently say that everything post Sign O The Times is total trash and I refuse to revisit them. I only can list a top five. And even those are not great. Prince had many 45 sleeves that were better than the album art. Probably coz he and his ego were not involved in their making. 5. Around the World in a Day - I actually liked the Parisian retro art cum deco idea behind it. The 45 sleeves took pieces of the collage type artwork that told the story of characters based on the song lyrics. 4. 1999 - I was a kid when I got this, so the kid in me likes the doodles. Should have been a solid purple color background. 3. Parade - Simple. Pretentious, but clean 2. Purple Rain - I hate the flowers on the side, Crystal…did the photo shoot not shoot a wide enough shot to fit an album format, hence the added flowers? The flowers are fine as a back cover instead. 1. Sign O The Times - I love the crazy stage floor and sepia tone as well as Prince off-placed and out of focus. It works for me here.

[@djcrystalclear8169]

I agree, the photo for Purple Rain could have been by itself on the cover, but it’s so dark, I understand why the white background and flowers are on the left and right only…visually it works, because it makes your eye go left to right across the center FORCING us to LOOK AT HIM. It’s smart. It wouldn’t have worked as a “frame”.

[@jb8280]

I would love to take a stab at it today. Get the original photos from that shoot and lighten it up a bit and take off the flowers. Those flowers showed up in the When Doves Cry video, but they are not really in the film as a visual cue or metaphor, so I’d strip it and the back cover would be a collage of the other characters from the film with the tracklist and info centered over it. Can lay the tambourine and his little monkey toy etc. laid over the photo collage. All to reinforce what we had seen in the film and ran to the record store to buy what we just saw and heard…;)

[@christianewen3227]

This is a brilliant post, JB and I love that you explained your thinking behind each decision - drawing upon your extensive graphic design expertise 👏