Prince Album Covers: All 39 Studio Album Artworks Ranked And Reviewed

39: ‘Crystal Ball’ (1998)

Sold through Prince’s own Love4OneAnother.com website, Crystal Ball holds the distinction of being the first full album ever sold online. A 3CD collection of studio outtakes and remixes compiled in order to beat the bootleggers, along with a fourth disc, an acoustic album of new material called The Truth, it was originally planned to be packaged a clear plastic sphere, in keeping with its title. Manufacturing issues meant the collection eventually came housed in something closer to an oversized petri dish, with a booklet included with in-store releases. Fans who had pre-ordered copies direct from Prince were encouraged to download and print their booklets from his website, even while delays in manufacturing meant their orders arrived after the album had been released in stores. By way of apology, online orders of Crystal Ball came with an exclusive fifth CD, an orchestral suite named Kamasutra, which Prince had originally composed for his wedding to his first wife, Mayte Garcia.

Designer: Steve Parke

38: ‘Batman’ (1989)

A souped-up version of DC Comics’ original 1939 Batman logo lacked Prince’s own touch but needed no embellishment: his soundtrack to Tim Burton’s first instalment in the long-running franchise was rightfully described by Rolling Stone as “the biggest tie-in since shoelaces”. Prince continued to play with the Batman imagery, dressing up as a half-Batman, half-Joker character, Gemini, for what are fondly remembered as two of the best Prince videos: the Batdance and Partyman clips.

Illustrator: Anton Furst | Designer: Tom Recchion

37: ‘The Slaughterhouse’ (2004)

One of three albums (including the live collection C-Note) made available for purchase alongside Musicology on 29 March 2004, via Prince’s Musicology download store, The Slaughterhouse was subtitled Trax From The NPG Music Club Volume 2 and included a number of songs originally earmarked for an unreleased 2000 album, High. Acting as a sampler for some of the music Prince had shared with subscribers of his online fan club, The Slaughterhouse’s official cover became better known when the album appeared on TIDAL in 2015, its artwork offering a cyberpunk take on the album’s title.

Designer: Sam Jennings

36: ‘N•E•W•S’ (2003)

Consisting of four instrumental tracks running to exactly 14 minutes each – North, East, South and West – N•E•W•S’s aerial shot of a partially cloud-covered globe reflected the wide-ranging exploratory nature of an album whose 56 minutes drew upon jazz fusion and Middle Eastern motifs, assimilating them into sometimes foreboding soundscapes, like the audio equivalent of ominous changes in atmospheric conditions.

Designer: Jeremy Gavin

35: ‘Chaos And Disorder’ (1996)

After spending almost half a decade locked in a bitter dispute with Warner Bros over his rights as an artist, Prince and the label finally parted ways in April 1996. Three months later, Warner Bros released Chaos And Disorder, the first of two contractual-obligation collections, whose cover said it all: a smashed record, a footprint stomping on the memory of a relationship that had reaped so many rewards. Prince would return to the label in 2014, but until then, the Chaos And Disorder liner notes made his position clear: “Originally intended 4 private use only, this compilation serves as the last original material recorded by [Prince] 4 warner bros records.”

Photographer: Steve Parke | Illustrator: Steve Parke

34: ‘Plectrumelectrum’ (2014)

When Prince took female trio 3rdEyeGirl under his wing, they were the first band to get an official billing on one of his records since he began co-crediting The New Power Generation in the 90s. Having played with bassist Ida Nielsen in an early 2010s NPG line-up, Prince found guitarist Donna Grantis and drummer Hannah Welton-Ford online, bringing them out to Paisley Park where they helped reinvigorate his back catalogue as a guitar-led funk-rock outfit. There’s no doubting who was in charge, but, in his later years, Prince increasingly committed himself to giving platforms to up-and-coming musicians (Andy Allo and Judith Hill among them); uniquely among Prince album covers, his band took the spotlight on Plectrumelectrum, their only album together, speaking to the high esteem in which he held them.

Photographers: Jesse Draxler, Madison Dube | Art direction: Jesse Draxler, Madison Dube

33: ‘The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale’ (1999)

As Prince readied the release of the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album with Arista, his old label, Warner Bros, issued a second collection of unreleased material as part of the deal that allowed Prince to leave the company. Even looking disinterested himself on The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale, whose artwork used a photo taken backstage in 1993, Prince told Rolling Stone the album was a collection of “songs from a long time ago… That’s not who I am.”

Photographer: Claude Gassian | Designer: Steve Parke

32: ‘Xpectation’ (2003)

One of the first download-only albums in history, Xpectation was an all-instrumental collection recorded in the wake of Prince’s father’s death and released on 1 January 2003. Both the music and the distribution method set the pace for a quiet year in which Prince issued material online solely to members of his NPG Music Club. Xpectation’s fragmented design, as if scattering bits of information across cyberspace, reflects the early exploratory nature of releasing music digitally, with Prince proving himself well ahead of the curve.

Designer: Sam Jennings

31: ‘The Chocolate Invasion’ (2004)

The first collection of “trax from the NPG Music Club”, The Chocolate Invasion was named after a lyric in the previously unreleased song Judas Smile, and at one point also lent its name to a planned 7CD box set that never saw the light of day. The afro-haired lady that appears on the album cover feels like a digital counterpart to the painting Prince used for the more organic-sounding The Rainbow Children artwork.

Designer: Sam Jennings

30: ‘Lotusflow3r’ (2009)

As part of a triple-disc package that also included MPLSound and a protégé album, Bria Valente’s Elixer, Lotusflow3r also introduced a visual world that Prince brought to life on the new subscription website, Lotusflow3r.com, which he launched at the time of the album’s release. He wanted the website to “function like a videogame in its interactivity”, web developer Scott Addison Clay revealed, before clarifying that fans wouldn’t be able to “control Prince with jujitsu moves – that wouldn’t be appropriate”.

Designer: unknown

29: ‘MPLSound’ (2009)

As the electro-funk counterpart to Lotusflow3er’s late-psychedelic rock, MPLSound featured a suitably neon colour scheme – plus floating jellyfish and a skyline that included a keyboard. The album, named for the “Minneapolis sound” Prince had perfected in the mid-80s, also featured the song Chocolate Box, which boasted a guest rap from Q-Tip and a promo video in which a couple find themselves transported to the Lotusflow3r universe.

Designer: unknown

28: ‘Musicology’ (2004)

After several years recording increasingly obtuse music that satisfied his hardcore fans with little thought for mainstream concerns, Prince came back as an elder statesman delivering a pop-funk history lesson in the shape of Musicology. Quite literally emerging from the shadows on the album cover, the record’s release coincided with Prince’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and the launch of a large-scale US tour that made him the highest-grossing musician of the year, thanks in part to his exploitation of a loophole in the way Nielsen SoundScan counted album sales. Giving copies of Musicology away for free with each concert ticket sold sent the album to No.3 in the US, confirming Prince’s return to mainstream prominence.

Photographer: Afshin Shahidi | Designers: Jeremy Gavin, Sam Jennings

27: ‘20Ten’ (2010)

With an anime-influenced design drawn by Debbie McGuan, the 20Ten artwork seemed underserved on the cardboard sleeves that housed the CDs given away with select newspapers around Europe, but fared better on larger-scale canvases, like the tops McGuan designed for Prince and repro’ed for merch stands. Amid the psychedelic flourishes, McGuan sketched her own hand in black-and-white in the top left-hand corner.

Designers: Debbie McGuan, Anthony Malzone

26: ‘Art Official Age’ (2014)

From Prince’s tri-lens glasses to his portrait’s overt airbrushing, the Art Official Age cover seemed to take its place alongside artworks for the likes of Lotusflow3r and MPLSound in its effort to create an otherworldly design (clear vinyl floating like UFOs? Why not…). The sci-fi vibe suited an album in which Prince explores the idea of being frozen in suspended animation for 45 years while undergoing affirmation therapy. “In my dreams I roam/… Trying to find/My way back/Back home” he sings on Way Back Home, a nakedly open reflection on his past that suggested Prince was entering a newly reflective phase.

Photographer: Maya Washington | Art direction: Maya Washington

25: ‘One Nite Alone…’ (2002)

Like a piano-led counterpart to 1998’s The Truth album, One Nite Alone… was disarming in its intimacy. The springtime visuals – a sunflower framed by his “Love Symbol”, a heart-shaped basket of eggs – reflected a number of recent renewals in Prince’s life, including his conversion to the Jehovah’s Witness faith and the start of his second marriage, to Manuela Testolini, with whom Prince tied the knot on New Year’s Eve 2001.

Photographer: Steve Parke | Designer: Jeremy Gavin, Steve Parke

24: ‘Emancipation’ (1996)

Released four months after Warner Bros released Chaos And Disorder as part of their agreement to let Prince leave the label, Emancipation’s artwork made clear which album the artist was happier with. Having written the word “SLAVE” on his face during the dispute, there was no need to overthink this album cover – a literal representation of the title track’s lyric “Break the chain, break the chain” did everything it needed to.

Photographer: Jeff Katz | Designer: Steve Parke

23: ‘The Gold Experience’ (1995)

A decade before The Gold Experience’s release, Prince had guided fans through the purple rain; now the first album he released after changing his name practically shimmered with golden droplets – a suitable choice for an album that boasts many of Prince’s 90s riches, among them Endorphinmachine and The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.

Photographer: Randee St Nicholas | Art direction: Prince

22: ‘The Black Album’ (1994)

By the time The Black Album officially hit the shelves, it had become one of the most bootlegged records in history. Originally planned for release in 1987, Prince pulled the album at the last minute, in favour of the more spiritually uplifting Lovesexy, only allowing Warner Bros to release it years later while he sought to negotiate his way out of his contract. The dark, stripped-back funk songs that made up The Black Album were, Prince later wrote in the Lovesexy tour book, the work of his alter ego Camille, who “set out 2 silence his critics” and, in doing so, “found a new color/The color black/Strongest hue of them all” – so strong, in fact, that it obliterated all other ideas for a cover. Hidden in the video to Alphabet St, the first single lifted from Lovesexy, was a different message entirely: “DON’T BUY THE BLACK ALBUM. I’M SORRY.”

Designer: unknown

21: ‘Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic’ (1999)

After such a public split from Warner Bros in 1996, Prince returned to a major label – Arista – during the namesake year of one of his biggest hits, seeking to replicate Carlos Santana’s then recent success with the guest-filled Supernatural album. Named after a shelved 1988 project, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic was later tweaked for the Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic remix album, sent to subscribers of Prince’s NPG Music Club in 2001. Both artworks are almost identical, apart from a metallic-blue effect used on the original album cover, the direction of Prince’s gaze and, of course, the title.

Photographer: Steve Parke | Designer: Steve Parke

20: ‘HITnRUN Phase Two’ (2015)

London-based illustrator Martin Homent had been working on his own project, The Many Faces Of Prince, designing portraits for every phase of Prince’s career, when the Purple One himself spotted them, bought the rights and encouraged Homent to keep going. The artwork for Prince’s final album, HITnRUN Phase Two, took a 2012 photo for inspiration, picturing Prince sporting the bug-eyed gold shades he wore on the Welcome 2 Chicago tour poster.

Illustrator: Martin Homent

19: ‘HITnRUN Phase One’ (2015)

Martin Homent used Prince’s Art Of Official age album cover as the jumping-off point for this artwork – a suitable choice, as HITnRUN Phase One interpolated elements of its predecessor’s music. Homent’s style defined Prince’s visuals throughout the last months of his life, with the designer creating avatars for Prince and 3rdEyeGirl’s social-media channels, as well as stage backdrops and tour merch for Prince’s intimate Piano & A Microphone shows.

Illustrator: Martin Homent

18: ‘Graffiti Bridge’ (1990)

The male-female symbol that had made a subtle appearance on Prince’s Purple Rain motorbike is more obviously displayed on the Graffiti Bridge artwork – fittingly so, as the album soundtracked the movie of the same name, released in 1990 as the sequel to Purple Rain. A collage featuring images of Prince and the film’s female lead, Aura, its cut’n’paste nature (and Prince’s half-obscured face) had a touch in common with the Sign O’ The Times album cover, but did little to answer the questions the movie left viewers asking themselves.

Illustrator: Steve Parke | Designer: Tom Recchion

17: ‘Planet Earth’ (2007)

Given away for free in the UK, both with tickets for his record-breaking 21-night run at London’s O2 Arena throughout summer 2007, and as a covermount with the Daily Mail, the slim cardboard sleeve that housed Planet Earth was improved upon for the Japanese digipack edition, whose lenticular cover switched between images of Prince standing over Earth and a rendering of the “Love Symbol”.

Photographer: Afshin Shahidi | Designer: Sam Jennings

16: ‘The Truth’ (1998)

From the muted grey-green palette to the sombre suit he’s wearing, The Truth is one of the more downbeat Prince album covers – not surprising since it was an acoustic album recorded in the wake of the tragic death of his son. Given away as the fourth disc of the Crystal Ball package, The Truth didn’t, strictly speaking, have its own official artwork until it appeared on streaming services following Prince’s death. Its cover is lifted from the handful of cassette copies Prince originally pressed in the late 90s but which never saw the light of day.

Photographer: unknown

15: ‘Love Symbol’ (1992)

Many Prince album covers revelled in their symbolism – and none more so than his 14th studio album, quite literally named after a symbol. He’d toyed with the glyph – which merged the astrological signs for Mars (male) and Venus (female) with a suitably Princely flourish – on previous album covers and, a year after this album’s release, Prince adopted it for his own name, hoping to “one day hear a sound that will give me a feeling of what my name will sound like”. The photo behind what was soon referred to as the “Love Symbol” – picturing Prince with his soon-to-be first wife, dancer Mayte Garcia – was taken from the 7 promo video, which gave further insight into the epiphany that Prince said inspired his name change.

Art direction: Jeff Gold, Greg Ross

14: ‘Come’ (1994)

Flanked by his birth and “death” years on the Come album cover, the artist then known as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince stands before Gaudí’s La Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, for a suitably funereal entry among Prince album covers. He initially wanted Warner Bros to release Come on the same day as The Gold Experience, directly pitting his old and newer selves against each other. Warners’ refusal exacerbated an increasingly fractious relationship.

Photographer: Terry Gydesen | Art direction: JC Munson

13: ‘3121’ (2006)

Though Prince had eased back from the hardcore proselytising of 2001’s The Rainbow Children by the time 3121 was released (having been announced, naturally, on 13 December 2005 – or 12/13, in US date formatting), the title reference to Psalms 31:21 – “Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was in a city under siege” – along with songs like the album’s closing track, Get On The Boat, showed that religion was still at the forefront of Prince’s mind. As a number, 3121 held significance for Prince throughout the mid-2000s: he named his rented LA mansion after it while playing a series of private shows there (including an intimate performance for winners of a Willy Wonka-like “Purple Ticket” competition); staged a Club 3121 residency in Vegas throughout 2006 and 2007; and charged just £31.21 for tickets for his 21 Nights In London shows.

Photographer: Afshin Shahidi | Designer: Sam Jennings

12: ‘Prince’ (1979)

Capturing a fledgling young artist still honing his identity, the Prince album cover – like the music within – further clarified Prince’s vision. Not just a neat design flourish, the heart that made for the dot above the “i” in “Prince” was actually based on Prince’s own autograph (at a time when he still signed records for fans), while the photo – topless star, blow-dried hair and baby-blue background – helped signal that Prince was a pin-up as much as he was a musical virtuoso. (The rear sleeve pictured him naked astride Pegasus; nine years later he would appear nude on the front of a record, in one of his most controversial album covers; see No.6.)

Photographer: Jurgen Reisch | Designers: George Chacon, Lynn Barron (RIA Images)

11: ‘For You’ (1978)

Prince’s first ever press pack – which eventually helped get him signed to Warner Bros when he was still just 19 – sought to play up the mystique of the teenage multi-instrumentalist even then demanding complete creative control over all aspects of his work, from production through to album covers. The press pack was black, with just Prince’s name on the front and a demo tape inside. A similar approach informed the sleeve for Prince’s debut album, For You, which, shot in photographer Joe Giannetti’s darkroom and backlit with candlelight, chimed with the prevailing disco and R&B trend while creating an air of mystery that set Prince apart from his contemporaries, even at this early stage.

Photographer: Joe Giannetti | Art direction: Jeff Farmakes (The Ad Company)

10: ‘Controversy’ (1981)

A full-colour update of the Dirty Mind artwork that preceded it, the Controversy album cover saw Prince tweak his bikini-briefs-and-mac look to fit the New Romantic scene then gaining exposure. The Controversy Daily headlines that surrounded him reflected the themes Prince explored in the album’s more politically minded songs, such as Ronnie, Talk To Russia; on the rear sleeve, a headline simply reading “Joni” acknowledged of one of Prince’s earliest influences, Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.

Photographer: Allen Beaulieu

9: ‘The Rainbow Children’ (2001)

Returning to using his birth name for the first time since 1993, Prince also sought to express his increasing commitment to the Jehovah’s Witness faith on a concept album that covered everything from the theocratic order to systematic racism. Illustrator Cbabi Bayoc’s fluid style was perfect for both The Rainbow Children’s themes and its jazz-fusion sound; his name, a self-appointed anacronym for “Creative Black Artist Battling Ignorance” and “Blessed African Youth Of Creativity”, also chimed with Prince’s increasing interest in Afrocentric history, politics and art.

Illustrator: Cbabi Bayoc | Designer: Jeremy Gavin

8: ‘Diamonds And Pearls’ (1991)

Original copies of Diamonds And Pearls came with a groundbreaking holographic cover conceived by Warner Bros exec Jeff Gold, which made it appear as though Prince were being caressed in 3D by his new backing dancers, Lori Elle and Robia LaMorte. Rechristened Diamond and Pearl, respectively, the pair were an intrinsic part of Prince’s Diamonds And Pearls-era aesthetic, flanking him throughout public appearances and the singles’ promo videos.

Photographer: Joel Larson | Designer: Greg Ross | Art direction: Jeff Gold, Tom Recchion

7: ‘Around The World In A Day’ (1985)

Lacking the technology that would enable him to “materialise in people’s cribs when they play the record”, as Prince would rather have had, the Around The World In A Day album cover was a psychedelia-influenced about-turn that, off the back of the whirlwind success of Purple Rain and the gruelling tour that followed it, featured aged versions of Prince and his bandmates, along with references to the album’s songs. The ladder that climbed the spine of the gatefold jacket also nodded to the cryptic retirement statement Prince had issued during the tail-end of the Purple Rain tour: “I’m going to look for the ladder.” He found it on a song that saw him reflecting on salvation and the temptations that come with fame.

Illustrator: Doug Henders | Designer: Laura LiPuma

6: ‘Lovesexy’ (1988)

Jean Baptiste Mondino had been Prince’s initial choice of director for his second movie, Under The Cherry Moon, but with Mondino’s schedule making that impossible, newcomer Mary Lambert (whose previous work included promo videos for Madonna and Prince protégé Sheila E) was given the gig. Mondino was, however, available for the cover shoot for Lovesexy, which found Prince replicating Botticelli’s 15th-century painting The Birth Of Venus – with added phallic stamen – to signify his own spiritual rebirth. Citing concerns over nudity, Walmart refused to stock it. “All that album cover was, was a picture,” Prince asserted to Rolling Stone two years later. “If you looked at that picture and some ill came out of your mouth, then that’s what you are – it’s looking right back at you in the mirror.”

Photographer: Jean Baptiste Mondino

5: ‘Purple Rain’ (1984)

The iconic film poster transposed to a record sleeve and bordered with flowers like those that showered fans during each night of the Purple Rain tour, the Purple Rain album cover captures Prince in all his mid-80s pomp, from the Little Richard-inspired pompadour to the ruffled shirt and iconic purple trenchcoat. Like everyone else in the world at this point, his movie co-star Apollonia looks on in the background as Prince motors to superstardom. As with the 1999 and Graffiti Bridge artworks, the Purple Rain sleeve contains a prototype version of the “Love Symbol”, painted on Prince’s purple motorbike.

Photographers: Ed Thrasher, Ron Slenzak | Designer: Laura LiPuma

4: ‘1999’ (1982)

For his breakthrough album, Prince initially planned to use an apocalyptic collage featuring, among other images, a sketch of a woman with a horse’s head, a broken heart and a collapsing skyline (“I see New York a little bit more,” Prince told Musician magazine the following year. “I’m influenced by the sinisterness of it… I hear sirens all the time, things like that”). In the end, his own hand-drawn design immediately made the 1999 artwork one of the most memorable Prince album covers of all time. Cut-outs of his eyes and the “Rude Boy” badge first seen on the Dirty Mind sleeve were buried among a whole host of other symbolic images and hidden messages; aside from the extremely phallic “1” that made up part of the album’s title, close scrutiny reveals the name of Prince’s most famous band, The Revolution, written in backwards lettering within the “I” of “Prince”, and the earliest use of the hybrid male-and-female symbol that would assume increasing importance to Prince over the years.

Illustrator: Prince

3: ‘Parade’ (1986)

Parade’s monochrome cover portrait was perfect for the Jazz Age influence Prince drew upon for the album’s stripped-down funk, and kicked off an 11-year working relationship with photographer Jeff Katz. In common with many of David Bowie’s album covers, the Parade artwork comes across as a fashion shoot as much as it does an album sleeve. “The way the delicacy of his face offsets the muscularity of his stomach and the drama of his hand gestures makes this photo special for me,” Katz told The Guardian, who in turn called it the photographer’s best photo.

Photographer: Jeff Katz | Art direction: Laura LiPuma

2: ‘Dirty Mind’ (1980)

Photographer Allen Beaulieu took many of the early iconic Prince photos – not least the shot that appeared on the Dirty Mind album cover. A mere two years after the release of his debut album, here was notice that Prince was truly unafraid to take chances. His look – stockings, bikini briefs, open flasher’s mac and neckerchief, topped off with a 2-Tone “Rude Boy” badge – was, Prince claimed, an expression of “pure sexuality” that barely prepared the listener for songs that tackled oral sex (Head) and incest (Sister) amid a new wave-funk crossover style that went some way to defining the “Minneapolis sound”. The upturned bedsprings that framed him may or may not have been a lascivious take on the bars that imprisoned James Brown on the front of his 1971 live album, Revolution Of The Mind: Live At The Apollo, Volume III, but they offered the perfect setting. “I wasn’t being deliberately provocative,” Prince said of Dirty Mind. “I was being deliberately me.”

Photographer: Allen Beaulieu

1: ‘Sign O’ The Times’ (1987)

A local stage production of Guys And Dolls provided the backdrop for the Sign O’ The Times artwork, shot by photographer Jeff Katz at Prince’s newly opened Paisley Park complex. Completing what stands today as the best Prince album cover, the remaining items were brought in from the studio and Prince’s own home – among them a purple plasma ball, included as a coded reference to Crystal Ball, the triple-album Prince had initially delivered to Warner Bros before being asked to trim it down to a more manageable double-album. The blurry shot of Prince, teasingly slipping out of the frame, was a spur-of-the-moment thing. “He sat down on the apple box that was in front of my camera, put his face up against the lens, and said, ‘Take this picture,’” Katz told Pitchfork. “I told him that there was no light on him and he was out of focus and would have to sit very still for the exposure.” After taking two shots, Prince said, “Great, that’s the cover,” without having even seen it. “He was so careful in his thought process, music and visuals,” Katz noted, “but he was also willing to go to this very loose, surreal, conceptual place.”

Photographer: Jeff Katz | Art direction: Laura LiPuma