| Elixer is the first and only full-length studio album by Bria Valente, and is only available in a package with Prince's 33rd and 34th albums Lotusflow3r and MPLSound. It was initially released as a download on the launch date of Prince's website Lotusflow3r.com, with a CD release exclusively at Target five days later as part of Prince's 3CD package known as Lotusflow3r.
Recording progress
Specific recording dates for the album are not known. Prince began working with Valente in mid-2006, however (and she first appeared on the track The Song Of The Heart).
Kept Woman was initially recorded with Támar Davis between early 2005 and early 2006, and was intended for her album Beautiful, Loved & Blessed, later renamed Milk & Honey before it was abandoned. Bria Valente's version was a re-recording, however, tracked at some point between late 2006 and early 2009. Here Come was recorded between late 2006 and late 2007.
Home was recorded at some point between late 2006 and early 2008. Another Boy and Elixer were recorded at some point between late 2006 and Summer 2008. The remaining tracks could have been recorded at any point between late 2006 and early 2009 - All This Love, Something U Already Know, Everytime, 2nite and Immersion.
The album was mostly recorded by Prince and Bria Valente alone, although C.C. Dunham and Joshua Dunham appear on three tracks, All This Love, Something U Already Know and Kept Woman, and Clare Fischer provided string arrangements on Everytime and Elixer.
Promotion
The album produced one download-only single, Another Boy, released six months before the album, although a few tracks had been previewed as online streams also. In October 2007, Here Come was streamed on 3121.com as the site's first "Jam Of The Week" (initially known as "Jam Of The Month"). In May 2008, a clip of Home was premiered on DrFunkenberry.com. 2nite was released in 2012 almost three years after the album's release, but it is not known if this single was intended to tie in to a larger project or a re-release of the album.
Bria Valente did not promote the album, but Prince promoted the 3CD set, which benefited Elixer also (see Lotusflow3r and MPLSound for promotion details). The album package reached number 2 on the US Billboard 200, and number 1 on both the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart and the Billboard Independent Albums chart, perhaps due in part to the sale of three CDs together for the low retail price of $11.98.
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