MPLSound is the 34th full-length studio album by Prince (sold in a package with his 33rd album Lotusflow3r). 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, in a 3CD package known as Lotusflow3r that also included Lotusflow3r and Bria Valente’s first and only album Elixer.
In September 2009, the album was released in France as part of a 2CD package known as Lotusflow3r that also included Lotusflow3r. At the same time, a single-disc set was released in France, also titled Lotusflow3r but only including the MPLSound disc (this was a deliberate marketing decision, not an error). In November, the album was released on vinyl in France as part of a 2LP package, again known as Lotusflow3r and also including the Lotusflow3r album.
Sessions and compiling
Most of the album was recorded between late Summer 2008 and early 2009 at either Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota or 77 Beverly Park Ln. in Beverly Hills, California, just after finishing Lotusflow3r.
(There’ll Never B) Another Like Me, Chocolate Box, Dance 4 Me, Here, Valentina, Better With Time and Ol' Skool Company were likely recorded between September 2008 and January 2009. U’re Gonna C Me was first recorded in Spring 2001, and was originally released on the One Nite Alone... album, but the version included here was re-recorded in 2008 or early 2009. No More Candy 4 U was recorded earlier in 2008 and was a last minute addition to the tracklist.
Other than a brief rap appearance by Q-Tip on Chocolate Box, all vocals and instruments on the album were performed by Prince.
Promotion
Prince promoted the album with a video for Chocolate Box, as well as various TV appearances and one-off shows. The album produced only one commercially-released single, Dance 4 Me five months after the album’s release only in North America and France. U’re Gonna C Me was available as a promotional single in France to tie in with Prince’s brief series of shows in Paris in October 2009. There was no full tour to support this album, however.
The album (as part of the 3CD set titled Lotusflow3r) reached number 2 on The Billboard 200, and number 1 on both the Billboard Top 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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