Prince Album: “Around the World in a Day”

This is one of Prince's very best...just as good as Purple Rain even if different. At the time it was released it disappointed the mainstream audience that didn't understand that Prince was much more than a mere hits maker. Still i don't understand why it didn't get more recognitions. But i think that nearly 2 decades later any true pop music lover would agree that this is a masterpiece.

Around the world in a day let you hear Prince at his warmest, happiest and you can feel the inspiration on each of the 9 tracks...Paisley Park is a psychedelic masterpiece, The ladder sounds like Purple Rain going gospel whereas the haunting condition of the heart stands as the album emotional peak. Even an apparent minor track like tambourine sounds refreshing and playful. There is not a weak momement on this album but just great music from start to finish.

Any Beatles fan should check this one out...

It's amazing that a musician as sonically adventurous as Prince would become one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but in the 1980's that's just what happened. And yet at the height of his popularity, Prince never seemed to try to cater to the masses. "Around the World in a Day", which followed the runaway success of "Purple Rain", is evidence of Prince's uncompromised vision. Easily the most experimental album of his career, Prince combines Beatles-like psychadelia (the title track), classical music ("Condition of the Heart"), political protest ("America"), standard Prince libido ("Tamborine") and good old-fashioned pop ("Raspberry Baret"). "ATWIAD" is second only to "Sign 'o the Times" as my personal favorite Prince album.

This album found Prince dabling in psychedelia (especially on the absolutely wonderful 'Paisley Park'). Not that this is a psychadelic album really, but it does mark a slight foray into an area in which Prince had not yet traveled up to this point. The first two tracks are great. In addition to the standard psychadelic trippy-ness, both the title track and 'Paisley Park' are filled with the type of optimism and idealism that largely characterized the psychedelic movement, and even more so, its companion hippie counter-culture. Yet there is a touch of somberness to both of these songs. There is a general somberness to this entire album actually. This is in direct contrast to his previous two masterstrokes. Both "1999" and "Purple Rain" were intense passionate affairs with off the charts kenetic energy. This album has its lively moments such as the stripped down funk jam 'Tamborine' and the dense multi-layered funk jam 'America', but this album generally finds Prince being more somber than we were used to seeing him up until this point (the most obvious exception is the huge hit 'Raspberry Beret' which is one of the greatest pop songs that anyone has ever made). He is especially contemplative on the utterly beautiful 'Condition of the Heart' which is a great song once it finally decides to get started after 1:45 seconds into the song. The other hit 'Pop Life' is yet another impeccably constructed funky & flawless pop song from Prince. It seems that Prince could pump this kind of stuff out in his sleep at this time. You're probably familiar with the two big hits off of this album, but please don't buy this album thinking that anything else on here sounds anything like those two songs because it doesn't. My other personal favorite on here is the soulful half sung, half spoken-word 'The Ladder'. 'Temptation' is a *really* raucus track, and the unbridled and unmannered libido-driven intensity is a pretty sharp departure from most of the rest of the album. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to Prince, but if you already own all of his other albums from "Dirty Mind" to "Sign 'O' the Times", then this should make for a pretty solid addition to your collection.

This is the album that separates the Prince fans from the Purple Rain fans.An audatious move for Prince,to follow up a blockbuster like Purple Rain with an ambitious,yet wildly uneven piece of work.It has it moments like Raspberry Beret,Pop Life& Paisley Park,the rest is semi-memorable.The only reason Tamborine sticks to the brain it,s because its so annoying. This album is a prime example of an artist following their muse,and not be dictated by industry second guessing.Most simply run the formula into the ground,or just give up artistcally.It may not be Princes finest LP,but it's his boldest statement

A lot of bandwagon "fans" of Prince's sixth album "Purple Rain" immediately jumped ship on hearing this. Maybe commercially speaking he should have waited longer for the Purple Rain hype to die down but this was a different set of sounds and messages to that monumental classic and was never equipped to come close to it's predecessor's mainstream appeal.

Prince I am sure realised this himself, but being the artist he is, rushed it's release through, as always thriving on experimentation and spontaneity. I feel he was right to stay real to himself as although not a record label's dream follow up it is still an artistically rewarding work for the listener. While looking back now however we should understand the reaction at the time would be relative to different set of issues, not least "Purple Rain Mania". :)

This album was as mentioned above not very commercial in it's overall sound apart from two singles. "Raspeberry Beret" is a well known Prince standard and its summertime sway and wandering strings add to make a Beatle-esque Pop classic. "Pop Life" was a simple commentary on the music industry that Prince was now central to and he is harshly critical towards cocaine users within the lyrics. It is also a very accomplished song.

Other highlights include the Eastern influenced title track, another Beatles-psychadelic (The Beatles seem a big influence on this album right upto the cover art) type song speaking of a Utopia "Paisley Park" (The name of Prince's newly established label and recording studio at the time) and the tender ballad "Condition Of The Heart" which although beautiful never quite reaches it's awesome potential in my opinion. Also be sure to check out the album-worthy B-side "Shes Always In My Hair".

Perhaps understandably, this album will be favoured by the more hardcore Prince fan due to the lack of his more trademark "popular" music. However anyone with a love of good experimental music should not be discouraged from exploring this deeply textured journey "Around The World In A Day".