Hallo everybody!
With the New Year at hand, I thought I'd take a second to write about a few Prince records which I have come to love. It would be lovely to hear which albums {and why?} are everybody's favorites. Please post your own shorts here over the Holiday Season.

With cheer & love,
Lolly


Essay On.....
AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY
by Lolly Pop

Around early 1986, I remember flipping through a magazine and coming across a poor review of AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY. I recall thinking whoever wrote the column must have been off their rocker because it was one of the most creative records I'd ever heard.

Listening to the title track, I felt a sense of adventure unfurl. I remember wondering if a place like Paisley Park existed (it sounded very magical). Quietly crying near the end of Condition Of The Heart ("He must be a very lonely singer", I thought). Cheering up and tapping my then-little toes to Raspberry Beret. Tambourine didn't seem to make much sense lyrically, but I was quite young. I literally thought it was about playing tambourine in a band. Now that I'm grown, that track makes me crack a great, big Cheshire-like grin EVERY time. America I couldn't understand: was he mocking it or supporting it? In the end, I didn't even care where he stood because the song had such BAD ASS guitar riffs on it. Pop Life had great party sounds and atmosphere/ambiance. Then there was The Ladder, which reminded me of Sunday school. After The Ladder came Temptation: a wild song with no set structure and loads of grit. I liked the "God" voice in it a lot; it made me wonder what God's actual voice sounded like.

Upon many, many listens later, I'm not only entertained by Around The World In A Day, but consider it one of his most important works.

Why?

Because if one listens carefully to the Prince records before it, they will find very creative, wildly innovative but utterly precise FORMULA following. Around The World displayed so much growth {in sound, imagination & composition}, depth and promise. It was a departure that I feel earned our Mr. a new title: COMPOSER. To this day, Around The World fills me with an impending sense of adventure. When I hit play, I know I'm in for a ride. In a way, it sounds like what reading Charlie & The Chocolate Factory felt like. Critics may have slammed it, some may dismiss it as a "lesser work" but for me- and like Charlie & The Chocolate Factory- it has stood the test of time.


Next: Essay on PARADE
[Edited 12/15/06 2:17am]

Great post Lolly.

I love ATWIAD, it was the first Prince album that truly took you on a musical journey. I remember first listening to it and thinking "'the hell's this?!" ...I didn't like it much at all really. I wanted Purple Rain Pt II and Prince taking a psychadelic trip to Paisley Park was a bit too much for me to be honest.

Needless to say the album grew on me, I began to realise this is why I love Prince...because he's got the balls to throw something like this in people's faces when everyone was crying out for, and expecting, the same thing I was. The record shows Prince is at his best when he doesn't compromise, when there's no boundaries, and most of all when he's willing to allow himself the freedom to do whatever the hell he wants.

As for being an important piece of work, I agree in as much that it's a crucial album in showing his stylistic growth...but I still consider at least 3 albums in the 80's alone to have had more of an impact on his musical progression.

Purple Rain made me a devoted Prince fan. ATWIAD made me a Prince fan for life because, regardless of where it "ranks" as a Prince album, it was creative, it was exciting, and it was different. The fact that the music was able to hold my attention despite it being nothing like what preceded it made me a Prince fan and for years after that I soaked up everything he did.

namepeace said:

LOL- namepeace I know what you mean!
Righteous- thanks very much. I agree, there are MANY wonderful 80's albums {though arguable, I think of that decade as his creative prime!} that show so much growth: Parade, Lovesexy, Sign O' Times, Batman et all. Not that the 90's and today aren't good, but I feel he REALLY pushed himself and took great risks in that era.

PARADE is next- will post on Thursday!

Also, what are your guys' fave Prince albums & why?
[Edited 12/19/06 14:45pm]

Great post. I feel ya, I felt the same sense of adventure whenever I listened to ATWIAD and I was a full grown woman...or at least I thought I was.

eye loved this record 2. my personal favorite is batman. like the techno/dance he started dabbling w/. tnx lolly and nice to finally c u on here!

1999 will probably always remain my fave Prince album (although Lovesexy comes a very close second), for a simple reason...it contains so many fantastic songs.

Dirty Mind, I think, showed that he was willing to push the boundaries when it came to lyrics and fusing different genres of music, but 1999 was when he first became a truly great songwriter...the first three songs alone are proof that Prince had evolved into someone who could casually toss off first-rate pop songs with little-to-no effort. But it's from Let's Pretend We're Married onwards where the album begins to truly take shape, it's like he's saying "right, those were the hits...here's what I can really do".

I mean who else would end a funk-filled party jam like D.M.S.R with cries of help, or let Lady Cab Driver descend into something straight out of a porno. My two personal favourites on the album tho' are Automatic and Something In The Water, they work so well back-to-back and they're quite unlike anything he had attempted before...which kinda sums up the whole thing really.

LollyPopLife said:

Sign O' The Times: His masterpiece. He totally reinterprets virtually every form of modern pop music within four sides of vinyl. Contains some of his most original work ("If I Was Your Girlfriend," 'The Ballad of Dorothy Parker"); some of his most memorable singles ("SOTT," "U Got The Look," "ICNTTPOYM") and perhaps the greatest love ballad of the last 1/4 century ("Adore").

Purple Rain: Introduced me to Prince the artist, and the potential and charisma in his music.

Lovesexy: Perhaps his most radical album then, and maybe even now. A spiritual manifesto with some roof-raising neo-funk (" No," "Lovesexy," "Dance On") and a timeless pop ditty ("Alphabet St.").

Parade: Reasonable fans can disagree, but this is his most unique concept to date. Some of the music on here defies categories, even for Prince music. Funky, flighty, fun, and inimitable.

The fact I was in my teens when these dropped has something to do with it too.
[Edited 12/20/06 12:01pm]
[Edited 12/20/06 12:01pm]

1999- was the album that made me want to be a musician. just brilliant! prince at the height of his first creative peak.


AWID - was fun for me after being obssesed w/ 1999 and PR for 3 yrs. It was nice to hear his sound warm up. the instrumentation opened things up so much and i loved it. the revolution w/ out guest players had sucha cold electronic sound. the eastern vibe was very welcomed in my ears.

Parade - it may easily be my favorite EVER. it 's just a world unto itself. and i love that they managaed to capture the vibe and ambienec of the Mediterrean in soundscapes. as another thread mentioned, i wish he had kept some of the Family and Jill Jones songs for this and made it a proper double album. JUST GLORIOUS


SOTT- another brilliant step and in many ways a return to form for him. the debut of the "new solo prince" so to speak. like an arual candy store of solid and delightfully quirky tunes. the last prince record to compleatly capture my interest.

LS and GB are better records than most people give them credit for for being.
D&P and 0+> could have been one solid record but neither really delivered for me.

the rest, right up to the present, has been a so-so mix of excelant moments and crap,imo.


nice thread.

Hi guys! Am running short on time. Was going to post PARADE in here tonight, but will be back over the weekend & reply everybody then!

Thanks so much for writing about the Prince albums you love- this is going to be fun!

*hearts*