ATWIAD: underrated, underappreciated or just plain average?

I've been wondering this for a little while now.
I feel like this album is rarely discussed at all, almost as if its fallen out of existence.

I feel like this album is underappreciated.
And the songs from it aren't discussed much at all and there are a lot of good songs on this album. Like pretty all the 80's albums I have (one exception), I don't have a reason to skip any of the songs. They fit together so well.

I myself have been ignoring it for a while with all the new things I've been accumulating. I don't think its one of his best. The reason I got it was because it was available to me at my local 'wrecka stow'.

And it surprised me when I first heard it... heh, back in May.
I listened to it today and unlike the last two times where it came off as unusual in comparison, it came off as a mix of whimical vibes and personal issues.

If this thread takes off, I'll comment more on certain tracks.

But for now, Pop Life... I never expected to find such a gem in this album. It's truly inspired and its truly inspiring One of the best tracks to hear when you haven't had such a good day.

The instant I heard Gold’s first note, it became Prince’s mark on my soul: a tattoo I wear with pride.
Prince is Dreamy, gives my Life that Pop and 2 the industry, he’s Royalty.

It really amazes me how many people are just hearing albums for the first time. I just take it for granted that I know the album since it came out. I sometime wish I was just discovering Prince. There is just so many gems to discover.

I've heard it said that Prince rebelled against the success of Purple Rain and alienated a lot of fans.

For me it's a cool, refreshing change to the albums before.

He needed to stretch himself and to me, showed the true musical genius he is with atwiad.

"Pop Life" and "Paisley Park" were two of my favorites from that album. And I don't know why, but I was always CRAZY about "Tamborine". I'm really feelin' him on the vocals on that cut: pure madness! And the rhythm!!! "Condition Of The Heart" also takes me way back. Yeah, this was a good album. Haven't listened to it in a while either, but I will be now.

- Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow -

It's a beauty of an album!

I just never liked Temptation. Amazing that he had the balls to put that song out at such a peak in his populatity.

The other song I couldn't warm to was America. Just strikes me as dumb.

Cutting those two songs out we'd be left with a very small album of top classics.

I was 15 when I heard the song Condition of the heart. Truly a ground-breaker in pop music.

Not underappreciated, because enough time has passed that people consider it a classic. Underrated, yes, because Purple Rain took about twice as long as ATWIAD to record...

other than Pop Life and Raspberry Beret, the album kind of felt flat to me once I read an interview that pointed out most of the songs on it were "re-treads" of Purple Rain

I have a love/hate relationship with this album

I hated it because it was really the first Prince album that I buy on opening day without hearing a single cut... totally by faith.

And I didn't like it.. I didn't like the change in direction and that was it for me and Prince for nearly 20 years.
yup, I didn't get back on Prince until Musicology.

I didn't like the european betnick sound.. I was a fan of the funky minnieapolis sound... Lets Work, Sexy Dancer, Do me Baby etc. PR was about as "experimental" as I could handle (lots of rock sound in PR).


However, just recently I had a 2nd listen of this album... and now I guess I am old enough to listen to the new sounds... plus what was "edge cutting" in 1985.. is more familiar and comfortable to me in 2007.

studal said:

Nice to hear some nice things being said about the album.
I think it's probably one of the most ignored of the 80's input.
People can say that Batman gets ignored and I agree, it does (doesnt mean I want it for my collection, though)... Controversy is probably the only other 80's album that gets such little "airtime" as ATWIAD does. But those two actually have some similarities... or I thought so a few months ago

It's amazing how personal some of this stuff is. "Condition of the Heart" is almost heart-wrecking at the very end. Temptation is beyond insanity... but LOVE the screaming... he does so much of it and I dig it just the same

Pop Life is totally a "feel good" track that I can't get over. It hit me right away as a gem.

Did I hear right that someone once said that here, Prince was actually rebeling against his success?
Somehow, I can just picture his mindset. He doesn't take a breather, he just works through this baby and releases it w/o so much as a word to anyone but his fellow musicians. People are trying to define him with Purple Rain and he totally breaks that stereotype they put him into with this album.
I know a lot of people were rubbed the wrong way by this 180. I kinda experienced that myself when I was heavy into PR and I got to this and I'm like "what is this supposed 2b?"

In isolation, though, ATWIAD is very pleasant album in its own right. And whenever I'm in the mood for a "change of scenery", it doesn't let me down

The instant I heard Gold’s first note, it became Prince’s mark on my soul: a tattoo I wear with pride.
Prince is Dreamy, gives my Life that Pop and 2 the industry, he’s Royalty.

It's average as Prince albumz go 4 me.The 1st thing that disappointed me was that he wasn't on the cover.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

I've been wondering this for a little while now.
I feel like this album is rarely discussed at all, almost as if its fallen out of existence.

I feel like this album is underappreciated.
And the songs from it aren't discussed much at all and there are a lot of good songs on this album. Like pretty all the 80's albums I have (one exception), I don't have a reason to skip any of the songs. They fit together so well.

I myself have been ignoring it for a while with all the new things I've been accumulating. I don't think its one of his best. The reason I got it was because it was available to me at my local 'wrecka stow'.

And it surprised me when I first heard it... heh, back in May.
I listened to it today and unlike the last two times where it came off as unusual in comparison, it came off as a mix of whimical vibes and personal issues.

If this thread takes off, I'll comment more on certain tracks.

But for now, Pop Life... I never expected to find such a gem in this album. It's truly inspired and its truly inspiring One of the best tracks to hear when you haven't had such a good day.

WisdomNLove said:

"I don't think its one of his best."

REALLY???? This album was soo ahead of its time musically. You can listen to all of the tracks and even today they sound current. I listen to this album at least once a week. The Ladder is an amazing song, lyrically stimulating.

The instant I heard Gold’s first note, it became Prince’s mark on my soul: a tattoo I wear with pride.
Prince is Dreamy, gives my Life that Pop and 2 the industry, he’s Royalty.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

WisdomNLove said:

"I don't think its one of his best."

REALLY???? This album was soo ahead of its time musically. You can listen to all of the tracks and even today they sound current. I listen to this album at least once a week. The Ladder is an amazing song, lyrically stimulating.

Whoa... slow down there, haha.

The reason I started this thread was because I felt this album isn't talked about enough. I loved it when I heard it the first time... in fact, it surpassed the expectations I had for it. I just knew that it was nothing like Purple Rain... but Pop Life surprised me, never expected such a gem. And Temptation is just something else, I tell ya

I've been in the middle of Parade and a bunch of other new albums I've been getting, so this got shelved for a while. When I pulled it back out, I guess I had to re-familiarize myself it. I just feel like its easily forgotten about.

Today, it impressed me so much, almost felt like the first time I was listening to it all over again, but I knew what was coming.

I was just going to say b4 leaving this thread alone for the night is that I feel like this will be one of those albums that isn't spoken about much and falls through the cracks... but I'll be one of the people always standing by it and saying its still a good album, but for different reasons than others that came b4/after it.

This album is so underrated and under appreciated its scary! There are some serious jams on here. Tambourine, America, PP, Rasperry Beret, and Temptation. Great stuff.

sexxydancer said:

WisdomNLove said:

sexxydancer said:

It's average as Prince albumz go 4 me.The 1st thing that disappointed me was that he wasn't on the cover.

Isnt that Prince in the upper right hand corner in White in between the guys in purple with the doves? I think he's on the cover in some form

a bit of all three really.i've been wanting to start a topic just like this myself.i think it's a fine album.just not without faults unlike most of his other efforts around this time.probably why it's so underrated/underappreciated.for one i think he overdoes it on a few tracks."the ladder" kinda wants to be a "purple rain" part 2 of which it falls way short.as a song unto itself it's alright.only not as good as some of his others from this period."temptation" could do without just a bit of the yelling,still a stellar track.i especially love the whole bit at the end.him talking with god and stuff.classic.the 2 1/2 minute intro to "condition of the heart" could have been a cool 1,1 1/2 minutes.still one of my favorites once it gets going.the only thing i would really change is the title track.while it's grown on me(as the whole album has from my first listen ).i love the lyrics and melody.only the drum pattern he uses is too slow and plain for such a song.i can see where he was going with the middle eastern theme and all but it's just not prince-like at all.it doesn't start the album off with a bang as it should have.the funniest thing though is there is an alternate(albeit unreleased)version of the song which is awesome.the drum is different,more prince-ey and much faster.it even goes on for a minute or so after the album version fades(what prince song faded out at this time really,especially the opening/title track).i love the extra ad-libs and the acoustic guitar freakout(a la the beatles,etc)at the very end.this would have worked so much better imo.regardless,a wonderful album as is.only it could have(should have)been much better.

put it where it feel good

Rightly said:

It's not one of my favorite Prince albums

I like a few songs ("Paisley Park","Pop Life") but this isn't an album that I play very often.

I wish I could be listening to this album for the first time again. To me its so familiar. I like everything on it, but it strangely does have any favourite individual songs, to me it just works as a whole. Probably the song missing from that record is "Shes always in my hair", the BSide of Paisley Park (I think), that song is stronger than any song on ATWIAD, and I could never understand its demotion to "BSide".. oh well... it was a long time ago....

purplepolitician said:

a bit of all three really.i've been wanting to start a topic just like this myself.i think it's a fine album.just not without faults unlike most of his other efforts around this time.probably why it's so underrated/underappreciated.for one i think he overdoes it on a few tracks."the ladder" kinda wants to be a "purple rain" part 2 of which it falls way short.as a song unto itself it's alright.only not as good as some of his others from this period."temptation" could do without just a bit of the yelling,still a stellar track.i especially love the whole bit at the end.him talking with god and stuff.classic.the 2 1/2 minute intro to "condition of the heart" could have been a cool 1,1 1/2 minutes.still one of my favorites once it gets going.the only thing i would really change is the title track.while it's grown on me(as the whole album has from my first listen ).i love the lyrics and melody.only the drum pattern he uses is too slow and plain for such a song.i can see where he was going with the middle eastern theme and all but it's just not prince-like at all.it doesn't start the album off with a bang as it should have.the funniest thing though is there is an alternate(albeit unreleased)version of the song which is awesome.the drum is different,more prince-ey and much faster.it even goes on for a minute or so after the album version fades(what prince song faded out at this time really,especially the opening/title track).i love the extra ad-libs and the acoustic guitar freakout(a la the beatles,etc)at the very end.this would have worked so much better imo.regardless,a wonderful album as is.only it could have(should have)been much better.

vinx98 said:

'tis a great album to get stoned to.

SoulAlive said:

vinx98 said:

I wish I could be listening to this album for the first time again. To me its so familiar. I like everything on it, but it strangely does have any favourite individual songs, to me it just works as a whole. Probably the song missing from that record is "Shes always in my hair", the BSide of Paisley Park (I think), that song is stronger than any song on ATWIAD, and I could never understand its demotion to "BSide".. oh well... it was a long time ago....

I can't believe that he would place a filler song like "Tambourine" on the album and use the superior "She's Always In My Hair" as a B-side Makes no sense.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

- Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow -

masterpiece! one of his babies 4 sure...it's an excellent album. All the tracks super gorgeous
this might have been the first inkling people had of prince's chameleon - like style! (in uk at least)
he shocked the life out of many as they expected similar 2 purple rain but got a strange beatlesque experience instead!

i was about 16 back in then. i didnt enjoy America coz i couldnt dance 2 it!
i didnt like Temptation, coz i hated the way he said 'sexxxualll'. he made it sound so filthy. positively disgusting - of course i love it now along with all his screaming & heavy breathing & the way he says lust…

always loved Tambourine. my heart skipped when he played it on 21st nite
Pop Life talked about putting drugs in ur NOSE. singing about drugs was so rock & roll! but his anti drug message was clear enough… tht line (excuse the pun) alone stood out when i was young & curious. Is tht where all ur money goes? put me off 4 life! i didnt understand the rest. of course i do now
this was a very smart song.

Raspberry beret was young naughty
the way he told the story still holds my imagination! Romantic, girly, naughty boys-with-motorbikes! He thought he loved her! Teenage love & sex in haybarns!

the 80's were f**king brilliant

Underaprreciated, i think.

First, by the new fans he gained with 1999 and Purple Rain, and his fans who especially digged his 'funky' side (The Minneapolis side).

Second, by a good number of the 'serious music journalists' taking the lyrics and the psychedelic feel 'too seriously'.

When it comes to the first group, they are wrong. Both in the use of beats as the 'economily efficient' arrangements ATWIAD was a continuation of the things he tried out on 1999 and especially Purple Rain, putting more emphasis on the pop-elements of that album (Take me with you, Purple Rain) and the use of feedbackguitar and semi-classical elements (Computer Blue, When Doves cry).
ATWIAD Really isn't as sharp a division from the Minneapolis sound as lots of people made it out to be.

When it comes to the second group, i think did they mislead themself by the "superficial sheen" of the lyrics, i bet they made something out of it like: New musical superstar has seen 'fame isn't everything' and now he is going to look for true love and God.
Well, i think that Prince indeed used that "rock-cliché" as the main theme of the album, because he recognized elements of it in his own life, but he definitely didnt take it as seriously as the reviewers were making it out to be.
One of the most overlooked aspects of Princes music IMO is the use of humor: he often uses it to relativate "important messages" and to show he is not exactly sure about everything he sings about in his songs too.
I mean: listen to the looking for an "ideal" love in Condition of the Heart, and the painfull longing it brings, while "Tambourine" shows that even superstars have to masturbate sometimes, for some stress relief. And do you really think that Prince took himself all seriously in his utopian visions on "Paisley Park" and his conversation with God on "Temptation"???
Its exactly that selfrelativating humor and that postmodern approach of lyrical "hippie-clichés" that make this album more then a simple copy of late sixties psychedelic music.

As i see it ATWIAD offered him a way to, on a musical level, play around with his (psychedelic) pop-sensibilities.
On a lyrical level, it offered him possibilities to deal with the subject: "what next when you have scored big time?".

In that sense, ATWIAD is underappreciated. But in retrospect i agree with some music journalists who labelled it as 'a punk album', a personal, postmodern, not perfect, but bold statement just as 'Dirty Mind' had been before.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

It's a brilliant album, the first time I played it I instantly felt connected to it. I think Raspberry Beret is a gem musically. Prince has this very special way to include cellos and violins in his songs. Thay add so much texture....anyways, I've learned a long time ago not to compare his albums and "discover " each one as if it stood on its own.