Don't feel bad. When it first came out, I was HIGHLY saddened. Dig, being a musician who even at 15, I championed the hell out of P. Other kids didn't see what I saw in P as an artist. During Purple Rain, I was in musical heaven. That said, when I heard "Beret" I was like "Huh?!" Ans sorry ass video to boot. I was like "What in the hell is that P is wearing and what happened to his hair? My boy looked like Liza and shit. After sitting through the first listen of the album, the stand outs to me were "Paisley Park". I dug it cuz it reminded me of "Revoulution" by The Beatles. "Pop Life" was o.k. and the title track was cool too. I really dug "Condition" cuz it echoed the Ohio Players. I dug the front of "Temptation" obviously cuz of Hendrix, but otherwise, at first, as a whole, nah. Later, I dug it for what it is, an artist trying to stretch and not get typecasted.

blackguitaristz said:

A agree with a lot of this and can relate. At the time of this release I was all about the guitar and got into Prince because of that (Purple Rain stuff) so when ATWIAD came out I was like WTF. Took me a long time to get into but as I stated before, I like it's experimental route.I put ATWIAD on (with B-sides/remixes) way more often than some of the more "popular" stuff.

badujunkie said:

Ok I pulled up your profile. Assuming you didn't fudge on any of the info you were a 4-year-old when it came out. I'm not trying to be mean or anything but you weren't old enough to appreciate what this album sounded like next to everything else that was out in 1985 (be it positive or negative). And by the time you were old enough it was nearing 1990 and music had change a lot. It's one of those things where you kind of had to be there.

And I'm not saying there's something wrong with you if you don't like the album. You wouldn't be the first. Different strokes for different folks.

I truly adore this album. It's my favorite Prince album. I think it's a masterpiece.