This Album is in my top 5 fav. P records. The strongest songs to me are the title track, Condition of the Heart, Tambourine, America and Pop Life. Temptation is definitely the weakest song on the album. The lyrics and wordplay are fun to interpret and there are so many moods to explore.

If you like this album, get "English Settlement" or "Oranges & Lemons" by a great underrated band, XTC.

personally? the whole album kicks ass not one bad cut on there imo

"Open your heart, open your minds"

The whole album is great if you listen to it as a whole. It's a very innovative album that was written and created even before Purple Rain was finished(See Per Nilsen's DMSR book).

This album is a trip, is 1 of my fav. Prince records.Sad that this album was lost btween "purple rain" and "parade"..."She's always in my hair" is 1 of my fav. Prince tunes,strange that this song don't appear on the album.

She's Always In My Hair was written in late 1982 or 1983. It has the same start as Sex Shooter synth section. I glad it got released. The songs written about Jill Jones, who by the lyrics was always there whenever Prince was feeling bad.

I think this is a good album. I love Paisley Park and the ladder amd of course Rasberry Beret is a classic.
I like all the songs on this cd.

This was the first Prince cassette I actually purchased (back in 4th grade-ACK!) and so it will always hold a special place in my heart. There's not one song I dislike and most of them are in the league of my favorite tunes. Listening to it now, it still amazes me the distance he traveled from Purple Rain for this album. True Genius was at work here.

As has been mentioned, this was also a stunning time of 12 inches. The extended versions of Raspberry Beret and Pop Life are totally captivating as they both took a good idea, made it a titch longer, added some humor and took the songs to another level. The B-sides including Girl are all must-have tunes.

Yaay ATWIAD!

I love this album! My favorite is one of the B-sides, "Hello."

Moonbeam said:

theC
that was his reply 2 the press after they caught him out
on the town with a date while all the other artist were
singing we r the world.the song(we r the world) was designed 2 have an exchange between michael and prince at the end of the song.i think forgot who filled in 4 prince though(i think it was huey lewis)
[This message was edited Tue Jul 9 23:44:53 PDT 2002 by theC]

theC said:

Exactly. I love how much of an attitude Prince had about the whole thing!

AzureStar said:

HOW CAN SOMEBODY HATE RASPBERRY BERET?

It's actually physically, mentally, emotionally impossible to dislike this song.

Perhaps my favourite Prince album. Condition of The Heart is my best track - although unlike many, I also love Temptation and Tamborine! I think the whole style concept for the album worked perfectly (especially the way the single picture sleeves "zoomed in" on the album cover picking out the details). Also loved Prince's "blue cloud" suit! Oh and the 12" mixes for America, PopLife and Paisley Park were some of the best he ever released.

I've never been too thrilled with this album.It's too slow and dull.There are a few decent songs ("Paisley Park","Raspberry Beret","Pop Life"),but even those tracks aren't among his best work,imo.I understand the concept and what he was trying to do,and how he didn't want to make 'Purple Rain Part 2',but it just doesn't do much for me.

It took ALOT of guts to say that!...lol...

DavidEye said:

You are a brave man, DavidEye!

ps...we hate you now!

I would DIE for this music and I totally agree with Chandrasonic: "to me it's a reflection of his uniqueness" - indeed it is and I remember I was very thankfull at that time bout the fact that he didn't release "just another Purple Rain tune" - that would have been very easy

DavidEye said:

Leave it to DavidEye to put his butt on the line! You go boy!

Tangey said:

Along with Parade amd Graffiti Bridge, this is one of the most underrated Prince albums. And when you consider it folllowed Purple Rain, the fact that is it very different and still holds up after all these years is impressive. Pop Life and the title cut are probably my favs.

eye like it a lot.its a very strong album.
my favorites are
-around the world i a day
-paisley park
-the ladder
-rasp.berret
-america
-condition of the heart

Tamborine is one of my favs, especially the drum part: I think it anticipates some modern drum'n bass.

It´s a very nice album. I just wish some songs werent so short. And Tambourine would be a lot better without the embarassing chorus (but the drum and bass are cool)

BLACKMF said:

- Hmm...it depends on what you call ´underrated´...between the fans, EVERYTHING done with the Revolution is praised a lot. Try to say ´Around the world in a day sucks´ here and you will see what I am talking about...heheeh (hey, dont get me wrong, I dont think it sucks...I like it a lot)
And Graffiti Bridge deserves to be underrated IMO. Most of it actually sucks (except ´We can funk´, ´Joy in repetition´, ´Question of U´, ´Thieves´ and ´Elephants´).

I love this CD!!
Temptation, ATWIAD, Pop Life. The Ladder, RB, ...
I love it all!!

Life Sexy u all

GustavoRibas said:

Also, try suggesting that there are better guitarists than Prince out there in this wide world... that will get 'em going!

I like it from the beginning to the end...one of the best.

Gotta be America [played real loud] and Pop Life. Funny you should mention it but i've been listening to this all week.

I like it, but don't love it..."Pop Life", "Paisley Park" and "Temptation" always did it for me..."Raspberry Beret" I liked a lot, too..."America" sounded too much like a take-off of "Baby, I'm A Star"(although I did like it)...the rest I could easily do without...

As it was 1 of the 1st P albums I bought it will always be a classic 4 me. Faves are probably Raspberry Beret, Paisley Park, The Ladder and Pop Life. B-Sides are among the strongest non-album pop tracks he's put out (well, Hello and She's Always In My Hair anyway). Only negative is that I think Tambourine is 1 of the poorest songs he has put on record, but hey, that's only my view!

Also - liked how the bridge off 'ATWIAD' turned into Kiss...

High,

Eye love love love this CD firstly because it was the total opposite of Purple Rain. Secondly because it was so colorful and thirdly coz it shocked a lot of people. Eye honestly love every song on this CD. My favorite if Eye had 2 choose 1 would have 2 b Tambourine.

Liuid
[This message was edited Wed Jul 10 9:54:04 PDT 2002 by Liquid]

Interesting this topic should come up. In an effort to break my boredom with the current stream of boots of the ONA Tour, I grabbed the ATWIAD CD on my way out the door for work yesterday.

I think I love this album becasue it represents the moment when I started appreciating Prince for his more innovative/creative side. I had gotten into him in the 1999 days and of course loved Purple Rain but in both cases I enjoyed them in the context of "what I was into at the time". Had the post-Purple Rain album been anything else, Prince could have moved to edge of my radar like Madonna or George Michael and I would have only taken mild interest when I heard they had new albums coming out. Instead, ATWIAD sucked me into Prince's world and I became insatiable awaiting each new album/remix/video/concert/etc.

That said, there are numerous momements of brilliance on this album. Paisley Park is tops for me, made more so now that I've been to the physical PP several times. Is there anyone else here who, given the chance, wouldn't just love to just hang out there all the time listening to great music, meeting neat people, having interesting conversations? My other favs are The Ladder and Condition of the Heart. I also give kudos to the title track which I rate as his best "album intro" track - something of an overture to the work as a whole.

Thanks for bringing up this topic and thanks to everyone who contributed - I really enjoyed reading your thoughts/experiences with this very special album.

David