Shockedelicus said:

To the writer's credit, all the best tracks were left off the album. Not including She's Always in My Hair was lunacy.

I agree.That song is GREAT! Should have been on the album instead of the lame throwaway "Tambourine".

It's a shame with Girl and She's Always In My Hair... Just with those two tracks, could've re done the whole ATWIAD album starting with those two songs instead of b-sides, just imagine how it could've turned out...

Around the World In a Day isn't WORST ANYTHING!

When I first bought it, I instantly liked it. That album has several perfect songs on it, including the title track, Condition of the Heart, Raspberry Beret, Tambourine, Pop Life, America...I was even spellbound by the last track, Temptation, especially the talk with "God" at the end.

I had that shit cranked on the regular. That was the second album that I bought from Prince and I knew from then on that I was in for a wild ride in terms of year to year album releases from Prince.

I quickly bought all of his other albums in his back catalog(earlier albums) and was in music heaven.

The extended versions of songs like America and Raspberry Beret and Pop Life only intensified my appreciation for Prince as a musical artist. No one was doing music like he was. I wouldn't have minded, if he had done a Purple Rain 2, but the music that he put out instead (ATWIAD, Parade, Sign O' The Times, Batman, Graffiti Bridge) more than made up for it.

The rest you have mentioned as "can be thrown away" turned out to be best tracks from the record... Around the World in a day, Condition of the Heart, Tambourine, The Ladder and Temptation and they were the strongest tracks on the record.

trax said:

I agree actually. The album only has 4 songs that I like and the other half is wack!! Very disappointing follow up for me as well. I remember being extremely disappointed when I bought it in 85. Still to this day I only like Paisley Park, Rasberry Beret, America and Pop Life. The rest can be thrown away!!

Tambourine is a lame throwaway? are you shitting me?

SoulAlive said:

Shockedelicus said:

To the writer's credit, all the best tracks were left off the album. Not including She's Always in My Hair was lunacy.

I agree.That song is GREAT! Should have been on the album instead of the lame throwaway "Tambourine".

trax said:

I agree actually. The album only has 4 songs that I like and the other half is wack!! Very disappointing follow up for me as well. I remember being extremely disappointed when I bought it in 85. Still to this day I only like Paisley Park, Rasberry Beret, America and Pop Life. The rest can be thrown away!!

I disagree. In fact, this was my first Prince album, and it's part of what made me decide I was a fan.

I never liked that song.It doesn't go anywhere.

Kobe said:

Tambourine is a lame throwaway? are you shitting me?

Frankly, they're right. It's a terrible follow-up to one of the greatest albums of all time.

Also, it's not even that great on its own terms. It's a hodgepodge. It's built around a very weak "concept", sonically and thematically, which is fine in itself, but several of the songs used to build it are fairly weak. The Ladder is straight out crap. Temptation ends in one of the most embarrassing moments Prince ever put on record (charming as it might be). Tamborine is a brainless waste of space that throws away a killer rhythm track. America feels like it drones on and on even in its 3 and a half minute version. Condition of the Heart is ruined by an annoying vocal affect.

Replace 'em with She's Always In My Hair, The Dance Electric, A Love Bizarre, All Day, All Night.... and then you've got something.

As it is, it adds up to an interesting experiment and a typically bratty statement on Prince's part, but not a great album.

[Edited 1/2/15 2:41am]

[Edited 1/2/15 10:03am]

I don't get why people want to change the past.

I'm sure everyone who posts on this site has done something out of the norm just to make heads turn.

Prince did it with great Prince music, great singles & b-sides and a great transition.

Why would you be a fan and NOT love this album/concept???

It has all the stuff you would love as a Prince fanatic and insight to his everchanging direction.

I cherish this album and all of it's quirkiness.

It's history and i take it for what is was for me, a great segue...

Prost!

No discussion: clearly one of his best albums!

[Edited 1/2/15 11:39am]

SoulAlive said:

I never liked that song.It doesn't go anywhere.

Kobe said:

Tambourine is a lame throwaway? are you shitting me?

Fonky Fonk! Don't you hear the climax?

Askani said:

Frankly, they're right. It's a terrible follow-up to one of the greatest albums of all time.

Also, it's not even that great on its own terms. It's a hodgepodge. It's built around a very weak "concept", sonically and thematically, which is fine in itself, but several of the songs used to build it are fairly weak. The Ladder is straight out crap. Temptation ends in one of the most embarrassing moments Prince ever put on record (charming as it might be). Tamborine is a brainless waste of space that throws away a killer rhythm track. America feels like it drones on and on even in its 3 and a half minute version. Condition of the Heart is ruined by an annoying vocal affect.

Replace 'em with She's Always In My Hair, The Dance Electric, A Love Bizarre, All Day, All Night.... and then you've got something.

As it is, it adds up to an interesting experiment and a typically bratty statement on Prince's part, but not a great album.

[Edited 1/2/15 2:41am]

Just do us all a favor and give all your Prince material away, because if this is what you think of this album, then you have wasted your money. Especially with what you think about Tamborine, one of his master works, post Purple Rain.

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Can you provide a link to the list please?

.

He should have done so, but you could easily have copy-pasted one of the lines of the quoted text into Google and checked the results. That really isn't hard, moreover it is a basic skill in this day and age.

One of Prince's BEST projects.

An album including "Condition of the heart" can't be that bad !

I never really paid attention to Prince until 1999. MJ and Madge et al just wanted to make money. That was clearly not where Prince's head was at, but that's with the "industry" cared about. ATWIAD was his big middle finger to status quo, Prince was just having fun. Make enough hits to keep the lights on, but great artists in history aren't simply the most popular.

Temptation - is brilliant

America - long version moves me

Tamborine - exhuberant

ATWIAD / Paisly Park - are equally lovely and spritual

What fell flat for me were:

Condition of the Heart, The Ladder, Raspberry Beret

Otherwise, I loved it.

The closest thing Prince has done as a follow up since Purple Rain was ghost producing Condensate by the O7.

BartVanHemelen said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

Can you provide a link to the list please?

.

He should have done so, but you could easily have copy-pasted one of the lines of the quoted text into Google and checked the results. That really isn't hard, moreover it is a basic skill in this day and age.

Yeah, but that's now how it works with claims. With claims, the claimant is the one with the burden of proof. Science n stuff. Just saying.

feeluupp said:

Just read an article that was written 2 days ago, another pointless list, but the list was the worst follow up albums of all time and ATIWAD was listed as #4.

Amongst the list was Bob Dylan as well..

4. Prince - Purple Rain and Around the World in a Day (1984/1985)

Prince's Purple Rain is simply the greatest pop album of the '80s (yes, better thanThriller), a masterful combination of rock, funk, dance, new wave, and psychedelia, in which every song could be a hit single. Prince would follow this up with the more blatantly psychedelic Around the World in a Day, and though it contains my personal favorite Prince song, ("Raspberry Beret"), the rest of the album is far more self-indulgent and not nearly as captivating, especially when compared to the airtight genius of Purple Rain.

Translation: Which artist went furthest left from his previous album?

Graycap23 said:

One of Prince's BEST projects.

^ I agree,

I can't tell.... just HOW much I love....

the Around The World In A Day album...

And those magical 12 inch singles:

Pop Life 9 min UK version,
Paisley Park aprox 7 min Remix version,
Raspberry Beret again aprox 7 min version,
America 21 min.

and the B-sides:

Girl,
Hello,
She's Always In My Hair.

The whole album is so sounding pop-rock-funk psycadelica,

its a crime to say or to even think this Prince-masterpiece is among the worst......

Around the World in a Day was one of the 80's finest musical events, it was gutsy in its disregard for "sticking to the formula" and wildly inventive, its overall sound is lovely. Only two tracks are actually flawed. She's always in my hair definitely should have been on it.

thedance said:

Graycap23 said:

One of Prince's BEST projects.

^ I agree,

I can't tell.... just HOW much I love....

the Around The World In A Day album...

And those magical 12 inch singles:

Pop Life 9 min UK version,
Paisley Park aprox 7 min Remix version,
Raspberry Beret again aprox 7 min version,
America 21 min.

and the B-sides:

Girl,
Hello,
She's Always In My Hair.

The whole album is so sounding pop-rock-funk psycadelica,

its a crime to say or to even think this Prince-masterpiece is among the worst......

And not to mention the magical look of those singles. There is a reason why "She's Always In My Hair" is the first 12-inch vinyl I ever bought. The cover art, but especially the album label, is part of what makes this album and time period like gold for me. Plus, we don't think of it anymore because cassettes aren't sold anymore, but Around the World In A Day, in my memory, the first cassette sold that was a clear plastic cassette. They all started to look like this in five years. Artists today don't have that sense of aesthetics because of the mp3 explosion, and the iTunes Plus experience just isn't the same for me.

TASKAE said:

Love the album! The only thing I'm not sure I love 100% iis how the linn is used and produced. It kinda sounded as if Prince did a desperate move making it maintain atleast some (ALOT) of the sound he was known for. He didn't merge genres as seamless as he did from Dirty Mind to Purple Rain. It sounded more like a art pop collage or something. Parade is when he came back to seamless blends of genres. Still I Consider ATWIAD a classic though. The "mistakes" are just there because he was rushing it a bit too much imo.

Askani said:

TASKAE said:

Just do us all a favor and give all your Prince material away, because if this is what you think of this album, then you have wasted your money. Especially with what you think about Tamborine, one of his master works, post Purple Rain.

waaaah!

You mad because you were told the truth?

Isn't amazing how one persons "worst" is another persons "best"? I guess that doesn't exclude ATWIAD. I personally am not a huge fan of the album overall but I have my favorites from it. Some of you all hate Temptation but I always thought it was awesome... it's just amusing how we all love different things.

Nonsense

Intentionally or not, Prince established there would be no Purple Rain II.

He moved on.

He knew had developed the clout to experiment, and this was step 1 in doing so.

What if he had done a pattented sound based on PR from that moment forward?

I tend to believe he would have washed out.

ATWIAD did not recieve the admiration from people that PR did, at least not where I am from.

But that is not a bad thing.

It separated those who want popcorn from those who wanted art, or at least those who would wanted to give art a chance.

I think of bands like ACDC, who I like, but have just one sound and stay there. That's just fine.

But Prince just isn't like that. He is always reaching.

And many times failing.

But I have loved listening to the ride.

I'd argue that song for song...............ATWIAD is better than Purple Rain.