YAY!!!! for me....Creatively amazing. He said he never wanted to repeat himself. He didn't want to do another PR album. I loved that he was experimental and vast in his music. I love that he took risk and didn't stick to one style.

iv'e just started tomlsiten to this Album.. it was one I tended to skim over in my collection.. but I'm finding a new appreciation for it.. I really like America , pop life, Tambourine. The ladder.. yes a pretty well rounded album

Yay. One of my favorites but it also includes two of my least favorite songs. I was glad it was different from PR.

BillieBalloon said:

He did make some questionable tour decisions. He could have toured Europe with Purple Rain and I don't understand why he didn't. Maybe he also should have toured SOTT In the States but he didn't as he felt his records were not selling well at the time.

Not bringing the SOTT tour to the US was a huge career mistake,imo.In the fall of 1987,there was so much momentum with that album.A tour during that time would have been hugely successful.I know he gave us the concert film and it is fantastic,but an actual tour would have been so much better.

Big YAY. One of the classics.

Personally would have loved the more poppy version of the title track on it. Just sounds better to me.

About Electric Intercourse, imo it wouldn't fit on this album. Would have been (another) great b-side though.

Many of us were here in the org were there, back in the day, when the cuts off this album were played on the radio. Remember the extended POP LIFE on the radio?

For you younger souls, this was back in the day with NO cd's, much less iPods. The cassette was fantastic. It was the first 'clear' cassette I had ever seen, and it was wrapped most psychedelically.

It was a sharp turn from Purple Rain. Many people had NO idea what was happening. Controversy through 1999 showed a build in style which landed firmly in Purple Rain, and ATWIAD deconstructed that process.

I think Prince was sending us all a big message: he was not going to be another flash in the pan musician or artist.

I also think he was striving to lead again. The Purple Rain sound dominated the air waves and changed what musicians produced from that day forward. Imagine having that under you belt. How do you ever achieve that again? He never did, but I think he tried like mad.

The one song which told me Prince was more than just a Rock Star came from the ATWIAD album, and that song is Condition of the Heart'. Talk about different? What a deviation that was.

So, YAY. Definately YAY.

And he had better yet to come in SOTT, which I think was his true pinnacle.

Rightly said:

YAY! It's just too damn small of an album. Temptation is a huge, long clunka, he should have kept it in his sacred vault. It would have been a wonderful find later for the insatiable ones. He should have added the bsides, she's always in my hair, hello, girl, and the polished version of the P. R. outtake, electric intercourse. I know he must have been incredibly busy at the time with pressure from Warner brothers to make the most of his most recent success but, With more time... Ah, who knows. This album worked for me anyway. I remember, as a kid, being totally bowled over by the tracks 1. 2. 3. 4. &. 7. I even like the frantic madness of tambourine. I intuitively caught on that he was verging off from the obvious path and this established an enduring obsession in me for this unique enigmatic artist.

I love the Bsides where they are at. That is one of wonderful things about the 80s albums was we always got long versions and Bsides and all of them were great.
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I enjoy the Ladder (I wish it had more of a rock vibe) maybe something like Free

I would prefer the Dance Electric over Electric Intercourse on this one.
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I think having She's Always In My Hair Girl Electric Intercourse on the album would have been too much about 'relationships' There was already Condition of the Heart Tamborine Raspberry Beret.
And we know he has to have some struggle some messages of the soul.

Dance Electric would have been a strong ending with a great 'soul' message.

A Definite Yay.

Although i'm not a big fan of Temptation & The Ladder. The Lovesexy tour rehersal version of The Ladder is fantastic though, and I wish he had recorded it that way.

Everything else is classic...I love Tamborine & Paisely Park.

AnnaStesia10 said:

wavesofbliss said:

i have always been fond of it. i bought a 5 cd changer in university and used to load it up with ATWIAD, the family, parade, jill jones and SOT. the succession of albums was/is such a delicious progression from near-eastern flirtation into lush orchestral landscapes. so so good and so vital to him moving his work forward.

Oh hell yeah, what an awesome way to fill your 5 cd changer. Exactly what I was listening to back in the day and still am!!

Mmmmummmm... SOTT is a double album, so you would need a 6 CD changer.

Mouhahaha