Just picked up a used copy from my local record store today; forgot how much I loved this album when it first came out. Some great classic Prince songs on it, even if some think it is Prince "doing the Beatles." Still love it. Great memories attached to this album. Show some love for "Around The World..."

[Edited 7/10/22 17:03pm]

My favourite Prince album.

TAMBOURINE is my 2nd favorite song of all time... beat out only by When Doves Cry

I remember when this album first came out; I had switched to portable cassette players. Rode my 10 speed bike to the beach every weekend playing this album.Yeah, no one wore helmets for bikes in those days! We wore headphones! And didn't get knocked off the road in Florida! LOL I just love it! Really nice hearing it on vinyl for the first time!

Absolutely adore this album. Way too much underrated (here).

Just realized that this album was released 10 months after Purple rain !

Whaen I got the cinyl album, I instantly loved the mysterious title, the cover art (with that flap on the side, still attached on my original vinyl ), the lyrics sheet and typography, the vinyl labels... it was all so stunning.

I was also dissapointed that it didn't receive the same critics as Purple Rain did.

And love the moment they played the songs for the first time on the radio,a few days before the album was officially released.

The song Temptation (we already talked about it), isn't all that much liked by most (same for the song Paisley Park - which remix by the way is also stunning!).

Would love to hear a proper remastering of the whole album, cause songs like Temptation and Tambourine somehow sound way too loud, as if they were recorded very loud... (don't know for sure, i'm no expert in sound).

To me, this is the real Prince and The Revolution album, since it basically was made during the Purple Rain tour. I love the Wendy and Lisa input on this one. The song America and it's fantastic 12'' version.

And I hope there is a much longer/extended version of Raspberry Beret somewhere.

Sometimes I wish the album was much longer too - such a great album.

I too had a portale cassette player, and copied the vinyl album on cassette myself.

I doubled every song on that cassette (Maxell 120min) after each other, so i could enjoy it more and longer on my way ono the train to school. I had these flashy orange spongy headphones (and a green portable cassette player - still have it), and when i played it loud you could hear it around me. A girl once asked me what was on my headphones, and so i shared my new Prince album with her. we bopped on Pop Life together in repeat.

[Edited 7/11/22 3:44am]

Love this album. I have never been a fan of Temptation tho. Swapped it with She's Always in My Hair on my home-made cassette and thats how I've listened to it since 85.

love it...but I'm going to say now, Temptation is so self indulgent It's a blazing track, blazing guitar and wicked vocals....no one can scream or hit wild notes like Prince could. Then that talk with God "oh silly man' could have been cut out...

It is these moments that mar some of his albums....

LoveGalore said:

very good album with OUT OF THIS WORLD b-sides.

B-sides of this era were good as well She's always in my hair, Hello (One of my favourite songs) and Girl

I remember when I first heard when I ran out and got the cassette and played it for a couple of friends. It was so unexpected to be that different from Purple Rain. A couple of songs on there were lost of my friends, especially Tamborine and Temptation, but not on me. I loved the album and my respect fro Prince went even higher in that he didn't release Purple Rain 2. He had a fan for life at that point.

Whenever I take a walk around my neighborhood, this is the album I listen to. It was released just before summer in 1985, so my memories of it are all about playing the cassette (ripped from my vinyl album) with the sunroof open. It makes me happy every time I hear it.

Listening to it has always been an enjoyable thing for me to do--although strange, at first. I make sure to blast the album out loud at least once every spring season to enjoy that "shower of flowers!"

Dare I say some of the B-sides were better than some of the album tracks.

Backing up: I had initial conflict with this record when it came out. I was almost more infatuated with the new clear, see-thru design of the cassette than the album itself.

The songs that stuck out back then were "Paisley Park," "Raspberry Beret," "America," "Pop Life."

It certainly lacked a lot of the chutzpah that previous albums had (even something stripped down like Dirty Mind). The Ooomph factor was more subtle, subdued, discreet.

But with time comes perspective. The songwriting is strong. The variance of style and production feels as cohesive as it does familiar. We've long since determined, with near-perfect evidence, of how Prince used the Purple Rain blueprint for ATWIAD, but simply repainted it in pastels and dusty colors, rather than the bold, almost garish strokes of it's predecessor.

With even more time comes the full appreciation. I enjoy the album front to back, but I have edited out the God-talk at the end of "Temptation," simply ending it with a crack of echoey thunder. Someone on here sped it up (and pitch corrected) the track to be a tad more upbeat blusey bop. I like it, and I use it in my regular playlist.

I think ATWIAD was the right move for him at the time. It's sorta the way Miley Cyrus had her tongue wagging, and doing outrageous things to kill Hannah Montana. Prince wasn't trying to ride in on a wrecking ball or lick someone's cheek, he did do a 180º turn in many ways - musically - from most things on Purple Rain. And yes, there are similarities with "Purple Rain" and "The Ladder," "Take Me With U" and "Raspberry Beret," and "Baby I'm A Star" and "America," but they still sorta stand out on their own within the context of ATWIAD.

He purposely separated himself from Purple Rain and the almost-endless hysteria around it. I think with those aforementioned similarities, he tried to give people what they wanted, yet do something that - on the outside - looked and felt very different. It was a balancing act, and one that didn't play well for him initially, but he did rebound from it. Purple Rain was the bigger dragon to kill. It wasn't the lightness of ATWIAD that he fought against; rather he fought with it.

I loved the visuals of the album. The animation, the colorful video, the shorter hair, etc. There were moments of PR in there (long jackets, buttons on the side of the pants), but new things like half shirts, W&L actually wearing a dress or heels (not boots), etc. felt more organic, refreshing. I think people gravitated toward it feeling more cleaned up. Even Madonna, by 1987, had shed a lot of her bangles, chunky belts, and messy ombre hair. Her look in "Papa Don't Preach" was sleek, youthful, sexy. Prince and the Revolution evolved the same way. Even moreso by 1986, when he was wearing a suit and tie.

Someone created an expanded version of the album, incorporating b-sides, and extended versions. I use that playlist more than the actual album these days. It's a full experience. Because one doesn't just brush by ATWIAD.

LoveGalore said:

It's fitting that he brought W&L back for Planet Earth because it's the same profile as ATWIAD: A hodge podge collection of songs done in and around the sessions for a proper epic release (in Planet Earth's case, 3121).

But, for me, ATWIAD is much more cohesive than Planet Earth.

TrivialPursuit said:

Dare I say some of the B-sides were better than some of the album tracks.

Backing up: I had initial conflict with this record when it came out. I was almost more infatuated with the new clear, see-thru design of the cassette than the album itself.

The songs that stuck out back then were "Paisley Park," "Raspberry Beret," "America," "Pop Life."

It certainly lacked a lot of the chutzpah that previous albums had (even something stripped down like Dirty Mind). The Ooomph factor was more subtle, subdued, discreet.

But with time comes perspective. The songwriting is strong. The variance of style and production feels as cohesive as it does familiar. We've long since determined, with near-perfect evidence, of how Prince used the Purple Rain blueprint for ATWIAD, but simply repainted it in pastels and dusty colors, rather than the bold, almost garish strokes of it's predecessor.

With even more time comes the full appreciation. I enjoy the album front to back, but I have edited out the God-talk at the end of "Temptation," simply ending it with a crack of echoey thunder. Someone on here sped it up (and pitch corrected) the track to be a tad more upbeat blusey bop. I like it, and I use it in my regular playlist.

I think ATWIAD was the right move for him at the time. It's sorta the way Miley Cyrus had her tongue wagging, and doing outrageous things to kill Hannah Montana. Prince wasn't trying to ride in on a wrecking ball or lick someone's cheek, he did do a 180º turn in many ways - musically - from most things on Purple Rain. And yes, there are similarities with "Purple Rain" and "The Ladder," "Take Me With U" and "Raspberry Beret," and "Baby I'm A Star" and "America," but they still sorta stand out on their own within the context of ATWIAD.

He purposely separated himself from Purple Rain and the almost-endless hysteria around it. I think with those aforementioned similarities, he tried to give people what they wanted, yet do something that - on the outside - looked and felt very different. It was a balancing act, and one that didn't play well for him initially, but he did rebound from it. Purple Rain was the bigger dragon to kill. It wasn't the lightness of ATWIAD that he fought against; rather he fought with it.

I loved the visuals of the album. The animation, the colorful video, the shorter hair, etc. There were moments of PR in there (long jackets, buttons on the side of the pants), but new things like half shirts, W&L actually wearing a dress or heels (not boots), etc. felt more organic, refreshing. I think people gravitated toward it feeling more cleaned up. Even Madonna, by 1987, had shed a lot of her bangles, chunky belts, and messy ombre hair. Her look in "Papa Don't Preach" was sleek, youthful, sexy. Prince and the Revolution evolved the same way. Even moreso by 1986, when he was wearing a suit and tie.

Someone created an expanded version of the album, incorporating b-sides, and extended versions. I use that playlist more than the actual album these days. It's a full experience. Because one doesn't just brush by ATWIAD.

That was me. I did send it to you i believe.

I was 13 when this came out, and rode my bike about 5 miles to and from our local mall to pick this up (the LP). I carried it home very carefully!

The "psychedelic" sounds were immediately both different and familiar at the same time. I know he didn't want a Purple Rain 2, but it kinda is . . .

Vannormal said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Someone on here sped it up (and pitch corrected) the track to be a tad more upbeat blusey bop. I like it, and I use it in my regular playlist.

That was me. I did send it to you i believe.

It was! Names are a blur here sometimes. I wasn't trying to subvert credit or anything.

TrivialPursuit said:

Vannormal said:

That was me. I did send it to you i believe.

It was! Names are a blur here sometimes. I wasn't trying to subvert credit or anything.

is that version available.?

dualboot said:

TrivialPursuit said:

It was! Names are a blur here sometimes. I wasn't trying to subvert credit or anything.

is that version available.?

I send it to whoever like to hear it.

I'm one of those guys who loves to share, no problems.

Don't need anything in return really either.

-

Problem with most Prince fans is that they don't share, for unearthly reasons i'll never udnerstand.

It is not OUR music.

(Talking about unrreleased and rare stuff some have...)

I can't remember when I got this, but I must have been in my teens. It must have been a cassette. I didn't think it was psychedelic or like The Beatles or any of that radically-different-from-Purple-Rain-horseshit, I just liked it. I was a teenager discovering this great artist. To this day it's one of my favourite Prince albums.

[Edited 7/15/22 0:40am]

...

[Edited 7/15/22 5:41am]

FrankieCoco1 said:

My favourite album cover of Prince’s. Still working out who each of the people represent. Listened to this on the day of release in the UK, with my brother who got it for his 15th birthday on that day (22nd April 1985). I remember Condition of the Heart and The Ladder being highlights then. Still are. I wrote about Pop Life in one of my English classes, trying to be high and mighty about the drugs aspect (a friend wrote about Hey Frankie by Sister Sledge and got a much better response from the teacher - no accounting for taste, eh!). I’m curious how an SDE, if there ever is one, would be handled for this, as there are no live shows! Perhaps having a selection of the live versions from the Parade Tour, I don’t know.

Not fully true. There was a mini-concert for filming "America." Beyond that, you're right. But every SDE doesn't need a live CD or DVD for it to be an SDE.