C/D: Prince's "Around the World in a Day"

By the way I like your choices on the calendar thread, we're locked in a duet over there.

Better get back to the calendar thread. I think I'll have to go find some of your choices, since I'm very much new to them.

Hell, the same guy, a fucking Four Twaet fan, looked at me the same way when I played him glitchy melodic elctronica records.

very underappreciated and awesome album. "Pop Life", the title track, "raspberry beret", man fuck people who don't enjoy this...with scissors and mayonaise

I like a lot of this album actually. And the tracks I don't like are the gospel influenced somewhat repetitive ballads that also exist in the rest of his catalogue (for instance, the title track is the only thing I don't like much on "Purple Rain")

This was, if I recall, one of the first threads to which I contributed.

(for instance, the title track is the only thing I don't like much on "Purple Rain")

http://paintermommy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/shocked.jpg

sorry for the triple post, something's up with my internets....

Your ire.

"Pop Life"

When asked, I'll probably tell you this is my favorite Prince song 7 out of 10 times.

i thought it was intentional

xp

lol, it did kind of inspire that level of "wtf"ness in me.

whatever track 3 is called is also a favorite...

Geir doesn't like blues-based music, film at 11, posts very much in character, etc., etc.

Meanwhile, "Let's Go Crazy," with the exception of the pre-chorus, consists entirely of a I-IV chord change. Whereas "Purple Rain" is incredibly harmonically complex.

But it sounds like gospel.

But it's not that Geir doesn't like "black people" music.

But a song that's just I-IV, over and over, is better than the complexity of "Purple Rain." Also, too.

Because this album is beloved by a coterie and I love Prince, I give it a chance every few months -- it's still mostly a dud.

Anyway, "Paisley Park" and "Raspberry Beret" are fantastic songs because they sound like something The Beatles might have done in 1967.

And, no, "Purple Rain" is not complex. It has four chords. And that's it. And they are being repeated as an ostinato all the time with no build, not climax (other than some annoyingly improvised screaming, that is, but the climax shouldn't be in the performance, it should be in the melody).

Propably still in my Top 5 but it could do with a good remastering/ fix up. If only to correct that pain in the arse lag between the left and right channels on Pop Life when you listen on headphones. I love it mind, full of brilliant tricks that you forget about like that stop-start-stop-start intro to America. Condition Of The Heart contains my favourite Prince lyric moment ever when the girl leaves him for 'a REAL prince.. from Arabia'. Anyone who doesn't get the warmth and the humour of the man after listening to this album is *nuts*.

Plenty of his albums before and since exude his warmth and humor.

I should have said upthread: maybe I'm tainted because I heard Parade first. ATWIAD, by contrast, was one of the LAST Prince albums I bought (2001? 2002?). I've written thousands of words in my rockcrit career defending unloved mutts, especially those released in the eighties, but this one, unfortunately, still sounds half-assed and nattering.

This is my favorite Prince album.

Parade is ironically the one I never liked much...although there are some amazing songs on it.

really the only Prince album I've ever heard that I went "uh, why?" was the one a few years ago with the song "Guitar" on it....

I hear the title track and "Paisley Park" and think, well, okay, sitars and finger cymbals and Magical Mystery Tour -- so what?

The A side of this album is brilliant: the first tune is nice intro showcasing how he's changed his game, "Paisley Park" is one his most hearbreakingly beautiful pop songs, the ballad is good in the sort of pathetic-yet-credible way Prince can write ballad, "Raspberry Berret" is plenty fun, and "Tambourine" is a nice little funk workout. But the B side is kinda bad: "America" is musically nice but has dodgy lyrics, "Pop Life" isn't as great a pop song as the ones on side A, and the last two songs are just half-assed, formless attempts to make something "psychedelic". Prince should've just made the 20 minute version of "America" as the entire B side. Or at least replace the last two songs with "Girl" and "She's Always in My Hair". They're not the most perfect Prince songs, but they're certainly better than what's on the album.

Yeah: "Girl," "Hello," "She's Always in My Hair" pwn most of the album tracks.

Basically absolutely LOVE "Raspberry Beret" and "Paisley Park". Also quite fond of the title track and "Pop Life". Not quite as keen on the rest.

honestly i only came around to "parade" as an album this year (before i would always listen to kiss, mountains, and maybe another lover and that's it).

the title track is the only thing I don't like much on "Purple Rain"

O_O

Anyway, great album. I never latched onto Parade as strongly as this one, myself.

I understand now
love is more important than sex
I have to go now

I don't know when I'll return

goodbye

Prince's worst 80s record?

way better than Lovesexy imo. i might prefer it to Parade too but i know that's a minority opinion.

temptation is pretty embarrassing

Anyway, "Paisley Park" and "Raspberry Beret" are fantastic songs because they sound like something The Beatles might have done in 1967.

I just heard "Pop Life" somewhere the other week, it made me happy like it usually does. I think most of the detractory commentary above is fair, but for somebody's decade low-point to include "Pop Life," "Raspberry Beret," "Tamborine" and "Condition of the Heart" says more about the decade he had than the actual merits of the album. Even the title track is pretty cool.

'raspberry beret' makes my shortlist of the best pop records of all time, easy.

"Temptation" is amazing, imo, always gives me chills

i'm hard-pressed to think of any song called 'temptation' that isn't awesome!

I've voiced the identical sentiment about songs w/tambourines in the title!

Redirecting from this current sidebar: 'The Top' by the Cure: Classic or Dud?

imago— Definitely check out the b-sides from this album: 'She's Always In My Hair' (which is an absolutely classic song, full stop), 'Girl', and 'Hello.' There's also the twenty minute (no, really) version of 'America.'

Oh cool!

Yeah this was awesome. Didn't even falter in Side B, although I'm not sure the opener isn't my favourite track