Around The World In A Day - Prince (CD 1990)

Arriving only a year after the chart-destroying smash Purple Rain , Prince s seventh record Around The World In A Day was met with a somewhat mediocre reaction after the stunning success of its predecessor, with the artist continuing to explore texture and structure beyond typical radio fare. With a sizable number of influences added into the mix, Around the World In A Day manages to appropriate various styles with a reasonable level of success, even though it s a relative step down as cool as a sixties/seventies psychedelic Prince may sound, it doesn t quite hang together fully, even though..

Despite the money, adoration, and offers of hayloft adventures with throngs of exotic women that were pouring in, it would ve been tough to stand in Prince s high-heels in 1985. With Purple Rain setting the bar for all his future endeavors impossibly high, he had to have known that the shiniest moment of his commercial success had come and gone. Mind you, it s not like he fell on black days thereafter or anything, but the stellar success he enjoyed in 1984 hardly ever happens to an artist twice (not even to Jacko). If it miraculously does, the second time around surely doesn t feel exactly...

Prince and his band Prince is a changeling, and yet he isn't. When his musical legacy is examined whom will he be judged against? Cameo or Van Halen, will he be examined in light of the funk, the rock, the symphonic moments, the ear candy, the sex or the "spiritual noise" (as Morris Day called it in Graffiti Bridge)...will he be tried by a jury of his peers? Well no offense, but who the hell would that be? This music was the peak for the Revolution - the band that Prince started out with - the beginnings of his career and the start of his life of fame and fortune. With the release and...

AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY is one of the brightest Prince albums ever. I'm not sure what that means, but its a sense of color and light and freedom that the music inspires. "Open your heart, open your mind," he sings, "A train is leaving all day / A wonderful trip through our time, and laughter is all you pay." The follow-up to PURPLE RAIN wasn't what ANYONE expected, but the world would soon come to expect just that very thing from Prince, a new record, a new direction, every time. So far he hasn't failed to disappoint in that regard, despite a few less-than-great records in the late 90s. But.