Around the World in a Day - Prince (CD 1990)

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 the same either to fans or the artist its/him/herself (ask U2).

Of course, we re not just talking about any ol performer here. We re talking about Prince Nelson Rogers, that mysterious and diminutive figure of ambiguous race, religion, sexual orientation, and volleyball ability. A lesser man would ve folded under the pressure and turned into a bizarre recluse who cuts the eyes out of photos of women he secretly wants to mutilate in the privacy of his mansion. Prince, however, wasted no time in building a studio (in the privacy of his Minnesota mansion, mind you), where the only thing he proceeded to cut (and quickly) was another album, the unusual, slightly uneven, but mostly satisfying Around The World In A Day.

Prince was always a kooky cat, but success made him even weirder. Over the span of a year, he went from a dancing, neo-Hendrix sex machine with a soul-glo rooster do and serious potential as an actor to a video-shy tyrant (The Revolution, his back-up band, was/were getting as fed up with him off-screen as they were/was in the movie) who suddenly took to donning an ugly British hairstyle and equally unsightly psychedelic threads (I still say ixnay to the blue suit with fluffy clouds all over). Fortunately, his talent remained at the same high level, thus ensuring a career that stayed successful for many years into the post-Purple Rain era. I mean, didn t he just play the Super Bowl not too long ago?

Although I was only about eleven at the time, I remember eagerly snatching up Around The World when I first saw it on the record shelf. If there was a more hardcore prepubescent honky Prince fan living in suburban Orlando at the time, then I m unaware of his or her existence. Even so, it took me a listen or two to understand what was going on, for Around is anything but a rewrite of Purple Rain. Well, that s what I thought at the time anyway, and while I still acknowledge substantial differences between the two albums, I ve since noticed that the two have more in common than immediately meets the ears. You see, Prince cleverly retained enough of the previous album s essence while jacking with enough variables to not make Around sound like a carbon copy of its mega-selling predecessor. Smart man, that Prince.

A lot of folks then and now refer to Around as Prince s hippie album, or his Sergeant Pepper s. I suppose that the slightly Eastern feel of the title track (which was co-written with his father and some guy named David Coleman, who played many of the instruments on the track) or the sing-alongability poppiness of Paisley Park and Raspberry Beret might inspire such comparisons, but don t be taken in by all that jive. Sure, there s a bit of a hippie vibe in some of the lyrics (the guy was probably happy at finally having millions in his bank account) and the presence of strings and whatnot in the music, but if Lennon and McCartney ever recorded anything as sleazy as Temptation or downright weird as Tambourine (mostly just rhythmic instruments pulling off some non-standard funk groove while Prince shrieks in falsetto), then I m uglier to look at than Ringo Starr. And don t you even say I am, Jack.

I hear the antecedents of some of these songs in tracks off Purple Rain. America has an upbeat funky feel that s reminiscent of Baby I m A Star, while The Ladder (the only song on here I actively dislike) is a yawningly awful piece that emphasizes all the gospel elements of Purple Rain while leaving out the solos, the feel, and everything else that made that piece such a work of art. Temptation starts out rockin and sultry, with the apparent intention of capturing a bit of Darling Nikki s filthiness, then degenerates at the end with Prince getting scolded and possibly sentenced to death by God (who sounds a lot like Barry White) for wanting women s bodies. Despite the vintage Prince screaming all throughout and the cool guitar antics, it s almost embarrassing to listen to something so bombastic and hokey.

But that s all minor stuff. What s great on here is everything else, from the magnificent celebrity-pitfall anthem Pop Life (with Sheila E, a woman promised to me in the afterlife by God if I suicide bomb the early morning ice cream truck, kicking out a serious beat) to the aforementioned Paisley Park and still-hip Raspberry Beret (which pairs some of Prince s wittiest lyrics to honest-to-gosh real string arrangements). Condition Of The Heart shifts from a mysterious and dark piano intro to a delicate ballad about some European love affair. Maybe I m just proud of the guy for being a fellow Gemini, but very few artists have ever proved to be so adept at so many different styles.

Around The World In a Day is all over the place but still holds together pretty well, a testament to its strength and to that of Prince as an artist. It shot to number one despite almost no media fanfare (although he eventually did make a promo for Beret, he was on a no video kick for a while after the album s release), and went triple platinum. There are guest musicians everywhere (including Susannah Melvoin, twin of Revolution guitarist Wendy and Prince s then-squeeze, as well as Jonathan, their brother who d later die of a heroin overdose in 1996 while on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins), even though Prince played all of the instruments himself on several of the tracks. And while it lacks the immediacy and mainstream appeal of Purple Rain or the funky hedonism of 1999, Around is a worthy follow-up to those albums, and one that finds the little boogie-man branching out into exotic sounds while shoring up his commercial gains.


Dirty Mind http://www.epinions.com/content_164282142340

Controversy http://www.epinions.com/content_224826461828

Purple Rain http://www.epinions.com/content_253017820804