Prince

Reviewed by TenTillDeath:

A experimental psychedelic soundtrack following Prince’s acclaimed Purple Rain album. How does it hold up?

Prince’s Around the World in a Day is a Prince album that will leave fans divided. Some fans expecting a Purple Rain sequel will be let down, while others knowing Prince’s album to album experimentation might be quite pleased. This psychadelic pop sounding album is one with great tracks, but with too much experimentatio.

The catchiness of songs like Rasberry Beret, America, and Around the World in a Day really show Prince’s song writing strengths at writing catchy hooks. Though catchy hooks may strongly support a song, Prince’s over experimentation also hurts his work at times.

Songs such as Tamborine and Paisley Park sees Prince experimenting a bit too much. Even though Paisley Park has a good overall message and strong hook, its use of experimentation hurts the album early on. 

Not all experimentation is bad, and Prince’s Condition of the Heart is a beautiful piano masterpiece from the Purple Yoda himself. This track is the only song that does not feature vocals on the sound track and can catch listeners off guard from early on. This piece was such an ear pleasing experience to hear that I had to replay it again just to make sure I was hearing the song right. “This is Prince?” I thought to myself. Temptation is also very experimental but is a song you have to listen to the end to truly understand. I wanted to skip this song at first, but the last minutes of the song are quite outstanding. You hear Prince seem to have a conversation with a spiritual entity which leads Prince to scream in agony; shortly followed by Prince speaking to the album listener. This was a great sign off to an album that I originally thought would be a terrible way to end it.

Lastly, I think one of the most underrated tracks here is the Ladder. For listeners looking for a sequel to the song Purple Rain, this is quite literally it. It’s very similar to Purple Rain with its gospel undertones and slow build like Purple Rain.

A fast fact I’d like to include about this album is the album art. There’s a theory that each character pictured on the album art is supposed to represent a song on the album.

Overall, I’d like to give this album a strong 3.5/5. It’s a good album, but could have used less experimentation as some of it hurts the album. It can’t be a Prince album without experimentation.

Watch our video review on this album below!