Miles --

I was only referring to ATWIAD vis-a-vis 'songs that just don't go 
anywhere'.  I think PARADE is a pretty strong album, though I'd rank it just 
a bit below DIRTY MIND, CONTROVERSY, 1999, PURPLE RAIN and SIGN OF THE 
TIMES.  Kind of the way I'd rank Elvis Costello's TRUST just below most of 
his other albums from that era -- terrific discs, just, IMO, a shade below.

Now, I'm slowly acquring Prince's classic stuff on CD, so maybe hearing 
PARADE again might bring my assessment closer to yours.

Mike Bennett



Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com

>From: Miles Goosens <outdoorminer@mindspring.com>

>Mr. Bennett:
>>the deserved knock on AROUND
>>THE WORLD IN A DAY is that it has a few songs that just don't go anywhere,
>>whereas on his previous few albums, even the lesser cuts (like, let's say,
>>"Annie Christian" from CONTROVERSY) were at least interesting.  If you
>>took
>>the best cuts from AROUND THE WORLD and PARADE, you would have a utterly
>>brilliant album.
>
>Man, oh man.  "Annie Christian" lesser? (Especially considering it in 
>conjunction with its sequel on 1999, "Lady Cab Driver"?)  PARADE having 
>songs that just don't go anywhere?  I'm not sure I can make an argument 
>that doesn't boil down to some homily about personal preference, but to my 
>ears PARADE is brilliant from start to finish, probably the best thing 
>Prince has ever done.
>
>AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY IMO falters a bit toward the end (fer instance, 
>"Temptation" goes on too long after a promising start and has the silly 
>Prince vs. God spoken sequence), but I'd say it gets four stars instead of 
>five, which is no mean feat.  And as someone who's never warmed to "I Would 
>Die 4 U" and "Baby I'm a Star" after twenty years of trying, that means 
>that I'd rate AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY and PURPLE RAIN about dead even. 
>:-)
>
>Shawn Chacon's son is a goat,
>
>Miles
>
>
>

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