The album Prince called his smartest decision: “Completely different”
Most artists are rarely in full control of every move they make. More often than not, there are handlers guiding their actions, and even when they want to change up their style, PR reps might insist that such experiments would be a disastrous choice. Prince, however, never cared about what anyone said. He knew that following Purple Rain with Around the World in a Day was a stroke of genius, proving his fearless commitment to his artistic vision.
Then again, it’s hard to criticise Prince for not sticking to his classic sound. Because when you look at every road he went down during his career, there’s a good chance that he could have made an album that was nothing but Motown classics being played on the bagpipes, and he would still find a way to make it sound like the greatest tune you’ve ever heard.
But Purple Rain was the kind of gamble that someone only gets once in their lifetime. The idea of Prince reaching for the same iconic status that The Beatles and Elvis Presley had was unthinkable, but the fact that he was able to pull it off so well left a lot of people shaking their heads in amazement when songs like ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ came out.
Looking at where he had been, though, Purple Rain also feels like a wave goodbye to his classic sound. There would be many more to follow, but everything from Batman to Sign o’ the Times was about reinventing what it meant to be Prince, whether that was when he was making ballads or pure power-pop.
Right before he got rolling on his next venture, Around the World in a Day was the kind of beautiful record that spoke to the rock fans in his audience. Prince played fast and loose with the musical rules all the time, but hearing him take on psychedelic rock a la The Beatles on Sgt Pepper made everything sound like one big tapestry of musical colours.
But this was about more than just thinking outside the box. Prince was looking to play with his audience a little bit, even telling Rolling Stone, “I think the smartest thing I did was record Around the World in a Day right after I finished Purple Rain. I didn’t wait to see what would happen with Purple Rain. That’s why the two albums sound completely differently. I don’t want to make an album like the earlier ones. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to put your albums back to back and not get bored.”
Then again, Prince’s way of fiddling with other genres was anything but insincere, either. He may have tried to rope in every single music fan he could think of, but no artist has spit out as much material as he did and had each of them be some level of good, like when he decided to make The Rainbow Children or dip his toes into alternative rock on Chaos and Disorder.
It may have been hard to pinpoint where he would be going next, but everyone’s collective taste didn’t matter to Prince. He followed what he wanted, and with Around the World in a Day, he was making one thing emphatically clear: he was going to do whatever the hell he wanted.
