Pandemonium (The Time album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Professional reviews
Pandemonium

Studio album by The Time
Released	July 10, 1990
Recorded	1982–1989
Genre	Funk, R&B, Pop
Length	65:12
Label	Paisley Park Records
Producer(s)	Jamie Starr (Prince)
All Music Guide link
The Time chronology
Ice Cream Castle (1984)	Pandemonium (1990)	—

Pandemonium is a 1990 album by The Time. Much like the three previous albums, the album consists of music in the funk-pop or ballad genre, although this album breaks the 6-song album tradition. Originally, the album began life as Corporate World, with nearly all of the material written and performed by Prince with Morris Day and Jerome Benton providing vocals. However, due to Warner Bros. orders that the original band be involved, more songs were written and performed with various band members. Jesse Johnson adds a rock and roll-influenced sound to several tracks, while Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis provide their songwriting skills. The album is a tie-in with the Graffiti Bridge movie but due to the movie's poor performance and fighting within the band, once again the spoils were not to be witnessed by the band itself.

The album was fairly popular and "Jerk Out" became one of the band's biggest singles. The second single, "Chocolate" didn't fair as well. The band broke up shortly after the album's release and although a modified lineup of the band still tours, as of 2006, they have not released another full album.

1 Corporate World
2 Track listing
3 Singles and chart placings
4 External link

[edit] Corporate World

When Prince decided to use The Time in Graffiti Bridge, he once again composed an album for them, performing all the music as well as most background vocals. The album was to be called Corporate World and was quite a different album from Pandemonium. Two songs were never released: "9 Lives" features a female chorus and was initially meant for Prince's dancer/vocalist Cat Glover. The title track "Corporate World" also remains unreleased; another danceble number with a positive message, much like "It's Your World" from Pandemonium. The opening track for the album was to be "Murph Drag", a dance later mentioned in the song "My Summertime Thang". It uses the "Fellas, I'm back" chant later used in the title track of "Pandemonium". (An edited version of "Murph Drag" was later released on Prince's website.) Four songs made it onto the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack. "Shake!" and "Love Machine" were slightly edited. "Release It" was identical to the Graffiti Bridge version, however "The Latest Fashion" is quite different: not a battle between Prince and Morris, and totally different music. The tracks that survived to Pandemonium ("Data Bank", "Donald Trump (Black Version)" and "My Summertime Thang") were all edited.

When the tracklist was changed for Pandemonium, Prince pulled out 2 more outtakes from his vault: "Jerk Out" and "Chocolate". "Jerk Out" was originally intended for What Time Is It? but shelved and later revisited for the group Mazarati before finally being rerecorded for Pandemonium. "Chocolate" was an outtake from Ice Cream Castle, based partially on "Cloreen Baconskin", a Prince/Morris Day jam later released on Prince's Crystal Ball; a version is circulating with Prince on vocals and mentioning Wendy Melvoin on guitar. Some of his vocals even made it into the release version as a waiter arguing with Morris. The remaining tracks on Pandemonium were written by various members of the band.