Prince - Paisley Park (WEA)

The man in the violet loon-pants returns to us via an acid-drenched ballad called "Paisley Park". But doesn't Prince know that the paisley revival was strictly last year? In all honesty this sounds like one of the songs that didn't quite make the Beatles' White Album. If "When Doves Cry" conjured up images of tight spandex trousers ... then this is definitely flare city. Mutton dressed as lamb. (Dylan Jones, Record Mirror, May 25, 1985)

When all the flower power and Sergeant Pepper jokes have died away, Prince's Around The World In A Day LP will stand as a momentous achievement. Despite the pressure of mega-success it's patently not 'Purple Rain Vol. 2', but it marks yet another deft re-definition of the Prince sound. Across funk rhythms as dry and brittle as parchment he's scrawled guitar lines which are little more than feedback, with pained vocals that swoop, dip and finally crack completely. "Paisley Park" exorcises all these elements while it evokes a place where casualties of city life buy a "lifetime lease" to hippy happiness. A nursery rhyme tune pitched above Prince's range, it teeters on a tightrope between the ridiculous and the brilliant. And Prince – alone, currently, among all the major stars – will walk that rope till it's as thin as thread. (Martin Townsend, No 1, May 25, 1985)