Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience

Background

In 1989, P.M. Dawn's debut single "Ode to a Forgetful Mind" was released by Warlock Records, but it went unnoticed. The label that released the single in England, Gee Street Records, found greater success. Gee Street mixed and marketed the song so that it earned considerable attention from music reviewers, and P.M. Dawn found themselves courted not just by Gee Street's head, John Baker, but also by most of the major record labels in England. Gee Street brought the group to London in 1990 to record tracks for an album, however, the label found itself facing bankruptcy during the recording. The entire Gee Street operation—along with P.M. Dawn's contract—was sold to the highest bidder, Island Records. Island issued a few more singles in England before releasing Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience as P.M. Dawn's debut album.

Singles

Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross featured the international hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", which sampled the Spandau Ballet song "True", and featured a cameo by Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley in the music video of the song. "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" hit #1 the week of November 30, 1991, and holds the distinction of being the first #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart following the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan to the singles charts. The song also reached #3 in the United Kingdom. "Paper Doll," which was one of the early singles Island released in England to test the waters for the band, was released in the U.S. as a follow-up to "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss," and peaked at #28 in early 1992. "Paper Doll" is said well over 100 times in the song, which makes it second only to M.C. Hammer's "Pray" which holds the record for the most times a title is repeated in an American Top 40 hit (147).

Critical reception

Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross received rave reviews from critics. In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that Prince Be's escapist raps were skilled, thoughtful, and eccentric, while the music's varied synthesis was the most intelligently conceived since Prince: "It's got total outreach—moving effortlessly from speech to song, the quiet storm of sweet hooks and soft beats surprises like prime Big Star or XTC, only it's never brittle or arch." Spin magazine's Jonathan Bernstein said P.M. Dawn had effortlessly consolidated artistic and commercial sounds with a combination of substantial rap, lushly appealing music, and impressive vocal arrangements on their debut record, which he wrote "comes out of nowhere and ends up on the front stoop soundtrack of the summer." James Bernard from Entertainment Weekly felt that Prince Be's melodic, innovative lyrics and DJ Minutemix's unconventional sounds sounded sincere without being sappy, while drawing on influences from Jimi Hendrix and Prince without having either artist's sexual laments. Greg Kot, writing in the Chicago Tribune, found the songs memorable, artful, and infused with the silly raps of De La Soul, the compelling dance grooves of Soul II Soul, and the atmospheric acid rock of Lenny Kravitz.

Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross was voted the fifth best album of the year in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1991. Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it third on his own list. It was also named the tenth best album of 1991 by Spin magazine, and by Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times. In his year-end list for The New York Times, Jon Pareles ranked it the fourth best album of 1991 and wrote that P.M. Dawn have found a synthesis of pop, hip hop, and spirituality that has eluded artists such as Prince.

In a retrospective review, Q magazine called Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross a beautiful, unconventional album that expanded the creative possibilities of hip hop and featured songs that "had little or nothing to do with the 'hood, but everything to do with Utopia". Allmusic's Steve Huey said that the album was a "startling reimagination" of hip hop's possibilities, even though it was not "embraced by the entire hip hop community." He felt that it still sounds radically innovative as proof that pop, R&B, and hip hop styles could be merged for creative rather than commercial purposes. In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin wrote that the album showed P.M. Dawn growing "out of the De La Soul comparisons that had previously plagued them" and becoming "one of the most concise, creative forces in rap/dance." Alex Remington of The Huffington Post said that it was "definitely a rap album, albeit one unlike anything released in the years to come ... Heard today, the album sounds like a time capsule from a more expansive era, and it stands the test of time."

Track listing

All songs written by Attrell Cordes, except where noted.

1. "Intro" (Attrell S. Cordes, Chick Corea) – 0:57
2. "Reality Used to Be a Friend of Mine" – 4:40
3. "Paper Doll" (Cordes, Gil Scott-Heron) – 4:51
4. "To Serenade a Rainbow" (Cordes, Hugh Masekela) – 3:48
5. "Comatose" (Cordes, Sylvester Stewart) – 4:53
6. "A Watcher's Point of View (Don't 'Cha Think)" (Cordes, Tom Johnston) – 4:13
7. "Even After I Die" (Cordes, Dennis Coffey) – 3:57
8. "In the Presence of Mirrors" – 4:02
9. "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" (Cordes, Gary Kemp) – 4:10
10. "Shake" (Cordes, Todd Terry) – 3:18
11. "If I Wuz U" – 4:43
12. "On a Clear Day" – 5:22
13. "The Beautiful" – 5:21

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.