Pandemonium

The Time | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 28, 1990)
• Unknown edition
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000008LLI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,857 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Dreamland

2. Pandemonium

3. Jerk Out

4. Blondie

5. Donald Trump [Black Version]

6. Chocolate

7. Cooking Class

8. Skillet

9. It's Your World

10. Sometimes I Get Lonely

11. Data Bank

12. My Summertime Thang

13. Pretty Little Women

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time's Swan Song, August 10, 2009

By 

D. Fisher "DarrowWolfe" (DarrowWolfe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pandemonium (Jewl) (Audio CD)

I got this album in college because I had this thing for Jesse Johnson's screeching funk guitar and the Lewis and Jam wall of rhythm. What the first 6 tracks of the Time's 1990 PANDEMONIUM album did to a bunch of post-high school, pre-bar aged alternative rock kids when played through a couple of 500-watt Kenwood speakers was nothing less than a God spell. After PANDEMONIUM no party had officially started until we heard Morris Day shout out his famous "What is time is it?"

What makes PANDEMONIUM such a buried classic is that everyone from fans to critics to passive listeners want to prop it up against other unrelated distractions. The album was released nearly simultaneously with Prince's GRAFFITI BRIDGE (1990), a great album that contained a couple of Time song itself. The backbone of the Time, Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam, were starting the 90s as the hardest working R&B producer team in the world. But worst of all, the best selling Time album was the watered-down and rushed produced ICE CREAM CASTLES (1984), that had two legit songs by the Time and a whole bunch of filler.

In a way the Time couldn't turn around in 1990 without bumping into categories or comparisons. It is obvious that when the band went into the studio for PANDEMONIUM, they had one thing in mind: make the album that defined what Time it was.

PANDEMONIUM was sexist swagger slapped down time and again by disinterested or disgusted girls. Listen to track 3, "Jerk Out" and you'll hear Morris Day walk the fine line between over-the-top chauvinist and a man afflicted with insecurities. It was funk ("Pandemonium", "Sexy Socialists") with no other-worldly aspirations or regret. It was rock ("Blondie", "Skillet") without the cruelness of that era's white-boy sex- anthems. Best of all PANDEMONIUM was a driving, well executed jam, "My Summertime Thang" is the jam overture to end all jams. The band throws everything they have to keep your body moving throughout the album.

There are some missteps, of course. "Chocolate," "Donald Trump [Black Version]," and "Data Bank" are nowhere near as intriguing as their titles. But "Cooking Class/Skillet," "Dreamland/Pandemonium", and "Summertime Thang" are enough to make this album stand the test of time, no pun really intended.

Day finishes off the album with his car breaking down, he abandons it with some mild expletives, and sets of down the road singing "Kansas City, Here I Come." It is an incredible moment knowing he is leaving the greatest band and party in the world yet there are still knows that greener pastures lay ahead.

(Rest in Peace, Jesse)

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Return Of The Magnificent Seven..., October 3, 2003

By 

WILLIE A YOUNG II "willow" (Houston, TX.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pandemonium (Audio CD)

I hadn't listened to this LP for a year or two and decided to give it a spin, wow! Jesse Johnson's guitar work is the main reason I've placed this back in heavy rotation in my car. His tone is crystal clear and razor sharp on "Jerk Out", "Skillet" and the LP highlight, "Blondie" whose harmonies on the chorus and extended coda will have you hitting rewind several times! The entire band seems happy just to be playing together again and though his pimp schtick gets a little tired over the course of the album, Morris Day proves to be a good focal point, an electrifying frontman who plays his character to the hilt. Even when he plays it straight (the lovely "Sometimes I Get Lonely") you still feel a sense of cartoonish fun lurking just beneath the surface. Solid, Funky, Hard Rocking and Fun from start to finish, "Pandemonium" was a fitting farewell one one the finest bands on the planet.

3.0 out of 5 stars Missed Opportunity, March 15, 2007

By 

Jenks (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pandemonium (Audio CD)

When The Time reunited in 1990-I like many Time fans was ecstatic. I had dreamed about it for years-so for it to actually come to fruition was like a dream come true. Jesse Johnson, Morris Day, Monte Moir, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jellybean Johnson and yes even Jerome-what more could you ask for? Unfortunately, the reality did not quite live up to the fantasy. I know, I know the album was critically acclaimed and Rolling Stone magazine gave it 4 out of 5 stars but...the problem with this album is that it tries to be new jack swing-which is not in line with The Time's musical roots-and then there is Morris Day.

I love Morris Day, however on this album he is no longer COOL. His pimp bravado gets old after a while. It gets to the point where it is overkill and not before long-it becomes kind of corny. I just wish he would have done some channeling to reconnect with his inner coolness-or done something to cause him to remember what made him cool in the first place-and just stuck to that.

The album begins with the self-aggrandizing but appropriate-Dreamland sequence where we hear a person (Morris) snoring, and in his dream a crowd can be heard cheering as The Time are brought back to the stage by former BET host Donnie Simpson. There are some good songs on this album, the top ten hit Jerk Out, the song Chocolate. But even Chocolate in some ways misses the mark because of Morris Day's antics. Jesse Johnson, who is probably one of the best guitar players there is, displays his exceptional guitar skills on songs "Skillet" and "Blondie" which are straight up and down rock songs. Fans are given the opportunity to hear those masterful guitar skills of Jesse's that were so intimidating to Prince. These songs would have fit in very well on any rock station. The title track Pandemonium is good, while the song Data Bank has a good sound-but I am not overwhelmed by it. It sounds like it would have been very at ease on any Alexander O'Neal album. As for the rest of the album, (which is quite a bit) it is relatively undistinguished. The skits/segues/fillers (or whatever you want to call them) Sexy Socialites, Yount, Cooking Class and Pretty Little Women are unnecessary and in some cases in poor taste and don't really make sense. The songs Sometimes I get Lonely, Donald Trump (Black Version), It's Your World and My Summertime Thang are mediocre at best.

So let's recap-7 good tracks and 8 not so good tracks (including the fillers). Overall, Pandemonium is a flawed album, however all of The Time's albums have some flaws. This album offers quite a bit-but whether or not this is a good thing is another matter. The Time were a great band of extremely talented gentleman capable of MUCH, MUCH more-unfortunately they must not have felt that way or decided to take the easy way out by settling for mediocrity. I just believe this album could have easily been better. Maybe this album just wasn't a priority and the guys felt that they would just throw something together just for the sake of it all-which if true, is unfair to their legacy and the fans. When you have such a group of talented individuals-namely Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Jesse Johnson this album should have been a masterpiece. Again there are some good songs (some better than others) on this album as I mentioned above, however for every good song there is a not so hot song or filler which in my opinion detracts from the album. And then there is the Morris Day factor-which also detracts from the album. So this album is unfortunately a mixed bag-I think if some songs and skits/fillers were eliminated and Morris Day was reeled in a bit then this would have been a MUCH better album. I also feel that it was a victim of its time-maybe if they waited a few years it possibly would have been a better album and better received because admittedly, it is a lot better than most of the platinum selling albums these days. But despite its problems Pandemonium is an album that should be in any fan of The Time's music collection.