The Utopian Experience

''Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience'' is the debut album by American hip hop group P.M. Dawn. It was recorded at Berwick Street Studios and Gee Street Studios in London. The album features soul vocals and stream-of-consciousness raps by Prince Be and unconventional samples by producer DJ Minutemix.

''Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross'' was released by Gee Street Records in September 1991 to rave reviews from music critics. It became an immediate commercial success with the help of its single "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", which was also praised by critics. The album produced four hits and sold 850,000 copies by 1993. ''Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross'' has sold one million copies.

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 the United Kingdom, 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 the UK. 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 the UK 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 No. 1 the week of November 30, 1991, and holds the distinction of being the first No. 1 song on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart following the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan to the singles charts. The song also reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom. "Paper Doll", which was one of the early singles Island released in the UK to test the waters for the band, was released in the US as a follow-up to "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss", and peaked at No. 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).

"Reality Used to Be a Friend of Mine", for which a music video was also produced, is featured as the opening song in the 1992 film ''Encino Man'' but does not feature on the film's retail soundtrack.

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 named the tenth best album of 1991 by ''Spin'', and by Robert Hilburn of the ''Los Angeles Times''. In his year-end list for ''The New York Times'', Jon Pareles

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