Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly	A
The Huffington Post	90/100
Los Angeles Times
Q
Select	4/5
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10
The Village Voice	A

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.

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.

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).

...
Wikipedia