Sign 'O' The Times

Huh. That wasn't what I expected. It was startlingly mediocre. Boring, even. Nothing stood out to me as particularly groundbreaking, exciting, or exceptional. I was glad to be done with it and sad to be glad. So much of Prince's catalog is phenominal. This album just doesn't have any of those songs, I guess.

Prince didn't have good albums, only few good songs.

I feel like this is prince's last truly great album. Kind of like his "songs in the key of life." His last big supernova before becoming a neutron star. Like he's trying to get everything out, throwing in the kitchen sink while he's at it (even a live track). I'm kind of a sucker for sprawling, all over the place, wooden rollercoaster type albums with all kinds of twists and turns from track to track. Love him playing different characters with different voices. Love the Linn drum sound. Love the playfulness and range of emotions. Love Prince. Listened to the super deluxe edition.

Opnieuw een 5 sterren album. Prince heeft twee 'gelijkwaardig legendarische albums' (ik hoef niet te zeggen welke de andere is) naar mijn mening. Starfish and Coffee blijft één van mijn favoriete nummers van Prince. Daarnaast zijn er weinig nummers op dit album die niet goed zijn. 5.0

My only prior knowledge of Prince is loving the song Purple Rain but trying and failing several times to get into the album of the same name. I was quite excited when this popped up. After a couple of songs I thought there'd been some kind of mistake. The first track was ok, but the second poor. The third, Housequake, was abysmal. I checked the album on wiki to see what was going on and I'm astonished that it's cited as his best work. Really? The music sounds so dated, unlike a good chunk of other 80s stuff that survived the times. The poor drum synthasiser definitely doesn't help proceedings. Got half way through the album and had to stop. Honestly let down. Why was Prince so popular?

An absolute masterpiece, probably Prince's greatest record. A solo collection from the his most fertile period at the height of his powers. Funky, fresh, profane, reflective, funny, sad, profound, silly. Not really a dud track on this, probably the last of the great, true double albums. Cannot recommend too highly.

Excellent album

Better than Purple Rain? I don't think so. There are some very good songs on here, but I felt like it overstayed it's welcome. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it, but my first impression is that it's just OK.

Look no further if you want to see why Prince is such an acclaimed icon and music star. Although not as popular as Purple Rain, and with less recognizable hits, this album is Prince at his most talented. He sings mostly in the upper register, and you can truly hear his range as a vocalist shine through. On top of that, he did a lot of the instrumentation and sampling himself and it’s just impressive to see this project done by mostly one mind. I had never heard this album before, and I couldn’t stop listening after my first time through. Partly because it was so fun, but also because this album flourishes with every new listen. The songs are jams from top to bottom, and there is legitimately not a bad song. Some songs are minimal on instrumentation with focus mostly on Prince’s lyrics, a lot of which are politically charged and focused on the end days. There are some moments this album can lose focus, and if you don’t focus enough you may have questioned what you just listened to. Nonetheless, it’s a masterpiece from one of the all time greats. Favorite Song: I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man Least Favorite: It

Genre: Contemporary R&B 5/5 Prince’s best album, Sign o’ the Times, is one of those musical archetypes that will be referenced for years to come. A la The White Album, Physical Graffiti, or Sandinista!, Prince’s double album is a mix of styles, flavors, and moods, but all of them combine to make a truly delicious, one-of-a-kind musical stew. In a where-do-I-start kind of way, this album has highlights up and down the tracklist, from the opening title track to Hot Thing to U Got the Look to the incredible live jam, It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night. But those not listed make up an entire body of work that even some of the best R&B artists would be happy to call an album. Prince’s songwriting, his singing and his playing, and his sexy attitude throughout the whole project are infectious, timeless, and perfectly Prince. A must listen and a must have in anyone’s musical collection.

Sexy, soulful, and human. It has a song for many moods, all performed excellently and honestly.

Ah, Prince. An undeniably excellent songwriter, musician, and performer. And yet he is so hit-or-miss with me. Some songs are absolute bangers, and other honestly feel bothersome. Every Prince album feels like this weird mixed bag, and this one is no exception.

There are a couple of stand out tracks here, but as I have found with most of Prince's stuff over the years, it all goes on a bit, much of it aimlessly. I often get the feeling that he had a ton of great ideas but was never quite sure what to do with most of them, resulting in confused albums like this.

I won't speak on Prince, the person, because that is a can of worms... but I loved this album front to back and don't even think I can pick a favorite song because they were all excellent.

Consistently hilarious (“shut up already, damn!”) while showing all manner of musical prowess and staying funky as hell. Both intimate and all-encompassing. Fav track: forever in my life

Very 1980s production. I definitely wouldn't listen to this again

Got to respect artists who completely commit to their own ideas, do everything their own way. Bjork comes to mind musically but Prince probably went further than anyone with this mindset. But... This is 80% awful, cringe inducing most of the way through. Every decent moment was surrounded by terrible parts that would have been shouted down by anyone else with any creative control. The big Prince hits are decent but this album and his music in general are not for me.

I closed my eyes and thought “hell yes!” when this popped up. One of my favourite Prince albums. It begins with some of Prince’s greatest lyrics in Sign o’ The Times and ends on the highest of notes with the incredible “Adore”. The album is beautiful, sweet, sexy, wild and funky. Most of all it’s great! Honourable mention to the popping Housequake. I’ll give these low score reviewers a line for the road - shut up already, damn!

The thing I love about most Prince songs is that you get the initial groove and you get lulled into an idea of “oh yeah; I see where this is going” and then BLAM! he drops a keyboard or guitar solo on you and introduces the secondary melody and the next part of the song. And you’d think you would learn after 5-6 songs but no you don’t. It’s MF Prince and he is the (insert superlative here).

Over the years, Prince had a lot of great albums, but he also had a lot of bad ones. This was one of his best and that is saying a lot. Lots of variety and emotion makes this a must-listen.

4/5

I've never really understood Prince's music, and this hasn't changed that.

People go crazy for Prince.... I must be missing something. This was an okay album, but most of the tracks were just that -- okay. Some of them were quite annoying, like "Hot Thing" and "It." "If I Was Your Girlfriend" felt more like a rambling meme/comedy song than a real track on the album -- and it's horrible. I'm sure more Prince albums will come up in the future, at which point I'll reevaluate. But for now, I'm somewhat unimpressed.

Oh, more Prince. Looks like this album doesn't even have any of his big hits. Not excited. Some parts of Play In The Sunshine were half decent. How does a song called Housequake come out this lame. Why does Prince sound like a cartoon sidekick? Shouldn't a ballad have, like, nice singing? I would call the police if someone sang Hot Thing at me. I'm giving up before the end. Of the thousand and one albums to listen to before I die, which are supposedly good, I can't imagine enjoying something else less. I award Prince one star and may God have mercy on his soul.

In which Prince deploys his generational talent to such an extent that he makes somewhere between four and three-hundred albums in one, which is defined by two more features: the first, that most songs start as genre workout but finish as genre-defining; the second, that he plays everything, including rock god, funkmeister, a talking orgasm, silence, a besotted schoolboy, Jesus, oracle of the apocalypse, and John Lennon rewriting Norweigan Wood with Dorothy Parker in the lead role.

Genius.

he got hit with post nut clarity on forever in my life

Prince really doesn't do it for me. I don't get it at all

Definitely not my favorite Prince album. The quality of songs seems wildly inconsistent and it feels like the album was rushed. So, I'm a bit surprised that this album is a fan favorite. "Your face is jammin', your body's hecka slammin, if love is good, let's get to rammin" LMAO

The genius of Prince is that he makes his masterpieces seem effortless. The man was operating on a plane several levels above his contemporaries. I don't *like* every song on this album but that doesn't stop me from recognizing the brilliance. Everyone should listen to this. In addition to classic Prince sound, this album even offers up "conventional rock" with "The Cross."

Started slowly, but really really grew on me. An amazing album in a lot of ways that I don’t quite know how to explain. There is no single. The album feels stronger as a whole rather than on the weight of its best singles.

people often consider prince's 1987 sign o' the times as his first political statement. but the real ones recognize that prince always created political songs; maybe not always as his singles, but don't forget "1999" was absolutely a political song. that being said, i feel this album contains more overt political and social commentary than he had done before. by overt i mean it slaps you in the face. the title song questions how our society runs. we go through many scenarios throughout the song, but the first two lines cover the AIDS epidemic but prince purposefully does not link it with the gay community, unheard of in 1987. after that, we cover the national drug problem, natural disasters, the challenger disaster, the cold war/nuclear arms race. as the lead off track, this song was deliberately used by prince to make a statement. to provide some balance, the following song is "play in the sunshine" to remind listeners to enjoy life despite any hardships. "housequake" doesn't have the credibility it deserves, in my opinion. this song announces a style of music, funk, but prince wants the tempo to be "harder than they did in '66" and "faster than they did in '67," referencing political riots that happened in those respective years. prince was great at the songwriting craft, tying jamming to music and a riot together. protests and music go very well together. "starfish and coffee" doesn't contain a strong statement like other songs do, but it's notable for other reasons. this song details a young classmate of prince's then girlfriend, cynthia rose, who had a vivid imagination. the talk now suggests that cynthia rose may have been autistic, but regardless, the sweet song encourages acceptance and love above all. an artist like prince could be arguably considered as dressing and presenting in a non-binary fashion, or at least toying with the boundaries of gender. "if i was your girlfriend" has prince imagining a world where he is considered someone's girlfriend--a real romantic girlfriend, not a platonic one. prince alternates between a more feminine and masculine voice as he sings this song. sometimes he's more hesitant, sometimes more confident. his song "the cross" combines his belief in god and the social issues he sees. while the world is difficult, he reminds the listener "don't cry, he is coming, don't die without knowing the cross." prince, always ahead of his time, references gentrification ("ghettos to the left of us, flowers to the right"). regardless, prince always treated his fans right. many songs on this double album are his typical speed of love, sex, or religion. "it" references sex, surprising exactly no one, but hey, we can still appreciate prince pretending to be coy. we love prince at his sexiest. and i'd be remiss not to mention the witty lyrics of "strange relationship," especially his opening lines. the sound production on this album stands out, too. multiple songs on this album or parts of the songs were initially recorded incorrectly but prince wanted the distortion to remain. susan rogers was prince's engineer for this album, but even the best sound engineer can get glitches with initial takes due to the equipment or materials. among these "errors" are the opening distorted wedding march in "if i was your girlfriend" but also the entirety of the song, all of "the ballad of dorothy parker," among others. anyway, while i refer to these as errors, these songs became memorable for those reasons! maybe i should've led this review with announcing i'm a big prince fan? i listened to this album in full for the first time in some time and was pleasantly reminded what a solid album this is. i initially suspected maybe i'd land on a 4.5, but this is a full-fledged 5 stars.

Top class

Masterpiece - The Times A great piece of art - Rolling Stone 1000/10

Am a latecomer to Prince but really enjoyed this album!

Fantastic album, really liked it a lot! Prince is an absolute genius.

hot thing!!

I forgot how good this album is!

2nd fav after ATWIAD

Spotify wont let me hear the entire thing still diggin it tho

A classic. One of the best

A belter of an album. Thoroughly enjoyed.

I had high hopes for this record, and several of the songs met or exceeded those expectations, but, ultimately, not even Prince can redeem the double album as a format for me. (…but I did like how he was like “Drummer, do your thing!” on the second track and it was immediately followed by drum machine fills.)

I have a lot of respect for prince and his earlier albums are very good but this kinda sucked. It’s just distilled 80s electronic sounds with Prince’s (excellent) voices behind it. The songs are generic and it goes on forever. Really disappointing for what is supposed to be his best work.

Hmmm. I think it’s a real mixed bag. I bet if this album was shortened it’d be much better. Some songs are great, some are boring and skippable. The lack of the Revolution is pretty clear, there are no real bangers on this

Prince is really hit or miss for me. I love Purple Rain, but I really don’t see why Sign o’ the Times is his other album which is incredibly well regarded. Perhaps it’s because of the absence of The Revolution, but I don’t find Prince as interesting with a stripped bare-bones instrumental backing. The title track is good and there are some other solid songs on the album, but overall it’s not really my cup of tea. I was actually considering rating this album a 2 or even a 1 until “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”, which is an all-time great Prince song that I totally forgot about.

The album while being a polished and well-produced Prince album failed to have the iconic songs or highs of other efforts.

“Sign ‘O’ the Times” by Prince (1987) At the time of Prince’s tragic and untimely death in 2016, I observed to a friend that I had never heard a song by Prince. He insisted I listen to the song “Purple Rain“, so I did, and I thought it was good, but not great. That’s the extent of my exposure to this great artist. Upon listening to this album (or at least the 10 out of 16 tracks that Spotify would allow me to access), I can say some positive things about Prince. He has a good voice, if lacking in power. Pitch problems on “The Cross“. Wonderful R&B stylings on “Adore”. He is reputed to be a great guitarist, but the only solid demonstration of his guitar work on this album is on the track “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”, and it’s good, but not great. Acoustic on “The Cross” is out of tune. Drum machine is annoying. It’s more than ironic that he has a photo on the album cover that includes an elaborate drum kit. The best song on the album is the final track, “Adore”. Really nice. Also, and probably not coincidentally, it seems to be the most collaborative song in this collection There’s a lot of mystery about this guy. 3/5

Almost 700 in and this is the first Prince record I got. He left a very big mark on 80s pop music. He was a great innovator and very prolific, so it surprises me it took this long. He was unhappy with his record company because they didn't want to release everything he recorded. I think they were very generous allowing this album to be as long as it is. The man is obviously very musical. However, we have very different taste in music. Favorite song: strange relationship

Not a patch on Purple Rain.

This is just horrible.

Arguably the best album on this list

The sheer breadth he covers on this album is impressive, but it’s all so Prince. This earns its hefty length unlike many other double albums out there. Very few artists can make a song as good as The Cross. Sad this is the last Prince album I get to review for the list.

Astoundingly good.

A perfect album. It's so varied and well executed. Obviously I'm a Prince megafan, but I finally get 'Adore', what a song. There are just absurdly good songs on here, and runs of songs.

I enjoyed my time listening to this album again but unfortunately for Kirk I have to be that guy and still say that I prefer Purple Rain because I enjoy the highest of highs that album reaches over the consistency of this album. When you are comparing the best of the best, it comes down to picking favorites at the end of the day. I'm feeling a strong 9 to light 10. Favorite Songs: Slow Love / U Got The Look

People are generally split 50/50 on Prince's greatest work. I fall squarely in this camp. Whereas Purple Rain is a contained, all killer mainstream dream, Sign O' the Times bends the bounds of genre. It's musically inventive, daring, and still a really fucking good time. Its track after track of jaw-dropping virtuosity that cemented him as a peerless composer, especially when you consider a fair number of tracks were spit out at an alarming speed. It may not have his catchiest lyrics, but if that's what you're looking for, go buy a greatest hits album. I'd also argue he rivals Michael as a performer here with how incredible his work in the upper register. Also, it feels almost ancillary given how amazing the music is, but it should be mentioned this album is easily Prince's most successful attempt at being political. It's not complicated, but it never needs to be. The album showcases that his strongest political statements were made via stories of existence and survival, not straight recitations of political statements (I'm lookin at you Welcome 2 America). Androgyny was certainly not a foreign concept in rock/pop, but Prince truly played jump rope with the gender binary, especially on this album. The scrapped Camille tracks offer an interesting dimension to the album and push the boundaries of a gender binary. Prince historically matched the likes of Bowie, but Camille upped the ante. The coolest rockstar artificially pushed his already-falsetto delivery to replicate as much femineity as possible. I'm glad that Third Man Records is planning a release of the remaining recordings, but we are lucky Prince already decided to give us a taste of his alter ego. In short, I can't heap enough praise on this album. A tour de force that perfectly summarizes Prince as an individual. Funny, profane, horny, audacious, and singular. Game, blouses. Rating: 10/10 Favorite Song: Sign O' the Times /If I was Your Girlfriend/Slow Love/ Hot Thing

9.5/10 God he’s good. I still enjoy purple rain better but Jesus he’s in the lab on this one. Favorite Song: adore

Double albums don’t usually hit the mark for me. This one is an exception. Excellent album. Love it from beginning to end. 5/5.

Possibly my favorite Prince album. A great mix of his funkier side, with just enough pop polish. Get ready to get down.

The only bad thing about this album popping out is that I got a lot of things to do today and I don't have the time to elaborate about how wild a ride it is. *Sign ☮️ The Times* is an exhaustible treasure trove filled many different sounding gems within Prince's discography, and as such, this double album probably equals the magnum opus that *Purple Rain* is. The opening title-track is moody and iconic, "Play In The Sunshine" is lively, inventive and adventurous (especially in its second half), "Housequake" is a fun old school hip hop romp (whose very formula will be used later for hit single "Sexy MF" on another Prince album). "It" is epic eighties regalia as it should be done, cold and driven with its mesmerizing synths and drum machines. "U Got The Look" is another catchy hit with one instance of crazy guitar soloing along many during the course of the album. "If I Was A Girlfriend" is a ballad for the ages, where Prince's falsetto conveys both his lust and love in ways that are simply irresistible (see also the excellent musical mini-narrative "Ballad Of Dorothy Parker" on side one for yet another example of love songs with a knack for endearing details - both musical and lyrical). "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" delves into rockier tones (whose glossy eighties feel didn't age that well on a production level, maybe, but the intent can still be felt at least). And "The Cross" is a moving and dignified folk-rock-adjacent topical cut with late sixties, early seventies psychedelic overtones that's instantly lovable. The songs I haven't mentioned yet (most of them on the second side of disc 1) are maybe a small notch under the ones I have, but they're all *very good* anyway. "Slow Love" and closer "Adore" tick the soul ballads boxes in nice enough ways to offer the full monty in terms of a Prince multi-music-styles experience, and if the live-recorded "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" is an obvious funky jam filler that helped this release reach the 80-minute mark, it's still a fun "document" to listen to. Tracklisting a double album is always tricky, but the Minneapolis genius pulls it off effortlessly (or so it seems). I had not listened to this great record for quite some time, and what I got from it as I did so again today (while working on stuff I had to work on) is how my memories of its many melodic, harmonic and stylistic twists and turns were still vivid today. And of course, Prince was a powerhouse in terms of vocal and guitar performance. Full marks for this one (rounded up just a tiny wee little bit). I'm almost reaching the end of this project. And it's very pleasant that I have so many great albums to listen to for the last run. Number of albums left to review: almost none of the 80-ish extra LPs listed on this app, included because different past editions of the book have mentioned albums that have since been dropped in subsequent editions. Number of albums I'll keep in my own list: half, approximately (including this one) Number of albums I *might* keep: a small quarter, approximately Number of albums I won't keep: a large quarter

It took a second listen for me to get into this but I was really loving it by the end. I could do without listening to the slow love songs again but there's a lot of great tracks. And I loved the variety as well, with funky tracks like Housequake and It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night, and chill and intimate tracks like Starfish and Coffee mixed in with the soul and r&b.

Thank the sweet baby Jesus algorithm! I hope this is a sign o' the times that we can finally be done with jazz! Prince is right there with David Bowie for me. I know I'm biased, but I can only describe this as brilliant. Like Bowie, Prince does things that no one else has done - good things. I guess I should clarify because I've heard some unique things on this list that were not do good.

I came to Sign O’ The Times 25 years ago expecting more rock God awesomeness ala Purple Rain. I was very disappointed, but as time went on this album and its R&B flavors and pop varieties grew hard on me. Play In The Sunshine...Wow, what a great high energy pop song! Next up, Housequake buries itself under the skin and forces you to shake your booty like no one is watching. It still sounds cool as F. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker is sublime chill and quite arty for 1987. Onward, it’s all Prince gold. Every song hits and owns its place on this double album. In hindsight, this album is far more indicative of Prince’s greatness than Purple Rain. That album was a one off to show the masses just how great he really was when he wanted to be. This one is the masterpiece for the true Prince fan and what he really stands for.

Perhaps Robert Christgau, chief music critic and senior editor of the Village Voice said it best when he wrote about ‘Sign ‘O’ The Times’ by Prince not being a "formal breakthrough" per se, but rather "the most gifted pop musician of his generation proving what a motherfucker he is for two discs start to finish.” Ain’t that the truth. This is Prince at the peak of his powers, creatively and artistically. His most adult and mature work. Purple Rain might be his commercial peak, but he was never better than he is here, and he was never this consistently good again. ‘Sign ‘O’ The Times’ is arguably the best album of the 80s (and close to my favourite album of all time). No one got close to the sheer breadth and depth of the songs committed to wax here. Listening to it almost feels like a religious experience at times, and the way it is both sacred and secular, with all its sprawling, messy, transcendent glory is why this album is a masterpiece.

Love it

This is when I learned TLC’s “If I Was Your Girlfriend” was actually a Prince cover. So that’s cool. This album is eclectic and smart. Prince is a powerhouse musician and vocalist. My Dad was a big fan of Prince, so I grew up with his music on - I wish I could talk to him about this album, especially compared to his others. I always knew Prince was cool, and this album feels cool to listen to.

Prince records should get an automatic 5. This is one of his best albums. Strong 5.

LOVED this!

This is great. Listen again

after listening through for a second time, his virtuosity blows my mind. It's funk, soul, unabshedly pop, R&B, raunchy, in between the sheetsy .. each song so different from the last, just awesome - whether you dig his sound or not, he is/was really all that.

Coming in - this is my favorite Prince album. Just reading the tracklist it makes your head hurt. It's just banger after banger. It feels like an artist no longer reaching - just doing - in the best possible way. He is in total command. He is in the zone not matter what he's doing. And a lot of what he's doing is getting down with his bad self. So many funky confections - all with enough pop sheen to make then universal. If Purple Rain was the culmination of all his influences consolidating in an amazing record - this is Prince transcending. Singular.

Every song is good.

it's prince. come on.

Cool

9.5/10 Kakav album! Od pocetka do kraja fantastican, iako mi fali jedna stvar oko koje bi bio skroz opsjednut da bude cener. Prince mi je uvijek bio svojevrsna enigma jer ga nisam puno slusao, sve do pred koju godinu, gdje sam shvatio da mi je zapravo jedan od drazih artista 80ih i 90ih. Favorita na albumu ima puno, mogao bi pol albuma izlistati ali honourable mention ce dobiti The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker, If I Was Your Girlfriend, I Could Never. Vec vidim da ce mi biti zao sto mu nisam desetku dao, al bit ce jos njegovih albuma i prilika!

OBSESSED

I admit it, I'm a Prince superfan. But come on... the Ballad of Dorothy Parker is brilliance. U Got The Look is an anthem. If I Was Your Girlfriend the most bare-souled sexy love song. No notes.

First song's lyrics took me by surprise, such a tough song on top of an easy groove. Overall I like how this sounds, although I don't think any of these are mind blowing. Still like the cohesive sound and production. Highlights: Starfish and Coffee, I could never take the place of your man, The Cross (loved this one!!!) I think it's a 4.5

Loved it! So good to dance and think. Starfish and coffee I could listen to over and over.

one of my all time favorite albums already

Might be the best prince album

Prince is one of the greatest, most unique, and creative musical artists of our time. Surprised this was the first of his albums to appear on the challenge for me so far. This album is fantastic, although not my overall favorite. We still have fantastic songs like “If I Was Your Girlfriend”, “U Got The Look”, and “Slow Love”. My least favorite track is "Sign o’ the Times", and personally it still feels like an odd choice to start the album off with a socially conscious song, instead of getting the listener into the more groovy stuff.

A truly great album; he’s the nearest we had to Beethoven Inthink and this album is Prince at or near his peak. A masterpiece.

No known "hits" but a solid album front to back. Highlights for me were The Cross and Adore

Good shit

There are a few certainties in this world. Grass is green, Pope is catholic and Prince is the greatest musician to have ever walked the planet. And this is truly one of the all time great double albums. So fresh, funky, vibrant and eclectic with the heavy, politically conscious title track opener, hip hoppity Housequake, tinges of Daft Punky electro on Ballad Of Dorothy Parker, the badass genre bending chipmunk voice of Camille on the fantabulous, philosophical If I Was Your Girlfriend, religious soul searching with the acoustic rocker The Cross, the greatest house party and last hurrah of his former backing band The Revolution on It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night, classic rock fm/baseball anthems with Sheena Easton duet U Got The Look, a pantheon of feel good pop with Play In The Sunshine, Starfish and Coffee Strange Relationship and more as well as some of the slinkiest soul ever with the slushing scorchtastic closer Adore. Even though it’s a double, each disc is really tight and it all flows wonderfully. There’s little padding on this sexy beast. Easiest 5 stars ever.

Love love love

one of the increasingly rare double albums that actually feels like it both values your time and expects you to sit through the full thing. going in, i thought an 80 minute album was at the very least gonna be a bit tiring, but it feels shorter than some 50+ minute albums i've heard. i hold the theory that this is due to no two songs sounding alike -- Sign "☮︎" the Times always has another trick up its sleeve, and switches you from soul to dirty funk, and Christian rock to a goddamn Wizard of Oz chant live jam. i'm not saying that he's doing any wild genre experiments on S☮︎tT, but Prince always keeps things moving from one new idea to another, like a brisk studio tour that is also nearly an hour and a half. the record just bristles with this wild, colorful energy, a kaleidoscope of song that shifts the world around it. by no means is it perfect, but if someone said this was Prince's best album, I don't think anyone would fault them for it. the idea of being Prince turns my stomach. can you imagine having a new, exciting musical idea every day of your life and live with the fact that you'll never be able to play them all?

Now he’s doing a horse called June.

'o'

Bellissimo

I am a huge Prince and have been since my first listen of the 1999 album. SOTT was peak Prince. He was in complete control and put out an album with funk, rock, dance, orchestra, and rap (tongue-in-cheek). And his trademark sense of humor was also present (Housequake….Starfish and Coffee). There is not a skip on this album. This is my favorite album by the purple one and the one I point people toward to experience a perfect album.

Sign 'O the Times is one of Prince's masterpieces. It is his ninth studio album, an expansive double album including songs of a surprising range of sounds and styles. Prince released a concert film of the same title which is, in my opinion, among the best concert films ever produced. Prince combines R&B, funk, soul, and rock in his work; the result is some of the most engaging, influential songs in modern music. This album included a few hit singles - the title track, "If I was Your Girlfriend," and "U Got the Look" - but these were not among his biggest singles. The album is so very well regarded for the incredible range of the tracks, which show the boundless talent behind the music.

Stone cold classic

I've heard this many times. It's been a while since I've listened to this album. I had forgotten just how great this album is. 80 minutes that covers the gamut of Prince's abilities in performance and songwriting. The fact that the great pop song "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" doesn't appear until the end of Side 3 of the double album gives an indication of how much great music is included on this album. Perhaps Prince's best album. Definitely the best representation of the breadth of his abilities.

I’d heard some of Prince’s songs before this, but I didn’t expect this album to be this amazing. It feels like I found the missing link to most of the r&b I like. Favorite Song: If I Was Your Girlfriend Least Favorite Song: Slow Love

Two double albums in a row and they couldn’t be more different. Loved it!

Prince is essential!

Oh my lord unbelievable. Every song was so gucking good