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Prince - Sign 'O' the Times Audio CD

A fair review of the Prince "Sign 'O' the Times" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Prince reviews here, or go back to the Prince tabs.

Prince Band: Prince
Title: Sign 'O' the Times
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Sign 'O' the Times 2: Play in the Sunshine 3: Housequake 4: Ballad of Dorothy Parker 5: It 6: Starfish and Coffee 7: Slow Love 8: Hot Thing 9: Forever in My Life 10: U Got the Look 11: If I Was Your Girlfriend 12: Strange Relationship 13: I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man 14: Cross 15: It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night 16: Adore

My Favorite Remastered and Repackaged
Now it sounds better and has the original packaging. This has to be one of the best Prince albums ever. It's well worth the money. Not to mention songs like "Housequake" and "U Got The Look" sound 1000% better than they did before.


Prince's Best Work As An Artist Compositionally But Too Bad About the MLPS!
Although some siliness is still evident on tracks like "Housequake" and "If I Was Your Girlfriend" other tracks like the title track, "U Got the Look" and "The Cross" show an artist with depth to go along with his undoubted musical and compositional talent. Prince seems to have decided to move up the ladder of Maslow's hierachy of needs pyramid to tackle issues other than just the primal baser instincts and as a result shows himself an artist to be taken seriously. The tracks do not flow as well as say on "Purple Rain" but like another very good double album the Beatles' "White Album" the disjointedness seems to work in an ironic and unexpected way and similar to other classic albums, you feel you can only truly appreciate the album if you sit through and listen to all the tracks at one go. I get the feeling that I'm listening to one entire track and not the 16 individual tracks that make up this album.

Too bad this mini-lp replica sleeve (mlps) version couldn't equal the content in terms of quality though as the SHM-CD treatment of using a allegedly better reflective plastic material does little to improve the sound quality over previous releases. The mlps design too is a disappointment coming in thin, poor quality cardboard that is flimsily assembled looking like it will come apart easily once the glue gets old. There is a small heart-shaped sticker included though which is nice, 2 inner sleeves that replicate the original vinyl release and a 28-page booklet containing all the lyrics in both English and Japanese.

No noticeable improvement in sound quality and a mediocre mlps design and assembly makes this certainly not good value for money and hence not recommended. .


A Difficult but Often Rewarding Listen
"I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" features the same pop brilliance behind classics like "Raspberry Beret" and "Little Red Corvette. Sign 'O' the Times is almost universally reviewed as Prince's best album, and it certainly includes some of his greatest moments. " Sheena Easton adds charisma to the psychedelic funk of "U Got the Look. " "Starfish and Coffee" is Prince near his cryptic best, but "If I Was Your Girlfriend" wins that prize, with its perfectly shocking/enticing presentation of gender-bending lyrics. "Adore" is one of the best slow jams ever written. On the other hand, a good portion of the album is composed of bland funk that hasn't held up too well. "Hot Thing" and "Housequake" are particularly guilty. The inclusion of "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," from a live performance in Paris, is confusing. The double album is quite a dichotomy. It completely lacks cohesiveness; at the same time, it exhibits Prince's vast creativity and versatility better than anything else. Despite what many critics say, this is far from his best record. However, a single disc with the highlights would easily earn that distinction. 3. 5 Stars.


A work of a genius
I don't see myself as a fan Prince's music and I actually don't own any of his other recordings, but this one is really special. This is one of my favourites in all categories. This is a modern experiment stretched across two discs containing everything from hard rock, pop, blues to soul an rap. Highly recommended!.


The Real Deal
This record keeps on giving and I agree with the earlier post that it ranks up there with "Here, My Dear", "Songs in the Key of Life", etc. I've listened to Dirty Mind some in the past and always liked Prince from afar but never really understood all the raving until I gave Sign 'O' the Times a couple of solid spins. But also, like [. . . ] points out, it belongs in a larger canon alongside the classic "messy" double LPs like "Exile on Main Street" and The White Album. It's fun, crazy, romantic and downright profound throughout this huge listen of a record.


You can see a complete list of all Prince discography, or go back to the Prince tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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