Sign “☮︎” the Times

I was constantly floored by these instrumentals. He’s pulling out guitar solos, FUUUUNKY synthlines, and monster basslines that make your head explode.

I gauge funk by how much it makes me want to tear my shirt off, and by the time The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker came on, that shirt might as well have been through a shredder.

Purple Rain might be his more focused project, and it's an all-timer for sure -- but this one had me in awe at how consistent and cohesive it stays despite 1) the double-LP runtime, and 2) Prince switching from freaky, to hilarious, to funky, to conscious from track to track.

4.5/5

"Shut up already, damn!"

Standouts: Housequake • The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker • Hot Thing • Forever In My Life • I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man • It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night - Live

Prince is an absolutely fascinating artist. There are more ideas in some of his songs, than on entire records by others. That can be overwhelming at times, but is mostly just impressive.
My only criticism is, that this album here is too long and the incredible ~50 minutes in there are watered down by some more forgettable songs, e.g. "It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night". Those songs aren’t even bad at all, but just a weirdly benign distraction of the moments that let you live in the genius that was Prince.
(vinyl)

Sign ‘O’ the Times by Prince is, for me, the definition of an average album. I was expecting so much more—perhaps Prince is more of a singles artist than an album one.

When I first saw it was a double album, I was excited: plenty of material to help me really get into Prince, and by his ninth studio album he should have been at the peak of his powers. Unfortunately, it didn’t land that way. The record feels uneven and often underwhelming, with only the odd highlight shining through. I will not be listening to this again.

Favourite track: Slow love was OK.
Least favourite track: Starfish and Coffee felt especially weak but in reality there are a lot of songs that do not stand out and blend into 1.
Album artwork: A brilliant, iconic cover—probably the best thing about the album for me.

The Good: We are taught the sign ‘O’!
The Bad: We aren't taught what that ‘O’ really means…
The Ugly: Realizing it is a future reference to the movie Officespace…

It this Prince’s magnum opus? Not for me. What it is for me is the culmination of a creative period that started with Controversy, switched to 1999 (included in the 1001 list), drove us to higher spheres with Purple Rain (also on the 1001 list), surprised his fans with Around the World In A Day (regretfully not on this list), couldn’t repeat the Oscar with Parade (also, not on this list… I believe), to finally get us all excited with this album.
For me, that’s 6 5* albums in a row… but I am a fanboy…

I saw the tour… and what a fucking show! It was my third Prince concert, and my last.

This album has a little of this, a little of that… and for me, never get’s old. Made my day seeing this gem pop up!

If you can’t dig it, give it another spin, and another, and you will come around! Oh Yeah...

I'm genuinely confused as to why Prince is so well regarded because I'm not a fan of this. I guess it was a Sign 'O' the Times...

Seriously though, I was about to dismiss this album as entirely forgettable until we got to I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, the Cross, and It’s Going to Be a Beautiful Night. The latter of which was my favourite track on the album and stood out well above the rest.

Good! Lots of great tracks, but it feels aggressively 80s at times. The whopping big length of it also makes it miss the landing a bit.

It wasn't that awesome but I mean I can't give less than three stars to a man who wears eyeliner

Oof, I know Prince is pretty wildly adored, but his music has never been my cup of tea. Also, this was way too long.

It's good. It's not really my thing though. I can tell it's probably brilliant, but my heart doesn't want to know.

This is Prince going all out. "Housequake" alone is worth atleast one star. I would normally say that 80mins is too long for an album, but it's pretty hard to get bored during this.

UMA HORA E VINTE DE PRINCE

achei que seria BEM pior
meia boca, mas algumas até salvam. não sei se o ALBUM TODO era necessário, mas né, fazer o quê

Prince is one of the few artists capable of producing a double album that merits it's length

I'd always been under the impression this was Prince's What's Going On, his big social conscience/state of the nation album, but that's just the title track really. We're soon on to the Ballad of Dorothy Parker, the heartwarming story of how Prince agreed to take a bath with a waitress he'd just met, but warned her he'd be wearing his underpants out of respect for his girlfriend. (Spoiler alert: they don't stay on.) That's not a criticism - I like my Prince funky, funny and filthy.

There's some good tunes on here, but also quite a few that don't do much for me.

Pretty good, I preferred the disc 2 of the album.

I'm relieved the label convinced Prince to not make this a triple album. Its charms, and clear popular / critical appeal, is lost on me. There are sparks of smart pop writing on display, but it wanders around a lot, the songs are extremely long, not particularly to the point and is missing the flare and hooks that I'm after.

Practically modern after those last few albums! Well, the sound is extremely of-the-time(80)s, but the production feels more modern. And the depressing lyrics to 'Sign o' the Times', of course.

A double album with no hits on it, though... that's rough. 'Housequake' feels kinda like a Talking Heads parody. 'Starfish and Coffee' is very cute. I'm not generally a fan of the "slow jams about banging" genre, but among them, 'Slow Love' is pretty good. Also, the lyric "your face is jammin'/your body's heck-a-slammin'/if love is good, let's get to rammin'" in 'U Got The Look' has a certain charm - maybe I should use that when I teach about valid and invalid arguments (maybe not). It occurs to me that Prince does a lot of different little voices for different songs, which is fun. Some gender stuff going on. 'I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man' is a mild bop (with the good line "she knew he was gone to stay"). 'The Cross' is apt for this Good Friday/Easter weekend, and also pretty good. I dunno, feels like a 3 to me, albeit a good 3. Sorry Prince! You seem cool!

Funky but not super memorable.

Just not my favorite from Prince. It’s ok.

Oof. This was a long listen. Wish I could say it was pleasant but unfortunately it wasnt

2 ⭐️