Prince - "Sign o' the Times" (1987)

Many great artists have left us recently, and of these Prince's depart must have been the most unexpected. The spontaneous feeling when I heard the news was "can this really be true?". If I felt more emotionally affected by Lemmy's death, Prince's death was a more surreal event, in that it really came from nowhere.

Prince has not been a big part of my musical life as an adult. In my teenage years his records were played more regularly, but over the years they have increasingly ended up in a retired state in the record shelf. When I now listened to Sign o' the Times, it was the first time in maybe 20 years.

Sign o' the Times is considered by many to be his greatest work. Initially it was supposed to be a triple album, but the record company slimmed it down to "only" a double. It was Prince's first album after he got rid of the backing band The Revolution. In various lists in magazines and the internet on the topic "Best album ever", "Best album of the '80s" and so on, Sign o' the Times is ranked very high. This was not reflected in the sales numbers, though, that couldn't be compared to the sales of e.g. Purple Rain, although the critics already then loved the album.

I have the greatest respect for the Prince as an artist and musician, there are not many in the industry who can match him in knowledge. But his music is not really my thing. Sign o' the Times is a rather eclectic album with many different styles - funk, psychedelia, pop, ballads. But it's often a quite dry and minimalist production that is not really to my taste. Also, I have never been a funk guy, and then it can be difficult to love Prince's music.

On some of the songs we hear his alter ego from this time, Camille, where his voice is sped up and therefore considerably brighter / more feminine. My personal favorite on the album is The Cross, perhaps the least Prince-ish song on the album, which I guess proves that this is not really my thing anymore. If you only going to have one Prince album, this could however be the record to own. Here you get the most of what Prince had to offer.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Sign o' the Times 4:57
2. Play in the Sunshine 5:05
3. Housquake 4:42
4. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker 4:01

Side B
1. It 5:09
2. Starfish and Coffee 2:50
3. Slow Love 4:22
4. Hot Thing 5:39
5. Forever in My Life 3:30

Side C
1. U Got the Look 3:47
2. If I Was Your Girlfriend 5:01
3. Strange Relationship 4:01
4. I Could Never Take the Place of Yout Man 6:29

Side D
1. The Cross 4:48
2. It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night 9:01
3. Adore 6:30